ARMANSHAHR
Year:2017 | Volume:10 | Issue:19 |Papers Count:21

Architecture of any country and territory is the sign of its identity. Our country, Iran, with bright and widespread background of Islamic world, has a strong historic, Iranian and Islamic background and a prerequisite of maintaining this identity is transferring it, generation by generation. This knowledge has been transferred by teacher-student system in the past, but nowadays such a practical training is missed in architecture schools. Reviving this tradition, we can vitalize prior Iranian Islamic identity of ourselves with help of training in modern architecture schools. This paper, seeks to find solutions for teaching Iranian Islamic architecture at universities, in order to instruct some architects who develop functional structures with Iranian Islamic architecture identity, by using past experiences and adjusting them with today’s needs and sciences. Since no edited work inherit to this paper was found in this area, and most of current researches have not investigated theoretical principles of traditional architecture professionally while they were shaped based on Islamic architecture works, we are going to find out what the theoretical principles of traditional architecture training methods and reflections have been. In this way, we investigate theoretical principles from scientific and cognitive views, emphasizing on grade one Persian texts1, in the period of first to twelfths Hijri centuries, using trusted evidences followed by inferential methods. The research literature consists of two categories, first category is a research that collects, announces, modifies, and makes reviews on ancient manuscripts related to the architecture which is fall within the scope of this article. (For example: Helabi, 1984; Daneshpazhoh, 1996; KhanMohammadi, 1992; Farabi, 1969; Necipoglu, 2010). The second category includes researches that explore and analyze these resources to find different instructions and guidelines (for example: Mohaghegh, 1991). The present study belongs to the second category. This research consists of three main questions: 1. what are the theoretical principles of traditional architects? 2. How theoretical principles have influenced on the design and construction of architects? 3. What is the aspects of architecture training? For achieving this goal, we will extract related subjects to architecture and pay attention to subjects which can be used in training future architects by investigating ancient manuscripts (-Fotovvatname- books about rectitude, scientific cognitive pamphlet.) In this course, Ihsa-al-olum [classifying sciences], Mojmal-al- hikmat [a brief of histories], elite of Ekhvan-al-safa [brothers of honesty], Resale-ye-Me’mariyeh [pamphlet of architecture], Fotovvatname-ye- Bannayan [a book about rectitude of architects], have been investigated. Based on this research, theoretical principles of Iranian Islamic identity can be categorized into four parts. First, items related to God, second, items related to human, third, items related to architecture science and at least, fourth, items related to architecture teaching. The results of this studies were ranked in these four categories. At the end, we found that, Assimilate Moral education is a requirement for our future architectural identity. It needs integration of executive, research and educational centers. Review of main university courses in architecture and related fields is a strategy to achieve this goal. for this purpose, following executive solutions are recommended: A) Learning geometry based on wisdom of Iranian Islamic geometry in applied geometry courses and architectural design. It should be noted that geometry is not the only form and line but rather a deep connection with the meaning, rules and order of creation.B) Paying attention to the system of education in traditional architects, including moral texts like “Fotovvatname” [a book about rectitude of architects], as a pattern of architectural ethics in both theoretical and practical functions, to shape the ethics worthy of architectsC) Using practices and solutions, related to valuable Iranian Islamic buildings in the process of designing courses to have institutionalized monotheistic and purposeful thinking in architecture design.D) Since specialized disciplines separate different sciences, adding courses that explain the relationship of sciences, like: Logic, literature, theology and ethics is necessary.For future research, Persian ancient manuscripts are rich resources for difference subjects and can be used to access to basic information for various sciences while they require further research in different specializations to reveal their true values.

Unbalanced development of spatial- physical dimensions of cities, continuously diminishes green open spaces in suburban areas. Landscape is where the slow, natural processes of growth and maturity and decay are deliberately set aside and history is substituted. Recent interruptions without any historic implications cause the environmental problems. Landscape as a dynamic system permanently has been modified by human intentional changes. Most of times unwise interferes leads to demolition and produce landscape ruin. Specifically green open spaces in suburban areas have been irreparably altered by both excessive population growth and unplanned city developments. Those adverse growths have short term contradictory consequences for being healthy and demonstrate worse conditions for biodiversity and lead to offensive scenery. Acknowledging the holistic attitude about relationship between man and the nature, landscape ecology approach has indispensable effects on sustainable landscape planning. Indeed, ecological landscape planning is able to establish the conceptual framework and conduct green open space areas through comprehensive strategies. This study aims to explain main phases of ecological landscape planning process by descriptive content analysis in landscape architecture literature, with purpose of identifying strategies for development of green open areas through cities and suburbia. According to the literature review, two general stage of common planning process are “survey and analysis” and “prescribe solutions” which constitute procedural stages of planning. The analysis of ecological landscape planning is mainly based on the application of both quantitative attributes and spatial concepts. Hereby, our assumption is based on the “patch-corridor-matrix model” and “framework concept”, as spatial concept is thoroughly investigated. “Patch-corridor-matrix model” -was coined by Forman (1986-1995) and other pioneers of Landscape Ecology discipline- emphasizes on spatial structure with discussion about composition and configuration of landscape patterns. This model has guiding principles for ecological landscape planning and design. Besides “framework concept” with significant attention to watersheds, has specific clues for allocation resources to land use applications. Specifically “framework concept” is in parallel with “Human Ecosystem” notion which had been developed by Lyle (1985). Taking the generalized axioms of these concepts into account, in comparison with precedent studies about Tehran’s landscape spatial structure at regional scale which was performed by quantitative methods, (Aminzadeh & khansefid, 200; Parivar et al., 2009; Baftshahr, 2009; Shabani et al., 2010), lead to classification. The content of these prior studies was reviewed and their finding by comparison with Forman’s model, was generalized. In addition, for more insight, filed observations of 19th region of Tehran was performed, because of abundance fragmented suburbia in large landscape scale that are scattered in 19th region. Regional comprehensive studies of Tehran defines the marginal lands of 19th region as greenbelts which are cross junctions of North-south corridors with suburban agricultural lands. In regular observations during 2012 and 2013, it was seen that strategies of landscape urbanism, would be applied in those suburbia. These qualitative investigations were aided in classifying green open spaces in suburban areas of Tehran. Generalized axioms derived from this study are proposed in table-3 and table-4. Consequently various suburban areas of Tehran with natural potentials can be divided into three main groups, namely “productive”, “conservative”, and “compromise” areas. Furthermore, basic strategies are proposed and generalized with regard to one case study in 19th region of Tehran which has capabilities of suburbia and natural areas. Eventually, it has been proven that many of green open spaces of 19th region of Tehran have characteristics in parallel with those of compromise areas. Following up the content analysis and Author’s personal observations, Ecological Landscape Planning Approach in suburban areas must be implement by proposing environmental friendly mixed uses during short times. Landscape consistency highly depends on great deal of efforts for recognizing Compromise areas. Development of green open spaces throughout compromise areas must be implemented according to “integration” and “connection” concepts in ecological landscape planning, which connote the healthy condition of natural environments. So Ecological Landscape Planning Approach in compromise areas must be scheduled and implemented which enhances tolled concepts in large and small scales (Table-4). Concentration on field observation with emphasis on “Nemat Abad” district in 19th region of Tehran, as a remarkable brownfield, implies heterogeneous mixture of agricultural, industrial and residential patches inside of suburbia (photo1 & 2). Obviously most of these heterogeneities with the characteristics of Compromise areas, are caused by lack of integrated strategies. Landscape planning approach with emphasis on “integration” and “connection” concepts should be elaborated in those areas. According to landscape architecture attitude, Outcome of this study establishes preliminary approach toward policy making about suburbia’s green open spaces.

Structures effectively serve the art of architecture and architects must be able to create their works in ways that benefit from structure. In recent decades architecture moves with increasing acceleration towards a closer relationship with the structures and movements based on High Tech developed in this area. The main goal of these movements is the convergence of engineering and architecture. The architects such as Santiago Calatrava, Norman Foster, Richard Rogers, Renzo Piano and Frank Gehry in recent years, with the ability to use structural systems were able to design and implement structural buildings. In addition to these developments, architectural education has also changed a lot. The most important changes include the revision of the syllabi structural and qualitative and quantitative improvements in the Faculties of Architecture. Through these revisions, the modern theories of teaching and learning are used. New ideas about architectural education in recent years, in this case refers to an architectural structure which has changed significantly; therefore, the improvements in its education is required. This question raises here: what kind of knowledge is required, how it can be gained, and through which method it can be transferred to new professionals. In this context, and to change the course of studies, sustained efforts have been made for reshaping the structure of the educational process, examining accepted ideas, and seeking the views of the future. Necessary structure training for students of architecture, schools of architecture and major challenges faced with the process of preparing students for professional activity. Higher education system in Iran is now in a new phase after its long experience in the world. Bachelor and Master Courses have their own definitions at this system. Although the period of training professionals to learn a profession such as architecture is short, but with proper planning, the students after completing the course are the architects that after gaining experience in the labor market they will cause improving architecture but while many critics believe that architecture schools are educating students who are powerless in terms of technical architecture to do a lot of activities, including structural issues. Various methods which are in the field of education in many schools of architecture are structures used, for most students they seem inadequate and the students just looking to earn a passing grade in this course. Now the structure of educational structures, in particular for students of architecture seems inadequate. Training is done for traditional engineering methods based on this approach increasingly inefficient. The teaching of structures in architecture classes programs faces another vital problem. Understanding structures is fundamental in teaching to architecture, but the “content” that is now using are highly unsuitable for lots of architecture students. Many architecture teachers to effectively teach structures, using extremely quantitative and abstract teaching methods and materials copied completely from engineering programs that is highly inappropriate for the lots of architecture students. Architectural educational programs has been examined extensively over the last decade, with almost universal understanding that the nation’s universities are producing graduates who are technically not prepared for the professional architecture. Poor technical preparation is the result of some basic problems. First, the structures curriculum, teaching methods, and instructional tools are borrowed completely from engineering programs with some modification. The next, in most architecture programs the structures curriculum is taught separately from the remainder of the architecture courses. Structures instruction is rarely, if ever, fully integrated into the broader architecture curriculum. In particular, creative structural design and application is omitted from most architecture design studio courses. Improving the technical abilities of architecture graduates has several important ramifications for the practice of architecture and society as a whole. However, this research is concerning to the content of structure programs (theory and pedagogy) to better meet the architecture student’s needs and improve the understanding and application of basic structural engineering and technology principles. In this research we emphasis on transferring of learning because point of school learning is to be able to transfer what is learned in courses to professional architecture. To achieve these goals, the study is a survey research method (Delphi) and content analysis was used according to the study population. The results show that in formulating advanced architectural education, if you start teaching structures from the early architectural education and correcting the course in structures carried out, using teaching methods based on the principle of convergence of structures and architecture and with an emphasis on teaching non-abstract concepts to understand the structures, can improve structural architecture students.

Our traditional neighborhood, was a safe environment, for the people who have lived in it for years. The spaces that have been made over the years, depending on the needs, values and changing conditions of human society, were the great examples of sustainable neighborhoods. Neighborhoods indicate the economic and social conditions of the community and also meet the physical, emotional and spiritual requirements of the residents. However, following the principles of modern urban planning has caused important changes in our traditional city orders and loss of great and valuable feature in traditional neighborhood, while in comparison with great social, cultural, physical, economic features of traditional neighborhood, inefficiency, disorganization and unsustainability are the characteristics of contemporary urban neighborhoods. Actually, ignoring the quality as well as spiritual requirements of the inhabitants while considering the economical and functional factors, results in reducing the role of neighborhoods in devoting the identification to the human beings, to the extent which one of the regardless issues in programming and designing process of the neighborhood appear to be the cultural values. Moreover, lacking the sense of belonging to the living environment and reducing social interaction which is the impact of the heterogeneity of social communication with the construction of modern urban space are the problems of contemporary cities. From the authors’ point of view, making use of our ancestors’ experiences in designing the identified and sustainable neighborhoods, will be helpful in overcoming the current situation and designing sustainable neighborhoods. Therefore, exploring the important factors of social sustainability and considering them in Shiraz SangeSiyah neighborhood, for recognition of sustainable values in traditional neighborhoods and applying them in designing the contemporary ones for achieving sustainable cities, are the goals of the current research. Old Sange Siyah neighborhood, is one of the eleven neighborhood of old Shiraz, which is surrounded by Sarbagh and MeydanShah neighborhoods from north, Darbe Kazeroon neighborhood from south, Baroye Shahr neighborhood from west, and Saredozak neighborhood from east. Until the recent developments, by connecting the north gate (Darvazeh Quran) to the south-west gate (Darvazeh Kazeroon), Sange Siyah path was the most significant passage of the city. Today, this path is still one of the most important passage of the old city. Despite the widespread destruction, existence of baths, mosques, markets which are functionally active in the residential context, makes the concept of “neighborhood” and “community center” in this part of the old city meaningfull. Moshir religious complex, Emamzadeh SeyedTajedin, Siyavashan mosque, Ali mosque, Sibvayeh Tomb, Kordha Hosseiniyeh, Basiri and Ziyaeyan houses are some of the famous building in this neighborhood. The results of this study indicate that some factors including spatial and physical sequences, social and physical variety, suitable scale of neighborhood, considering suitable places for social interaction lead to social sustainability in Shiraz Sange Siyah neighborhood. Actually, in addition to providing local facilities for the residents, the following reasons lead to social sustainability in Shiraz SangeSiyah neighborhood:• There are signs and places for public ceremonies and evocative, historic places in SangeSiyah neighborhood which has been the important factors of the vitality and identification of the neighborhood.• Introversion and spatial /physical sequences in the neighborhood, considering human scale and suitable scale of neighborhood as well as constructing appropriate passage and places for various social interaction, has improved supervision of the residents which has increased the security of the neighborhood.• Physical, spatial, visual diversity and variety of activities in Sange Siyah neighborhood has provided suitable spaces for people in different social classes and for social interactions. They also have positive effects on vitality and identification of the neighborhood. Moreover, both the social diversity and the combination of different categories of people, was effective in providing social justice.• Placement of the two important urban path (GozareSangeSiyah and GozareSiyavashan) and buildings such as Emamzadeh Seyed Tajedin, Siyavashan mosque, Ali mosque, Emamzadeh Seyed Zeinedin, Moshir religious complex (Moshir mosque, Moshir Hosseiniyeh), Sibvayeh Tomb and Kordha Hosseiniyeh in Sange Siyah neighborhood, not only show the connection role of the neighborhood, but also increase its development, which has also significant role on increasing residents’ participation.So, Sange Siyah neighborhood that has been made over the years, depending on the needs, values and changing conditions of human society, is a great example of traditional neighborhoods and has the features of social sustainable neighborhood. Therefore, sustainable neighborhood should supply residents’ individual and social requirements by considering psychological needs and social growth demands. Thus, the designers should consider the variety of human needs and fulfill them in environmental design. In other words, human-centered quality approach, which was effective in the formation of traditional residential neighborhood, should replace the accommodation-based quantitative approach in new residential developments. Finally, some solutions for designing sustainable residential neighborhood are suggested.

One of the most important needs of the community is education of the people who rely on their willpower and intellection. One of the characteristics of human beings that can be influential for individual progress in community is creativity. Because childhood is the best and most important period to train and develop human talents, it is important to know how to foster children’s creativity, as a human need in all aspects of their future life. By studying the previous researches in the context of creativity, it is found that among the multiple factors affecting the children’s creativity, more attention was paid to the teaching methods in educational environments, training issues in the house and school, and different aspects of child growth. As well, in recent years, some studies were done on the designing of educational environments for developing children’s creativity. What has rarely been favored and noted in those researches is the effect of housing space quality on discovering and developing of children’s creativity. Many theories of creativity have focused on the influence of the family on the creativity and innovation of their children. Since the context of the child’s relationship with family members happens in the house, this research offers few design pattern of housing to enhance children’s creativity. Thisquantitative and qualitative research used direct methods such as interview and observation and indirect methods such as library studies to collect information. Researches show that creativity can be strong or weak and also decreasing and fertilizing creativity is more possible in childhood. The results from this study can be categorized in two sections: the first section showed some factors that influence creativity in children as following: independency, flexibility, Risk taking, perseverance, high curiosity, tolerance of ambiguity, Humor, initiative, Fantasy, aesthetician, Skepticism, Sensitivity and attention, interest to complex works, relationship with parents, play and participation. The studies shows that some factors are directly related to the personal characteristic of the creative person. Accordingly, from the effective factors of creativity, four of them were selected which are: as fantasy, curiosity, play and participation. The results showed that:- Curiosity is the foundation of creativity.- Fantasy is the most important factor in developing creativity.- The best activity to promote creativity in children and encourage their creative and novel thoughts is playing.- Information is the crude material for the creativity. - As long as a human has not run into a problem and his/her life passes on habits or based on bypassing the problems, there would be no creativity.- Participation of family members, team work and their sympathy arise the creativity.In the second section, the suggestions for designing based on these factors are expressed:- The result showed that the possibility of direct experience of nature can enhance curiosity, imagination, and corporation, so it could be concluded that nature can directly increase the creativity.- Designing changeable space and using movable walls or furniture cause better group work and could effect on creativity.- Designing some places regarding to children scale would be beneficial for their creativity.- the playful environment enables children to take part in learning within a framework of creation, exploration, narration, imagination, collaboration and play.- The presence of collaborative activities is a significant feature of a creative environment and children’s creativity is closely related to opportunity for working collaboratively with their parents. So, the results show that spaces designed using nature, for encouraging family to meet each other and corner design in house (cozy space) can be helpful for enhancing creativity. Moreover, findings about the places which are provide the family members to participate shows that:• The aforementioned room is at the center of the house, it is a place where most of the people are passed through it. The observations showed if this room is related to the kitchen area it would have a better efficiency.• This placed is a cross- cut way that connects the entry (door) to the other places of house. It is necessary and better for this place not to be a closed while its connection to the open space can promote its efficiency.• There should be placed some appropriate objects and components (For example a place to eat food, since eating food is one of the most important and basic affairs to get together or some armchairs to sit).About the corner space, in designing, the upright, straight, uniform and rigid walls can be disregarded and for them the corners with different various forms (different shapes, levels and with different applications) can be planned.

Traditional architecture of Iran, the same as traditional architecture of other ancient countries, is witness of valuable energy efficient architectural buildings and monuments. Literature review of the paper shows that traditional architecture of Iran is a rich treasure of authentic buildings crystalized energy efficient approach toward architecture and planning, especially in architectural design process. Contemporary Iranian architecture such as other related trends in contemporary architecture of developing countries suffers from lack of enough attention to energy efficient strategies toward architecture and planning which reflected in deficiency in conventional building sector. International approach towards high performance architecture and planning has made a progressive changes in contemporary architecture of Iran and other developing countries in order to meet energy efficient architecture and planning. Significance of comprehensive reviews on the related fields especially in contemporary architecture of developing countries such as Iran, enhance the level of necessity of the research; while programing and planning for better sustainability and better energy efficient architecture is need of enough information regarding to recent studies. It is believed that information about recent trends, is the first and the most essential step towards crystalizing a comprehensive, useful, optimum and successful plan to endorse energy efficiency in the field of architecture. The paper is to question the role of climate and other related issues in contemporary Iranian architecture. The paper aims to analyze and discuss shifting to climate and energy efficiency through research papers published in Iranian journals in recent 10-years. Theoretical framework of the paper is based on a wide range of literature review of the paper, based on different disciplines such as architectural design process, energy efficient architecture, high performance architecture and planning, traditional architecture of Iran. Inference mechanism of the paper is based on a kind of “content analysis” model which ask six main issues in each case such as: 1- research approach, 2- scale of study, 3- method of sampling, 4- research tools, 5- analytical framework and 6- location of the case. Based on theoretical framework of the research, an analytical matrix has been designed and adopted to investigate the trends and categories in shifting to climate and related issues in energy efficient architecture, in recent studies. The content analysis process is based on the extraction of keywords and clustering them in selected scientific papers. Sampling technique of the paper is “total population sampling” as a type of purposive sampling  technique that involves examining the entire papers which have been written in related fields in journals those are validated by Ministry of Science, Research and Technology of Iran in last 10 years. Some essential criteria such as research approach, scale of study, method of sampling, research tools, analytical framework and location of the case; examined carefully by the means of the designed matrix which roots in theoretical framework of the research. In other words, first, the related papers in last ten years which have been published in scientific journals in the fields of architecture and planning gathered as samples of the paper. Second, content analysis research method has been adopted to analyze the cases. Finally, the results gathered to show recent major advances and discoveries, significant gaps in the research and especially ideas about where research might go next in order to meet high performance architecture and planning. The results of the paper show that there is a considerable number of scientific and technical gaps in research those are interested in energy efficiency in architecture and planning. Based on the review it can be said that the “quantity” of papers is increasing drastically while the quality of research could not be called increasing especially when the research set the number of citations as a meaningful criteria to understand the level of “quality”. A general review on the papers which has been published in recent 10-years implies that these research papers were more descriptive and less practical, more analog and less computational, so most of these articles had no significant results which could be applied in architectural design process. These cases were more in general issues rather than concentrating on specific groundbreaking research. Most research done to date has focused on traditional buildings those enjoys energy efficient strategies in architectural design process. The results of the paper propose some clues for future steps to meet better energy efficient architecture such as some recommendations to future researchers in related fields. Research papers might shift to be more practical and computational expressions to reduce energy consumption. The results indicate some kind of shifting to high performance architecture in contemporary Iranian architecture as well as architectural studies and research papers.

Although most kinds of human interaction with architecture are known but the dimensions and details of this interaction, especially in Islamic attitude is not so clear. This study attempted to define the human being, the architecture and capabilities of each and how they interact with each other from the perspective of Islam as well as the relationship between them in a functional model presented in the field of architecture. Concentrating on the philosophical principles, as the basis of theoretical research, has been the interest of contemporary researchers. Accordingly, attempts have taken place to shape purposeful and fundamental changes in the field of architecture, seeking to achieve practical results inthis area. In this study, the basics of Transcendent Wisdom are considered as the theoretical foundation of research, and correspondence between universe, human and architecture are analyzed based on this consideration. Interaction between man and the universe is the most important topic in the field of creating architectural designs because architects design their environment in accordance to their viewpoints on this subject. Therefore, to achieve appropriate and qualified architecture we need a good and comprehensive definition of human being, universe, architecture and their relationship. Considering the definition of human, universe, and the capacity of each of them and how they interact with each other, in the context of Islam as well as referring to the vision of Transcendent Wisdom, will help us to present the relationship between them as a practical model in the field of architecture and define qualified architecture. This research, according to Islamic teachings, (especially in the Hadith of Imam Ali) deals with the definition of the human soul and their powers and needs as well as the levels of human soul (Nominal plant soul, Animal sensory soul, rational divine soul, general divine soul) and their capacity, has shown the levels of relationships between the human soul and the universe (Position of the Divine Nature, Reasonable universe, Universe of Kingdom, Universe of human being) in a model. Using logical reasoning and inferred method of research, this paper tends to prove that qualified architecture should make a communication between the capability of human soul levels and the universe, which will help human to use their perceptual tools (Senses, imagination, intellect, emotion) in order to reach better understanding of the universe. The most important thing about the relationship between man and architecture in this paper is based on the principle that: Architectural space can relatively meet the physical needs of human. Yet, in the case of spiritual needs, architectural space can only be a basis for spiritual perfection of human, because the perfection of man, unlike his physical affairs, is a voluntary and knowingly process rather than a compulsory affair. Research findings reveal that each architectural peace has an existential level of its own, in relate with the existential level of its creator, and it is certified in dependence to its ability in creating the grounds of human acknowledgment towards its being, and human improvement towards perfectness. The present research is a qualitative study, on the basis of logical reasoning. In the first step of this research, the powers and capabilities of human, universe and architectures are defined based on Islamic principles. The relationship between these mentioned variables are studied in the second stage, which leads to the presentation of research models as the findings of this step. Finally, we tried to define a communication model by a logical structure based on research findings. This structure will introduce and clarify the effects of human, universe and architecture on each other, and will develop the grounds of analyzing these three categories in order to improve the quality of architectural spaces. Finally, it should be noted that even though achieving specified definitions of the universe, human, architecture and their relationship is significant, yet, simplifying and appropriate structuring of the defined specifications are the most important issues, which this research is seeking to achieve. Through this process, architects could upgrade their understanding and apply it in their architecture. The presented principles and models of this research are functional in the field of art and urbanism, as they are in Architecture.

Way-finding in an urban environment can be performed with gathering information. The required information includes the direction or location of the origin point2, the final destination3 and the paths connecting them. Sufficient environmental information eases the decision making process when selecting a route. Routing refers to the situation when different factors are effective in determining the direction of which can be indicators of buildings, street signs, maps, number of intersections, color, architectural styles and noted the coordinates ways. Men and women because of their way-finding differences use different physical parameters to determine the route. Individual and environmental differences of paths are important to discover how they are effective in the way-finding. This paper explains how in different paths, men and women select the route by gathering environmental information and how they differ in utilizing visual cues in way-finding. This study was performed based on descriptive - analytical methods. The qualitative method of questionnaire survey accompanied with images of the environment is used for collecting the required data. The population size equal to 300 men and women on Imam Reza (AS), Imam Khomeini, and University street are analyzed with the Cochrane formula. In each street, 50 questionnaires were answered by women and 50 by men. According to the results of this study, the way-finding is done differently by men and women as they use different visual elements when they are moving in various paths. Men usually pay more attention to the passages whereas signs attract more attention from women. When it comes to use the passages, men choose the routes by counting the crossings while women do it by name signs of the passages. For routing, the observer receives information from the receiver and analyzes the information while trying to find a destination. On the other hand, in this study, different people received different information from the environment.Therefore, environmental characteristics of the individual, in male and female is different. Using a variety of factors guide the decision-making process for choosing the path, leads to different routing patterns in men and women. Another difference between men and women in way-finding is in their attention to the different characteristics of landmarks.Women in routing pay more attention to the signs and elements while men pay more attention to elements such as roads and directions which are given coordinated. Men locate the landmarks with higher stages and in longer distances, more easily. On the other hand, women find the closer landmarks with lower stages, easier. Men in detection and diagnosis of destinations and locations rotate and change direction more easily than women. Color walls in urban space are one of the important factors determining the direction and guidance for women. Women during routing pay attention to wall painting as a guide to determine their destinations. Men prefer the routes in the routing process to pass complex direct routes. Men usually prefer to use different paths to reach the same origin, while women prefer always the same path to reach an origin. Walls are another visual cue in way-finding that men and women pay attention to its features, differently. Usually, men note modern buildings with predominant colors of white and gray; while, women look at older buildings with predominant colors of cream and brown. Men are attracted more to buildings with modern architecture as a guide to determine the course of their choice, while women prefer old buildings and historical consideration for determining the route. Moreover, murals as public art in urban space are considered. There graffiti in urban areas as a guide for users of the environment is favorable. The results show that only women used a graffiti as a guide in routing. The results show the importance of the physical layer based on gender and its importance in the minds of users. Men and women in urban areas are facing with different shapes and forms in routing. Men often are attracted by modern buildings, the curve of upper classes and regular forms of attention. In contrast, women are attracted in old buildings, linear forms, different forms of irregular fields and forms. On the other hand, women prefer buildings with various functions such as: religious, tourism - entertainment, commercial and educational. Most of these buildings have warm colors – like brown, the color that leads to increase the confidence in routing process to choose the right path. Women prefer colors to distinguish between buildings with their surrounding environment as well as the distinction which leads to an increased readability.

Visual Graphic in urban environment applies various features to facilitate communication, increase perception of the environment as well as create visual identity, improve the quality of visual mural, and enhance the richness of sensory visual attributes. Graffiti is a public art in urban environments, which is associated with a large group of audiences; therefore, analyzing the audience can help us to improve the quality and quantity of murals done in urban graffiti area. The aim of this study is to evaluate the quality and rating of graffiti performed in the urban environment by asking citizens and using priority indicators and impact assessment survey (analytic network process (ANP) to know the viewpoints of experts. According to ANP method, firstly the components and evaluation criteria for urban graffiti was extracted, using library resources and interviews with experts. After that, according to the characteristics of ANP data and basic information classification, the conceptual model of ANP was prepared. ANP model-based components and assessment indicators for Tehran urban graffiti, includes three sets (standard / group) and 20 options (index / subgroup) which were produced using Super Decisions software. Secondly, weighing indicators and evaluation criteria (1 to 9) were determined using the results of the questionnaires. The results of surveys and questionnaires, complemented by citizens and professionals, were analyzed by using the software. The output of the model reflected a variety of text and graphs for metrics and options in different ways. The aim of this study was to answer these questions:1. Priority indicators and criteria of effective urban graffiti based on experts’ opinions2. The priorities of Tehran graffiti based on the research works and in accordance with the viewpoints of citizens and audiencesTo gain more results, we used the following assumptions to analyze the data and the model outputs: According to the two major metropolitan areas, it seems that citizens can view performed Stock graffiti in to: field (space pause) and ST (space travel) which are different referring to the visual perception of concepts or conceptual works. In the space pause, because of specifics and proportions used for influencing on pedestrians, color combinations, and theme frescoes attributed to the crowded spaces, the visual messages of graffiti will receive faster. Specific aspects of graffiti influence on the audiences such as: large-scale forms and general color combinations. Therefore, considering the location, shape and the proportions, scale, and placement of the mural to a comfortable view will increase the utility and benefits of graffiti. Murals with respect to architecture and the backgrounds were caused dynamics of space and environmental visual diversity that canattract more audiences. Therefore, it is recommended to pay attention to the scale, size, color and texture effects, in terms of design, architecture and location of the various bodies and surfaces. Understanding the features of graffiti in urban environments requires correcting the perceptions how to design the shape and effect of the graffiti, interacting with three main elements: audience, environment and architecture of the space. The perceptions that designer shares with the receiver (the audience) is important while it can be seen as visible (apparent) and invisible (spiritual). In sharing visual language, it is important to consider audience’s experience and mindset, which gives the designer knowledge and recognition of aesthetic, social, and cultural environment to help society. The results indicate that the proper location, the structure of visual murals, color combinations, architecture and environment, appropriate theme, and content of the work gain more points than other indexes of Expert Group analysis.

Social life is one of the most important human needs which should be addressed in the context of urban life. As a science which is considering the organization of public environment of human life, municipal engineering should comprise the necessary measures to respond to these human needs. The concept of “social sustainability” has its foundation in human needs and in “sustainable development” framework while makes sustainable society as a proper perspective of a human society. From the beginning of conceptual framework of “sustainable development” which is propounded from the ending years of twentieth century, the social sustainability has been considered as one of its triplet aspects. Although the concept of “social sustainability” is propounded in social sciences, the achievement of this goal and, subsequently, a “sustainable society” requires an interdisciplinary movement. Moreover, considering promotion in social sustainability in the format of urban planning policies and strategies have been less considered in urban plans and programs. The issue that how the urban planning knowledge and profession can help promotion in social sustainability in the city and its concentration area which is urban public fields is essential and requires exploration and compilation of scientific responds. Meanwhile, in an environmental context, the environmental sciences, such as municipal engineering, play a significant role toward attainment a sustainable society. Regarding to this aim, codification of indicators in municipal engineering which influence on promotion of sustainable society, provides a framework for urban designers and planners. Since creating “urban place” is one of the most important concerns of urban designers and planners, and “place” is a special meaningful case of “space” which compounds with human norms and values, these indicators are noted in this research as “place indicators”. Therefore, the intended purpose of “place indicators of social sustainability” are qualitative indicators which, firstly, consider the conceptual context of “place”, and secondly, define the social sustainability and influence on its promotion in urban spaces. The purpose of this paper is finding out a model of indicators to be served as a conceptual framework in urban designs and plans to promote social sustainability. To develop this model and achieve precise and refined indicators, the “Delphi Method” and “Shannon Technique” is used in this paper. Two main questions of this study are (1) which the effective place indicators are in promoting the social sustainability; and (2)   How we can develop a model of these indicators with Delphi Method. The Delphi method is a structured communication technique or method, originally developed as a systematic, interactive forecasting method which relies on a panel of experts. To answer to questions by Delphi Method, the viewpoints of ten municipal engineers are gathered in two stages through interviewing and surveying. A semi-structured interview, in the first stage, was held. In this interview, at first, it is tried to deliberate the experts’ approaches in “social sustainability” and its relationship with municipal engineering, and then detect the most effective factors in promoting the social sustainability in their viewpoint, and afterwards, share the results with them to cognize their opinion. In these interviews, the agreements of experts with local approach to social sustainability, and the difference with the global one, is also studied. After the first stage, and analyzing the interviews, the effective indicators in promoting the social sustainability, or the so-called, “space codes” are extracted out of the viewpoint of these ten experts. Common codes are excluded by corresponding with the place codes extracted from the resources, and finally, 23 codes are determined as effective codes in social sustainability. These codes, then, in second stage of Delphi Technique, are checked again by ten experts in form of close questionnaire with 5 Likert Scale. Hereafter, the data gathered from questionnaire is analyzed by Shannon Technique to carry the prioritization and weighting procedure. Being more precise regards to frequency of data. Findings show that the most important category of effective place indicators in promoting the social sustainability is “safety” which includes safety, security and privacy of urban areas. The second important one is “activatability” which includes diversification of activities, commixture of control, user confounding, accessibility, proper utilities, and local mosques and bazaars. Accordingly, “skeletal integrity” provides the lowest effect among the indicators. Experts believe that among the single indicators, “diversification of activities” and “accessibility” have the highest effect, and “identity” has the lowest effect on social sustainability. Finally, the place indicators model is developed and presented, while it influences on social sustainability promotion. This model includes 21 indicators in 5 major category: security, activatability, identity, people-orientation, and skeletal integrity. The weight and the order of indicators’ order in each category is presented.

Urban security has an important role in the healthy development of urbanization process. Lack of security disrupts the society wellbeing in daily life, impedes the cultural development and public participation and imposes high costs on society. Provision of security is an essential factor for strengthening communities and making them more confident and responsible for their own lives and wellbeing. Appropriate urban spaces greatly contribute to the security and reduce vulnerability and social problems. Due to differences in the quality of urban spaces, sense of security or insecurity is also different for residents. As a result, some neighbourhoods are felt safer than others. On the other hand, the physical quality of neighbourhoods is under the influences of social behaviors and hence characteristic of each neighbourhood is different from other neighbourhoods. Because of the importance of public spaces in the development of democratic society, the equal access to public realms reduces the social segregation and helps to achieve the establishment of civil society. Sense of security causes the presence of people in urban spaces while the lack of it or fear of crime or being attacked by uncivil behaviors, will limit their presence in urban public spaces. Encouraging citizen’s presence in public spaces and providing equal accessibility for all individual and groups are among the necessary measures that should be taken into consideration. Previous research shows three sets of variables that impact neighbourhood security including demographic characteristics, victimization experience and neighborhood conditions. Among the demographic variables, sex, age and socio-economic status have been identified as important factors that influence the crime and security. Previous studies also indicate a significant relationship between victimization and perceptions of risk in the neighborhood. Finally, variables such as deteriorating buildings, density, street quality, the lighting conditions and trash have been noted as environmental characteristics that affect neighbourhood security. This paper has focused on the role of social and physical factors impacting citizens’ perception of security in six neighborhoods of Rasht. The objectives include 1) to find out how is the perceived security within urban neighborhoods of Rasht? 2) Is there any significant difference between the security perceptions of different neighbourhoods? And, 3) what are the main predictors for perceived neighborhood security for urban residents? The used data in this study has exctracted from a field survey in 2014 conducted in sixneighborhoods of Rasht, Iran. Rasht is the capital of Guilan Province and the largest population centre on the southern Caspian Sea coasts. Selected neighborhoods include 1) Golsar neighborhood, a planned district with mostly high income groups, 2) Farhangian neighborhood, a small and relatively high income groups, 3) Sagharsazan neighborhood, located in the old and central district with relatively medium to low income groups.4) Rashtian neighborhood located in the west part containing medium to low income residents, 5) Dianati neighborhood situated in the east part with mostly lower income groups and 6) Hamidian neighborhood located in the west with majority of low income rural immigrants. The dependent variable assesses the extent to which residents agreed on the perceived security of their neighborhoods. Answers were organized in a fivelevel Likert scale of, completely agree, agree, neutral, disagree and completely disagree. The independent variables included time (day and night), demographic characteristics (gender, level of education, length of residence in the neighborhood, being close to relatives, sense of safety for children and presence of police) and physical conditions of the neighborhood (street lighting, quality of streets, congested passages, existence of deteriorated and or abandoned buildings). For the analysis, Non-parametric tests of Wilcoxon and one-way Annova tests were used to analyze the security perception among the neighborhoods. Also an OLS regression was employed to find out the main social and physical factors affecting neighborhood security. Our study indicated that the perception of neighborhood security is significantly different between the day and night times. While no difference was observed for neighborhood security perception between men and women for day time, it was significantly different for the night time. The study found a relationship between neighborhood security perception and the overall socioeconomic status of residents. It revealed that the residents of neighborhoods with higher socio-economic status felt safer than residents of neighborhoods with lower social status. Results of OLS regression showed that among the selected social and physical variables, safety perception for children, deteriorated and abandoned buildings, quality of roads, street lighting are the most important predicting factors of security perception within the different neighborhoods in Rasht.

The valuable cultural-historical buildings in Shiraz have been neglected during recent decades while this factor caused much more erosion in these buildings. Economy is one of the most effective factor in building’s erosion because it has had the most important effect on the survival or destruction of cities during the history. Erosion of invaluable cultural-historical buildings not only can cause inefficiency, destruction of the city’s image and inappropriate environment for the lives of citizens, but also can destroy valuable legacy of civilization and culture of a society. Thus there will not be any substituent for this heritage. Given the importance of this heritage, many studies have evaluated different aspects of it. From a cultural, social and economic point of view, it was tried to keep the stability of these valuable heritages and take an effective step in order to enter these buildings to contemporary life. As the most important factor to take out the roles of historical monuments and tissue from contemporary life, economy has played the most important role in the destruction or prosperity of urban life throughout the history. Therefore, indigenous residents left their homes to access more facilities, according to the contemporary era, and finally they gave their places to low-income people, nonnatives, Afghan refugees and criminals. So, investment was not allocated to the historical context and while the focus was on the other parts of the city. Even though historical context is the identity and the basis of each city, it reminds a picture of deterioration, aging and backwardness (retardation). Despite many studies done in this field, these are not effective for most cities of Iran. So they could not be able to solve destruction and erosion in historical contexts. Accordingly creating important and effective solutions for the historical contexts needs an economic approach in contemporary life. Therefore, one of the most important determinants of dynamism and vitality in historical contexts is creating various activities to prevent the creation of single function utilization in buildings. Functional diversity in the historical contexts can refer more people to the contexts. Valuable historical monuments require utilizations that can return economy aligned with contemporary needs as well as encourage people to visit buildings and historical contexts to eliminate the stagnation and recession of them. Notwithstanding its valuable heritage in historical contexts, Shiraz has not been prevented from erosion and unfortunately its destruction progresses day by day. Relying only on the statistics and having a quantitative view to the historical contexts can be an important reason of that. Another problem is strategies applied in other areas of the city without paying attention to the characteristics of Shiraz. In addition to the exodus of indigenous people, replacing of non-native people, delinquent and creating inappropriate utilities in monuments, caused erosion in the historical contexts of Shiraz. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of economy on the historical part of Shiraz while considering its role in vitality and dynamism of cities. Analyzing the features of considered area and the effect of different functions is done through methods such as AHP. A suitable function for this area is defined in order to create the highest economic progress in this area along with protecting historical aspect of buildings. The main question of this study was: How can the importance of economical function of the historical part of Shiraz -along with structural redesigning and changing building’s function- effect the protection of valuable historical- cultural buildings and prevent their erosion and destruction. The analytic descriptive method was used in this research. Data was collected through library and field method. Moreover we investigated these factors through investigating the performed experiences in Iran and other countries in order to make applicable and functional results. We focus on the values of buildings to attract fund and investment which will be provided for a further time. Investigation of the result was shown that making a new function, suitable with current needs can make an economic improvement in historical area. Also, it can provide viability and dynamism to the buildings and historical area while prevent erosion and destruction of these buildings and historical texture.

Developments in science and technology have had many effects on human lives causing the formation of new views and procedures in various disciplines such as architecture and urbanism. One of these views is the Complexity Theory and the geometry of organic structures such as fractal geometry that have influenced the urban issues. Euclidean geometry is dominated by the concept of things as having one, two or three dimensions. This is suitable for describing objects or shapes that are completely regular, but Mandelbrot (1977) argues that much of the ‘natural’ world, and it is also argued here that much of an urban development, cannot be adequately described using the concepts of Euclidean geometry. It should be noted that this discussion applies to the 3D material world. Mandelbrot (1977) used the term ‘fractal’ to describe shapes or objects that demonstrate repeating patterns when examined at increasingly smaller scales, which demonstrate scale invariance (Mandelbrot, 1977). This special quality of scale invariance shows up in many natural patterns that can be identified and quantified by a parameter called “fractal dimension”. Nowadays, fractal analysis and the calculation of fractal dimensions offer a practical method in urban studies at different scales. Implementing the fractal geometry in realizing and analyzing urban structures in different scales has been the course of action for a number of researchers so far. In fact, most of these studies have used the fractal dimension as a quantitative criterion for the assessment and evaluation of city structures in different viewpoints ranging from the manner of developments in cities and the factors affecting it to the relationship between environmental qualities and the fractal dimension in urban spaces. In other words, different individuals have studied this relationship while trying to quantify the qualities existing in the space. But most of the researches have focused on analyzing the fractal structure of the city and have done limited work in new developments using the results of these researches. Apart from other researchers’ attempts to introduce fractals in architecture, another crucial attempt to introduce fractals to architecture was made by Carl Bovil in his book, Fractal Geometry in Architecture and Design (Hagerhall, 2004). His approach is more practical and more concerned to suggest a method to layout the project according to fractals. With an extensive introduction on fractal geometry, he delves a great deal into the mathematical aspect of fractals trying to base his method on the idea of fractal dimension. He uses fractal dimensions to produce a fractal rhythm of different sized elements. The important point in this method that sets it apart from others is that it elicits patterns from the existing context to analyze and offers guidelines in new developments along a dynamic process that adjusts different personal ideas. Nowadays, organic cities with their complex systems have gone through a lot of changes. As a result of these changes, a valuable structure of such cities is suffering from decay and destruction. Also, realizing the hidden order in such structures and developing this system to new or replacement structures and developments have turned out to be the main concern of architects and urban designers. One of the problems that many cities in Iran are facing with is the new construction in the more developed zone around historical sites. The challenge one faces when being inspired by the valuable historical structures for the purpose of modeling for the development of new constructions is the fact that copying the existing embedded structures often turns out to be discouraging and self-imposed. The main question focused on in this research is how one can create a new historical-oriented structure while maintaining the environmental qualities of valuable historical structures without repeating the existing patterns bearing in mind the modern taste, materials, and technologies. In this paper, fractal geometry is used as a means to determine the degree of complexity and its desirability. This research provides a fractal analysis of valuable facades linking the calculation of fractal dimension to context indicators from existing patterns. ChaharBagh-Abbasi Street as structural axis of Isfahan has many historical buildings and nowadays is known as main retail street in the city. Therefore, improving the quality of space and reforming the facades are in priority. This street is selected as a case study and the fractal dimension of its valuable façades were calculated using the method of box-counting with professional software Benoit 1.3. After that the obtained numbers of fractal dimension were converted to a grid-like and we suggest guideline for new developments or projects of reconstruction in this historical street.

Quality of urban life is one of the most important areas of urban studies in different countries that have multiple components of social, environmental and economic. Because of its role, attention to this indicator in cities as an efficient tool for urban management and planning and generally livability of city is increased during recent decades. In cities across the country, deteriorated areas including urban areas are development in physical and socio- economic prosperity of the rest of the city does not match and level of quality of life in them because of depreciation is drastically decreased. Overall, we can say that the concept of “urban life quality” or “quality of living environment” were considered to promote the development and evolution of the concept of sustainable urban development and spend a little and economic development. Moreover, the issue of improving the quality of life and the urban environment was an emerging trend in the early 1960s, because the world was faced with problems of one-dimensional growth and development. Various variables in terms of type and level of effectiveness had been influenced on creating a physical gap in urban fabric. The physical variables as the most visible and obvious variables, in some cases have been both a cause and a consequence of structural changes in socio-economic and political factors. In this research, which aimed at analyzing and determining the impact of physical factors on the level of quality of life, we focused on Bojnoord ancient urban fabric, which is discussed in those two fields. During this study, library and field survey (in the form of questionnaires and interviews) are used for collecting data while statistical tools and suitable software are used to analyze the findings. Therefore, the selected criteria for assessing the quality of the Paye Toop neighborhood of Bojnourd, as an old and deteriorated city center, are based on theoretical findings. The results presented the target announced range and explained the selection of variables influencing quality measurement. In order to determine the impact of physical factors on the quality of residential environment, according to literature and the factors, qualitative indicators are used. Paye Toop neighborhood is one of the oldest neighborhoods of Bojnurd which is the business core and the Bojnourd’s development main core. Urban fabric compression neighborhood consists of narrow streets and impermeable with the composition and compressed residential buildings. That’s why the urban open spaces cannot be seen in the neighborhood. The Construction Model of residential units has north - south orientation and the use of building materials such as adobe, plaster, clay, limestone and wooden beams along with the south axis oriented, use in opposition to cold weather conditions in this region in order to access more comfort. On the bases of the theoretical framework, five major land uses include: residential, commercial, educational, cultural, religious, and green space (including leisure and tourism) have been studied to measure the factors, neighborhood amenities and services. In the analysis of network access methods and mathematical space syntax is used as well. Based on theoretical findings, major physical parameters including (land use, structural density, quality construction, network access quality) are classified. Moreover, the dependency of their own qualitative indicators including (network access road quality, safety and passages quality, fabric quality access to services, the neighborhood face quality and buildings quality), were analyzed using the multivariate regression test. Finally, in order to identify type and impact of each variable and their directly and indirectly affects on the quality of the life environment, the cycles of cause and effect based on the dynamics of thinking were used. A high level of integration passages neighborhood of purpose and low coefficient of satisfaction in neighborhood of basic services to its population, indicate that this neighborhood suffers from the integrated spatial structure caused by traffic jams due to the lack of effective permeability. The results show that structure of the access network and building density level have had the largest score of explained variance in the dependent variable. Also, the quality of construction variables and structural density are effective beside these two variables relating to level of the quality of living in the target neighborhood directly and without intermediaries.

Fear of crime and victimization is a common issue in today’s urban life which hass. It is a real and powerful force that can shape citizens’ lives. A perceived risk of victimization can be attributed to the fear of crime. Fear of crime is a universal feeling which people possess in the society as the physical distance is virtually shortened by the advances of the transportation system as well as the interactions between people become stronger. The advances in technology potentially increase the likelihood of the occurrence of crimes. Consequently, the fear of crime will increase as the occurrence of crimes get more probable. Fear of crime has unpleasant consequences that can against criminal offenses. Loss of security, exposure to danger and fear of victimization can threaten proper and convenient use of public spaces and jeopardize the creation of dynamic successful urban places. As Jacobs (1961) states: “Deep and complicated social ills must lie behind delinquency and crime, in suburbs and towns as well as in the great cities. if we are to maintain a city society that can diagnose and keep abreast of deeper social problems, the starting point must be to strengthen whatever workable forces for maintaining safety and civilization do exist. To build city districts that are custom made for easy crime is idiotic. Yet that is what we do”. Therefore, reducing crime and fear of crime frequently are more important when it comes to attributes of a good social place. This study has used the descriptive methodology to explore the environmental factors contributing to fear in urban spaces and their related indices and measures. The components and theories will be explained in order to identify fear inducing factors from the perspective of various theories. To this end, questionnaires, descriptive analysis, and Estimation Test were used for evaluating research questions for a sample of 50 urban designer and architecture experts. The neighborhoods were divided into two categories: secured and unsecured. The effects of each spatial component – as divided in three categories: structural, functional and perceptual - and their sub-indices and measures were measured. First, the concept of fear was studied and the theories underlying the foundation for the present study were introduced and then, effective components, indices, and measures were determined. The results were evaluated in SPSS 21. In this study, descriptive statistics were used to test the hypotheses stated out of research questions. Finally, the validity of each theoretical framework in Iranian cities was confirmed and then the interaction of components and  their indices in each of the theoretical frameworks was determined. The results indicated the importance and the generalizability of some of the theoretical frameworks on fear in urban areas of Iran while confirmed their usefulness in guiding objectives, strategies and solutions for control, prevention, and mitigation of such a fear. According to the study, unbounded sub-cultural diversity can harm social shares and bonds. Social concerns about the deterioration of social relations and the decline of local networks are given lower priority in residential spaces. The Disorder Model did not affect the investigated areas and the physical disturbance of urban areas in Iran made it difficult to determine the impact of these factors in both safe and unsafe contexts which physically suffer from disorder. Vulnerability Theory is one of the best and most dominant theories for exploring the concept of fear in the urban areas of Iran. When we asked: “what is the worst thing about living where you live”, at the top of the list was the sense of being victimized. The study of social control theory indicated the need for monitoring done by neighbors and its positive effects. In contrast, lack of acceptance of formal control by police and law enforcement was observed. Regarding to the types of social relations in Iranian communities and the history of using such bonds, this outcome is not far-fetched. Also, the presence of strangers in local gravity points is important, particularly given the importance of such pints. The level of presence of strangers in the local contexts such as the neighborhood centers and main pathways is lower in secure neighborhoods where land use distribution is carried out in such a way that pushes most strangers to the edge of the neighborhood. The functional scale of uses in secure areas remains at local scale. Based on these findings, appropriate weights can be assigned to each of these theoretical frameworks and their place-oriented components, indicators and measures can be used to control fear-inducing factors in urban areas.

Emissions of road traffic status as one of the main sources of pollution in urban areas, especially in the main streets of downtown are known. Considering that most of the traffic in areas where the greatest human trafficking takes place, it is very sensitive and pollution issues will be critical. In small-scale studies of cities, buildings and their placement, height, gender and outer structures can be important in comfort climate debate, climate and pollution designs. In this context, a careful analysis of the physical and natural factors in mitigation or aggravating of pollution from small-scale numerical modeling based on a laboratory model of air flow (CFDs) namely Envi-met were used. The benefits of this method are being quantitative effect of physical and climatic urban factors in microscale temporal and spatial resolution. On the other hand the lack of a consistent and complete data of air pollution, especially in small scale cannot be done in a complete and comprehensive review but this method to great extent resolves this problem. In the present study, pollution condition at the central part of Tehran between the west to the east along the Azadi and Tehran-pars street with a length of about 18/7 Km by numerical modeling, are discussed. At the beginning and end this region two-terminal (West and East) of the three major passenger terminals of Tehran are located. In addition, a line of Bus Rapid Transportation (BRT) in this path has caused daily movement more than 300 buses. Beginning of this path is at the main entrance of Tehran, so every day, thousands of vehicles are traveling within this area. The information used in this study includes atmospheric elements such as wind direction and speed, humidity, specific humidity and air temperature at two date on July 26, 2011 and November 30, 2010 obtained from Mehrabad synoptic stations. In addition, emissions data related to the pollutant gaseous monoxide (CO) in the same date were taken from statistical methods traffic crossings in sections and squares of path by taken films and statistical calculations. Another set of data are contains urban spatial data, surface covers of streets and square including the type and amount of vegetation, soil type, building height and density and unevenness parameters that was designed in Envi-met model. In Azadi square, the maximum concentration of pollution is around the third receptor. The lowest values is around the first and second receptors in the open spaces nearby vegetation and minor passages that wind flow was more freely between building blocks. Wind on its track passes the open spaces of Azadi square and causes pollution dispersion while this results in its being held in dense areas of  urban structures such as the east side of the field. In other section, Valiasr cross, compressed building shape, high volume of traffic, existence Daneshjo Park in the South-east, the intersection of two main streets (Enghelab and Valiasr) has been influential in changing the concentration monoxide pollutant. CO concentrations at Valiasr cross is more on the streets, especially in the central passageway and is focused nearby number two receptors. Because the north dominant wind in the morning and South flow during the afternoon, as well as the arrival of the longitudinal passages, the pollution is transported to passageway center. The healthiest parts of this site are Daneshjo park space and between buildings away from the center of the Cross. The highest amount of CO pollution has been shown in Tehran-pars, early in the morning. But in the evening due to the increase of temperature, Air stability will disappear, so the temperature gradient causes formation of stronger wind currents and reduces the concentration of pollution. Like two previous sites in Tehranpars, with the distance from the ground level concentration of CO emissions are reduced. Generally, concentrations of pollutants in total area are influenced by fluctuations in the atmospheric condition. In other words, because of amount of inputs, emission and physical condition in all seasons and all times of the day are not fixed, what makes the pollution concentration non-steady varied condition climate and microclimate. For example, in the early morning in autumn season with low values of the temperature, inversion and the stability condition are caused by lack of wind and air. Also with increasing altitude and distance from the center of the earth surface emissions and fewer side effects, wind flows are faster and more regular and reduce effects of pollution.

Urban housing informality has been receiving increasing attention in recent years; an interest reflected in the number of initiatives that have been launched by development organizations and a steady stream of academic writing on the subject. In most of these writings and initiatives, the problem solving potential of tenure security for improving living conditions in informal settlements features prominently in one way or another. In recent years, special attention has been given to tenure in security in improving informal settlements, in such a way that in 2003 and 2006 this has been on the main research pivots on informal settlements in UN-HABITAT. Thus, tenure security has become a deprivation index in settlements. Tenure security is one of the primary rights of households that its lack leads to economic, social, psychological and political challenges. In national document of Empowerment on informal settlements in Iran, it has been mentioned that lack of tenure security in informal settlements is one of the main reasons that reduces participation of households with local and governmental organizations. It is also the main reason for growth of legal uncertainty among dwellers in informal settlements. Secure tenure has been assumed to encourage investment by households and communities, stimulate economic initiatives, alleviate poverty, facilitate the provision of urban services and infrastructure, improve health conditions, make credit accessible, enable land markets, and contribute to the realization of the right to adequate housing. Following these results, different approaches have been taken in tenure security. These approaches classify into two distinct sets: traditional and new approaches. Traditional approaches have focused on tenure security more than legal aspects. They consider the tenure security as having ownership document for the official occupancy in one place. In recent years, scientific and practical experiences on tenure security index indicate that the expensive process of title deeds issuance has made the inhabitants reluctant to pursue the mentioned process due to their financial inability, and also because of powerful and influential forces in land market, land hoarding and speculation have come into existence. Although the new tenure security perspective does not negate the possibility that title can generate tenure security, argues that tenure security can be achieved by different factors that have been called extralegal (de facto) factors. The aim of the present research is to analysis the role of tenure security on housing investment; for this purpose, the relation of tenure insecurity and investment range in Koshtargah neighborhood – the biggest center of informal settlement – in Urmia  has been examined. Research method is descriptive – analytical, along with discovering relations of variables. Since the present study has both features of fundamental and applied research, we used survey method as the methodology of this research to achieve the research objectives and hypothesis test. According to this method, questionnaires were prepared and completed in Koshtargah district. Finally, using statistical techniques of partial and Pearson correlation, Factor analysis and multiple regressions, we completed our data analysis. After assessing this relation, 13 explanatory index of tenure security have been found through factor analysis in three following factors: de facto, legal and perceived tenure security. In examining investment range in housing two indexes, namely kind of building material and roof covering, are used; and four perceived indexes - namely willingness for increasing floor area, willingness for receiving housing loan, willingness for purchasing house and land for offspring and willingness for improving the house- which indicates willingness of inhabitants for investment in housing. The finding show that three factors of legal, de facto and perceived tenure security have positive and significant impact on housing investment, this relation has been confirmed with degree of correlation 0.000 at 99% confidence level. In the other words, positive relationship between tenure security and investment range in housing in Koshtargah, and the factors like de facto and perceived tenure security have more effect than legal tenure security on investment willingness in housing. According to the conducted analysis, it can be found that theoretical and practical research results are compiled together; because the Payne (2002), Cresol (2004) and Van Gelder (2007) argue that perceived and de facto tenure security can be more effective than legal tenure security on existing variables - especially housing quality and investment range in housing- in informal settlements. Therefore to offer suggestions for organizing Koshtargah neighborhood and Planning for investment of housing, these two factors (consist of de facto and precived tenure security) are the priorities.

The Gated Communities are being assumed as Residential Territories, in which fences and gates restrict accessibility for the non-residents to such environments. These areas are being under control by a variety of security systems and instruments. Such territories could be established in small or large areas for a permanent or non-permanent residence. Furthermore, the burden of management in gated communities could be in the hands of private or public gatherings. However interior management of the facilities in the Gated territories by the residents is the specific characteristic in most of these communities. Since 1970, the universe has been encountered with the wider formation of Gated Communities all over the developed and undeveloped countries. In the northern province of Iran Mazandaran, due to the impressive tendency of the affluent residents of Tehran for lodging and temporary residence specially in coastal areas, such Gated Communities have been founded in the fortieth decade (1340) and rapidly developed. Darya-Kenar has been evaluated as an important case study for the mentioned Gated Communities located in coastal areas. Meanwhile, a form of environmental segregation between the residents and people of the surrounded areas has been appeared. Moreover, based on this segregation, the land price has encountered with some high levels of changes and caused an especial land speculation. According to the rise of this phenomenon, many gated communities have been constructed, and because of existence in the Babolsar city environs, and in the lack of clear legislations’ existence, a huge number of deficiencies and problems have been appeared. Due to these issues, a comprehensive approach or special procedure is required for coincident evaluation of interior and exterior environment. In this article, the improved SWOT method has been applied for the evaluations. Some of the important strategies in this article include: A revision in the legislations about surrounding rules and instructions as a way of settlement development configuration; elimination of multi decisional administrations and creation of a concentrated responsible unit; applying existed spatial potentials to set a connection between internal; and external residences (to prevent of uncontrolled development of gated communities according to increase of the investment attractions). Initially it is necessary to identify the position of Gated Communities in the integrated Coastal zone management; moreover, changing the land use of agricultural territories in coastal areas must be prevented in coordination with  local organizations, and also occupying the periphery of the coasts should be prohibited and an appropriate access of people be provided. For eliminating of the problems in the Darya-Kenar Gated Community, a comprehensive development document has to be proved to change the development capacity into an appropriate reduction of shortages in this community. The Correction of legal resources based on the revision in residential community development regulations and against the occupation of coastal peripheries and approving new laws related with social development can have an appropriate influence in prevention of future social problems. Legitimating of the Darya-Kenar Gated Community and withdrawal of this residential complex from BABOLSAR City’s periphery and solving the claims with the Constructor & developer firm in courts can effect on the reduction of numerous occurred problems. Abundant deficiencies at the present situation of the Darya- Kenar Gated Community during our own time, is emanating from fever of land trade, lack of public facilities, absence of comprehensive systematic statistical regulations, none distinguished management structure, multi and parallel decisions units, and etc. It will be mentioned that, based on the following strategies a proper confrontation with these kinds of deficiencies occurs: An appropriate attendance and participation of residents in exploitation and maintenance of Gated Community in some internal management systems. Census Population and habitation based on economic, social, physical configuration of gated communities in correlation with its function. The amendment of multi decisions and parallel units and founding a concentrated and intensified decision about the gated communities to correct and vanish the influences emanating from such decision units. Configuring a follow up unit in order to recognition and acquiring necessary documents. Legitimating the kind of operating and constructional activities based on the creation of legal suitable resources. Necessitating the urban government specifically in appropriate applying of coastal integrated management and development system and revision in residential complex construction regulations, and approving new laws based on the especial type of such gated communities. Revision in the approach and method and structure of gated community management with the aim of elimination of existent legal deficiencies and obstacles. And also managing the relationship in accordance with other urban and rural communities.

Historic districts are one of the most precious elements of the cities, which have been unwantedly neglected in the process of urbanization revolution. This has dramatic consequences on the identity of the fast growing cities. These areas are the essential elements for preserving the characters of the cities and play a substantial role in urban activities by providing great social interactions. In the last decades, the fast growing population and rapid developments of the cities caused some undesirable problems such as heavy traffic streams and social-environmental issues. These side effects are more critical in the historic districts which are usually located at the central parts of the urban areas and play a significant role in preserving the identity of the cities. Hence, in recent years, urban management has paid attention to this endanger regions in order to sustain and enhance their properties by introducing some plans as urban regeneration policies which cover all sides of environmental, social and economic revitalization. On the other hand, two main characteristics of historic districts are the physical movement of pedestrians and traffic flow. The performance of these areas is highly vulnerable to these subjects. To cope with the problem, more pedestrian-oriented and traffic-oriented trends are introduced in urban planning. Any interfering with historic districts as a kind of urban districts with special potentials and restrictions is a difficult and complicated issue, because the aim of interfering with historical districts is to create balance between conservation and social- economic revitalization as a form of development. Certainly, no one can expect an efficient interference with historic districts without using efficient approaches and tools from other branches of knowledge. Strategic planning based on systematic approach principals is the outcome of Knowledge management advancements for solving complicated subjects and problems. Therefore strategic planning has offered affective tools for enhancing the decision making process. Operation Research, as the recent approach of strategic planning, is pervading in many branches of science such as urbanism by using modeling and optimizing techniques. For example, locating Urban Facilities and land use planning are two applications of operation research in urban planning.  Noticing that multiplicity and variety of urban variables in historical districts are more complex than other kinds of urban districts and based on sensitivity of historic districts, using operation research approach is the very essential and helpful method for providing an optimized interference based on all systemic and strategic planning principals. In this research, based on studying and considering the literature review on systemic planning, two points are extracted: first is the outside system connection that indicates necessity of analyzing the movement flow as the dynamic connection between historical district and surrounded areas, and second, is the inside system connection which is emphasized and suggests the modeling connections between affected variables such as quantitative urban planning indicators and qualitative environmental factors. On the other hand, four key points are achieved based on considering the principals of strategic planning: first is the vision making besides solving the current problems; second is identifying the several and various players with conflicting objectives having role in integrated regeneration process. Third is the determination of budget limitations and other limitations of historical districts and fourth is the necessity of flexible planning for offering optimum solution in probable situations in future. With identifying the keys of systemic and strategic planning and combining them into an integrated approach, two conceptual models based on operation research, are proposed. These models covering the various objectives of regeneration process with focusing on traffic and pedestrian flow network. Each proposed model is a bi-level model; upper level is a decision making tool for urban planners which can give output of the optimum budgeting plan for selecting the projects in public places, while satisfying the financial limits and constraints of the historic districts, and the lower level is a macroscopic traffic or pedestrian assignment model. In the other words, to come up with environmental, social and economic revitalization as urban regeneration projects, urban planners need to understand and analyze the behavior of the pedestrians and drivers in response to their environment and changes of urban network which is handled by lower levels of two conceptual proposed models. Creating logical connections between two conceptual models are the final step of this research. The integrated conceptual model observes all extracted foundations of systemic and strategic planning and is practically due to operation research principals. The final proposed model is applied to solve two real cases in historical context of Tehran. The results demonstrate on the superiority of proposed model in delivering the optimum scenario in regeneration planning.

The Sky View Factor, in abbreviation form known as SVF, is a parameter which is a key in Urban Heat Island (UHI) formation. This coefficient denotes the ratio between the received radiation on a planner surface and the whole available radiation from the entire radiating environment. Having no unit, the quantity is ranged between 0 from an absolutely obstructed view toward the sky to 1 which is assigned to an unobstructed planner surface. Measuring SVF is quite prevalent approach in urban studies in many developed countries, though in Iranian context it has to be dealt yet. The lag is the direct cause of fractional consideration of environmental chapter in urban planning/design studies that has been of partial importance to the experts. However, deteriorating environmental condition of the country’s metropolitans urges the issue to tackle and leads to raising awareness. Thus taking environmental parameters; and SVF in particular; into account is relatively pervasive amid specialists. While studying SVF in Iran is inevitable, it carries two folds. Primarily, the transformation of environment as the consequent of excessive changes in material from natural to human-made has intensified the urban heat island formation. Numerous unwanted impacts including citizens’ health issues, increasing mortality ratio and higher energy consumption is assumed and experienced accordingly. Secondarily, scientific precedent and field studies lead to globally well approval that application of a proper green coverage is the most accepted method to urban heat island reduction in urban open spaces such as squares, parks and parking lots. Nevertheless, one could not find a solid and robust interpretation of ‘proper’ in the coined term of ‘proper green coverage’ in Iranian academic literature with good agreement within climatic requirement. Therefore, on top of identifying the correlation between the SVF and geometrical proportion of the green coverage or community, it is crucial to develop a better understanding of the impact of green coverage on the temperature of the urban open spaces which are planted with the same green objects. Ultimately, it would be feasible to propose selection and combination of that community suited and tailored for Iranian cities. The main objective of this research is to identify the correlation between the Sky View Factor and the green coverage and subsequently, studying its effect on the ambience as well as surface temperature in a case like an urban park. To achieve this, Tehran Metropolis; the largest city of the country; is selected as the case so that the Iranian wide variation of climatic region narrows down to the limitation of MSc thesis and an article. For the purpose of  surveying diffident combination of green community in an urban open space, a park named Laleh Park is chosen. For attaining a better calibration, a field study comprising of 15 stations in that park is carried out. The time span for collecting data is five days in spring of 2014. The study is equipped with a fish-eye lens assembled on a professional camera in order to shoot and record SVF picture. The primary data were keyed in a computer software known as ‘Sky View Factor Calculator’ to make it ready for analysis. It is worth to mention that a standard Wt-2 thermometer is utilized to measure the surface and atmosphere temperature. The result; asserted by precedent studies; show that there is a significant and meaningful correlation between the green community and the Sky View Factor. Additionally, it shows that the correlation between the SVF and temperature is meaningful and positive (p-value=0.035 & r2=0.262) within the park space. The correlation between the differential temperature of surface and that of the atmosphere with the SVF is meaningful only in FL station (p-value=0.023 ,r2= 0.929). This implies that some of the green community combination have no important and significant effect on surface temperature reduction which could be due to the density and number of planted objects in adjacency of the corresponding station. In the next step, the investigation of the correlation between the surface temperature and the canopy of the tree yields in no meaningful relationship (p-value=0.47, r2= 0.202), hence one can sum up that the crown diameter crown of the surrounding plants carries no important meaning to the ambience temperature. Finally, the meaningful correlation between the temperature and the leaf size of the green area (r2=0.911) reveals the prominence of the factor for the interior of the park. In conclusion, this is revealed that some of the plants and their combinations have more influence on the temperate of the surface and surroundings in Tehran climatic region. This has implications for urban planners and designers. The board-leaved plants such as Judas-tree, Plane-tree, Boxwood, Sea-buckthorn, Elm-tree and Pothos must be considered with combination of needle-leaved trees like Weeping-willow, Mediterranean-Cypress and Cypresses in order to have a cooler environment.

Urban deteriorated fabrics are among the most important issues of urban settlements. In development of urbanization at the level of country and consequently rush of population of villages and small cities to metropolises, existing cities which did not have capacity of acceptance of population overload have faced with numerous problems. Eroded and problematic urban fabrics are among the problems that afflict most cities of Iran. Such fabrics are faced with a set of environmental, physical, social and economic problems as well as unsustainability. In order to complete the planning process in these zones, we need to assess and analyze them and identify present benefits and defects. Javadieh neighborhood is also one of the problematic unsustainable urban fabrics. Javadieh neighborhood with an area equivalent to 120.6 hectare as a residential area is located in the border of expressway axes of Navab and Tondgoyan and Main Street of Dasht Azadegan in south corridor of railway. According to statistics of 1996, 48047 people were living in this neighborhood. Javadieh population currently consists of 44 thousand people. The mentioned neighborhood has a grid network system: its main neighborhood and local axes are in north-south direction and other secondary passages are fed by these axes. Main access of this neighborhood is from north direction and from Dasht Azadegan and Noori Street (North of Javadieh). The main function of Javadieh at present situation is mainly residential in a way that more than 53% of its area is allocated to residential area and about 27% is allocated to passages network. What distinguishes strategic planning from other kinds of planning are application specific procedures for targeted data gathering, methodical analysis and goal setting, participation of main decision makers and decision takers, strategic options setting and evaluation, study the future consequences of decisions and current activities and above all emphasis on successful implementation. Although strategic planning introduced to solve comprehensive planning problems- include inflexibility of plans that prepared with use of comprehensive planning approach- but in traditional view of this approach (strategic planning) critical uncertainties and complex situations in contemporary cities were not considered and same as comprehensive planning approach, this plan fails when it comes to implement. In traditional approaches to urban planning, future is predicted based on past trends using qualitative computing regardless of the presence of key and active forces of the society with the assumption of constant trends. One of the main reasons for introduction of strategic planning versus comprehensive  planning is inflexibility of plans prepared based on comprehensive planning approach, in which even small scales are determined and prescribed for the city. However, although traditional strategic planning is not as strict as comprehensive planning, and, instead of preparing small scale maps, it develops strategies and action plans for targets based on the vision, this approach is also problematic in terms of flexibility as it just considers one future and does not take uncertainties and variable environment into account. So, to eliminate the current problem, consider several scenarios for the city and plan for a wide range of possible futures, “scenario planning” as a new approach to strategic planning will be introduced. Identifying key stakeholders is one of most important steps of scenario planning approach that has significant impact on success urban plans. One of the essential needs to reach successful urban designs and plans is an active participation of stakeholders in both preparation and implementation of plans. Prerequisite of having an active participation in urban plans is identifying all key and leading stakeholders. In order to identify them, some models and methods are introduced. First off, the models were surveyed and reviewed by documentary and internet resources. Accordingly and due to proximity of the meaning of some indicators and to avoid overlaps, they have been merged and essential indicators for identifying key stakeholders are extracted. Therefore, due to extracted indicators, the links between indicators and their relations with stakeholder, key stakeholders in Javadieh district are identified. In order to identify key stakeholders in Javadieh, network analysis method and Super Decision software are used. The results show that the key indicators are their interest and tendency toward a project, rules and legitimacy, power and their ability to influence, emergency (sensitivity of time and how much it is vital) and also the municipality of Tehran, Municipality of Javadieh district, government, local or neighborhood council, sellers and shopkeepers, investors (above neighborhood scale), real states and local builders. These are indeed the most impressive and important stakeholders that are identified in Javadieh district.