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Soofi S, Raie H, Mehdizadeh Saraj F. (2026). Review of the Balov Vineyards House: Architectural Analysis of Vineyard House-Gardens within the Agricultural Heritage Context, Case Study of Balov Village, Urmia. Athar. 48(1), 115-146. doi:10.61882/Athar.1998.3041.9
URL: http://athar.richt.ir/article-2-1998-en.html

Abstract
Northwestern Iran has been home to the formation of historical grape gardens from the Qajar to the Pahlavi periods. In this study, fourteen historical grape garden houses in Balov village, Urmia, were selected and documented. These gardens possess unique physical and functional capacities and have formed an integral part of the local community’s life and livelihood system. They consist of three parts: vineyard, varazan, and charaz, along with other elements such as water resources. The research problem concerns the need to understand the physical and architectural features of the vineyard houses. Many of them are at risk of destruction due to climatic hazards and human neglect. The aim of the study is to introduce the historical vineyard houses as part of Balov’s agricultural heritage. Accordingly, two research questions were formulated regarding the physical and functional features of the vineyard houses, and a qualitative paradigm with an interpretive-historical strategy was used to address them. The findings show that these were subsistence farming complexes built during the Qajar and Pahlavi periods by local Muslim and Assyrian farmers, and they were generally small-scale and peasant in character. Historical vineyard houses can be categorized and classified according to their functional and architectural features. Each feature, whether physical or functional, helps define a specific type. This study used eight physical and functional features of grape garden houses, including the location of elements, period of construction, orientation of the garden house, religious belief, structure, ownership, size, volume, and product diversity, as criteria for classification.
Keywords: Agricultural Heritage, Balov Village, Grape Garden House, Kula Architectural Morphology.

Introduction
UNESCO defines agricultural heritage as a set of tangible and intangible natural and cultural assets that have been produced and used throughout history for agricultural activities (Martinez Yanez & Castillo Ruiz, 2024). Agricultural heritage is the result of a society’s adaptation to its environment, which leads to the creation of landscapes rich in biodiversity (FAO, 2018). In order to preserve and support agricultural heritage, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) introduced Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS). Its goal is to achieve food security and sustainable livelihoods for present and future generations (Koohafkan, 2009). Extensive studies have been conducted worldwide on this subject, and there are examples of agricultural heritage in the world and in Iran that have been registered on the GIAHS World Heritage List, such as the dry-land fig orchard system of Estahban, which was registered in 2023. One of the cases discussed in this article is the vineyard house in Balov village. This small system can be considered part of Urmia’s agricultural heritage. Of course, this article does not seek to prove that claim; rather, it uses the site’s characteristics to present it in this light. The villagers refer to these small biological complexes as garden and uzum baghi1. In Turkish, this term refers to a grape garden (Zare-Shahmarsi, 2009, p. 126). These complexes include elements such as a garden house, which locals know as kola. Approximately 35 historical grape garden houses can be identified in Balov village. This number is visible in the latest aerial image, but 14 of them were selected and documented (Figure 3). They were selected because they were more accessible and preserved more complete remains of the garden houses. The main issue of the article, and thus the research problem, is the need to identify the physical and architectural characteristics of the grape garden houses as part of the agricultural heritage around Urmia and to strengthen scientific documentation in this field. Currently, these complexes are gradually being destroyed and demolished. A few examples remain unchanged, some have undergone alterations, and some have been lost. The aim of the article is to introduce the vineyard house complex of Balov village.
Research Questions: What are the physical and functional characteristics of the vineyard houses in Balov village, and how do these characteristics affect their typological and architectural classification within the agricultural heritage context?

Discussion
Balov village is located in Urmia city, West Azerbaijan province. In the past, the village lands consisted of two separate categories: vineyards and arable lands (Geographical Culture of Iran, 1951, p. 85). In the lands where vineyards were established, a biological-subsistence agricultural complex developed in response to the complexity of grape processing, the large size of the gardens, the need for a residence for gardening, and the requirement for facilities related to grape processing. The ground floor of the garden house was used for grape processing, storage, and livestock keeping, while the first floor was designated as the living space. The land in front of the main facade of the garden house was defined as a courtyard. Inside the courtyard, there were a water well, a bread-baking oven, a grape juice cooking oven, fuel storage, a bathroom, and a toilet. Outside the courtyard, part of the garden land was left unplanted and sloped by spreading soil toward the southern side; a major portion of the grapes was dried in this area and then turned into raisins. In the studied samples, service and livestock spaces are located on the ground floor, and the first floor is used as a living space. Field studies on the collected garden houses show that, in terms of orientation and spatial extension, the garden houses fall into two categories: north-south and east-west. The main facade of the garden houses follows four cardinal directions. Considering the Assyrian and Armenian settlements and the presence of two churches in the village, it can be concluded that the builders of the garden houses with a north-south orientation and a main facade facing east or west were the early inhabitants of the village, as well as the Assyrian and Armenian minorities. In the studied garden houses, the largest area is devoted to land under grape cultivation, while the living space has the lowest percentage of occupancy compared with the grape garden and the space used for converting grapes into raisins. The buildings are frameless in structure. The main materials used in the garden houses are mud, raw brick, and wood. The roof coverings are flat and beam-supported. The garden houses are simple in form and lack decorative elements.

Conclusion
This study, by examining the physical and functional characteristics of the selected complexes, has used them as criteria for typology in the grape garden complex. Table 7 shows that historical garden houses can be classified and typified according to the types of features they possess. Each feature, whether physical or functional, leads to the identification of a specific type. The criteria listed in rows 1 to 8 in Table 7 refer to a range of such features. All the criteria described above were evaluated in Table 8, and the selected garden houses were typified based on those criteria. For example, the “Changiz Gheirtamand Garden House,” in terms of its constituent elements, includes a grape garden, house, and varzan, and from this perspective it is considered a grape-growing complex. In terms of periodization, it is a Pahlavi complex, and considering the orientation of the garden house and the constructive belief, it falls into the Eastern-Western/Muslim category. In addition, it is simple in terms of structure and decoration and is a peasant complex in terms of ownership. Also, based on the size of the constituent elements, it is considered a small-scale farming complex, and in terms of agricultural products and production, it is a subsistence farming complex. In the final criterion, and in terms of volume, it is placed in the first and cubic category. Therefore, the Changiz Gheirtamand Garden House is a Pahlavi-period peasant farming complex whose original builder was Muslim, was built in a simple manner, and is economically subsistence-based. The findings so far show that the grape orchard houses located in this village can be typified and introduced using the criteria in Table 8. It is obvious that, with broader and more comprehensive studies in the future, these criteria and results can be refined.