ARMANSHAHR
Year:2011 | Volume:3 | Issue:5|Papers Count:12

From long ago, water has been the most important element of development and reclamation in the world. The specific situation of water resources, heterogeneous rainfall distribution, frequent droughts and disregard to the principles related to the maintenance and protection of water resources have attracted the human’s creative mind toward themselves throughout the history. Therefore, various methods have been followed in order to discover creative and original solutions for this problem. Moreover, optimum applications of techniques for utilizing underground waters and more promotion of the related training have been considered. Excavating underground waters using Qanat, as an amazing hand-made phenomenon, has been interesting for many historians and researchers.Today, these natural, eco-friendly and stable systems are among the exciting educational and scientific topics in the advanced countries’ research centers and universities. Qanat is the persistent and hidden-in-the-soil heritage and one of the cultural and scientific Iranian treasures. In fact, Qanat is one of the most important native-born buildings in Iran which has been developed as the result of Iranian art and culture through the generations. Studying Qanats from tourism point of view, paying attention to the issue of education and holding training workshops can not only clarify a number of vague points of the native technology trend in this land but also advance economic, cultural and scientific developments in Iran.In this paper Qanat’s stable technology is studied in Iranian culture and its influence on the ecosystem and natural landscape is investigated. Furthermore, the issue of training promotion is considered to be essential whether from technical ecosystem aspects or from historical, cultural, economic and social viewpoints. Permanent utilization, revival and maintenance of Qanats as the human’s greatest achievement are analyzed aiming at expanding the related knowledge and technology, developing a new attitude toward it and advancing tourism.

According to the nature of open public space, it’s involved a huge part of urban activities.One of the most important principles in design is considering thermal comfort in order to improve the quality of space and increase user’s satisfaction. The general aim of this research is controlling environmental elements affected on thermal comfort to increase satisfaction.This research seeks to determine the relationship between the thermal environment and “sky view factor”. The “sky view factor” represents an estimation of the visible area of the sky from an earth viewpoint, being defined as the ratio between the total amounts of radiation received from a plan surface and that available from the whole radiant environment. There are several techniques for calculating of the “sky view factor”: using surveying techniques, digital camera with fish-eye lens, signals from GPS receivers or lately thermal fish-eye image. The photographic technique is particularly well suited for urban open space, where vegetation is present.Late research has identified that “sky view factor” has a multiple effect on open space climate. In these researches, the “sky view factor” has been shown to be well correlated with surface temperature but not with air temperature. Nevertheless, the mean “sky view factor”for an area has been demonstrated to have a good correlation with the urban heat island.This study was conducted in Iran, Tehran, in five parks area (Mellat, Saei, Laleh, Shahr and Besat). Field surveys were performed from October11 to 28, 2010 and have taken place between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., on weekdays and weekends. During the period of fieldwork, meteorological parameters such as air temperature, relative humidity, wind velocity, and globe temperature were measured. The Mean radiant temperature was calculated using mentioned parameters. Photographs were taken in the urban parks’ area at ground level shooting upwards using a fisheye lens. Utilizing image analysis and in processing software, “Sky view factor” was computed for each photograph.The main conclusions from this paper can be summarized as follows.-“Sky view factor” analysis is a useful and effective tool for the landscape architecture and urban climatologist conducting studies.-There is a relatively strong relationship between “sky view factor” and Mean radiant temperature during the day. The Mean radiant temperature has the strongest influence on thermo physiological comfort indexes.-Reducing the temperature of the “sky view factor” is the most effective means to achieve outdoor thermal comfort.

Limitations of metropolitan cities encourage developing residential complexes instead of small houses and on the other hand, neglecting the importance of the private yard in the contemporary architecture. In addition of providing accessibility to the sun light and natural ventilation, Open space affords an opportunity of direct connection to nature and creates a place for social interaction. According to the limited size of dwelling units, and based on the history of Iranian life relayed on the private yard; Open space provides an opportunity to develop and connect the internal activities to the exterior open space.Investigating contemporary open space is a base of successful design of residential open scape in a future.The aim of this research is exploring and making the typology of residential open space in order to increase concentration to the space between building and notice architects to design interior and exterior place simultaneously. Hence all residential complexes in the eight districts in the north of Tehran, allocated more than 65% of the site to the open space, were detected by satellite image and then were investigated by field survey. At the last stage, according to the block’s height, complexes’ scale and the style of open and close space arrangement, the dimensions of typology were molded.Result shows in Tehran designing open space does not have the priority in the design process, and main considerations are drawn toward interior space. In some cases open space is as a negative space between buildings. Due to existing intensive municipality law, designers have faced a lot of limitations to arrange residential blocks in the site.Therefore, creating a variety of open spaces and committing to the traditional courtyard are impossible.Analytical results indicate that tree dominant types of arrangement are free standing, linear and centralized blocks. Free standing blocks are the common type in the Tehran macro scale residential complexes. This type allows designers to create different space quality, for instance, hierarchy of private and public space. Linear arrangement is a conservative method founded on the existing context of the city. The paper concludes with some suggestions for the future researchers to create guidelines in order to increase the quality of residential open space.

Over the last decades, a number of natural and man-made incidents have been occurred in higher education centers in the country, such as: fire in central library of Tehran University in 1384 and destruction of Azad and Payam-e Noor universities following the 1382 Bam earthquake, resulting in not only fatalities and damages to buildings, but also loss of valuable documents and unique books and resources. In addition, lack of awareness and knowledge about the mitigation and preparedness measures among students, academic and administrative staffhave caused more vulnerabilities at the time of an incident.Located in a seismic zone and due to the age, Shahid Beheshti University is vulnerable against various possible disasters such as earthquakes. Although most of universities around the World have prepared disaster plans, little consideration has been given to it in Iran. Such programs aim to establish management base according to their current administrative charts and also to strengthen buildings and open areas both structural and non-structural, focusing on following aspects: 1. Building seismic retrofitting 2. Demolishing current buildings and rebuilding new ones 3. Non-structural strengthening of buildings 4. Reviewing current administrative charts and allocating secondary responsibilities Although the first and second options are important in engineering area, they are less applicable because of lack of budgets in universities. Therefore, the rest of the options may be practiced in short term.The present paper aims to examine such issues in the Faculty of Architecture, Shahid Beheshti University. The research method is a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches based on a conceptual framework resulting from current disaster plans in other universities around the World. Paper concludes that if students, academic and administrative staff would be trained and participate in regular rehearsals during the semesters, they may be prepared for any sudden events. Moreover, by strengthening nonstructural elements, the possibilities of damages would be decreased. In addition, there is an urgent need to allocate software and hardware programming in order to mitigate the possible risks in future.

Since the founding of mosques by the Prophet (PBUH), the concept of a mosque and its appearance has changed extensively; today’s mosques are very different in comparison to the primary mosques. As the evolution process of mosques has progressed, not only have mosque’s appearances transformed, their socio-cultural identity has also changed.In order for the true position of the mosque in society to be realized, it is necessary for it to function in two different ways: 1 ceremonial; 2 socio-cultural. Our studies show that many of the activities that occur in mosques involve both functions simultaneously. For example, group prayer has both a ceremonial purpose and a socio-cultural aspect. The combination of these two functions makes mosques popular and active; this brings about spiritual vitality and happiness. After reviewing the socio-cultural functions of mosques, we can find a way to make use of them for their true purpose. The main question is that: firstly, to what extent can we bring socio-cultural functions into play; secondly, what characteristics are necessary to achieve these functions and of what quality should they be.In order to understand these changes, we will assess the socio-cultural functions of the Mosque of Nabi which was built at the time of the Prophet (PBUH). We will compare our theoretical framework with the contemporary analysis of Iranian mosques. Subsequently, based on our conclusions we will promote a socio-cultural plan for mosques in Iran’s contemporary architecture.Once the mosques are suitable to perform a variety of socio-cultural activities they will become the center of social activities in the cities and neighborhoods, the activities will be continuous, the floor will have different sections but will not be entirely made of separate spaces and so on. In addition, this mosque will be run by all sections of society. Its users will include all ages and all social classes will be involved in decision making processes. The design process is in search of improving and increasing the presence of citizens in various parts of the mosque throughout the day; a mosque which is a part of the city and part of peoples’ lives.

For a long time, the interrelations between humankind and nature and their reciprocal effects had been a beloved area of interest for scientists and philosophers. Nowadays in some different branches of sciences such as design, environmental psychology, geology and humanism the experts refer to the nature. The mainly questions which the researchers were looking for their answers contain the survey of “how much the outside and environment could affect the behavior and morality? ” and “What kind of effects? ”This research is going to illustrate the Islamic thoughts derivative from holy texts and corresponding that study the other Islamic philosopher’s idea and approaches about it. For example we are going to probe and disclose the thoughts of Avicenna, Farabi, Sohravardi, Ebne Arabi and Ebne khaldoon who had been known as famous Islamic thoughtful in area of philosophy, sociology and history. This research will explore the place of these approaches in area of influence between outside and behavior and compare the result with four schools of behavioral psychology.The methodology of this research is logical – analytical. It would try to expand the Quran’s theory: “Comfort is the root of rebellion” by using the ideas of Islamic thinkers.Based on this theory the harsh environment which has low quality of life - such as Mecca- will provide better conditions for morality instead of welfare cities like Saba and Aad & Samood city which make people interested in obliquity.From worthy Ideas of Islamic thinkers which have been abandoned for a long time we can result that the different continents will provide different effects on behaviors and morality. For example for quadruplet regions “cold and dry”, “warm and wet”, “warm and dry” and “cold and wet” we can see different behavioral categories. The “warm and dry” regions have had better conditions for growing the morality and idealism.

Street is an important character of public compass and attracts its appropriate quality.Therefore, it is useful to increase the life quality of those who live in or just pass through.From planning viewpoint, street as an urban space, should play a key role in intensifying human activities. Such kind of activities could be mandatory or voluntary depends on the quality of the space. The main purpose of this paper is to suggest a robust methodology for assessing urban streets with a human- oriented approach. The paper proceeds literature review about this theme. Then, some criteria and indicators of urban streets are proposed in three categories of functional, aesthetic- experimental and environmental aspects. A weighting system for these indicators is applied. Finally, Somayyeh Street in Shiraz is evaluated using this method. The result showed that two dimensions of street quality including pedestrian friendliness and traffic calming are of most important features in shaping a human-oriented street.

Social Justice, particularlyits evaluation and assessment, is one of the subjects which despite several studies and pervasive discussions are still considered complex and no agreement has been made on them. The present paper is an attempt to determine a framework for evaluating social justice in urban plans.In order to achieve this goal, some criteria which are derived from two analytical systems based on the theories of John Rawls and David Harvey, have been chosen. Thereafter, Social Justice in the Urban Renovation Plan of Khoobbakht Quarter (in the 15th district of Tehran, Iran) is evaluated according to the criteria. The main problem of the research is whether or not the urban renovation plan of Khoobbakht quarter is just.The most important finding of this study is presenting a system that can evaluate the subject of social justice as a philosophical phenomenon in urban plans. This evaluation can help control the development process and the amount of achievement of justice in the consequence of implementation of the plan. Thus, in assessment of social justice in urban renovation plan of Khoobbakht quarter, findings of this research demonstrate that the plan can’t assure social justice.

Townscapes can be perceived by human senses and the most important one is visual sense. Cullen as one of the well-known specialists, created the concept of ‘serial vision’, defining the townscape as a series of related spaces. Survey of Cullen`s essays and his followers (i.e. David Gosling, Peter Bosselmann) provides a base for this research, which presents a framework for assessing the quality of different visual character of a part of a city based on Gordon Cullen’s concept of townscape. This study presents a framework for visual townscape assessment, based on descriptive and pictorial analysis. The main objective of this research is to establish links between townscape aesthetics theory and the concept of “serial vision”. This will help to obtain practical principles in urban landscape design. The focus of the study is the gradual changes of landscapes through pedestrian motion and its relation to the aesthetic of space.The method is based on assessing some selected criteria and indicators which relate to the concepts of serial vision and aesthetics. The technique is provided by evaluation matrices. The case study is Darabad district in Tehran, which divided to 3 different zones: built landscape, mountainous area and the intermediate space between these two zones. The visual quality of each zone has evaluated separately and then a general analyzes is provided. The information necessary for the study is gathered by field observations and the pictures were taken from different zones of the site.The results indicate that the principles applied by Cullen in “Concise of Townscape ”could be achieved via evaluation of townscape aesthetics criteria.

Urbanism can be regarded as one of the most influential as well as comprehensive areas encompassed which encompasses many other subcategories. In fact, due to the its key role in the process of structural development of cities and formation of the qualitative as well as quantitative aspects of development, at a macro level, Urbanism can play a critical role in the procedure of equipping urban residential areas against the consequences of catastrophes, which may occur pursuant to both environmental or human factors.Effective review mechanisms in shaping the process of open spaces and reducing the modeling process to identify and correct problems in the form of destructive mechanisms dynamic systems theory can be investigated.Based on the dynamic systems theory, this article the fundamental dynamics of the process of structural development of Tehran. In addition, it analyzed the influential elements in the decreasing rate of the urban open space, adopting an approach to use them during the crises. Actually, the main objective was examine the trend of decreasing open spaces which have the potential to be utilized during the crises, within the framework of dynamic systems. regarding that, the related mechanisms and their structures were examined and based on the analyses, new policies were recommended in order to improve the destructive mechanisms.First and foremost, the structural framework as well as the internal and external variables of the issue is determined. In the next step, the behavior of the key variable in a specific period of time is scrutinized. Using the results of the analysis of the key factor and the effects of other elements, then some dynamic hypotheses are made. In a further section, a conceptual model and the related diagrams are presented. And finally, the parameters are defined and the dynamic hypotheses are examined by means of the Vensim PLE software, which resulted in a suggested model of the issue for a period of 20 years that may be applicable in the future. This model is then tested for various conditions.The purpose of the present study is to examine the trend of decreasing open spaces in the process of urban development, within the context of Tehran metropolis. Providing a model for the improvement of destructive mechanisms, the article offers an image of the future situation.The study is based on analytical- descriptive methods of discussion and the required information is collected through library research and a field study. The results of the study reveals that if the destructive mechanisms are improved, and if the policies related to the control of key variables of the issue are implemented, we may be able to control the downward trend of the open spaces in Tehran for a mid- to long-term period, aiming to use them during the crises.

This paper investigated the contributory factors of coastal tourism improvement with regard to sustainable tourism criteria. These factors were based on environmental quality correlated indexes.Through these factors, it is possible to identify the tourists’ preferences and requirements in order to improve the quality of tourism. The area which was explored in this study was Ramsar coast, located in the north of Iran. This city is one of the most important coastal tourist attractions in Iran.In this study, the data was collected through questionnaires. A set of coastal tourists were supposed to give their evaluations about environmental qualities. The data based on their perceptions was analyzed in the form of ordinal variables through statistical methods.Quantitative data was gathered through 196 questionnaires distributed to a sample of tourists in the coastal area of Ramsar with the Systematic sampling method.17 environmental quality indexes were evaluated through tourists, and the data was analyzed with SPSS version 11.5. A principal component analysis was then applied in order to identify the factors. A Kaiser criterion was used for evaluating the suitability of factor analysis model was found to be 0.79. The proper index is 0.8. Bartlett’s test of sphericity was used to test the factor loading differences for the group of factors was found to be significant at 1%.Cronbach’s alpha was also found to be 0.855 for the questionnaire indicating that this instrument has an acceptable validity.The results obtained from the indexes' analysis of environmental qualities in Ramsar coast revealed that seven indexes out of 17 were less than average and were considered to have fairly quality. Whereas the other 10 indexes were more than the average and were considered to have undesirable quality. The quality of tourism environment at the coast which were based on tourists’ perceptions were identified and categorized as specific factors including, 1) cleaning, the natural qualities, and social security.2) Tourism facilities.3) Leisure space for families.4) Traffic and accessibility.5) Welfare services and hospitalities.For determining the correlation between factors and environmental tourism satisfaction variable and possibility of returning to the same tourist place, the Gamma correlation was employed. The results of correlation revealed that there was a significant relationship between the quality factors and environmental tourism satisfaction. The possibility of returning to the same tourist place was found to be significant at 5%. Moreover, all the correlation coefficients among all the quality factors in relation to environmental tourism satisfaction were lower than all the correlation coefficients related to the possibility of returning to the same tourist place. This difference showed that tourists consider other factors such as trip expenses, social criteria and, etc, . indicating to return to the same tourist place and quality factors include just a part of these criteria.

Urban sprawl is one of the most important extra challenges of designers and city makers in twentieth first. According to this basis, the purpose of present writing is sprawl model, growth time process and urban sprawl; recognize sort, indexes, conclusion and effective factors in its appearance by using analyzing-descriptive procedure and use of Latin creditable sources. The present research concluded city growth is said to developmental land increasing and its urban sprawl is city growth that has been the collections of negative features. The impediment of city growth appeared into three forms, the growth for development of inner areas or extra inner growth (IN FILL), these cases accounted on catalizer factors in development of urban sprawl expansion growth (EXPANSION), far from center growth or city outlying growth (OUTLYING), population growth, economic growth, industrialize, taxes for domains and building, lack of housing, physical rupture, demand for increasing life spaces, transportation and large lands. Beyond this issue, one of the most important urban sprawl conclusions, we can refer to: ecology destruction, farm destruction, lack of open spaces, traffic jam problems, city deterioration, delete a social concept and lacking historical sites.