Honarhaye Ziba- Honarhaye Memari va SHahrsazi
Year:2012 | Volume:17 | Issue:2|Papers Count:10

Preliminary design ideas, mostly not manifest, are generated in the designers’ minds at the very early stages of their encounter with the design problems. This paper reports a study of the sources from which these ideas are originated, and the corresponding role each source plays in the process of designing. The study was undertaken through the analysis of semi-structured interviews with eight Iranian professional architects about the ideation process of at least one of their design projects. To complement the data gathered through interviews, each interview was followed by a discussion session within a group of graduate architecture students, reflecting on the narratives as well as the documents presented by the participating architects. The interviews as well as the discussion sessions were administered within the framework of a graduate course unit entitled ‘Ideation and the Design Process’, taking a time span of two academic semesters. Graduate students, set in groups of two to five members, contributed to conducting the interviews and further preparing the corresponding written documents. Each group was briefed to interview one of the participating architects, assuring to cover seven key questions of a pre-designed interview pro forma; the questions aiming to uncover the participants’ trains of thought leading to the generation of the central design ideas, and further design developments. In a number of cases, a complementary interview was conducted by the authors to corroborate the written documents prepared by students. A content analysis of the architects’ statements, transcribed from either the interviews or the discussion sessions, was used to identify the role of different sources of design ideas in each design situation. An axial coding of the contributing factors to design ideation, as declared by the architects, verified the central role of the design situation in due course. Three main contributing factors to any design situation were further categorized into ‘the factors brought in by the designer’ and ‘the factors brought in by the design problem’, the latter covering both ‘the site attributes’, and ‘the design brief’ of any design situation. Frequently pronounced by the participating architects, the above mentioned factors can be reckoned as the main sources of design ideation. The findings of the study suggest that the ‘design problems’ were, in sixty percent of the cases, the main source for the design ideation. Design ideas, though, seem to be generated mostly through contemplating the problem situation, i.e. the content and the context of the design task. It was also indicated by the findings that a rating of forty percent of design ideas was evidently brought to the situation by the designers, prior to contemplating the problem variables. In such cases, the designers proved to have drawn on a personal set of cognitive and affective constructs, implying their knowledge and attitude, to come up with the central design ideas. Having acknowledged the changing degree to which any source contributes to idea generation, the paper concludes with a three-fold model which might be used to demonstrate the corresponding roles the sources play in any design situation.

For the past fifty years, the Iranian cities have witnessed many efforts toward dealing with dilapidated neighborhoods, including urban renewal, urban rehabilitation, reconstruction and regeneration. However, the experiences in this regard have not led to any major achievements. In the cities in the developed countries, public participation is considered as an important element in the plans for such efforts. Here in Iran, public participation seems to be mostly ignored or has been dealt with in a distorted ways. One reason which contributes to lack of interest in public participation regeneration efforts is the weakness in legal framework which includes laws and regulations which can officially recognize the rights of participants, i.e. that of both the people and the urban management. Accepting the fact that public participation is crucial for a successful urban regeneration effort, it should be a requirement in urban regeneration with judicial support and a legal framework on different economic, social, managerial and physical aspects. In this paper, content analysis was conducted on some of the rules and regulations used in urban regeneration best practices. Literature review helped to look at both the theoretical basis and the experiments in other countries to come up with a theoretical framework for the research. In this paper, the extent of public participation is examined in a urban regeneration program in Iran, the case of Ateegh square of Isfahan. This square, which originally had an area of five hectare, dates back to the Saljuk dynasty, seven hundred years ago. Several major historical buildings and structures surround the square. Among these buildings one can see the main Isfahan Mosque, the Bazzar, Khaje Nezamolmolk’s tomb, the Saljuk citadel, a number of governmental palaces, the Soltan Sanjar school, and Harounieh complex. The square and the elements which surround it are in harmony with administrative, governmental, cultural, religious, and soci-economic functions. A regeneration plan has been adopted by the High Council on Urban Planning and Architecture with the aim of elevating the historic and cultural identity of the square while satisfying the needs of the residents of Isfahan and those living in the nearby neighborhoods. The results show that urban rules and regulations leading to promoting public participation in urban regeneration efforts in Iran have many flaws in social and managerial fields. There are other distortions in rules and regulations within economic and physical aspects of urban regeneration which are discussed here. Out of nine cases of laws and regulations which has been emphasized in other developed countries, six of them could be found in the Iranian laws and regulations. On the other hand, regulations dealing with joint regeneration body and private sector partnership, regeration grants, and financing aids are not available for regeneration efforts in the cities of Iran. In order to utilize public participation in urban regeneration, supportive rules and regulations should be provided along with predicting a mechanism for their complete and sound implementation. For this end, rules and regulations such as compensating for the participants’ loss, devoting development grant, implementing joint projects and monitoring business and commercial premises improvement are suggested.

New concepts have formed in transition of traditional urban planning concept that their essence refers to sociology and even psychology and so has made urban planning interdisciplinary concept, could be titled social capital and sense of place and participation. In fact places have two aspects, material and immaterial and can form emotional feeling among its residents. These feeling which led to a kind of local identity, belonging to a place and sense of place are considerable schema in postmodern planning specially in urban community scale. Sense of Place is emotive bonds and attachments, both positive and negative, that people develop or experience in particular locations and environments. Capital is a reproductive wealth or a resource a person use to make income but it can presented a new concept of capital, capital is a public resource can form as monetary or non monetary and tangible or intangible forms. Social capital at the first entered in urban planning by Jane Jacobs at Life and Death of USA Metropolises book and extended by Colman, Bart, Putnam and Portz. Jacobs in his book identified social capital as compressed social networks that in old urban realms in relation to subjects impress the quality of life, make decision and react; he presented the social capital concept in relation to urban spatial, physical discussions and urban communities. The term participation is generally used to describe the type and level of stakeholder or beneficiary involvement in development planning, projects, and practices. In the literature review the relations between three basic phenomena of the article have done. The concept of social capital relates to types of interactions between people which can bring benefits such as better prospects and well-being and, in some cases, more civil engagement. Putnam’s causal model suggests a sequence in which, broadly speaking, participation in associational activity produced greater levels of trust and civic engagement. We will follow that sequence here and with regarding the effect of sense of place on participation and social capital, in this research we’ll examine the process of ‘how sense of place impact on participation and social capital’, another aim of research is introducing usage of structural equation model (SEM) (That is a statistical technique for testing and estimating causal relations using a combination of statistical data and qualitative causal assumptions) in urban studies field. So based on 500 person sampling in Mashhad’s community resident in 4th and 11th zone, sense of place, participation and social capital were describe using factor analysis, then different type of relationship between indicators was studied. Result shows that first model which represents the effect of sense of place on social capital throughout participation is the fittest model; in other word increasing sense of place led to higher participation and rising in participation redound to more social capital. Finally this article suggests that; urban planner should consider sense of place as important phenomenon in community development and should mobilize communities to improve it for better urban life.

Sustainable and energy efficient design issues are key to the way good buildings are designed in the 21st century. No building designer today should be without the basic skills offered by the unique multidisciplinary studies of architectural design, based on energy use in buildings. However, this paper is focusing of effect of air movement on human comfort, as a key element of building design. Two variables namely; air movement between spaces and shading of spaces are important in urban design, particularly in hot and dry condition. They are also equally important for human thermal comfort, when people are walking or working or relaxing in the urban spaces. Therefore, as related to urban design, the main concern is how to provide the potential for cooling by suitable air movement and enough shading spaces. Under harsh condition of hot-dry cities, it is difficult to provide good outdoor open spaces such as squares, streets and so on, especially when the ambient wind speed is under high ambient temperature. Regarding the daytime conditions of cities in this region, it is commonly assumed that urban temperatures are higher than rural ones, due to lack of vegetation and heat generated in the towns. Because of such phenomena, air motion sometimes is horrible and shade of urban sepses is not easy to get. Hot-dry regions commonly have strong winds during daytime, where outdoor temperatures exceed about 32°C, so urban open spaces are not desirable. As mentioned above, the main objectives related to the street layout are to provide maximum shade in summer for pedestrians and minimum solar exposure of the buildings along the streets. In line with shading, the effect of air movement is essential and depends on environmental temperature and humidity, as well as on the clothing and metabolic rate of people. When air temperature is above the skin temperature, the effect of air movement will be the same as other climatic factors and the increase of air movement will raise the skin temperature. As the temperature changes, the level of clothing, the air movement (which can cool the body by convection and/or evaporation of sweat) and the moisture of the skin will change. We should know, air movement is more noticeable when the air is cool and the difference between skin and air temperature is large. Conversely, if the air is only slightly below skin temperature, very large increases in air speed are needed to achieve an increase in convective cooling. However, in what temperature this change will happen? This is the main question of the present paper. ASHRAE standard - 55 sets an upper limit of around 0.2 m/s (assuming typical turbulence around 40%) for air velocities within the basic comfort zone to reduce the risk of discomfort from drafts. In this study air movement reduced discomfort from heat at temperature of 32.5oC; below this temperature there were few subjects indicating heat discomfort. A theoretical analysis of the data suggests that where the air velocity is above 0.1 m/s, this allowance can be equivalent to rising the comfort temperature. However, air velocity is one of the important variables for achieving comfort condition without using electrical or mechanical energies.

This paper has been created in order to study the role of the meaning in creating a sense of place and in order to answer the questions about that, the meaning factor in each of its types- including the meanings that are in the mind of the human beings and the meanings that are in the place- can make which levels of meaning and also it is about that, how to achieve the various levels of sense of place according to each related level of that meaning. The fact that emphasizes on the importance of this study, is about the providing a base in order to achive a perception of the meanings in the place and creation of symbolic meanings of place in the mind of human beings. Therefore, in order to study the relations that are exist between several concepts such as the levels of the place meaning, hierarchy of human beings existence in the place and the various levels of sense of place, that the theoretical framework of this article has been based upon them, the Arg street of Mashhad that is one of the main streets of the city, has been selected as the case study for desired analysis. So in order to create and develop a theoretical framework for this study, the qualitative research has been used as a method to fulfill the study and in this way the technique of a half designed interview and also the techniques of coding and hermeneutics has been used in order to interpret the data and collected information. According to the results that has been achived from the analysis of the mentioned place, it has been indicated that there are some internal relations between different levels of the place meanings, hierarchy of human beings existence in the place and the various levels of sense of place. Finally, these findings of the research and what was the results of the related analysis in this study, has been based on this fact that the perception of the meanings that exists in the place are related to the perception of the physical meanings and it is related to the complete range of outsideness but only the primary levels of insideness in the hierarchy of human beings existence in the place. This fact can mainly results in incuriosity to place or awareness of being in the place, in maximum. Also the perception of the meanings that are in the mind of human beings, are related to the perception of personal and social meanings. This fact can mainly shows that the perception of the meanings that are in the mind of human beings is including the the higher levels of existence in the place and the strong relation between human and place such as existential insideness. In this case it can include several levels of sense of place from place attachment to existence in the place and also sacrificing for the place, the levels that certainly shows the highest levels of sense of place.

One of the most important sectors of each city where the citizens social interaction occur and urban life flow carry, are public spaces. One conditions for people presence in these spaces is securing their social security sense. Nowadays different factors such as cultural, social, economic and physical in cities public spaces, especially in big cities like Tehran, have cause abnormal social behaviors which are the most important consequences of these factor is the decrease in social security sense in public spaces. Physical abnormalities are such effective factor on reducing security sense of public spaces users. Gender has a considerable influence on the sense of social security sense and women are much more vulnerable than men. It is obvious the space which cannot absorb both gender and is evaluated as unsafe cannot be a warm, lively and vibrant space. In this research Narmak neighborhood and Ekbatan town which have respectively provided appropriate and inappropriate social security for the inhabitants, have been chosen as the case study of this research to study and analyze the rate of physical characteristics of public spaces impact on social safe sense in these two complexes and their impressibility of conventional and high rise residential patterns. In order to achieve this goal, after measurement of women security sense in the specified samples, spaces where women have the most security sense of presence in Narmak neighborhood and have the least sense security in Ekbatan town are chosen and analyzed based on selected physical criteria of theoretical reviews which consists of space size, space form, visual comfort and environmental comfort. All said criteria review and analysis in public spaces of case studies. In this paper has shunned presenting all findings of physical indices review in all components of public spaces and has limited to study important and effective criteria. Findings of survey in public spaces of Narmak and Ekbatan show that the most different at perception of women security sense in cases study is result of these two criteria, size and form of space and visual and environmental comfort. Research’s findings show that physical features according to the listed criteria are the effective factors in the increase of security sense in spaces of Narmak neighborhood. In contrary, these physical features reviewed in spaces of Ekbatan town as well, make the ground for insecurity sense. In other hand, different patterns of these two complexes which have caused variant physical features are partly being efficacious to feel different social security sense. However we cannot claim that security sense decrease in spaces of that residential complex is a result of being high rise, but it seems that being high rise, and provides potential for reducing security sense in residential complexes. Physical design of these complexes play important role in increasing the security sense of complexes residents. So that physical features which affect reducing crime-prone circumstances and increasing the security sense of residents should be concerned as a more highlighted and key role in the high- rise residential complexes than the conventional ones.

Question about identity for four decades has been a challenging topic between people in our country. Architecture has inherent, dynamic, and gradual features which is called identity despite regional and climatic differences which have had great influence on its form. Its terminology in mystical interpretation regards God the origin of the identity. In other definitions, human and her/his beliefs, that are the starting point and where a building is constructed or utilized or evaluated by her / him, and other distinctive components which distinguishes it from other types of buildings and also its similarities with its own items, have been taken into consideration. The meaning of the totality that previously from Malekolshoareye Bahar’s point of view had been divided into inside and outside of the human under the name of style has been replaced with “architecture fashion” in recent centuries due to the developments in the world and human being and in the circle of fading tastes and creativity of architects, it has been imprisoned and been miles away from its traditional meaning. Distinctive features of the architectural phenomenon, except human and her/his beliefs include time and place. This essay, in addition to surveying the author and user human status of architecture and the effect of his/her ideas and beliefs in it, deals with place from view points of phenomenological and environmental psychology theorists and its intertwined relationship with human and the effect of place memory, the place where many scholars consider its loss as the loss of human and the architecture identity. Also time component is surveyed not merely in the conventional framework and focused on the past and related to the future but as a field in which life is realized. Since human activities become meaningful during the time and in place, these activities create individual or collective memories in the human mind during the time. By repeatedly referring to them, collective memories which are the elements of human identity are visualized. Social identity and collective memory are the ones that when a person is in a place she/he feels that the place is different from other places. According to the essay concepts identity cannot be a rigid affair and in the course of time it is transformed with human and her/his beliefs. By definition, identity has features which connect us to our past origin and roots like the thread used inside sugar candy to join crystals together, but time based on current requirements forms different crystals around it, including our commonality with the world architecture. What is the concept of architectural style and identity from past to present? Why and how has the concept of identity changed? What and how are the effective features in architecture identity discussion? These are the questions our essay goes on to find an answer for. Creating a suitable intellectual framework for identity concept is the goal of the essay and its search system is qualitative and besides analyzing and interpreting data meanings, it also seeks for multiple factors effective on identity phenomenon.

Growing urban population may cause severe resource as well as social impacts. So, managers at urban parks are often faced with the fundamental question of what level of visitor use can be accommodated in a park or recreation area so that natural and cultural resources and the quality of the visitor experience do not deteriorate to unacceptable levels. Within the outdoor recreation field, this issue is referred to as carrying capacity and is often addressed through indicator-based planning/management frameworks such as Limits of Acceptable Change and Visitor Experience and Resource Protection. Such frameworks usually include 1) a set of elements that describe desired future conditions for natural/cultural resources and visitor experiences, 2) associated indicators of quality for park resources and visitor experiences, and 3) established standards that define minimum acceptable conditions for indicator variables. The aim of this study was determination of critical indicators that were influenced visitor satisfaction in main urban parks of Karaj city and quantification standard level via visitor’s view. In this study, Limits of Acceptable Changes framework in four stages was used. By using questionnaire and literature review, data were collected. In the first stage, questionnaires were distributed among green space experts. The result of those questionnaires was used in the third stage questionnaires which were distributed among visitors of mentioned urban parks in summer. Finally, in the fourth stage, questionnaires were distributed among visitors in five urban parks. Data were analyzed by description and analysis statistics in SPSS software. Frequency distributions, Means, Median, and Mode were used for classification of recreational problems, selection of key indicators, and quantification of indicators standard level. Moreover, Kruskal- Wallis Test was applied in order to precision increase for selecting indicators and urban parks in the final stage of study. The validity of the questionnaires was approved through panel of expert’s judgment and the reliability of the main scale of the questionnaire was 0.8 for the parks problems variable. The results showed that in 5 main urban parks of Karaj, Bower, Buffet, Tap and Washstand as management indicators and Population as social indicator should be assessed. Based on the visitor’s view, these indicators have maximum and minimum standard level including 10 and 20 Bower, 2 and 4 Buffet, 10 and 20 meters to Tap, 20 and 30 meters to Washstand, 603 and 1120 people per hectare. These data help to managers to monitor critical indicators and their standards to maintain acceptable conditions of park for visitor’s optimum and continuous use. In fact, by using this management framework, recreation quality and quantity, and visitor satisfaction were ensured. Also, visitors can obtain a good experience from their recreation and activities in a park. Critical indicators are related to recreation and their variation should be considered by managers. When the standard level of critical indicators was determined, managers should control them. If critical indicators are not in the range of standard level, visitor satisfaction and experience will be affected. Thus, recreation which is the most important goal of urban park will be disturbed.