NAQSHEJAHAN
Year:2013 | Volume:3 | Issue:1|Papers Count:7

Being an analytical as well as critical approach, regionalism comes into contact with culture and cultural context with a special focus on preserving spatial features and prioritizes special regional identity over general global features. Regionalistic issues focus on place, man and technology. Dealing with this in today’s globalized world aiming at redefining the role of place is of paramount importance. Supporters of such theory believe that architecture has to reflect the features of the self and be independent of an emotional view point of region, tradition and history. An investigation of regionalism is feasible through introducing to concept: “societal features” and “fusion”. Societal features introduce geographical, climate and geometric features of the place and social trends that give a particular region. “A sense of place” and a “special feature” to an environment. Fusion refers to such a trend by which a reflection with existing cultural systems of a particular region, and therefore, is enriched and contributes to new fusions. Dating back to old times of architectural thoughts, this theory has experienced a variety of approaches in the same way as other theories have. Investigating the background and history of regionalism in architecture, the present paper attempts to develop prevailing approaches to architecture through looking at scientific viewpoints and evidence. The methodology is qualitative and analytical-interpretive. Documentary research has also been conducted. The findings of studies show that regionalism has been subject to a dramatic change from nativity approaches and physical interpretations and stylistic, geometric as well as aesthetic regional issues to contemporary approaches, social, cultural and ecology matters and human interactions, and it attempts to adjust old prejudiced restrictive thought patterns, strengthen interactive approaches and make the most of global benefits. Emphasis on public participation, establishing patterns based on local needs and potentials aiming at sustainable development, replacing down -top approach to establishing patterns for top-down approach, special consideration of human needs, cultural, social and normative values aiming at resisting homogenized artificial environment, strengthening sense of place, replacing creative protection for reactionary attitude, critical as well as interactive regionalism are all among prevailing regionalistic approaches within physical, ecology and semantic frameworks.

Iranian-Islamic architecture is a precious heritage of Shia culture which is the legacy of past generation, the valuable samples of which are well observed and recognizable in planning, design, and management system of historical cities of Iran. The relation between Iranian-Islamic architecture and theoretical basis, principles of Islamic jurisprudence, and verses of scripture and revelation shall be a valuable treasure in guiding and developing Iranian contemporary architecture and urban development. An overview of practical experiences and their theoretical foundation in the areas of architecture, urban development and urban management indicates that explaining the relation between theoretical principles and physical specifications is the prerequisite for realization and implementation of an architecture style and orientation; it is on the basis of such approach that the subject of the present research could be analyzed in the bed of Koran verses and their valid interpretations. The main research question is that what does identity mean in Islamic architecture? And where is the position of this definition in the formation of Islamic architecture? What are the requirements for realization of the rule of no injury loss in Islam in the bed of forming Islamic architecture? How Islamic architecture is formed in the bed of identifying elements and where is the position of these elements in Islamic architecture? The research method used in this study is based on a logical reasoning method. Upon drawing the theoretical framework of the research, the specialized and scientific resources are analyzed using comparative method, then the resulted opportunities and challenges are discussed. This research is required to be treated qualitatively, so it will be viewed based on free research paradigm using library sources and field study. The research findings indicate that the observance of 10 principles could be introduced as the realization of a rule of no injury loss in Islam in architecture and urban development system, especially in directing and planning urban development projects.

Semiology and study of meaning and its effects on users is one of the new approaches that recently have become very popular in urban studies. It can be used as a useful and efficient tool for producing qualitative data out of the city and daily life of citizens and assist urban designers in identifying signs and concepts they represent. In this paper, Nazi Abad Neighborhood in Tehran is explored as a case study in terms of existence of signs, the effects of environmental meanings on different groups of residents and environmental legibility. The objective of this research is to review Lynch’s cognitive mapping approach critically and to study the effects of meanings embedded in urban elements and signs on creation of people’s environmental cognitive maps and legible environments. This is conducted by using surveys, cognitive maps, fieldwork interviews and photo-analysis method in the neighborhood. The findings, parallel to some other critics of Lynch’s studies, confirm that his five elements are mostly used for faster environmental perception and legibility, not clarity, and operate as functional features and cognitive maps vary depending on age, gender and socio-cultural characteristics of urban dwellers. People, based on their experience, culture, past history, ideology etc. perceive different meanings of the environment and can have specific interpretation of their neighborhoods according to their reading of environmental signs. Analyzing Cognitive maps of Naziabad residents and other aspects such as meaningful elements, symbolic buildings, memories and daily experiences revealed that these features, besides affecting cognitive maps, can work as a language via which residents can connect themselves to their environment. This confirms Peponis ideas who believed that there is a difference between people’s perception of and urban form based on their experience, memory, culture and everyday meanings and its verbal description. He believes that people usually use significant visual elements of an environment and not their reading or personal meaningful elements for way-finding or giving address to others. Therefore, urban designers can make environmental design and transformations with regards to elements that are meaningful in private and public life of people and provide an opportunity to create place attachment.

Environmental attitudes are recognized as an indicator and component of environmental behavior. There are many theoretical and empirical approaches to investigate attitude towards environment in the respected literatures. Most of the studies related to this issue have been conducted since 1970 onwards when conceptualization of environmental attitudes as a scientific research concept gained closer attention by researchers. Environmental quality was one of the most critical subjects of environmental attitude studies.The formation, maintenance, and reproduction of social relationships generally occur in a spatial context. Social science has been the potential interpenetration of action and space for individual and social behavior. One approach to this subject has been taken by those working within the framework of environmental quality.This article is mainly concerned with the role of environmental quality on social relationships. The main question of the present research is, whether environmental quality have any influence on social relation or not? It seems that there is significant relation between the quality of environment and social connections. In order to examine the above hypothesis, one of the Mashhad’s neighborhoods was selected as the case study. This neighborhood has been located respectively in the zone 1 / region 2 of the city of Mashhad. Then the variables were determined and defined. There were two main variables in this paper. To evaluate the first variable (environmental quality) some indexes were determined. Also to evaluate the second variable (citizens’ social relations) several indexes were chosen. Then a questionnaire was prepared and data were collected. Finally the responds were analyzed by SPSS. The empirical results deriving from the data show that there are certain strong influences of the environmental quality and social relation. So, the hypothec of the investigation was accepted. It means that in the area under study there is a meaningful relation between social relationship and environmental quality.

Geometry is considered one of the fundamental structures of Iranian traditional art and architecture, and some of its displays can be seen in most of fine ancient works. Studying geometry, as one of the main fields of Iranian art and architecture, is of more importance when it comes to the word of architecture, as it seems impossible to define it without relying on geometry. Architecture has been founded on "construction" as it is necessary to utilize accurate geometry and order; and in architecture, Order and planning are manifested as geometry. In other words, the basic factor that makes different parts of architecture united is nothing but geometry, and through this uniting and coordination between parts of architecture culture the survival and endurance of that culture becomes possible. In general, order and geometric plan assists the designer to predict the course of the plan and design. Not only the Iranian traditional architecture works from the ancient times to the Islamic era have been relied upon the geometric principles, but also the contemporary architecture is based on such principles. This study is concentrated on the exact recognition of geometric principles, intellectual roots and theoretical basics of Iranian traditional architecture in addition to the analysis of the advent of such items in the contemporary architecture. The main aim of this research is to recognize the geometric principles of the traditional architecture and its application in the contemporary architecture. In other words, we aim to answer to the question, what are the geometric principles of the traditional architecture and how is the manifestation of such principles in the contemporary architecture? The results show that the use of geometric order in the plan, along with the application of hidden geometry and creation of geometric understanding through the static sense have been more applied in the contemporary architecture compared to other characteristics of Iranian traditional architecture and the traditional architecture archetypes and motives have always attracted contemporary architects.

Architecture education is one of the most important issues in public education at technical school. Accordingly, this paper compares them with each other, and discusses whether lessons in technical school trainings are effective in improvement of skills and abilities of architecture students or not. Meanwhile, the research methodology is logical argumentation and used techniques are comparative method.Moreover, the main goal in this paper is definition designing based education and its role in success of architecture students. This paper intends to study the learning methods in high schools and practical continuous training ways in technical schools of Iran. Studies and research shows the correlation between arts and promoted level of creation of students in high school. Now main problem in this paper is that “can this consider relation between educations and promote level of creativity in student and high level or not?” research methods is based on theoretical divergent thinking and four essential concepts that are involved include: 1- originality or Initiative, 2- Fluidity, 3- Flexibility, 4- Expansion and development. Research was done based on 2 case studies; a technical school, and one of technical schools that teach architecture. Results show that architectural education does have an effect on the improvement of level of creation and Education in student of technical schools. Parameters of flexibility, Initiative, Expansion, and Fluidity have critical role in this study and they are mentioned as the most important to the least important one. It was found that there is a significant difference between control group and experimental group in the above mentioned parameters. Ultimately, the result shows that creativity practice and art trainings in technical schools causes educational improvement. The main subject of this study was to determine the effect of art training on the creativity and educational improvement of high school students and the archived results prove that. In addition, art training at experimental group results in activation of right hemisphere of the brain.

The issue of earthquake and its destructive effects is constantly confronting human being communities as an extensive challenge. The ground, upon which we are constructing our buildings, is anything but solid. Hundreds of millions of years ago the continents were joined, but now they are dispersing ever so slowly. The idea that buildings are founded on stationary ground is only an illusion. From the viewpoint of geological time, the earth’s crust is in a continuous dynamic change. The scientific understanding of this process, known as continental drift or tectonic plate movement, which is the basic cause of most earthquakes, dates back only 100 years. Quakes strike at the heart of a community. When they damage buildings, people and animals are injured and killed. Earthquakes destroy the basic necessities of life, demolishing shelter, ruining food and water supplies and disrupting people’s livelihoods. Conversely, buildings that perform well during an earthquake, limit its impact on people and their basic needs. Scientists and building construction experts have strived in order to find the solutions for reducing structures damages which are caused by trembling of the earth and diminishing the casualty rate and also detriments, from some years ago. In our country, Iran, which is located in earthquake zone and has experienced some demolishing quakes before, this matter is more significant and remarkable. Apart from the poorest of communities for whom even partial earthquake protection is unaffordable, most of the disastrous effects of earthquakes are avoidable. Earthquake-resistant construction greatly reduces the rate of victims from a damaging quake, as well as lessening economic losses and disruption to public activities. Seismic retrofitting of existing buildings is of vital and crucial issues of our society. The purpose of rehabilitating is to reduce the vulnerability of a building’s inhabitants and the building itself, its structure, non-structural elements and possibly its contents to earthquake damage. To retrofit a building is to improve its seismic performance. One of the appropriate alternatives for enhancing the structural performance of available buildings is employing composites. These materials can be applied in order to increase the confinement, shear strength and ductility of columns and also enhance in-plane shear wall strength as well as out-of-plane resistance. In addition, with taking advantage of this kind of material, the secondary weight which would be added to the primarily structure is going to be significantly reduced and this would act as an optimum approach for rehabilitating the existing buildings.In this research, firstly the exact definition of composite materials and its components and different kinds are studied. Then, the essence of earthquake and seismic forces in addition to some topics on seismic retrofitting and the essential needs for it are discussed. Eventually, concerning the abilities of composites, employing them as a suitable technique for reconciliation of structural elements of existing buildings, which is one approach of seismic retrofitting, will be proposed with hope for presenting the essential knowledge of appropriate seismic retrofitting with efficient materials to architects and civil engineers in order to diminish the ruins of earthquake effects on structures and as a result, providing the next generations of our country with safer and much more protected circumstances.