Abstract
Iran was a pre-modern society functioning with pre-modern rules and structures until it was hit by the modernization. It started during Qajar period with the wars with Russia, the first reaction was to resist, trying to maintain the pre-modern system in every aspect of Iranian's lives but, eventually modernization found its way to Iran too, not with kindness of course. It was the World War I and the Great Famine that placed modernization’s flag in Iran.
One of the structures of pre-modern Iran was pigeon-house. Pigeon-house is an extraordinary form of architecture mainly built for the use of pigeon fertilizer, most of it built in central regions of Iran such as Isfahan. It has a long history of about 700-1000 years but best of it were built during the Safavid Dynasty in Isfahan. The Great Famine caused any kind of agriculture to vanish, starving people hunted pigeons down to eat and pigeon-house which once was a functioning system, failed and the pigeon towers were abandoned and turned into ruins.
This paper makes an introduction to this pre-modern architectural system of agriculture in Iran and compares it to its current situation which is neglect and abandonment. From a historiographical point of view, this paper probes into the causes of this current situation rooted in the modernization of Iran and its agriculture as well. Although modernized Iran has mechanical agriculture which demands different means, but it is possible to use this existing architectural system for sustainable agriculture and organic farms which is itself a product of modern times. These structures also are tangible heritage and the tradition of pigeon-house-keeping is an intangible heritage which must be preserved.
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