Manzar
Year:2020 | Volume:12 | Issue:53|Papers Count:9

Living in the central plains of Iran, which is mostly composed of dried deserts with high summer heat during the last millennium, lacks the common reasons for habitation. The water shortage and harsh climate has no attraction for people, whose life depend on land. However, there are large cities such as ‘ Yazd’ , ‘ Kashan’ , ‘ Semnan’ , ‘ Dameghan’ , ‘ Birjand’ , ‘ Zabol’ , ‘ Bam’ and ‘ Kerman’ which have been established around the central deserts of Iran, with hundreds of smaller cities and many dependent villages around them. Some of these villages, which were built on historical roads for security and commercial reasons, became more populated over time and within the last millennium, when the region› s climate started to dry up. However, the people’ lives in the past, which was much more dependent on nature than today, had no obstacles to migrating and settle down in other pleasant climate areas. The people of these areas were exploiting skills to adapt to the climate change and sustain their lives, that gradually became the main element of their life landscape; In this case, ‘ Qanat’ might be the most significant of them. The history of ‘ Qanat’ /’ Kariz’ is attributed to the Persian mythology; it applies a technique for transferring the groundwater to the surface without the use of energy. A sloping underground channel, ‘ Kooreh’ , are excavated in the basement between the Qanat and the water reservoir, through which water flows outward due to the gentle slope of ‘ Kooreh’ . The lower slope of it relative to the ground, at their connection point, creates the origin of Qanat. The lack of running water in dry climate gives great importance to Qanat presence in a community; All the life’ s aspect of the around villages and the cities are then dependent on it. Therefore, those jobs related to Qanats, such as ‘ Moqani’ (Qanat diggers) and ‘ Mirab’ (chief water distributor), get benefit of high social status. The protection of water and the Qanat pathway are subjected to the ethical rules that based on them polluting or damaging the water will be considered as an immorality act. The other Qanat ‘ s amenities such as standing light located at its origin (portal) and the presence of branched ponds for washing use are among those things will be usually donated by benefactors. The names are associated with Qanat, the ‘ Moqanizadeh’ and ‘ Qanavati’ , are given to the related professions which are representing social dignity. The culture of constructing Qanat, is the symbol of ‘ righteous deeds’ and the ‘ remnants of righteousness’ that is common among the rich people and the rulers. All these traditions and cultures arising from Qanat indicate the existence of a «concept set» related to the Qanat in the minds of Iranian people who used to be the desert inhabitants. The «concept» of the Qanat, similar to its reservoir, is full of implications that have emerged over the centuries in connection with its function and vital role in the lives of the central inhabitants of the ‘ Land of Iran’ ; Each of these meanings is mirrored in the external environment that today is considered as its «emergence». The sequence of wells that end to its sloping channel (Kooreh) to vacate the excavated soil during the drilling job and bring the air to the Moqani is among the most major emergence of the complex «concept» of Qanat. There are rings, made of the soil of Kooreh which are poured around the wellhead to prevent the surface water from entering to Qanat and destroying it, and to show a ‘ danger sign’ to avoid the others from falling into the well. The portray of Qanat wells is an inseparable element of life concept in the Central Plateau of Iran. An emergent form in the desert that, like a «Trace of Life», tell the story of human’ s struggle to survive which has lasted for centuries. The cover photo is one of the works of the late «Georg Gerster», which was photographed from above, on the Qanat of Yazd in 1976. He wrote in the caption of his photo: While I was traveling over Iran, I was thinking that the cultural and natural landscapes of the Persian Land with its salt deserts and heaven gardens were created to be observed from the sky. Its villages with Qanats and underground waterways are a clear example of an architecture without the presence of any architect. This photo represents the harmonious intervention of our predecessors in the heart of an apparently empty desert; however, the ‘ Trace of life’ speaks the commotion that lies beneath the earth. This photo has been donated to MANZAR by his honorable generous daughter, Ms. Anya v. Schweinitz-Calonder, who manages the ‘ Georg Gerster Air Photography Institute’ , following our request to publish the photo; it has been provided to our journal due to his deep interest to Iran. We do highly appreciate their kindness.

The concept of garden was created in Iran from ancient era and kept continue until contemporary time. During Qajar era and after the emergence of thought revolutions, ancient urban structures including Iranian gardens did not remain stable as before. Thus, changes have been made in their apparent structure. In the meantime, Tehran’ s gardens have been affected to a great extent by Renaissance, Baroque, and Romanticism and the garden’ s structure has changed in terms of its appearance. The researchers attributed such changes in appearance to Europe or the West without referring back to any particular style or school of art. Meanwhile, landscape schools in Europe are so much different in terms of their country of origin and their historical-philosophical background and it is vague to argue that gardens constructed during the Qajar era have been affected by European countries by large. An investigation of contextual elements and thought patterns contributing to garden construction in Renaissance, Baroque, and Romantic styles and their recognition in Tehran’ s gardens constructed during Qajar era can reveal their correlation in terms of their style differences and components affecting them. This study is an attempt to prohibit the use of European style of garden construction in Iran and identify the features and impacts of Renaissance; Baroque and Romantic styles in gardens constructed in Tehran during the Qajar era. This study follows a qualitative design. Descriptive-analytical approaches as well as library resources and literature on Romantic, Renaissance, and Baroque gardening styles during the Qajar era have been used in this study. Besides, a comparison has been made between these styles in terms of their principles and constituting elements. It’ s apparent that garden construction during the renaissance, Baroque, and Romantic periods, as distinguished European style s of constructing gardens in Europe, are different from each other, therefore, their shallow imitation of style resulted in an eclectic structure in Tehran gardens; however, the prototype of Iranian garden is still persistent in some cases.

The natural environment and its elements have always been a determining factor in the location and distribution of settlements, the construction of human facilities, and organizing spaces. The stability of natural environment has a direct relationship with the characteristics of habitable areas, natural threats and environmental management and planning method. Therefore, finding the best location depends on parameters such as context geomorphology, water resources, soil and so on that affect the livelihood, culture, and community of the villages. In Kamu, the role of natural elements in the formation of the village and the adaptation of its context with nature in the physical, functional, and semantic layers is important. Therefore, the nature and the type of human activities related to the environment will be effective in the way of reading the manifestations of this cultural system. By analyzing the structure of Kamu Village based on the ecological factors, this paper, while re-reading the role of these factors, examines the adaptation and continuity ratio of the residential habitat under study and how to manage and plan its inhabitants in relation to each one of the natural elements. The research findings show that the Kamu structure is formed based on indigenous knowledge, intelligent utilization of ecological elements and inspiration from its natural bed, and the management method of this context is based on the nature-based solutions, which shows the environmental wisdom of its inhabitants.

The idea of designing a multifunctional urban space in different forms and with various meanings has always been existed in the field of architecture and the urban design, but the comprehensive definition of this concept is still missing. Although these types of urban spaces have always been elaborated spontaneously in developing countries, in developed countries, there are more restrictions for using urban spaces. Despite the differences in the ownership of public spaces, multifunctional spaces have emerged around the world and are increasing day by day. These spaces differ according to the context in which they are formed, the characteristics related to the morphology of the space and its dimensions and sizes, as well as their primary function. Beside these differences, they maintain common patterns that will help urban actors plan and design for such spaces in the future. This article analyses 80 examples of spaces that are currently multifunctional or demonstrate the potential to become one. In this research, the case-based reasoning (CBR) method has been employed along with the pattern language of Christopher Alexander to select the criteria and extract patterns. The result represents principles that can help designers to be more effective in enhancing the quality of life of citizens. Finally, it is observed that the obtained patterns have less physical form and mostly involve space planning and management. The pattern that has the most repetition among the extracted patterns is “ participation” , which should be considered as a culture in all its forms from the beginni. ng in the process of planning, design and management.

This study was an attempt to examine the degree of satisfaction and desire of people to attend mountain resorts in relationship to different aspects of visual perceptions of the mountain road landscape. To this purpose, Kolakchal axis were selected as the research site because of its high level of interactions and various activities. The analytical-descriptive research method has been used in this research. The components affecting the visual perceptions of mountainous resorts were analyzed from four perspectives: cognitive, emotional, interpretive, and evaluative. The physical and structural features of the landscape, strengths and weakness of the region were analyzed carefully through the route navigation. The collected data were aggregated with other environmental data. Based on the mentioned factors, the degree of people’ s satisfaction with each sequence was evaluated by using questionnaires. The results show that improving the quantity and quality of mountain recreational spaces will encourage people to attend there more, also promotes the mental and physical health of the community. Tactics for improving the research site include: using the natural slope, leaving some parts of the site intact, reducing wind speed by mass planting, arraying trees in a linear way along an axis to improve its legibility, and aligning the planting hierarchy with the plants on the site. In study area, two sequences (2 and 8) which have been received top marks in terms of visual perception quality and satisfaction, had higher capacity to become multi-use and multi user resorts for all ages. From the cognitive aspect, the degree of color diversity and space enclosure were significantly related to the improvement of the quality of the environment and people’ s satisfaction However, it had little effect on the quality of spatial perceptions. From the emotional aspect, spatial diversity, vegetation density, and space cleanliness played the greatest role in the perceptions of the mountain environment. From the interpretive aspect, the legibility of the space had a positive correlation with the quality of the environment and satisfaction. From the evaluative perspective, the presence of people was directly related to the quality of the cognitive, emotional, and interpretive aspects. However, this relationship with emotional and interpretive components was much stronger than the cognitive aspect.

Streets form a significant part of open public space in cities and are known as important representatives of urban public spaces. The street has been one of the most important public spaces in the history of Eastern and Western culture. However, there is currently a relatively deep gap between the meaning and function of the street between East and West. The difference in function and meaning has led to distinctive urban landscapes between East and West. This study examines the differences in the streetscape in terms of semantic-perceptual and functional-activity and aesthetic aspects (non-physical elements of architecture including semi-fixed and moving elements) in the street in the East (Southeast Asia) and West (North America, Europe and Oceania). The research method is qualitative (based on reviewing the literature and the author’ s observations). Findings show that although streetscape is known both as an objective and subjective phenomenon, streetscape in the East and West are different in terms of how they are perceived and their objective and subjective aspects. It can be concluded that the biggest difference between the street in the West and the East lies in the social structure of the space and the use and subjective meaning of the street, which is created by the adaptive nature of the street. The extent of adaptation is defined by the type of power shaping the street (whether the government and municipalities or the community), street management and how laws are implemented. There are obvious differences between streetscape in the East and West in terms of semantic, functional, and aesthetic aspects. They differ from each other in features such as the variety of activities, order, boundary between public and private space, time patterns of activities, the use of different human senses, and how the space is adaptable and flexible to those mentioned features.

Chahar Taqi is the most frequent and basic volume in the Iranian Architecture. The structure of Mehr Temple, Anahita Temple, and then the fire temple was among the old functions of this element, which has been used as the main structure of the mosque and shrine after the advent of Islam. Many experts consider Chahar Taqi not only a functional element but also, an element with mythical and sacred aspects. Also, the mountain has been a multidimensional, functional, and sacred element among the Iranian myths. That is why many of the ancient rituals were held in the direct relationship with the mountains and the caves inside the mountains were considered as the first temples in Iran as other civilizations, and we witness that the Iranian have founded their own temples considering the sanctity of the mountain and cave. Sometimes, temples were built on the hillside or the top of the mountain, and sometimes, they were built in the form of the ziggurats and inspired by mountains such as Elamites. Therefore, man-made architecture adopts its sanctity from the mountain. Thus, Thus, questions arise on Chahar Taqi as what is the root of its sanctity and whether its mythical and sacred aspects, such as the ziggurat, can be related to the mountain. The current study investigates the common rituals of circumambulation and sacrifice between three elements of mountain, ziggurat (as intermediate) and Chahar Taqi. using qualitative research method, it also examines the relationship of each of these elements with Mehr or Sun through documentary study and exploratory approach. The results show that although ziggurats in Iran have been destroyed, the relationship between mountain and the architecture of the temples of Iran still exists. It can be said that this mythical relationship between Chahar Taqi and mountain has been established and in other terms, Chahar Taqi represents the continuity of the mountain’ s sanctity in Iranian architecture.

The occurrence of any earthquakes, small or large, in the country may draw the attention of authoritThe occurrence of any earthquakes, small or large, in the country may draw the attention of authorities to the extent of Tehran’ s vulnerability for a while. More than three million people living in Tehran suffer from unstable housing. On the one side, Tehran is located between three active faults that earthquakes on a high Mercalli intensity scale would seriously threaten the shelters and lives of citizens. The crisis caused by high population density and poor crisis management may lead to a severe catastrophe. On the other side, based on Iran’ s Supreme Council of Urban Planning and Architecture definition of urban deteriorated areas characterized by fineness modulus, instability, and impermeability, about 80% of unstable zones (areas) have been ignored. Furthermore, in such areas the peoples’ lives have been threatened severely living less chance for life-saving plans. However, regarding the priority of the peoples’ “ life” issue, rescuing peoples’ life should not be ignored for the sake of other design attributes. Therefore, the municipality and central government must seek a realistic solution to rescue residents of urban deteriorate areas in Tehran. The present study introduces the concept of “ neighborhood secure focal point” as activation for renovating urban deteriorated areas and focuses on removing initial obstacles to modernization (the need to provide parking), and the emergency of incentives management (granting density, increased building area, and downsizing) as the major drivers. This study argues that any intervention for urban deteriorated areas renovation should offer improved quality of social life, developed participation, and a prosperous urban economy by tracing urban management solutions, in addition to taking account of economic benefits for owners.