Privacy with Comfort: Esfahan Safavid Bridges

This paper explores the 'manifestation of privacy' within Esfahan Safavid (1501-1722) bridges that serve as a walled-off city gate in the 17th century. The research seeks the relationship between the King’s urban policy and the performances of privacy by individuals within these public scenes. We focus on the bridge actors: the king, citizens, and foreigners, under the lens of the 'class' and 'gender' that poses the challenging policy of separation and comfort. The paper reveals that the act of building the bridge with 'porous walls' and a wide range of closeness and openness transforms spaces into living platforms for personal, interpersonal, and impersonal performances in the shadow of walls with vista of the river. The paper concludes that spatial articulation of the bridges expands the Safavid manifesto of 'privacy with comfort' from everyday life to rites, cultural customs, and governmental ceremonies in the bridges where exclusiveness and inclusiveness are attributed to spaces based on social class and gender of individuals.