JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN PLANNING
Year:2010 | Volume:2 | Issue:4|Papers Count:8

Interior design for decades that the system of higher education of Iran has been stagnate. In recent years it has been a mutation and transformation in attitude, but still no prosperity in developing training expertise in this field. The field that is most closely related to architecture and many of technical and artistic courses and interdisciplinary sciences. Object and purpose of this article is representing and then description need and urge for the opening and development course in "Bachelor" and the basis is the approval for expanding the council for the Ministry of science, research and technology to this point several years ago. Interior design has passed full transition period in the word. Years ago, almost there were no plans for interior design of colleges or universities, but little by little there were been changes took it and today seeing an active and reliable process in principals, practices, programs and education standards. Perhaps there is no specific ranking in education of interior design in different countries, but there are schools and colleges with completive grading methods and training facilities. Also, validity and credit of a school and its facilities, programs and educational styles are very important. This article reviews lessons and field, with their scheme, a comparative study with other universities in the Iran, the necessity of the formation and expansion of the field, the lacuna and vacuum in the range of artistic and architectural fields, the community needs to graduate academic experts and expression properties of this creative and innovative field. While trying reloading obstacles and problems, offering suggestions and strategies of teaching and education courses position at this point and especially in prestigious universities. Although the approach in the education system for graduate degree (M.A.) in of two prestigious universities and undergraduate institutions in several young and not so equipped and talented staff in recent years has been implemented, but the recovery position now needs to taken major universities. The position that was needed take as a field independent and not scattered years ago. History of interior design in Iran so far has not been classified as done. It is a large part of Iranian and Islamic architecture. Historical Background of interior design in old spaces and ancient buildings hase a clear and distinctive position. In the Iranian architectural heritage, all decorated designs, elements, ornaments, calligraphy, decorative brickworks, carvings and decoration in wood and metal belong to interior design. The same view provides the appropriate opportunity for stablishing and developing interior design field in artistic universities of Iran. It can with coordination, integration, fulfillment and combining with modern interior design and architecture to create targeted area. Using teachers in various disciplines, development and implementation of the seriousness of art courses, technical, scientific and workshop, and many of the facts ignored, that is what this paper has concluded. Logical and efficient to get off the field right at this stage it is anticipated that students accepted for this string of talented people, be creative and curious, such as degree of architecture and its equivalent, with technical and artistic capabilities are.

Criticism of the architectural works, which are not very old, is one of the constructive forward looking critics that may be effective in positive changes of design methods. Determination of the positive aspects of an architectural work and the statement of the project proper specifications are the methods requiring architectural work criticism. Some of the most important duties of the common critics in this domain are the extension of better perception and understanding of the space, discrimination of the good and bad, and the judgment in relation to the architectural work and also the promotion of the project following to supporting, amendment, and the optimization of the designing approaches in creation of a more desirable space. In this article, which has been performed on the basis of descriptive- analytic research and with library study method and field investigations, at first, we reviewed the aims of criticism of the architectural works and then interpretive (hermeneutic) criticism, i.e. the criticism method used in critization of the building of Mosalla (Public Prayer Place) in Rasht City, was mentioned briefly. The main part of the article is related to the statement of the specifications of the building of Mosalla (Public Prayer Place) in Rasht City that has challenged the building with a view to interpretive (hermeneutic) criticism. At the end part of the article, the positive and negative aspects of the work were mentioned with the aim of using the criticism advantages in strengthening of proper methods of design in the future. Also some aspects of designing of the building of Mosalla (Public Prayers Place), which had lasting effects on individuals' mind, have been distinguished from those aspects, which decrease the space desirability. At all, the whole all points of design review obtained from criticism do not have equal value in people's mind and all people do not have the same view against the building. On the strength of looking forward for durability and public acceptance of a building, if it is tried to decrease the negative aspects, attractiveness of the architectural work increases and therefore, the quality of the designed spaces will be improved. But with a focus on the large number of the positive or negative aspects of an architectural work, the building is considered as qualified or unqualified for attractiveness in people's minds. In relation to the building of Mosalla, the positive aspects were more than the negative ones that caused acceptance and attractiveness of this architectural work in one of the main areas’ of the city.

This study is intended to introduce the architecture specifications of Laft Port in Qeshm Island, in the south of Iran. Qeshm Island with the 1500 square km. is the largest island in Iran and in the Persian Gulf. Laft is a village in the rural area of Qeshm, in Hormozgan Province. The unique architectural features, as well as the environmental context of Laft with its potential are among the reasons why Laft has been selected for this research. Providing correct information about Laft could help to introduce the cultural and social potential. The general characteristics of Laft’s architecture is affected by the architecture of the central part of Iran and Arabic architecture of the Persian Gulf region of Iran, incorporating central court yards, wind catchers, and arches. Professional readers with the architecture decorative elements and the plaster works take after Arabic architecture, while major physical elements of design reflect Iranian architecture. The most obvious architectural feature of the houses is their variously-sized windbreaks (wind towers). The people of Laft constructed these elements for cooling the inner space of the building in summer. The buildings of Laft are constructed close to each other, with winding and narrow alleys. The village is in the Qeshm Island in Persian Gulf. The buildings in the background are dhows that are traditional constructions which are still being constructed in the same traditional way by local materials. Their form is also visually appealing. The originality concealed in their chronic structures, refers to the tale of Iran's extensive culture. Their pure and innocent nature obviously affected the melodious and decent traditional architecture. However, with development of industrial productions in Iran, the traditional characteristics disappeared. The changes were more in urban areas while rural and remote sites as the cases of Laft village remained safe and protected. Thus, this study aims to recognize the main characters of traditional architecture in the region and the ways to endure it in order to have a more valuable architecture. Researching on “Laft” has totally gained an inclusive encouragement of the local residents in order to regenerate their cultural values in the globalization era as a Free Economic zone. Another part was and entire revitalization in the coastal boundaries. The most serious part of the study was the public consciousness about the people’s social heritage. The aim of rehabilitating in laft is making a residential background suitable for human habitation and to give confidence the local residents to keep on living there. To approach the above goals, it`s needed for the constructors to be familiar with the regional materials and specialties. This is in indeed important in coastal sites of the Persian Gulf. The research method of this study is descriptive and analytical. Experimental methods are also utilized with particular attention to the climatic characters (muggy weather) of the Laft region. And finally, we have concluded that: there, you can still find a kind of traditional build form with unique architectural style of the region.

The human being places his past and present in museums, in order to refer to the and think about his future. Along with changes in the course of time, the science of curatorship has employed modern and different methods and approaches than the past for conservation of cultural – natural heritage and based on its requirements has been so much intermingled with architecture, social sciences and environment. As the concept of conservation is not limited to restoration, documentation, and introducing object, the museum-also- is not limited to a place wherein objects are kept to be visited by the public. Traditional museums focused on public administrations and in any case influenced by a nostalgic, traditional approach to the cultural heritage. In the 1970s and particularly in 1970 and after the energy crisis a powerful movement of rediscovery of local culture emerged and the states comprehension of heritage concept changed. Following the mentioned global procedure and movement, formulation of different charters focusing in consideration of rural habitats are on the agenda, as establishment of rural museums, museums of farming life and Eco museums. Now, we observe open space museums, natural parks and eco- museums, which have a major role in reinforcement, revival, and exhibit the mankind's creativity in their environment, in different designs and sizes that are common in different countries. Generally speaking, eco-museums have deep roots in the development of museology. They are in essence, museums which are more than institutes of cultural heritage preservation. Eco-museums policies and practices, which embody cultural as well as local development initiatives, are outstanding examples of this new movement. Through analysis of the trend and various approaches in this regard, this paper tries to focus on the factors and differentiations between eco-museums and traditional museums. Moreover, it introduces existing challenges from different viewpoints, including formation and different functional patterns. The results show that if this type of museums is targeted by major touristic activities in long run, they will not only doom to fail but also they will consume the very heritage they erected for. When there is a conflict between tourism and preservation of culture the later must be given priority. The problem is that many eco-museums are not really instituted for exchanging information; many of them were created solely to obtain the financing available under regional laws. Public participation of locals is essential to the eco-museums. This principle should cover a very wide scope something more than mere exhibition of their tradition and appearance before the visitors. From the other side, in selection of place and type of activities of an eco-museum, not only the socio- cultural compatibility is of importance but also it is necessary to consider environmental structure of the region wherein the museum is established. There is no definite style for eco-museums. They will all be different according to the specific culture and situation of the society they present. Social development is a prerequisite for establishing eco-museums in living societies. The benefit of the inhabitants must be enhanced in ways that do not compromise traditional, cultural and natural values.

Public participation is a process through which public concerns, values and needs are considered for collective decision making. In this process, interrelations and interactions between people and decision makers should be made to make better decisions. In last years, Public participation has been more considered theoretically and practically, and significant role of people in solving urban problems has made it to an obvious necessity in urban planning and management. So, many societies try to encourage sense of participation, discourse and consultation to realize sustainability, efficiency of policies and development. Public Participation, which is known as a basic element in planning, is possible in different levels. In the lowest level, citizen involvement can result to stable and accurate decisions based on public needs, and cause plan acceptance by its users significantly. In the highest level and long term, citizen participation can expand and strengthen democracy through advisory, direct and explicit techniques. In this condition, citizens find themselves as a part of society and thus spread public trust. Now, one of the most concerns of urban planners is that by which methods and techniques, participatory plans can be carried out successfully. There are different classification of citizen participation in urban planning and management. Present paper aims to introduce different levels of participation and different categories of participation techniques through other countries experiences to formulate and present a new synthetic classification. The conclusion of this paper is important, because cognition of different levels of participation and useable techniques for every level give a chance to planners to use the most efficient techniques in order to increase the success and implementation of participatory plans. This research present a five-level category of participation based on combining different categories. In this category, participation defines in five levels including getting information to the public, getting information from the public, using public views, public consensus and public empowerment. In the lowest level, getting information to the public is done merely. In higher levels, public influence increases in planning process and in the highest level, planners enforce merely public decisions. According to what mentioned above the diagram you have seen beneath shows the proposed category of participation levels and techniques.

Present paper aims at examination of planning theory until mid-1970s and the contexts causing them. Selecting 1970 decade is for this reason that the point of time is a mediate between two distinct types of planning theories: theories of planning until 1970 (mainly positivist), and communicative planning theories (post positivist) that are characteristics of recent decades. Facing the questions about why planning theories are forming and how they are evolving, this paper, learnt from philosophers of science, presuppose that all theories are created to provide an explanation for a theoretical tension resulting from a problematic situation. Planning theories are affected from external factors and contexts. They are not context-less (the condition dominant in natural science), but they are made by individuals within the social, economic and political systems of a real world. Planning theorists try to explain, justify and interpret planning in their own social context. In other words, theory and theorizer are constrained by planning practice and complex social, economic, political and epistemological system within which they operate. Changes in planning reality and their contexts probably will be reflected in theorizers’ perceptions of their profession and nature of theory, social processes and changes. So, for understanding planning theories and their evolutions, we must know that the economic, social, political and epistemological forces produce them. This paper tries to provide a brief description of planning theories and different factors forming them with focusing on three distinct periods. After defining some basic concepts, the paper presents a typology of theories within urban and regional planning. Then, the paper bases its examination on a specific type of theories discussed, namely planning theory or theory of planning. In later stage, different period of planning theorizing is presented according to the views of main planning scholars: there are three main period of planning theory until mid-1970s, as follows: a) first period from beginning of twenty century to the end of 1950s which is well known as a master planning or blueprint period. In this period there is not a planning theory. Second period starts from the end of 1950 to the end1960. This period can be named the era of dominance of systematic planning or procedural planning theory. The third period starts from early 1970s. In this period, there is not any dominant planning theory but there are several planning theories such as incremental planning, advocacy planning, mixed scanning, political economy and trans active planning. Within each planning theorizing periods, different planning theories and factors significant on forming them are discussed. Before doing conclusion, a brief analytical report of evolution of planning theory in recent decades are presented. Examination indicates that planning field in recent decades is dominated by communicative planning theories and post-positive theories from 1980 on. Examination of this period, also, demonstrates that external conditions such as transformation of social theories and epistemological changes originated from knowledge field outside of planning are significant in creation of post positive theories of planning. Theory of communicative action as a social theory from Habermas is the most important framework theory for planning theorists. In final section, paper concludes on different contextual forces which are vital in creation of planning theories.

The increasing complexities of the urban life, particularly in metropolitan areas, have created much difficulty in recent urban studies. Therefore, in recent decades study of the urban condition at lower levels and within the framework of communities or neighborhoods was brought forward, concentrating on different approaches to the community development. In a number of these approaches it has been emphasized that social capital is the main factor and a necessary prerequisite for community development. In addition, the psychological aspects of life which covers peoples' attitudes to their life and living environment, is considered as one of the main factors in evaluating the quality of life or the output of community development plans. The sustainable relation between man and environment is based on the potential interaction of human needs and potentials of the physical environment. Community or neighborhood development is aimed at building a human environment that responds efficiently to the human needs in settlements, including the basic human needs, as well as higher tier, social and psychological needs. These would be satisfied when a strong sense of community, as a social capital, is developed. In turn, social capital is a good means to promote an indigenous and sustainable development. Community sustainable development is a concept that was presented after the concept of sustainable development was unfortunate in achieving its aims, and therefore further emphasis was placed on local society efforts to access goals of sustainable at measurable dimensions. Asset-based approach to sustainable community development emphasizes the existing assets in the community. It is emphasizes on capacity building, mobilizing local resource and public local capital which consists of social capital and physical capital. Furthermore asset based approach is process oriented, comprehensive and an important tool to achieve local sustainable development. Planners and policymakers have recognized the role of the local assets, including physical capital (housing stock, roads, and the public space) and social capital (the informal networks of trust and reciprocity) in creating healthy communities. The critical examination of various urban policies helps us to differentiate between an asset-based as opposed to the conventional need-based approach to policymaking, and to explore the mutual impacts of government policies and the target groups that are affected by them; policies could result in the formation or destruction of the local assets (social capital). The study offers a conceptual framework, consisting of policy networks defined in terms of policy type and target groups. Two additional concepts are used to evaluate the mutual impacts of policies and target groups including interconnectedness (the strength of relationship between the government and the target group) and cohesion (the distribution of objectives among the actors).

Aiming at achievement of community participation and maximum feasibility for urban plans, social engineering approach is to be discussed, in this paper, as a method of planning in close interaction with people. Citizen participation in urban renewal can not be judged simply as an effort to “plan with people” and thus realize a democratic goal, but only with reference to the differing capacities of various social classes to engage in the collective determination of objectives, and the implications of such participation for the ends of the renewal program. Further, citizen participation has got many consequences for the growing number of big-city mayors who seek power without having strong party organizations. Communities are supposed to participate fully in the planning and implementation of urban renewal projects. Participation is a process through which stakeholders influence and share control over development initiatives, as well as the decisions and resources which affect them. Participation may be a means or an end, but in reality it is usually both. Community participation should be aimed at empowering people by ensuring that skills are developed and that employment opportunities are created. Involving people in order to increase awareness, empower, build capacity, or expand rights and duties may be an end in itself, but it may also function as an instrumental means for accomplishing a specific task. Similarly, working with people to accomplish a specific task may enable them to expand their confidence and ability to address other issues in their lives. Community participation should be aimed at empowering people by ensuring that skills are developed and that employment opportunities are created. The emphasis, in social engineering, is on continuous attendance and participation of people, from the outset of basic studies to the final phase of project. Having: 1) theoretical principles; 2) dynamic and interactive structure; and 3) methods of implementation, social engineering is a theory capable of being generalized to different areas.Among outcomes of social engineering are:- Rapid implementation process,- Assurance of target group’s approval,- Omission of parallel and redundant phases,- Reliability on planning and decrease of opponents, and- Constant interaction between community and municipal administration.The present paper is a survey on the use of social engineering to cope with the problem of dilapidated urban areas and describes different phases of planning with people from the beginning to the proposal of alternative plans in the case of Nematabad. Research methodology of this study includes in-site and library studies, and documentary reports of the whole process, describing different phases of the project from the first acquaintance with given area to the final presentation of plans to people, emphasizing on the role of social engineering. The paper ends up with a comparative discussion on proposed plan as a result of a combination of social engineering with community - participatory methods.