INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
Year:2011 | Volume:1 | Issue:1|Papers Count:10

Admiration for environment in general needs to be profoundly rooted in an understanding of History. Urban history is unique not only in the fact that it reflects climate but also in that it cuts across many different fields. In most schools of urban studies many aspects of science and technology are taught with relation to design in order to attain skills for practice. During a student's later career they may not lead to a respect for environment, and do not lead in particular, to an understanding of energy issues and climatic impacts on urban form. The aim of this paper is to stimulate the environment consciousness of urban history instructors as well as researchers. It demonstrates similarity in spatial aspects of settlements differing in cultures and tradition but similar in environment. The examples range from ancient to present day urban configurations.

The aim of this paper is to review the created problems and failure of environmental design patterns in designing process by designers. Not respectfully addressing the context of environment during designing process have resulted in the loss quality of environment, damage to both nature and essence of environment as manifested in the case study area. Methodology of the research was based on the qualitative methods, which includes content analysis (aerial photos, maps), observation of the environment, and documentation. Building styles and the general build environment were analyzed in both traditional and new forms styles. Findings of research have identified that the rate of morphological and geomorphology changes is relatively fast which physically resulted in the lost of the natural terrain forms. This process has also impacted the view and vista of the area and the beauty of the place. New forms of housing and villas have been built according to marketing demands although they may be in harmony and in congruence with the traditional form of housing and also character of the existing environment. Conclusions of the research go toward establishing elements and components of the build environment as a basic for creating design guideline in designing the environment, which in this instance should be to produce a coherent and in connectivity with the environment via design. This guideline include these issues: (a) form of building, (b) materials, (c) position and location of placement, (d) density and massing, (e) land form and harmony with context, and (f) composition.

Technology affected human life in many ways in different eras of mankind history. Today, the information and telecommunication technology has revolutionized basic structures of human life. Changes are from the whole to the parts and vice versa, which include family and society too. Family lost its former structure in the information age and differentiated from patriarchy family. Societies have been formed based on logic of networking and new network societies are predominant form of our societies with their advantages and flaws comparing with the traditional societies. Basic concepts of the life i.e. space and time also have been transformed and living in space of flows and concurrency of functions require a special structure or body. Architecture constitutes the body of our societies which must meet physical and mental needs of humankind. In a transforming world, architecture is connecting ring between society and surrounding environment, previous traditions and future world, which its borders between reality and virtuality are very close. Architecture with a global-local approach can assist human who is wondering in the virtual world to redefine its own identity and finds its position in labyrinth of global networks and also safeguards his survival via respecting nature and paying attention to sense of place as one of the principles of vernacular and traditional architecture. Technology has affected on the architectural design, leading to creation of new shapes and distinct erections. Architectural design by employing networks and collective intelligence, overcome temporal and spatial limits and became a collective activity. Architecture by creating spaces according to global, regional and local considerations and emphasis on principles of design supported by collective intelligence and strengthening bonds among the human, nature and technology, will act as a panacea which will heal crisis of identity and cultural multitude, the crisis that storm out human body and soul in our present stressful world.

The concept of place and the necessity of understanding the plan and thus the reality of architecture has always been an important issue for architects. The mental and psychological effects of architectural frames on human beings have been considered from the early shelters to today's modern structure. Since the human behavior is performed in defined spaces, it is necessary to design the physical space based on people’s behavioral characteristics.In this paper, different perspectives on the relation between psychology and architecture as an interdisciplinary plan in two areas of perception and planning are studied. First, some general concepts and principles are presented and then an attempt is made to integrate the two. The main purpuse is to study how the designed environment by man affects his mind and soul in terms of function, form and other factors and also how the architecture is affected by controlling the behavior and individual as well as social motivation based on the principles of environmental psychology. Establishing optimum relations between man and his designed environment is the main objective of this study.

Like other developing countries, Iranian cities are growing and expanding physically at a high speed. For aboutfive decades, the only policy of the urban development plans in the field of urban growth management has been definition of the Urban Growth Boundary (U.G.B.) which is still used without any major modifications. Despite the slight evidences indicating the ineffectiveness of the current policy, there has not been any assured and agreed alternative yet. Today, the waves of new urbanism and other modern paradigms have urged temptations of making fundamental changes in the definition of urban growth boundary. Through an analytic framework, this research investigates the effectiveness of some of the most basic carriers of urban growth in 11 sample cities (each of them introducing one type of Iranian cities). The results of this analysis will illustrate a new vision- a native one - for alternative policies of urban growth management in Iranian cities.

Today, most of the big cities or metropolises around the world have been encountering with the problem of informal habitation. The present study, thus, tries to focus on the role of endogenous development in such type of habitation process. For that matter, the paper takes into account architectural programming and urbanism as its theoretical framework because the endogenous development is related to new ways of architecture and urbanism.For a society, exogenous or vertical development and Endogenous or people are two main developmental processes. The current study tries to show as how the endogenous development solves the informal habitation problem. At first, the study analyzes the meaning of habitation, exogenous and endogenous development and then determines how the endogenous development, which is based on sustainable development, help peoples deal with their problems. The methodology applied in this study is analytical, combined with qualitative (from the case study to the theory) and quantitative (from the theory to the case study) researches. Explaining seven factors, the study concludes that the endogenous development has key role in solving the informal habitation problems.

What is called the problems of Tehran metropolis now a days, is deep- rooted in the policies of urban planning in our country. Since not far past up to now, immigration from all over the country to Tehran, irregular growth of urban population, inconsistency with urban infrastructure development, environmental pollution and low quality of living areas, erosion of self -growing fabric in most areas which get erosion very quickly due to not being benefited from minimum constructional standards, service and urban infected organ are all those problems that a city such as Tehran is confronted with. These cases caused that the greatest growth center of the country loses its capability of attracting the possibilities and parameters needed for efficient development and due to heavy pressure imposed by other towns and villages, this city is now suffering from serious problems which only by allocating extra budgets and additional funds, may be temporarily decreased. The topics which will be discussed in this article are those problems arisen from immediate neighborhood of two heterogeneous fabrics which have not been properly paid attentions to. So it has been tried in this article to address the heterogeneity in Tehran, caused by economic and social problems. In this article different aspects of the issue from urbanization viewpoint with analytical approaches and the existed challenges have been addressed.

Experiences from urban development plans and assessments of their concrete and tangible results in the past decades indicate lack of adequate success of our urbanization system to responding needs of our citizens. This has resulted in need to find a fundamental solution to transforming the centralized system into decentralized. Recent changes in regard to a change of approach from master plan to strategic planning has resulted in an increased sensitivity with regard to enhancement of urban management in addition to the opinion that strategic planning is not in itself a credible replacement for technocratic master planning (top-down) and is not on its own sufficient for sustainable development. In this article, we employ methods of actualization and content analysis to compare the common features of two issues in Iran and subsequently, with an emphasis on correction of structure of urban management system, the concepts of participation of citizens, government, private sector and civic society and enhancement of "good urban governance" with "strategic planning approach" are discussed as keys to the question of solid development. "Public participation in decision-making, accountability, equity and efficiency", defines both fundamental principles of good urban governance and characteristics of strategic planning and is essentials of a constant environmental, social and economic development.

The idea of drawing secure cities from the view point of Islam is a new and fundamental research into realizing the elimination of the insecurity-producing factors and creating the grounds for emergence of security in cities. Development of science and technology, with all positive changes it has induced, has not helped security of cities. The reports by reliable world organizations demonstrate that ever-increasing growth of threats of natural calamities, violence, crime, juvenile delinquency, marginal dwelling, and expansion of poverty are all against safety and security of cities. Need to security, among other things, is of higher importance. In the planning and urban development system, proofing against natural disasters and struggling against human-induced insecurity have not led to security in cities. Continuation of this process, too, will not result in improvement of security in cities. Holy Qur’an considers the bad deed of people as the cause of insecurity and natural disasters and sees the good deed a ground for realization of secure cities. From this viewpoint, change in behavior and social norms on the basis of Qur'anic teachings will lead to elimination of insecurity and realization of security in cities. The direct relationship between natural calamities and human acts and deed is a new idea and perspective in the arena of urban management.

The main sources of all natural light are the sun, the moon and the stars. In other words, the principle source of illumination is the light as mediated by atmosphere. According to some philosophers, spiritual and holy light include not only material and quantified aspect, but because of non-physical properties it treats as a spiritual connector between God and man. The light is the main part of existence which not only contacts to the surface of objects, but also helps them to form. Light is the key of finding space fundamental in making holy places meaningful. This paper tries to make a comparative analysis about the role of the light in some of most famous sacred buildings around the world. As such, the methodology preferred in this piece of research is based on descriptive, analytic and comparative method.