JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN PLANNING
Year:2018 | Volume:10 | Issue:20 |Papers Count:9

The intensification of urban problems along with their increasing complexities and uncertainties leads to the need for a planning system to focus on finding the right problems, analyzing and solving the problems. New towns, as a response to the problems of large cities and metropolitan areas, are planned to be balanced and self-contained without duplicating the problems of existing communities. It means that their agenda and development goal was always to create problem-free communities. Besides the successes in development process of new towns, they have also encountered varying problems. Such problems are considered complicated problems, as they are multi-dimensional. That is why they require multi-dimensional solutions, while planning approaches were based upon traditional approaches mainly concentrating on the physical aspects of planning with no consideration to the nature of problems. This is a problem-orientated approach, and deals with both problem-finding and problem-solving processes by applying a suitable spatial approach based on strategic thinking headed for developing innovative and multi-dimensional solutions to cope with such problems. In new towns development experiences worldwide, two categories of problems are identified. First, problems caused due to the initial planning processes in terms of selecting the location and size of the new towns. Second, problems faced by residents in the course of the development of each new town. In this paper, a problem finding-problem solving framework’ or paradigm, is devised to be applied in new towns and specially Hashtegerd New Town (as a case study for the underlying research of this paper) that is situated to the west of Tehran the capital of Iran. This framework is based on creative and rational processes of problem-solving, and uses features and techniques of both, according to the nature of identified urban problems. New towns of our country were planned and accordingly developed on the basis of worldwide experiences of new towns’ development. Applying the proposed framework, the problems of Hashtgerd New Town, using content analysis and in-depth interview methods, are identified in this paper to be in three categories. First, the procedural and substantive problems related to the content of new-town development plan that is a result of benchmark errors from global experiences. Second, the problems that the residents experienced during all stages of the development of new town. Third, the problems related to the deviation of the implementation of the plan. Based on these three routes, problem statement of Hashtgerd new town is formulated, then in the analysis stage of the paper, creative problem-solving methods, i. e., “ six word question” and “ fishbone analysis” , are applied to detect the causes of problems and to classify problems in two categories with the use of “ laddering the problem” method. This paper found that the first class of problems are procedural problems that solving them is the pre-condition of a planning activity based on strategic thinking. The second group are substantive aspects of planning and includes such aspects as population balance, which requires applying problem-orientated and goal-oriented processes of planning. The third class of problems are related to the decision-making structure of the new towns.

Spatial planning to improve future agenda, theoretically deals with aspects related to the future. However, both in theoretical and practical areas, future is mostly ignored, often for reasons such as the impact of social science and the scientific method on intellectual frameworks of planning, lack of data and unknown future events, political constraints, insufficient funding and professional routines. Even in strategic plans, future is seen only as a normative destination. To equip planning to operate in complex environments full of uncertainty, "strategic foresight", which is distinguished from traditional planning, considers the alternatives futures foresight and imagines multiple possible outcomes with the aim of expanding the perception of decision-makers. Accordingly, this paper, with the aim of integration of foresight in the strategic planning process, first detect multiple arenas of overlapped concepts and meanings via literature review and then reviews different foresight approaches and processes to propose how to combine strategic foresight in planning. This process using cross-impact analysis method and Scenario Wizard software has been tested in Karaj Metropolitan Region. Uncertainty out of spatial development planning system, due to the institutional, functional and physical affiliation to Tehran, is the main rationale for selection of this case study. Karaj Urban Region, consists of 6 cities of Karaj, Savojbolagh, Nazarabad, Taleghan, Eshtehard and Fardis, as well as 13 cities with the centricity of Karaj and a population of 1, 614, 626 (2011), has been separated from Tehran province on 2010 and turned into Alborz province. The results of the analysis show that the scenario of the continuation of the current trends is the most consistent scenario of spatial development in the Karaj metropolitan area. The model of mono-centric system consists of potential integrated areas (PIAs) with distinct functional areas and weak correlation among them, corridor oriented spatial structure centered on the Tehran highway in Qazvin with territorial spatial logic and behavior, acting as a pole of agriculture in the region, benefiting from scale-based savings with the management system led by the governor of Tehran, are the main features of this scenario. In this paper, it was tried to provide alternative strategies for strategists through scenario writing in a participatory way by means of futurology workshop. For the four consecutive scenarios, the output of the software only provides imagery of the potential future, thus providing the possibility of thinking about what is "unthinkable". Since the value of the future is not in the scenario creation, but is more likely in illustrating the consequences of any scenario, the author has tried to address, describe and draw the consequences of the five key determinants identified as spatial drivers (due to the greater relevance with spatial development planning dimensions). Therefore, the future agenda of the planning system, according to the proposed methodology of research, should be to create different decision-making options through scenario planning. Formulating the most appropriate perspective for the correct guidance of the system in the alternative futures, proposing suitable spatial organization, and developing a strategic plan for this area are to be taken into account.

This theoretical paper defines the distinctiveness of housing systems in the Global South. It argues that one should be careful when applying the ‘ Social Housing’ approach to the Global South and that this is attributable to the significant divergences in housing systems between the Global South and Europe. Subsequent to paying attention to such distinctiveness, the paper examines how the notion of ‘ social housing’ , as realized in Europe, has been applicable to the Global South to meet the housing needs for disadvantaged households. Therefore, the main question of this paper is how the notion of ‘ social housing’ , as realized in Europe, has been relevant to the Global South. To study various housing systems, the paper finds its inspiration in both the convergence approach, to look at unitary similarities between the housing systems in the Global south, and the divergence approach, to focus on distinctiveness as the dominant feature of housing systems in the Global South, in comparison with European countries. Looking at different housing systems around the world, the paper attends to the long-established debate about the notion and purpose of social housing, that is, conventionally, direct intervention of the state in housing provision targeting at particular group(s) of society; whether social housing is primarily a safety net to accommodate the least well off in society; or a system to provide massive subsidized homes for the rather better off people in a unitary housing market. The history of social housing in the Global South is rather short compared to the European praxis. In most countries in the Global South, social housing schemes initiated in the second half of the 20th century. Nonetheless, social housing has been just complementary to other types of housing provision. Although there are generic similarities between housing systems in all countries, especially so in the post-modernism period, this paper recognizes five distinctive facts (characteristics) of the housing systems in the Global South. It is argued that if it is supposed to apply ‘ social housing’ approach in the housing system of those countries, it is necessary that these facts to be considered in depth. Those are: (a) the contradiction of globalization; (b) the notion of the developmentalist state; (c) the importance of informality; (d) the decisive role of family in societal structure; and (e) the rudimentary welfare systems and the dissimilarity of the labor markets. By making a link between each of these characteristics and the notion of social housing, as it evolved in industrialized European countries, this paper concludes that it is not possible to apply the approach of social housing to the housing systems in the Global South in a straightforward way. There is a new wave of attention to the provision of social housing around the Global South, to meet the overall accelerating housing needs that stem from fast growing urbanization, demographic change and unaffordability of housing market. The paper concludes that collaborative and innovative social housing schemes that are rooted in the indigenous social-political context can still play a decisive role in increasing affordability to meet unmet needs of housing.

Yazd is located in the center of Iran. The Historical urban fabric of Yazd is as an urban heritage with valuable cultural and historical monuments. Until now, numerous activities with revitalization approach have been done in order to conserve the Yazd cultural heritage. In recent years, this conservative approach had led to revitalization of some historical buildings to residential-touristic units in historical urban fabric of Yazd. Assessing the quality of revitalization in these experiences will provide a suitable basis to improve the quality of revitalization process of architectural heritages in future instances. This study is aimed to assessing the quality of architectural heritage revitalization experiences with touristic– residential function that is based on the perspective of tourist users, and has studied the components that are effective on quality of these experiences. This study is based on attitude research and has been conducted using structured questioning for tourist users that have resided in 26 identified cases as architectural and environmental scales. According to user-oriented approach of this study, measurement of tourists' satisfaction regarding the effective components on qualitative fields of revitalization is considered as a basis for evaluating the experiences. Based on the results of this study, average satisfaction of tourism users for the quality of each of affected fields on revitalization experiences is more than 60 percent. Tourist satisfaction of “ functional qualities of revitalization” in these cases is at the lowest rank, and satisfaction of “ safety and mental relaxation qualities of revitalization” , “ social qualities of revitalization” and “ the quality of respect for the user in revitalization” are ranked second to forth. Satisfaction of “ cultural and valued qualities of revitalization” is in the first rank and has the most impact on ultimate quality of revitalization on both architectural and environmental scales. In these samples on both architectural and environmental scale, the components, which are related to culture and intangible heritage and are effective on related qualities, have higher effect in increasing tourist’ s satisfaction of revitalization process in comparison with other measured components that are tangible and controls functional qualities. On the other hand, the components, which have less effect on tourist’ s satisfaction in architectural and environmental scales, are mostly physical and tangible ones. These units have some problems in terms of functional and physical aspects of their revitalization that users have emphasized on them. Therefore, when revitalization process leads towards reinforcement of tangible qualities that are related to functional and physical aspects of revitalization, more attention and consideration is necessary. Generally, the experiences of “ residential – touristic unit’ s revitalization” have been successful in terms of conservation and transferring the semantic values. Tourists’ satisfaction of semantic aspects of revitalization and conservation values shows the success of architectural heritage revitalization process with touristic-residential function in relation to conservation, and introducing and inducing values. The total satisfaction of tourists for the quality of the revitalization of the studied historical buildings indicates the relative success of the cases.

Interwoven geometric patterns and ornamentation are the commonality of numerous artistic and architectural ornaments in the Great Seljuk era. Although underlined in a number of works by Islamic art historians as the artistic, and particularly architectural, feature of this era, it is difficult to utilize their results to achieve an accurate understanding of the structure of the geometric ornamentation used in this era, and of its similarities and differences with the adopted styles in other historical periods due to their emphasis on offering a general description of this structure. Such phrases as “ interwoven” , “ continued application of past elements” , and “ more complicated details and configurations” have been typically used to describe the structure of geometric ornamentation employed during the Great Seljuk era. The main difficulty of such descriptions lies in their lack of differentiation between this structure and those employed in previous eras, going back to the first instances of Islamic Art and even to the more distant past. This poses a number of fundamental questions: How can the geometric structure used in Seljuk ornamentation be simultaneously regarded as its essential feature and as a continuation of earlier geometric styles? How and to what extent could “ more complicated details and configurations” have brought prominence to the Seljuk geometric style? Moreover, can the emergence of this style, as a prominent pattern, be attributed to its being founded on a new and different structure? The main aim of the present study is, therefore, to understand and identify the geometric features and language used in ornamentation of Great Seljuk artworks as artistic qualities of this period. To this end, information about the art history of the Seljuk era was collected and classified using the descriptive-analytical method. Furthermore, the geometric patterns of this era were implemented and the graphic styles were sought and compared by referring to the artworks of this period. Although the artistic features of this era are closely associated with past and future art forms, the main scope of discussion was limited to the time when Tughril arrived in Baghdad and was awarded the title of “ Sultan” by the ruling Abbasid Caliph in 447 A. H. until the death of Sultan Ahmad Sanjar in 552 A. H., where the structural changes in geometric patterns of this era were examined by a brief inquiry into the structure of geometric patterns coming before and after. The tabular geometric style, which was an early style used in pre-Seljuk art, was initially studied and explained. The compass geometric pattern, which was a new pattern, was then examined. The simple and basic instances of designs created by this pattern date back to the fourth century A. H., which was developed and flourished during the Great Seljuk era. The results of this study suggested that the two early and new geometric patterns were used simultaneously in the Great Seljuk artistic ornamentation, and particularly architecture, shaping the structure of geometric ornamentation of this era.

Dā r al-Funū n School was established in the first half of 1850s, under Nā sir al-Dī n Shā h’ s rule and by the patronage of his chancellor Mirzā Taqī-khā n Amī r Kabī r. Amī r Kabī r was also the patron of the school building, which its construction began in 1850. Its designer was Mī rzā Rizā Muhandis-Bā shī , who had studied engineering in Royal Military Academy at London. The school’ s master builder was Muhammad-Taqi Khā n Miʻ mā r-Bā shī . Amī r Kabī r himself and Bahrā m Mī rzā Mu‘ izz-al-Dawla supervised the construction of the building. A part of building opened in 1852, just a few days after Amir’ s deposal, although it was not totally finished until 1853. However, the building that we know today as Dā r al-Funū n was constructed in Pahlavi era. There is almost no important material evidence from the Qajar building, but there are some imagery and written evidences. The Dā r al-Funū n building is remained unknown because of some inaccuracy in recognition of photos and their positions, and some changes in the building during the very Qajar era. Our objective is to recognize the school’ s architecture and the quality of its probable changes in Qajar period, which is dealt with validation of the documents, recognition of the building physical properties, resolving the ambiguities, lighting up the building changes and evolutions, and determining their dates. According to formal chronicles, the school was opened on 5th Rabi’ I, 1268 AH (Dec. 29, 1851), when Amī r Kabī r was exiled (about two weeks before his murder on Jan. 10, 1852). There are some information in the textual sources including Amir’ s letters and the government’ s formal newspaper; however, there are no evidence of the school in the two major formal documents that was published about one year after the opening of the school. These are the oldest visual document of the school is August Karl Krziž ’ s Map of Tehran (Dec. 1858), and the Statistics Account of Tehran. The second map of Tehran in that period is ‘ Abd al-Ghaffā r’ s Map (Aug. 1891). There are also several photos and gravures of the school in Gulistā n Archive (Golestan Palace Museum), as well as other archives that reveal some aspects of the school’ s architecture. We will show that the Qajar Dā r al-Funū n had two parts: the old building and the new one. The old building is the one built in Amī r Kabī r’ s period. It was designed by Mī rzā Rizā Muhandis, and was constructed by Muhammad Taqī-khā n Miʽ mā r-bā shī in 1850 and opened in 1852. In 1870s, some of the court members decided to make some changes in the building, which were concentrated on the courtyard facades and the entrance. The designer of the changes was Mī rzā ʽ Abbā s Muhandis (Mī rzā Rizā ’ s son) and the constructer was Muhammad Ibrā him-khā n Miʽ mā r-bā shī (Muhammad Taqī-khā n’ s son). Between 1858 and 1892, the school was developed by adding a new building at the north side of the old one and at the west side of the telegraph office. The new building was called as “ the School of Musics” and “ the New School of Dā r al-Funū n” . In the early Pahlavi era, both buildings were destroyed and replaced by a modern building designed by the Georgian architect Nikolai Lvovich Markov (1882-1957). This is the building, which is known now as Dā r al-Funū n High School today.

Nowadays, a large number of problems can be seen in Iranian architecture; however, the studies in this area are not deep enough and just investigate the current constructions and spaces, while there is a lack of fundamental research regarding teaching and learning techniques in architecture schools. It should be considered that teaching is the most crucial issue and the underlying factor for all problems and developments. Thus, this paper and the similar ones are hoped to indicate the ending of common architecture research methods and to draw the attention of teachers and scholars to teaching. The capacity of understanding space and volume is one of the most important capabilities in architecture, which has to be developed in architecture teaching. Over the past few decades, a large number of studies have been carried out about different aspects of spatial capacity, developing it is research. Considering the beneficial impacts of students’ spatial capacity enhancement on understanding spaces and volumes, this paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness of one of the core coursed in bachelor’ s level on improving spatial capacity. Therefore, the key question is whether practical geometry teaching based on the conventional method can meet the requirements of the High Council of Cultural Revolution’ s directive, which is rising students’ spatial capacity, or not. In an attempt to answer such a question, the appropriate concepts and theories were collected via reviewing the former studies on spatial capacity and the impact of descriptive geometry (as the inextricable part of practical geometry). In order to achieve the most accurate results, according to two subcategories of spatial capacity, two tests were chosen and were conducted using a quasi-experimental and pretest-posttest design with control group at two universities in two different educational programs. The test outcomes showed that practical geometry course not only could not increase the students’ spatial capacity, but also significantly decreased it in both groups. This happened while the data from the control group indicated a baseless increase in the students’ spatial capacity. One of the plausible reasons for such results can be a change of strategy taken by the students for solving the spatial problems. This paper is, in turn, a warning for beginning of reviewing the contemporary traditions of architecture teaching. Many experiences of teachers and instructors show the necessity of leaving the architecture concepts on paper and beginning to touch the space by the students. However, lack of scientific and critical investigation using international methods have to be covered by researchers. This study is a quantitative one in which the amount of unanswered questions of spatial capacity tests has significantly increased. Arguments for finding qualitative reasons of this significant decrease in spatial capacity test performance were considered in ideas and strategies adopted by the students in solving spatial problems.

Buildings account for almost 40% of global energy consumption and are the major contributor to the world’ s greenhouse gas emissions. Most of the measures taken to reduce energy consumption in buildings are somehow active and mechanical strategies, which lead to the increase of construction costs for employers. Regarding the importance of the role of architects, if the initial decisions through design process are made based on environmental issues and climatic approach, considerable saving on cost and energy consumption can be achieved. In spite of the fact that high-rise construction in large cities of Iran such as Tehran, along with the rest of the world, is being developed, however, its consequences, including the considerable waste of energy resources has not been properly recognized yet. Furthermore, the recent implementation of the fuel subsidies law in our country, makes it necessary to undertake essential researches as well as to demonstrate the practical frameworks, more than before. In this regard, the main concern of the research was around the designing of energy efficient tall office buildings in Tehran. For this purpose, according to the extent of the related fields, the effect of envelope layers were specifically evaluated on the annual energy consumption. The building envelope is one of the most significant components of a building that affects physical properties, thermal and environmental behavior as well as energy consumption. As a result, making accurate decisions in this regard is essential, especially for high-rise construction due to its high amount of building cost and materials. In order to achieve the aforementioned objectives, different research strategies and methods were applied in each step of the research process involving desk study, comparative analysis, case study and energy performance simulation, and data interpretation was implemented using descriptive statistics and logical arguments. In this research, the features of the base-case model for energy simulation was determined through the desk studies and field surveys conducted on Tehran office buildings. Ecotect 2011 software was firstly used for 3D modeling and Energyplus 8. 2 was utilized to simulate the thermal aspects as well. At the beginning of simulation process, according to the results of the previously conducted researches, 15 common wall types were considered as independent variables for analyzing the impact of each alternative on heating and cooling loads. The simulation results showed that the impact of internal insulation on the reduction of heating and cooling loads is much greater than the external one. Moreover, wall exterior insulation can significantly reduce the annual energy consumption for heating and cooling. Due to the slight temperature changes along with the building height, it is not economical to use different wall insulation details. The study results generally demonstrate the considerable effect of insulation component on the building energy consumption in the climatic conditions in question. Based on the findings, the impact of insulation thickness on reducing annual energy consumption is more considerable than the impact of wall block thickness. Finally, a table of four optimum wall details was introduced for a tall office building envelopes in Tehran metropolitan city.

Children's hospitalization space can enormously affect their mood and mental states. Paying no attention to their needs can end up in behavioral disorders as well as their non-cooperation with the doctor. The present study aims to evaluate children's hospitalization room and finally to figure out their expectations and needs in the environment. This survey provides a particular pattern for hospitalization spaces in order to improve the quality of children’ s hospitalization space. For this purpose, some suggestions were proposed according to the children’ s opinions regarding the environment, which were obtained via their paintings or explanations. The research method was qualitative and quantitative and MAXQDA 12 software was used to analyze the paintings. One hundred samples were selected using proportional stratified sampling method. The results of the analysis revealed that the children were dissatisfied with their existing environment. Most of the paintings were emphasized on the use of light, plants, and rooms with large windows. They also emphasized on architectural integration with the green space, which according to the findings, can improve the quality of the space and create a sense of comfort in these environments. With the integration of ideas, strategies and research solutions provided on the existing issues, some specific guidelines could be provided for the design of hospitalization rooms, which can create a favorable environment during hospitalization and shorten the recovery period of the patients. Results obtained from this study suggest that the creation of green space, the layout of equipment and furniture in internal hospitalization rooms, color and exterior views are among necessary issues for creating a favorable environment for the children. By changing the indoor environment of medical centers (the use of children’ s furniture, coloring spaces, providing a secure environments, etc. ), it is possible to reduce stress in children. In construction of these medical centers, the focus was originally on the environmental characteristics that are consistent with standards and the functional flexibility. Moreover, environmental factors and complexity in spaces were not considered. Therefore, the points mentioned in the paintings and written data determine the environmental behavior reducing the children’ s stress in these centers, which are not considered in the design of these environments, and in general, these spaces increase the level of stress of children due to the simplicity and lack of complexity. The software analyzes showed that some graphical factors such as ceiling decorations, the presence of tables and chairs, the presence of flowers, different floor covering, and, in terms of the children’ s paintings, a view of the nature and the sun are important. The statement is supported by the written data that was the outcome of the children's explanation after painting. As a result, by studying the various dimensions of the needs and expectations of the users, the spaces should be designed and utilized with the highest level of quality and for the specific needs of the children. The findings indicate that the architecture of child-care centers, in terms of the vulnerability of these patients, can have positive effects on children.