From ‘the concept of place which implies an inside and an outside character, as integral parts of existence’, it is clear that the city itself can be meaningless to be imagined without the scale of its regional space within which it was given more of its character (Norberg-Schulz 1971: 20). It means that the natural elements are the primary components of the given, and the city, the positive shape of space, is defined in its geographical terms. Considering this leading point, the traditional built form of Sanandaj, located in western Iran, is examined through document analysis, observation of the built form of the city and its natural context, and analytical drawings to discover the nature of the interaction between man-made and natural environments and to identify the features of the city which responded to the natural landscape. It presented evidence of how people related to nature and how the main features of the city were shaped on the basis of ideas stemming from the nature.
