INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
Year:2012 | Volume:1 | Issue:3|Papers Count:10

Urbanization is still one of the social themes in developing countries. In China, the rapid process of urbanization and economic growth bring to people not only more opportunities for creating new life and pursuing happiness, but also the challenge to face various and complex social, economical and environmental problems. Among them some are outstanding, like the shrinking plowland devoured by urbanization, the withering of village abandoned by urbanization, the inflating price of house and rent pushed by urbanization, and the severe-completing and fighting for public resources evoked by urbanization. While local dwellers are moving out and the out-comers flooding in, the traditional public context is heavily destroyed, and various environment issues are also emerging. Basing on a survey of Ro. Xihuangcun in Beijing, China, this article has made a near analysis on public space, trying to cast light on a model in urbanization, and to draw some constructive suggestion and solution to this selected area as well.

This paper intends to highlight one of the key concerns of housing designers i.e. the influence of open space on human satisfaction as well as their attachment to a particular place. Consequently, neighborhood open spaces with their meaningful layout seem to be constituent elements of residential complexes. Although, architects and designers try to create qualitative areas among buildings, the function of open spaces has not fully been defined yet.As such, the current research aims not merely to elaborate on the role of open spaces, rather tries to propose designing criteria for residential complexes. Based on previous researches, the paper has investigated open space characteristics by taking into account Ekbatan residential complex in the west of Tehran metropolis, hence; proposed a model with effective variables. A survey was done after randomly selecting household samples there. Findings demonstrated the principal role of open spaces in the attachment to neighborhood. Security and quietness were the two other important criterions for those residents. Based on these findings, it can be said that the physical attributes play two roles in the neighborhood attachment; first, they facilitate social activities and provide opportunities to develop social attachment and second, enhance architectural attributes including aestheticism and density.

Different world views and philosophies in defining development problems and their solutions derive currently from different disciplines. They refer in many respects to the principle of cause-effect as a fundamental relationship between phenomena. The history of differing values and attitudes presented in management and design indicates the importance of this relationship.This sort of knowledge and some of the values and attitudes needed by built environment professionals can be explored by the Endogenous Development Model and its associated internal paradigms of production-process and supply-demand relationships. The first is responsible for the evolution of thought in a diachronous space-time dimension and the second causes the generation of typologies created in a synchronous three-dimensional space.Particular emphasis is placed on the meaning of development in the context of endogenous people-centred development. The paper addresses the fact that the means of production and the associated supply-demand mechanism are generated in the west. Indeed, for some today, what is seen as the historical process of “Westernization” may well be rejected outright as a goal for developing countries.

Decreasing qualitative aspects of residential environments is a real problem in recent public housing of Kerman. This article is concentrated on surveying the impact of in-between spaces on residential environments quality (REQ), to evaluate different kinds of it and to determine interrelation of two main components: residents' individual characteristics and characteristics of in-between spaces. Levels of in-between spaces include empirical-aesthetic, performance and environmental characteristics to determine degrees of residents' satisfaction (RSAT). Eighteen selected components of in-between spaces quality (ISQ) assess the RSAT degrees in three residential environments of Kerman. Needed data obtained from structured interviews with residents and observation checklists. A direct relationship found between RSAT and ISQ in all three surveyed residential environments.The REQ index is highly and positively correlated with satisfaction of the three levels of in-between spaces and residents' individual characteristics such as ownership and residential period.

This paper is a part of study about the impact of the microclimate on the space use and the user’s behavior’s. The purpose of our study is to get an in-depth understanding of how people use out door public spaces in different climatic conditions, how their behavior and perception of the space change with the climatic variations. We have employed a multi-method approach which combines a “qualitative” and “quantitative” analysis. Three squares were chosen as a setting for either a video observations, climatic measurement and interviews with the users. The whole investigations were conducted one day in winter 2009 and one day in summer 2010. The result of the qualitative and the quantitative analysis revealed that the climate variables played very different roles in predicting the use mode and density of the three squares in the two seasonal periods.

The historian-theoretician Christian Norberg-Schulz, examining the development of his ideas across 30 years. While Norberg-Schulz started out with Intentions in Architecture (1963), a work that was clearly influenced by structuralist studies, he soon shifted to a phenomenological approach with Existence, Space and Architecture (1971), and then with Genius Loci (1980) and The Concept of Dwelling (1985). He attempted through this trilogy to lay down the foundations of a phenomenological interpretation of architecture, with an underlying agenda that espoused certain directions in contemporary architecture. This article will examine the major writings of Christian Norberg-Schulz, critically evaluating his interpretation of phenomenology in architecture in its ambiguous relation to the project of modernity.In addition we will introduce his perspectives on the meaning of dwelling as well as the newest concept of dwelling in the West and its problems

The purpose of this research is to found the impact of built area and occupant number on winter gas consumption in the residential building sector of Iran, Shiraz. Sothe annually and monthly gas consumption data through 19 houses were analyzed to achieve the heating energy consumption and operation month. The average operation months of gas heating consumption were from first of November up to end of April and the average maximum monthly gas consumption of sample houses was in February. On the other hand, the case study houses have different built area from 80 t0 200 m2andoccupant number from 3 to 7 persons. It was concluded that the biggest and busiest houses did not consume the maximum annual gas consumption and so the smallest and low occupant ones about minimum consumption. Therefore, the samples heating consumption was not so related to the built area and occupant number.The occupant culture and behavior was more supposed to be related with energy consumption in residential sector of the city.

The work of architecture is believed to depend on the governing thought in the process of architectural designing. This thought can be analyzed, developed, experienced, and interpreted. Creativity is the only domineering force in the idea of designing which is in quest for freeing architecture from the routine methods, and also finding the novel systems to answer the questions in architecture. Therefore, a special fixed and stable place is considered for creativity. However, the background and history of research and clash of ideas in recent years explains for the change in reconsidering the general ideas, and interpretations on creativity in the process of designing.Today, the approach that considers the process of designing an outcome of responding to the demand on creativity in architecture through logical and analytic methods is no longer credited. Instead, the process of designing is considered in a creative and intuitive way which is metaphysical rather than argumentative. This change in attitude and the relevant interpretations have introduced clear evidence; however, there remain many questions involving the identity and quality of the creative occurrences in the process of designing. Therefore, the intuitive approaches and interpretations about creativity have been so over generalized and complicated that have left a lot of obscurities behind. This article is an attempt to respond to some of these questions by identifying the ways the intuitive creativity occurs and also to present a descriptive stream in the emergence of creativity which means creating ideas only happen according to intuition.

In study of sema and its related architectural spaces in chalabioghlu khanghah, the main goal is to understand the most important principles of spaces formation in the complex.To achieve this goal, at the very first place it’s necessary to study Sema tradition itself in the second step, architecture of the complex should be taken to consideration, both as a whole and in details. Acquiring all these information, it would be possible perspective of how the space was shaped and know the prominent factors in this relationship. Also their functions and relations would be completely clarified, in order to have a proper answer for how Sema had effected the symbolic conformation of the complex. The results will classify the compartments and features which form Khanghah complexes in accordance with different levels of Islamic art, as well as the way function had modified the process of building formation.

Urban form has undergone tremendous changes throughout history. These changes have stemmed from various causes. Technology has been one of the most influential forces in changing the face of cities, leaving different marks on the city form. In fact, technology has gained an increasingly more important and integrative role in bringing changes to the urban form. In addition, recent plethora of developments and advances in various fields of technology more than before necessitates an examination of the relationship between technology and urban form.However, such an inquiry should be based on an understanding of the underlying philosophical and historical foundations underlying such a relationship. Throughout human history, a direct relationship has existed between the philosophical outlook on the world, the view on technology and its application, technological developments and consequently their effects on the city. The first step in understanding the relationship between technological developments and urban form changes and also in explaining the philosophical tenets, underlying urban form changes throughout history, is to realize the nature and philosophy of technology per se. The present study aims to facilitate and present such an understanding in order to broaden the horizons projecting the relationship between technology and urban form.