Manzar
Year:2021 | Volume:13 | Issue:55|Papers Count:10

In recent years, the concept of water sensitive urban design has received considerable attention as an efficient approach to solving problems caused by conventional surface water management in Australia. Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) contributes to natural water cycle restoration in urban development. The technics proposed by this approach, in relation to optimal planning and management, improve the quality of runoff and reduce its volume, expand green space, and integrate the natural process with the city landscape. As the WSUD approach concentrates on technical-based scopes of environmental (ecological) interventions, it cannot be used as a comprehensive solution for environmental interventions. Therefore, it is assumed that WSUD can be used to develop a landscape model for environmental intervention by employing ecological aesthetic design principles. The extant study reviews the relevant literature to find the gaps in this technical approach. This study was conducted to analyze and match the components obtained from research literature by using logical argumentation regarding the position of water sensitive approach in the development. Besides, necessity of ecology aesthetic was taken into account for a sustainable landscape. Since water-sensitive technics follow the natural processes to be matched with varying environmental conditions, these technics have a natural beauty. It should be mentioned that the beauty of nature has been proved while its relationship with culture has remained undefined. As the mediating element between ecology and culture in landscape design, ecological aesthetics outlines the process of landscape design using WSUD solutions and measures to improve the mental and human aspects of the landscape.

In recent decades, resilience planning has been received significant attention by experts from most of the fields, especially landscape architects, in the face of flood and drought disturbances. The River Darakeh, as one of the urban rivers located in Tehran, is highly vulnerable to flood disturbance and its consequences despite the construction of flood-control infrastructures— channels and terraces on the riverbeds. This issue reveals the insufficiency of such plans in controlling the flood. Thus, it is necessary to plan and design the River Darakeh in order to reduce the risk of floods and increase the sustainability of the river. In this regard, this study seeks to fine an alternative approach instead of channels against the environmental problems and consequences of the floods of the River Darakeh. Therefore, this paper endeavors to find answers of the questions: is the new approach to resilience a viable alternative to one-dimensional and engineering approaches to the management of rivers? In order word, how can this approach transform the turbulent environment of the River Darakeh into a sustainable and environmentally and flood-friendly environment? Accordingly, this study employs the descriptive-analytical approach as well as a brief review of the related literature in order to gather various resilience indices. Then, design strategies based on the definitions of indices are extracted, and design solutions for the River Darakeh, as a case study, are presented in the face of flood disturbances. This study relies upon seven indices of resilience thinking— namely, redundancy, diversity, strength, connection, learning, self-organization, and variability— to present several strategies; including environmental and spatial diversity, high-level knowledge, the capacities and skills of indigenous people, the application of past generation’ s experiences regarding past floods, strength of natural and humanmade components, strength of the spatial relations and coherence of design components, and self-organization of social and ecological resources; for designing the River Darakeh to withstand against flood turbulences. This design and planning initiative includes different social and environmental dimensions which can be considered as alternative solutions for the flood control channels and the terracing on the riverbeds. The finding of this paper can be applied as a pattern for chaotic urban rivers in Iran and throughout the world in similar circumstances.

In the vernacular architecture of Iran, there are numerous formal elements by studying other aspects show how they were not constructed only for a particular function. Saqqakhaneh are considered as many in Iran and in the cities of this land. Some of them are very beautiful works and very unique in terms of their architecture and it is significant to be noted. Symbols, customs, beliefs and faiths are related to Saqqakhaneh including the special culture of Saqqakhaneh. In contrast, under the influence of the culture and beliefs of the community, this building has various functions at the community level. The narrative of the Saqakhane’ s landscapes is aimed at redefining the identity and deep meaning of these elements at the community level. For this purpose, the method used in this research is documentary studies using practical sources. In this study, in addition to examining the origins of Saqqakhaneh, its various functions in Iranian community have been regarded. Four categories of religious, cultural, social and artistic functions are among the functions that have been studied in this study and have been viewed from different perspectives. These functions are divided into more detailed categories that represent the identity of Saqqakhaneh throughout history and express how community interacts with this significant element of architecture in the Islamic Iranian city. Due to these identities, this particular place can be regarded as a unique attraction in religious cultural tourism because of its semantic distinction and exclusivity.

The mountain is a basin of the downstream plains that feeds groundwater and rivers by absorbing and flowing the rain. The foothills inhabitants clearly feel the role of the mountain in their current life, so it is not farfetched if they consider the mountain as their warden. The mountain recalls a sense of magnificence and glory in human beings. Perceiving the space that it creates, whether from the outside as an ‘ object’ , or from the uppermost of the mountain, in the role of the ‘ subject’ , it has always been coincided with comprehending a glory. To understand the concept of this glory, perhaps, there is no better implication than a mountain. The mountain represents a scene of confrontation with the extreme essence of life. Throughout the history of culture and religions, when it comes to uncovering the prophets and mystics revelation against the infinite existence, the mountain scenery used to be adopted; a place where its appearance is quite compatible with the content. The mountain is a respectable destination for experiencing Unitarianism (Tawhid); it is a secure place. A person who is encountering with the peril of living creatures and environmental alterations, requires a safe place to escape from the hazards and harbor on top or leaning against its foot. The mountain is a secure shelter to escape from wind, storms, floods and earthquakes; it is like an edge for connecting the ground to the sky. If human› s destiny is written in the sky so, the mountain is the best place for heading toward the sky. On top of a mountain, where the earth meets the sky, the oldest human temples were founded for reaching the source of power as the closest point. The mountain sustains the earth; considering the Earth rotation bring some concerns about the density of the Earth› s surface degraded by this rotation, the mountains as a peg holds the earth› s crust attached to its core. There are various interpretations in this regard. The history and culture of human beings in confrontation with mountain entity have provided various interpretation that a combination of them has led to the characterization of what is called mountain. What is comprehended as ‘ Mountain Landscape’ is all perceived in confrontation with the mountain entity. Standing in front of or on top of a mountain, along with the experiences the past generations had in confrontation with mountain, all will visualize a unique entity for the observer, which is called the ‘ Mountain landscape’ ; It narrates benedictions, glory, Tawhid, security, praying and safety. For the ancient human, the mountain narrates a combined and unique identity, as living in the foothills will represent all those attributes to him. Living in such an environment and accompanying kind of character brings tranquility. The ancient human in Iran, who had the experience of such an acquaintance, was not trying to scrutinize the mountain symbolically, but rather comprehends its existence as a «Landscape». So, the Mountain is the ‘ Narrator’ of an ‘ Existence’ .

Despite the uniqueness of the Persian garden, there are variations in it. Such changes have been created according to different conditions of the natural surroundings of the garden. One of the problems one encounters when studies the Persian garden is the change in the shape and location of the main building in some gardens in northern Iran, which, although they have a similar structure to the gardens of the Central Plateau, differ from that general image. This article examines the gardens of northern Iran to answer the question of how the perceived landscape of the surrounding environment from the lookout, affects the architectural system and the spatial structure of the main building of the gardens of northern Iran? The research hypothesis is that in addition to the geometric structure of the garden and the topographic features of the land, the landscape around the garden also plays a role in determining the location of architectural elements and the spatial structure of the main mansions of gardens in northern Iran. The present study aims to identify the gardens of northern Iran, through a combination of historical methods and interdisciplinary studies by investigating written documents, historical texts, travelogues and visual documents such as historical photographs, current maps, aerial photographs, the latest findings of archaeological excavations and field observations. After examining and categorizing 15 gardens in northern Iran and studying and analyzing changes in the locating rationale and spatial structure of the main building in four of them which have more complete documents, it was concluded that along with functional and semantic systems, natural features of the surrounding landscape of gardens are the organizing elements of the physical systems of the gardens of northern Iran, and the Persian garden, in the prone surrounding, is oriented to maximize the maximum capacities of the natural landscapes around the garden. In other words, in such contexts, the natural landscape that can be understood from the lookout, along with the artificial landscape of the garden, determines the direction of the view and the architectural system, and the spatial structure of the main building.

Spatial organization is a concept derived from a systemic view of the city and its components. It considers the city with a meaning more than the algebraic sum of its physical components. Its meaning is derived from the regularity, ratio, and relationship between components of the city. The spatial organization of a city is a result of the agreement between residents in the formation of the city. According to this perspective, the constituent components of the city in every civilization are formed based on a particular organization and discipline resulted from their similar cultural framework. Therefore, the spatial organization is a distinguished cultural aspect and identity mark. The travelogues of the orientalist of the 9th to 13th AH are the key sources. Although they did not address the city with a clear and systematic view, by mentioning the social life events and describing spaces and significant city elements, provided a mixed image of the spatial organization of the city. Analysis and comparison of the descriptive and specialized findings to explain the spatial organization of the city provide new interpretations about the nature and method of the formation of the Islamic-Iranian city. The current paper aims to address the formation of the particular spatial organization of the Iranian city functionally and semantically. In this regard, the components of the spatial organization are studied in terms of its role in the structure of the “ whole” city and the interaction relationships. Research method is historical. Data collection was done using library method, including travelogues and technical resources. The relationship between tourists ‘ descriptions and experts’ opinions of Iranian cities and its spatial organization was done through rational inference and analysis of findings. The city space organization is the product of an attitude towards the city as an independent whole. The necessary condition for finding the meaning of the city as a “ whole” is the purposefulness of the components and the regularity between them that realizes the formation, development, and evolution of the city in the form of a dynamic organism. In the Iranian city of the Islamic period, four components form the territory, center, structure, and small units, model, and particular relations of the spatial organization of the city. In a general classification, among the four key components of the spatial organization of the Iranian city, due to its creating feature, the center is the necessary condition. Also, due to the service role, other components, along with the center are the sufficient and complementary conditions for the realization of the city’ s spatial organization.

An important part of Iranian civilization has been shaped in connection with the management and exploitation of water resources on various scales. Qazvin traditional orchards are one of the unique examples of the connection between hydraulic infrastructure and the development of human settlements on the Iranian plateau. In the last half-century, the orchards have been destroyed in various ways and the importance of protecting its landscape has been discussed in recent decades. Asking how to protect the landscape of the orchards, the study reads the landscape of Qazvin orchards from the perspective of shaping hydraulic infrastructure in an interpretive historical research methodology. By relying on historical documents, images and maps, along with contemporary studies on Qazvin orchards and oral history, interviews with trustees and orchardists, this research tries to analyze the role of hydraulic infrastructure in the formation of components and processes shaping the Qazvin orchards landscape. Finally, this article considers the landscape of Qazvin orchards as a hydraulic landscape A landscape that has been affected by the management and exploitation of water resources at all scales, from local to micro. Thus, the protection and rehabilitation of the landscape of Qazvin Orchards depends on the protection and rehabilitation of its traditional water system as a fundamental component of the landscape.