ARMANSHAHR
Year:2010 | Volume:3 | Issue:4|Papers Count:13

This paper investigates and introduces the exosomatic visual architecture (EVA) model which have been shown to correlate well with observed pedestrian movement in both building and urban environments.This model is based on view and visual perception of an observer in the space and could be used as an analytical tool in urban design and architecture. The approach of this paper is to give a methodology to analyze the behavior of pedestrians in a built environment depending on the syntax and composition of mass and space.For the purpose, this paper explores the basic concepts and definitions of EVA model first. Then by applying the chosen methodology and comparing the results with real inputs of pedestrians itinerary choosing, the model has been tested in both schematic samples and a real urban design project.

Nowadays urban spaces which have not been designed properly may decrease the sense of safety for the users. Therefore it is essential to study different aspects of sense of safety so that one can achieve better places. More over the study of women’s sense of safety especially during night seems most important. This study will follow two hypotheses. The first one assumes that the sense of safety in different areas of the city will be different based on the conditions of the area. The second hypothesis examines the sense of safety among men and women and during day and night and expects to find differences between the two groups. A quantitative method has been selected and a questionnaire was used for the data collection. Two districts in Tehran were selected for the study; one from the north part of the city and the other from a central part. Research findings showed no differences between the selected areas considering the sense of safety. However the results showed some differences in the northern area between men and women in case of sense of safety during day and night where in the central district there were no differences in this regard. The findings showed similarities among people for describing safe places. Majority of respondents believed buildings under construction and deserted alleys seem not safe regardless of their location in the city and the sense of safety is reduced in crowded streets. Many people believed that the presence of police and disciplinary forces as well as improving cultural factors between people besides the proper design of urban spaces will be the most important factors in creating the sense of safety.

Territory is referred to that part of urban places from which individuals or a group of people benefit continuously and they protect that place against foreigners and troublesome people because of belonging and ownership felling to there. Any personalization and marking the environment or protecting against trouble is a kind of territory traveling. If public territories in urban spaces are not separated properly, disturbance will be happened in the environment and people become forced to entangle in environment in order to obtain desirable interaction boundary. Reinforcing the territory in parks causes to make an environment in which users have a belonging and ownership feeling which leads to supervise parks by the users, to increase the security and safety and usage extent and finally to increase social interactions in urban environment which is the ideal purpose of designing based on behaviorism.The purpose of this research is to investigate the trend of territory effect on place usage and the manner of applying methods toward territory feeling in urban parks. To categorize these items, the best method is field study of park and drawing important indications of creating territory feeling in that park.Obtained results indicated that making territory and ownership feeling and to stimulate traveling territory behavior in citizens is necessary in public places especially parks in a way that it helps to increase efficiency and to improve security of environment. And to achieve this, different methods and solutions are applied which are: precision in view and sight designing, making places with natural view, suitable and proper luminescence and various facilities such as sitting places, suitable tables, sport equipments, attractive ways with low slope and etc.

Nowadays attention to the concept of the signs in the city has become one of the concerns of urban theorists. Utilizing semiology as a tool for analysis and evaluation of identity, stipulate and figurative metaphors in the city structure is one of the applications of urban sign identification. In this paper, after explaining the basic concepts and describing the importance of its theoretical aspects in semeiology considerations, in order to achieve recognition and decoding method of urban sign systems, the paradigms and principles of this approach is briefly considered.Currently process of sign interpretation systems with the aim of demonstration of socio - cultural significance in physical environment, has been paid less attention andanalysis in this field is very important. Urban sign identification approach is to explain city structure on the basis of sign system. In other words, urban semiology expresses how the physical environment based on its function as a sign system would have social meaning. Accordingly, it can be concluded that urban sign identification is a valuable tool to reveal real representation in cities.

Since the first decades of 20th century, one of the most repeated attributions to the morphology of the cities in MENA region by Western scholars is the concept of‘labyrinth’. It seems that this attribution is the result of interpreting special form of the streets and alleys in these cities, by the scholars who belong to a different life- world.The term labyrinth and its manifestations were emerged for the first time in southern parts of Europe as the symbol of complexity, mystery, ambiguity, and so on. In fact, by employing labyrinth in defining the MENA cities a special merely formal complexity and ambiguity have been meant that address to the geometry of street networks and bear some negative hints.On the other hand, because of the distinct life-world of Iranian people which is rooted in their historical background and could be traced in their literature, art, and philosophy, the concepts such as complexity and Labyrinthinity could be interpreted in a different way. The synonym word of labyrinth in Persian is Hezar-Too that means ‘thousands of within-s’ and mainly points to not a formal complexity but a conceptual positive one.This matter can implicitly hint to the differences in perceiving the complexity in these two life-words. Since this difference has not been clarified for Iranian readers in terms of meaning and structure of the term labyrinth, referring to just some general presuppositions in this field can lead to some misunderstandings or misinterpretations, which consequently may impact critiques and analyses of the texts on the subject of MENA Cities.In this regard, this text reviews the history of labyrinth, its emergence, and its different patterns over the history. As it is discussed within the text, the concept of labyrinth appeared for the first time as some graffiti and petro glyphs during prehistory era. Till Renaissance its pattern followed the general rule of unicursality and in each period it was interpreted through different metaphors and symbols. By Renaissance the multicursal pattern was manifested for the first time through visual embodiments.Nowadays it is applied in two far different categories: 1) for meditation, psychological treatments, and so on; 2) as a pure metaphor in analyzing the structure of phenomenon.In all these manifestations labyrinth has or connotes those patterns none of which has existed in MENA Cities.

The survey of Urban Design M.S programs in Iran note that there is an increasing trend for establishing this discipline in all of the universities. Every year account of graduates in this major is increasing. The lack of concrete space & appropriate professional fields for graduates in practice has been lead to a critical problem for educators and educational managers. The goal of this research is an analysis and understanding the most important factors for choosing the urban design as a major in Iran. The results from the viewpoints of students note that the opportunities enhance the environmental quality, professional credibility; future jobs and chance for gaining the high income are the most important factors for this choice. At the other side, university staffs, friends and negotiation with other urban designers, as individual reasons, more than other factors influence choosing the urban design as a professional discipline.Besides them, factors such as the validity of urban design departments, staffs quality and background of universities are the most important factors for choosing the University of Scholar.

One of the most important issues that faced cities in developing countries with a crisis is expanding informal settlement in them. These settlements with differences in definition are known as occupational, changing, marginal, self-made and uncontrolled housing. It is estimated that about 1 billion man in all over the world live in such kinds of places.These zones are the texture for creation and expanding on sustainability and disorder.So far, much effort has done for replying this issue which comprises a range of strict approaches and cleaning up to enabling and renewing actions. Karaj city due to short distance and vary access to Tehran in one side and establishing main part of base activities in its surrounding, it has been focused in considerable part of migrant population in Tehran urban district and one of its important issues is creation and expanding the informal settlements.Accurate recognition of these settlements of different aspects could be an appropriate guidance for presenting regulatory strategies. In this field and in first step, using a method for recognition of informal settlement zones in which it has accuracy and ease, and low cost indexes is very necessary. The aim of this study is presenting a sample with above features for identification of informal settlement. The method of study in this paper comprises 3 steps. In first steps, documents studies and studying verity researches of general features is studied. The second step including on lab researches and modeling and last step is based on field studies, questioning and visiting from the site.In processing of this paper, first criterions and general pattern for identifying the informal settlement is defined. Then according to features and access information of Karaj city, criterions are converted into measurable quantities in GIS software and special pattern for identification of informal settlement is represented in Karaj city. Recommended pattern has two- level. In first level, by compounding of analytical hierarchy process (AHP) with GIS and using analytical capabilities of this software primary identification is done. And in second level, using data of field Studies and questioning; final identification of informal settlement in Karaj city is done.Application of this pattern in Karaj city shows that in addition to enough accuracy in recognition of informal settlement, it has been affective in decreasing of time and cost. Also, another result of this study is giving a method for converting quality criterions of informal settlement recognition to quantities criterions measurement in GIS. Proposal pattern will be generalized to other cities of country. In addition, the features of other cities of country and the rate and access information of them could be revise the using criterions in the first and second level of pattern.

From many years ago, Shopping areas in down town have been most important factor of dynamism in these centers. They now face multiple problems such as economic decline, low purchasing power and lack of infrastructure investment. Down town revitalization as the beating heart of cities in the world plays a vital role to improve the quality of life for resident.Suburbanization growth in recent decades caused transmission business from down town to suburbs and weaken and destroy the social life in down town. Urban planners and city managers in recent decades have offered a variety of mechanisms to restore life to down town. BID is one way to reconstruction down town with an economic approach. This method is trying to provide services to residential and commercial areas by economic growth and tax calculation. This method will revive economic reform in down town. Business improvement districts (BIDs) are self-assessment system to improve the economic situation in down towns. First, in 60th and 70th decades this system has been test in American and Canadian cities.BID organization with public funding and private management is trying to provide complementary services for its area. BIDs by public - private partnership will enhance quality of life in down towns. In response to sprawl andwhereas dynamic business centers are necessary for quality of social life in the cities, down town revitalization is head of urban management policies.The Business Improvement District is a public and private partnership in which property and business owners elect to make a collective contribution to the maintenance, development and promotion of their commercial district. The BID is set in an urban context but can also be adapted to village in any urban agglomeration. Multiple property owners agree to the extra fee (assessment) to undertake management and development of the BID area. The BID improves the commercial climate and economic vitality of commercial district by addressing capital improvement, service delivery, advocacy and promotional activities.The Business Improvement District is a publicly sanctioned, privately managed organization that supplements public services to improve geographically defined retail and commercial areas. The BID organizations are based on a self-help doctrine, which provides for financing its multi-year operations through self-taxing mechanisms authorized by the municipality’s legislative body. Its purpose is to improve the business climate and economic vitality of commercial areas. The BID represents a partnership between property owners, shopkeepers and Municipal Corporation and urban agglomeration.The BIDs are distinguished by two factors: public financing and private management. A unique feature of the BID is the agreement between the municipalities and local participating business districts to share the costs of physical improvements within the BID area. Additionally, the merchants and property owners become responsible for financing the operations of the BID organization, maintaining improvements, and managing ongoing promotions and marketing activities. The result is a permanent partnership between the city and its merchants, other business people and property.This article indicates to review the descriptive literature and comparative analysis of samples of successful case study, introduce BID as an effective mechanism to restore economic and social life to down town.

Cities as individuals' settlement place encompass environmental and socio-economical aspects. Interactions among these components are resulted in flows which impacts upon built environment and quality of life both. The investigation of such relationships is of high importance for urban planners. Traditional regression and correlation analysis assume that global statistics adequately describe the local relations that might exist in the data. However, the risk of miscalculation is high due to the intervention of spatial causes.Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) is the spatial extension of non-spatial regression analysis, introduced recently to achieve a higher accuracy in spatial analysis.This method was primarily suggested by Fotheringham, Charlton and Brunsdon working with Newcastle upon Tyne University in 2002. GWR has varied applications in detecting and analyzing variables in a local scale which make it helpful for researches in space-related disciplines such as urban and regional planning, environmental sciences, surveying and geography.This paper examines the Region 7, Tehran Municipality in terms of urban density using Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR). It is attempted to forecast the amount of dwelling density and population density with factors associated with socio-economic including land price, literacy level, and employment status in a local level on 1200 urban blocks. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models yield only a single estimate of the relationships. In comparison, GWR allows an estimate of the spatial variation of this relationship. The results of the GWR model in comparison with global model showed a higher precise and better goodness-of-fit statistics.

The main goal of land development plans initially is providing appropriate house for people and planning for pre- devised development of cities. The government plans for urban lands generally and subsequently grants them after implement their preparing process, Recently the Mehr house projects are planned to result in omitting land's value from total costs of residential buildings and entirely lead to reduce the costs to empower people for paying them by the bank finance earning and build house by the way of establish local house cooperatives. This research tries to give suggestions in agree about country existing situation with descriptive – analytic approach to find the amount and types of people (cooperative members) participations which are effective on plans process and to operate this potential in according to carry out this public participation in city projects, First, such as editing duties list in this projects and modifying the category of approvement committee members, Secondly with considering shortness of lot's area and limited scale of some Mehr housing projects in their design process, tries to describe the necessity of parallel collaboration of urbanisms and architects in providing land development plans and architectural plans simultaneously and presents its proportional suggestions.

Although phenomenology is originally a philosophical concept elaborated by philosophers, “phenomenology as a method” has been considered by architects and architectural theorists so that we can refer to the “literature of architectural phenomenology”; a huge body of texts, analyses, and explanations written by scholars in the last 50 years. In this regard, a key question is that how the philosophical investigations have been transferred into the architectural theory and practice, and how we can employ phenomenology in interpreting and analyzing architectural works and built environment.To answer the second question, the best way might be referring to the already produced texts by the scholars in which some architectural works are interpreted phenomenologically. However, despite of the existing literature in the field of architectural phenomenology, remarkable interpretations and analyses are scarce, and this fact shows the necessity of focusing on this problem.This article intends to introduce Juhani Pallasmaa’s phenomenological approach to architecture, whose ideas have deeply affected phenomenological literature in architecture. Focusing on his prominent analysis of Villa Mairea, a work by Alvar Aalto, Pallasmaa’s unique way of interpreting architectural works and its advantages will be taken into account.

Gilan is located in the north of Iran and on the southern coast of Caspian Sea. Gilan province has a wet climate and high precipitation in the form of rain. Meanwhile Alborz Chain Mountains blocks the passage of humidity. Geographically, it consists of two distinct parts: mountain and flat areas and each area has its own architectural properties.Generally, rain and high humidity has a direct influence on the architecture of this region to use maximum air ventilation and to prevent humidity blockage urban and rural architecture is based on constructing buildings separate from each other and tend to achieve architecture in harmony with climate elements used in Gilan architecture achieve this goal by decreasing humidity and increasing air ventilation together with direct running surface water. Such elements along with observing aesthetic aspects provide the settlers with a comfortable life. EIVAN, TALAR, FAKON, KORSICHINI, GHOLAMGARD and… are among these elements and each one is explained in this article. The extension of structure is south ward, east ward, west ward and finally in height. All the above mentioned factors with outward oriented structures have created a special kind of architecture the main cause of which is climate outward orientation and sloped roofs are the eminent features of architecture in Gilan. In this architecture there is not a clear border between inside and outside spaces. Semi open spaces and transparent layers combine the indoors and outdoors and increase the influence of the sun, wind, rain and seasons on the life of settler. This article intends to present a general picture of Gilan’s architecture. An architecture and design mainly influenced by climate. In this article library and field research methods have been used.

Natural ventilation is one of the best and the cheapest methods of ventilation that is accomplished by production of natural air flow inside of building. In Iran traditional architecture, natural ventilation had been an important part of building designing but nowadays wind energy optimum usage has disregarded because of buildings congestion.Rasht in Gilan province is placed in a moderate and humid region. Since in most days of the year we have 99 – 100 percent humidity, creation of air flow between buildings and in some cases inside of buildings is very important and would be useful. Because of disregarding of this issue, in this article we have considered wind flow of several residential blocks in Golsar region in Rasht, in order to develop techniques for optimum use of air flow regarding to air flow inside and outside of the building. Inside and outside features and enclosure effect are important elements in study of these residential buildings that have been considered by plan and enclosure studies and some conclusions have offered in connection with better productivity of this energy.