Dedicated to the memory of our mentor Saburdzhana Yusupov, who with his interesting stories and tales taught us to love the motherland, native nature, our favorite city Khiva

Housing architecture

The peculiarity of the climate of Khorezm (the proximity of the desert), has a greater impact on the distribution of the population, urban development and housing form. In ancient times, people lived close to the irrigation network. The cases of migration of the urban population due to changes in the riverbed were often found in the history of Khorezm.

The most ancient and very common types of houses are kurgany-hauli located separately from each other. Barrow is fundamentally different from the village or the settlement. The continuous internecine wars taking place on the territory of Khorezm demanded that the walls of the mound-hauli were strong and broad-spaced. Inside the mound there was a storage place for all household goods, livestock, food and water. Barrow was surrounded by deaf pakhsa(mud) wall without holes and openings, the corners of the walls were flanked by towers in the shape of a truncated cylinder. Plan of the mound was in the form of a quadrilateral, for the most part divided into external (Dishan) and internal (Yichang) yards. The roofs of all the buildings were covered with a flat roof. Through the light holes in the top of a long corridor were illuminated side rooms as well, this fortress during the siege defended a large family in the amount of 100-150 people .
Along with the construction of a variety of fortified mounds, around them VI - IX centuries, the village began to emerge. Keshki-kurganchi of the large property owners gave these villages peculiar appeal. Buildings erected around the burial mounds were mostly simple houses built by chubkari (out of frame). In those days to build these buildings and to disassemble them was easy. Due to the closeness of housing in urban areas, to build houses of chubkari (out of frame) here was very comfortable. Subsequently, the frame houses have become the main form of inherent urban housing. Unfortunately, the structure of the stacked reception chubkari was not saved for a long time like structures built of pakhsa walls. For this reason, there was not the opportunity to carefully examine the history of their construction.
The peculiar structure of Khiva housing deserves attention, constructive basis of the structure was a wall chubkari (skeleton), between frame poles were laid adobe bricks with clay mortar. Location of summer and winter premises, their size, decoration were totally different from the residential buildings of Bukhara, Samarkand and Fergana. The building plan for centuries served as an essential element in the architecture in Central Asia. Climatic conditions in its appearance was significant. The summers here are very hot and winters are cold. Outer appearance of Khiva homes is remarkable: in each house aivan is built that faces the open side to the north; in the hot days of summer, in hot month, "saraton" (in June), the inhabitants escaped from the heat in these aivans.
Due to the shortage of housing in the inner fortress, the facades of the majority of households are very narrow. Aivan almost closes the courtyard area and it also serves as aivan. In order to better circulate the air flow around the yard, aivan was built high. This in turn allows the air flow to move upward. High aivan can also provide the interior with a weak sunlight. In winter aivan kept the room from a very large cold, and in summer from the heat. Therefore, the architects gave special attention to the preservation of the room temperature close to the climatic conditions of the yard, its harmonic due to the diverse picture of the house. Ivan was suitable for these creative ideas. It performed the function of communication between the premises and the environment.
Aivan in the Middle Ages and subsequent periods were widely used in housing construction. In the architecture avian was built between two, four rooms, in a way it completely occupied the front part of the building yard (peshayvan). It was erected in front or on the sides of the building as a gallery (corridor), like balahana (loggia) protruding from the surface of the wall, as a summer terrace, which occupies the open part of the second floor and as a roof, especially with an open three, four sides.
The usage of aivan in the architecture of the dwellings appeared in connection with the climatic conditions of the location and arrangement of the rooms. For example, due to the uniqueness of the climatic conditions of Khiva, due to the relatively high air temperature in the summer, aivans were intended to clean the air of the rooms and the courtyard. There are two types of avian structure. Ulli (Ulug -great) avian occupies the front part of the premises and significantly rises above them. Opposite it there are placed small aivans. Due to the fact that ulli avian is based on one central column, he is considered similar to the minaret. Its facial facade is open towards the inflow of air masses, and for retention of air masses in order to send them to the yard. In truth, the two aivan seem as if they block the yard as a roof. In addition to its core functions, aivan introduces elements of artistry in the overall composition of the structure and makes it possible to enrich its architectural design. For example, Ulli avian in Tash-Hauli palace in Khiva is put deeper and miniature turrets are on both sides of the front façade; wooden columns holding up the aivan in the center of Khiva are decorated with carved patterns. This in turn gives the yard all the elements of composition artistry.
Lead topological method of Khorezm urban housing construction is one with the avian in the yard. The planning of urban housing remained closed. This situation also characterize the rural households. Sometimes the top of the entrance corridor to the courtyard living room (in dialect "talaq", or "balahana") was built, and here the owner, craftsman, took home the customers. Taking into account the incident light, the construction of housing should be according to strict orientation, winter living rooms should be located on the south-east and the west side, and summer accommodation - on the north side. The yard is almost covered ayvans, visors of aivans significantly protrude forward. Aivans can be of different sizes, on the north side of the yard high one-coloumned Ulli (ulug - great) avian is built and it is considerably more above than the rest towers. In Dishan Qala of Khiva at homes aivans are presented as follows:
a) One-column Ulli (ulug) aivan, which occupies a small courtyard. This aivan covers half of the area of ​​the front part of the yard. Ulli aivan is built on top of the house. Ayvans of this kind are a lot;
b) In the yard a long and high ong aivan is built and on the opposite side of it ters avian is built, which is relatively lower the height of ong aivan;
c) On the upper part of the residential building, located opposite ong aivan, aivancha is built with balahana and the height of aivans on this side, adjacent to it is on the same level. As a result of their contiguity to each other, openings between them are the closed and block the sun's rays falling and yard remains completely in the shade;
d) Aivans are erected around the perimeter of the yard. Two, three or four of their sides are built in a corner. This method is widely used in construction of building yard located on the outskirts of the city.
Aivans bring not only comfort to the interior environment of residential buildings, but also a peculiar kind of external composite design.
Generalized characteristic of residential buildings of Khiva is that the structure of the building and its decoration is very simple. Rooms and walls of the aivans are plastered with saman-muddy clay plaster without decoration, ceilings of the rooms under the roof are decorated with small wooden sticks (vassa, patik) of the same size (single or dual), and the type of floor is half lula (yarim lula). Occasionally there could be met some ganch carved patterns. The most basic decoration of the building is a carved wooden columns of the large aivan. In addition, the property is decorated also with the carved doors, pandjara and some high-rise aivans.