Journal of Architecture in Hot and Dry Climateis
Year:2018 | Volume:6 | Issue:7 |Papers Count:6

In the process of searching and studying the different types of habitatation and rural settlements in the Halil River cultural district in Jiroft, Kerman province, lightweight structures are found that can be seen over a vast area with more or less different forms. These handmade and vernacular structures are rooted in nomadic culture or simple rural life, and for many years have answered the needs of the people in the region for residence and living. Over the years, these minimalist settlements have formed an important part of the mental schema of residence in these people's minds. Longevity, continuous presence and the position of these structures in the lives of residents has made them more than just a mere structure, becoming an outstanding example of a techno-culture and an inseparable part of the pattern of habitation for the villagers living on the banks of Halil river. therefore, this situation necessitates the recognition and introduction of these rural habitation patterns, especially in a time that the plans for the organization of settlements along Halil river are neglected. Among the most prominent lightweight structures that can be found abundantly in the area mentioned are Cavâ r, Kotuk, Capar. Based on contextual and descriptive-analytical research methods and comparative study of the information gathered from field observations and surveys, this study intends to examine these three structures and explain their evolution in different areas and the characteristics, similarities and differences, the strengths and weaknesses of each one. Certainly, the results can help rural designers and authorities in the design of rural housing, consistent with existing indigenous patterns.

Current knowledge about Shiraz gardening heritage is limited to the outstanding and famous courts and governmental gardens, hence limited data from the other ones has remained. Among these, the garden of Salar-e-Jang (Minou-e-Salar) or Garden of the brave in War (English meaning) is the striking example that was built by Naser-al-din Koupal Shirazi (celebrated Salar-e-Jang) and is worth studying and analyzing. The aim of this study is to re-discover this garden based on memoirs of Terrence O'Donnell who spent nearly 10 years (1960-71) of his life in this garden. His description provides an overview on the Iranian garden planting order in Qajar and Pahlavi era. This current study is the first step in identifying the historic gardens of Ghasroldasht (Bardi) area in Shiraz suburban gardens that has not been investigated yet. Therefore, recognition of geometrical-spatial order of the garden, rereading and understanding the irrigation method and the garden planting patterns have been considered. In addition, the garden has been perceived as a place for various events and social-individual life. The research method was a combination of descriptive-historical strategy and case study based on analytical procedures in a deductive approach. The findings are segmented into four parts which show the stages of development and destruction of the garden. They also show that the gardens are a mixture of two categories of dualities: a) conceptual and b) functional. The paradoxical nature of the garden is identifiable in the conflict between owners and occupants of the garden, contradiction between literary and cultural character of the founder and his unusual habits and finally, the distinction between the notion of Garden and the Farm. also the garden is a mixture of two types: Persian Governmental garden and and orchard. The garden has two perpendicular axes and contrary to usual practices, the pavilion is not placed at the intersection of two longitudinal and transverse axes. This eventually converts a kind of suburban garden from a place for recreation and lounge to a productive farm and orchard garden. As a result the garden turns into a unified social, economic and natural system that indicates the integration of aesthetics with the functional and production aspects of the garden.

Buildings should be built in such a way that provide acceptable and even pleasant thermal comfort for the users, while having high energy performance at the same time. Although today thermal comfort can be provided using mechanical equipment, but proper design can also provide comfort to some extent in any climate, so that mechanical equipment are only used when climate is unbearable. But how do we identify unbearable climatic conditions? We need a suitable criteria and the only acceptable one is the human being. numerous field studies have been conducted around the world on this subject. Comparison of results shows that, firstly, people around the world can reach comfort in a wide range of thermal environments. Secondly, there is a substantial difference between the predicted values of best thermal criteria and the actual feelings of people about thermal comfort. The present study aim to address this issue using field studies in hot-arid climates of Iran, and includes suggestions for neutral temperature and an acceptable range of environmental conditions for residents in Kerman city and similar climates. It also includes comparisons between houses with and without mechanical cooling in terms of neutral temperature, and the relationship between neutral and indoor temperatures, and more importantly, between neutral and outdoor temperatures. The results show that there is an acceptable correlation between the neutral temperature and the average indoor temperature, and more importantly, the outdoor temperature. Based on the results, it can be seen that the inhabitants under study, feel comfortable in higher temperatures than what is stated in international standards such as ISO7730 derived from Fanger᾽ s predicted mean votes (PMV) theory.

Museums are treasures of mankind’ s memories and history which, by displaying and teaching past generations’ heritage, encourages the contemporary society to deepen its thoughts. Therefore, visiting them is influential in improvement of future life. considering the water crisis in Iran, it is necessary to pay attention to proper architectural space and performance in water museums as well as proper planning to increase people’ s participation. Since one of the problems in the Iranian museums is relying on object-centered approach, displaying, and protection, perhaps it could be effective to utilize users' points of view in order to recognize the criteria of desirable museum spaces and functions. This may ultimately increase the users’ interaction and satisfaction and lead to the prosperity of the museum. to this end, Yazd Water Museum was chosen as a case study. Then, semi-open questionnaires and “ Q” methodology were used to determine and analyze the intentions, expectations and interests of visitors as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the museum. Information from the “ complaints and feedbacks” office were also coded and classified and consequently users’ opinions were analyzed. Finally, by using the extracted viewpoints, some solutions for architectural design and performance of Water Museums were suggested. Therefore, this research tried to be a model for Improving the performance of Yazd Water Museum sa well as other museums in the conuntry to increase their popularity and visiting rate through designing a suitable space and more effective performances.

This study is done with the aim of evaluating heat loss of earth-sheltered buildings in heating season in comparison with conventional buildings above the ground. Literature review of earth-sheltered architecture shows that although this idea has a long rich history in Iranian architecture and urban design, limited researches related to evaluating thermal performance of this kind of structures has been done. Additionally, previous researches have usually considered thermal behavior of earth-sheltered buildings in cooling season and neglected the effect of earth’ s thermal stability on mitigating heat loss in heating season. In this research, different modes of contact with earth are modeled for an earth-sheltered building in the city of Yazd and the heat loss in heating season is calculated and compared with buildings above the ground. In addition, to calculate soil temperature, the formula developed by Labs, is employed. The findings show that heat losses of earth sheltered models decrease with increasing contact with earth’ s surface, insomuch that heat loss in a model with three surfaces in contact with earth (North, East & West), was estimated about 44% of the model above the ground. Altogether, it can be concluded that earth-sheltered architecture can make considerable energy savings during heating season in hot arid climates.

The architectural body is deemed as a field for classification of features of traditional houses in Zavareh. Studying Chahar Sofehand Hozkhaneh house types reveals the physical similarities and differences in these two types of buildings. Studying the body of residential architecture in Zavareh enables us to identify the reasons for their persistence through time. In order to understand how and why these traditional Chahar Sofeh and Hozkhaneh houses are physically different despite their similarities, we employed comparative research method. The present study aims to analyze the reasons for these similarities and differences in the architectural body. This paper has been prepared, on the one hand, based on library studies and computation analysis including numerical proportions and also field studies. To achieve the intended goals and to select traditional Chahar Sofeh and Hozkhanehhouses in Zavareh, some criteria were specified in three areas of geometry, numerical proportions and changes in plan. Based on these criteria, respectively 26, 25 and 37 samples were chosen in such a way that they included various repetitive and common physical concepts. In the geometry area, analyses indicated a correlation between forms of access and spatial hierarchy and privacy in both building types. Forms of openings were also correlated with the type of space (private, public) and light/wind control. Regarding numerical proportions, the average ratio of the total built area to the central space area in the Chahar Sofehtype was almost twice the Hozkhaneh type. One reason for this difference is the fact that building elements have decreased in Hozkhaneh but remained intact in Chahar Sofeh. Also the ratio of the height of the central space to the height of the building wings was correlated with roofing type, span width, ventilation type, number of building wings, etc. regarding changes in plan, it was proved that additional spaces or modules were added or merged with the core layout, and during this geometric tranfomation in plan, Hozkhaneh type underwent less change compared to Chahar Sofeh type.