JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN PLANNING
Year:2019 | Volume:11 | Issue:23|Papers Count:6

Ceaseless increase of energy demand in building sector has become a challenge for designers, which is often combines with some goals like indoor air quality, environmental impact, and building costs. To support designers, building performance simulation is a common technique in development-design stages, however, its implementation in early stages is limited, even though early decisions have higher impact upon final performance and costs of buildings. Architects have to design more energy-efficient buildings due to the requirements of energy efficiency regulations in various countries. There are several simulation tools, which may help designers during the design process, to estimate the thermal performance of the building under consideration. However, architects are reluctant to use these tools for several reasons: they are not user-friendly, need detailed information about the specifications of the building elements, which are not known at the initial phase of the architectural design; building simulation models are time-consuming and the interpretation of the simulation results is difficult for architects. In this paper, we present a method for energy efficiency optimization that can be applied in the initial architectural design process. This method will help architects to select the optimized floor plan regarding the functional, thermal and lighting parameters in the preliminary stage of building design. Here we implement sensitivity analysis and simulation-based optimization in order to optimize the thermal comfort, energy and daylight performance of residential buildings in Tehran. These objective functions were simulated using EnergyPlus and Radiance software programs for individual residential building configurations that were generated by parametric modeling techniques. Two thousand simulations for one hundred building floor plans were performed to create a comprehensive dataset covering full ranges of design parameters. The floor plans were created using an algorithm developed by Eugenio Rodrigues. The algorithm generates floor plans regarding the adjacency and dimensions of the rooms, location, and size of door and window, together with the entrance location. The main distinction of this study compared to the similar researches is including floor plan design as one of the parameters of optimization in the hot-dry climate of Tehran. A residential unit, which is situated on the middle floor of a mid-rise apartment, was selected as the base model. The present study considered building floor plan, building construction materials, glass type, insulation thickness, floor height, WWRs for kitchen, bedroom and living room and color of the floor finishing, walls, and ceiling as design variables to achieve the optimize Energy Use Intensity (EUI), useful daylight illumination, and occupants’ adaptive comfort. A simulation-optimization tool that couples a multi-objective genetic algorithm to a whole-building performance simulation engine was applied in order to find the optimal set of design variables, and finally, the results of the energy and daylight simulations were implemented into a set of regression and simple sensitive analysis equation to predict the most effective variable in each objective. Sensitivity analysis showed that the type of floor planning is most effective parameter for all objectives except that external wall material is an effective parameter for EUI, and occupant comfort and WWR are effective for daylight quality.

It is generally well-known and understood that daylight and view help to create healthy, comfortable, and productive work environments for building occupants. Human can obtain many benefits associated with daylight and view, which are one of the most important reasons to provide sufficient amount of daylight and view in buildings. The perceived value of views through daylight openings such as windows has persisted throughout time. Windows have great perceived and observable commercial value in buildings. Nevertheless, providing daylight and view in buildings should be done in a way that is acceptable to the occupants, so that a balance between energy savings and thermal/visual comfort can be achieved. There is still risk of having low level of comfort perceived by the occupants, particularly in the form of discomfort glare, which can significantly reduce energy savings. Discomfort glare occurs when the eyes have adjusted to a certain general level of brightness, and some annoying, distracting, or blinding light appears within the visual field. Glare can be described in one of three main ways: according to the process that created the glare, according to an individual's perceived degree of glare intensity, and according to the results of the glare. Although the topic of discomfort glare is an important issue in daylight buildings; however, a consensus on the glare indices and their criteria is hard to achieve, since any measured objective values must show a significant correlation with perception of the space occupants. Applicability of the criteria for each glare indices is yet to be determined, considering various demographic and cultural differences and preferences. Many researches are done in laboratory conditions or controlled environments and have not been repeated in field studies. Glare is a subjective phenomenon and many factors can affect its perception. Occupant-based factors can influence individuals’ glare perception. There is little consensus between different studies in varied space types and climates. This research aims to determine the appropriate criteria for discomfort glare in Iran, using high dynamic range (HDR) imaging technique and post-occupancy evaluation. The objectives are to find correlations between various physical variables and glare indices and to obtain the comfort criteria for day-lighting glare in Iran. This paper provides recommendations to determine discomfort glare in daylight space based on high dynamic range image and questionnaire in Iran and compares five different glare indices. Many existing glare indices including DGP (Daylight Glare Probability), DGI (Daylight Glare Index), UGR (Unified Glare Rating), VCP (Visual Comfort Probability), and CGI (CIE Glare Index) focus on evaluating perceived degree of glare intensity. For assessing these indices, a questionnaire was developed and by reviewing the HDR results and the questionnaire, it was determined which criteria is more applicable under different circumstances. It is found that DGP yields the most plausible results. UGR has the highest rate for assessing perceptible glare, DGI has acceptable accuracy for assessing imperceptible glare and the best performance of CGI is in intolerable glare scenes. VCP has the least degree of accuracy in each stage. Thus, VCP is not suitable for use in calculations of daylight glare.

Anything that contributes to the formation of a person's personality is undoubtedly influenced by the environment in which he was brought up. In an educational system, there are many factors that work together to make learning and academic achievement possible for students. Educational space is one of the most influential factors in learning that affects the audience performance and is particularly important among other factors, such as teaching method. Research has shown that the physical environment of schools as a dynamic, viable and influential factor, plays a role in the quality of student education. Therefore, all elements of educational environment should be designed and implemented in order to increase learning skills according to the needs and behavior of the students. Students spend most of their time in school besides home. The physical and mental environment of the school can play an effective role in the process of education and formation of student’ s social role. Cooperative learning is one of the approaches which, as an active teaching method, increases social interaction and effective learning. The purpose of the present research is to analyze student satisfaction with the physical school components with an emphasis on cooperative learning. The most fundamental questions in the present research include these two basic questions: What are the factors affecting the physical environment in order to increase student satisfaction in schools? And what principles should be used to design school space architecture to enhance learning? In this regard, first, the influential components in the educational environment are examined, then the degree of satisfaction with the current status of schools and students' desire for an environment that adapts to participatory learning has been analyzed. The research method is survey with an applied approach, and for analyzing the data, SPSS24 software has been used. The statistical population was selected from 4, 911 secondary school boys in Tabriz, which included 356 students using Cochran formula, and a questionnaire was distributed among students of four schools from 10 regions of the city, using clustering method. The analysis was based on students' dissatisfaction with the physical environment, and students requested architectural spaces based on learning and cooperative activity. The results showed that the average satisfaction level with the physical school environments is lower than the society average, and also the physical structure of the schools is not suitable for cooperative learning and is in an unfavorable situation. Finally, the results of the research suggest that creation of spaces with flexible and social geometry and furniture, attention to color, visual appeal, environmental comfort and green space is important for creating a suitable space for students. Therefore, it can be concluded that the elements that constitute the environment of schools are effective in the learning process and attention to the variables mentioned in the design is completely necessary. Besides, if physical environment of the school has favorable conditions for participatory learning, the level of satisfaction and interest in learning will increase in students and education will be properly achieved.

The status and importance of the urban development plans and their evaluation through various methods is still an outstanding challenging issue in the academic and practical settings. Plan quality evaluation is known as an emerging methodology for assessing the quality of plans. It typically evaluate plans in relation to whether they contain certain desirable features, and aims to answer questions about the suitability of plans, applying methods and theories of planning, their strengths and weaknesses related to the ideal situation in different fields. During the past two decades, researchers have been able to formulate conceptual consensus based on the preliminary principles of plan quality. The purpose of this study is to introduce concepts and methods for plan quality evaluation describing an appropriate systematic conceptual model in order for quality evaluation of urban development plans in Iran, so that planners, while knowing the appropriate content of the plans, can try to carry out further research focused on specific topics and fields. It should be mentioned that the method used in this study is an explanatory overview. As the theoretical foundations, different methods and studies related to the subject have been comprehensively investigated and analyzed, consequently, the suitable "model and method" for evaluating the quality of urban development plans in Iran is clearly explained and adjusted to the whole country. In this research, six main stages for content analysis of the plans were clearly described including (1) determining the subject of evaluation, the level and scope of the research, explaining the conceptual model, identifying and determining the main features of the plan; (2) making a protocol composed of components, criteria and items (questions and items) related to each feature; (3) determining the method for scoring items in the protocol; (4) coding principles and methods; (5) checking the reliability of scores; and (6) interpreting, analyzing and comparing of plan quality scores. Additionally, due to the clarification of the concepts and theoretical framework and the literature review of the plan's quality, in order to explain the conceptual model of the comprehensive plans quality in Iran, the provisions of the definitions, requirements and methods of (rational) comprehensive planning, the description of contract services for the development plans (type 12), laws, guidelines, approvals and opinions of researchers, experts and critics of urban development plans, the results and content of studies on evaluation of plans in Iran were widely utilized. Finally, a conceptual model was designed with 10 main components (i. e., fact base, analysis and inference, preparation of plans, implementation, inter-organizational coordination, participation, presentation, monitoring and evaluation, planning methods, sustainable development). This conceptual model can be both a guide and a checklist for planners to improve the content of their plans and identify the strengths, weaknesses and shortcomings of them. Last but not least, this study motivates researchers to appropriately apply this conceptual model or counterpart models to their research topic for the purpose of initiating and extending studies on the quality of plans in Iran.

The request for systematic data on the performance of public and nonprofit programs continues to increase across the world. For meeting this demand, policy evaluation applies social sciences research methods, especially political sciences to find the impacts of policy interventions systematically in order to improve social welfare through policy adaptations. Program and policy evaluation is a valuable learning strategy for increasing knowledge about the basic logic of policies, and the policies activities under way as well as about the results of policies. It may include constant monitoring of a program as well as one-shot studies of policy processes or policy impacts. The used approaches are based on social science research methodologies and professional standards. In Tehran, the capital our country, some factors such as the concentration of decision-making and decision-taking activities, production and service activities, and also activities related to public welfare, and state-funded large-scale investments have led to the problems caused by these concentrations such as lack of urban services, different types of pollutions, social problems and the potential risks of natural disasters. In this situation, public policy-making mechanism from the 1960s has adopted the policy of organizing the concentration of population in Tehran and several decisions have been made in relation to this policy. The main question in this paper is how to propose a public policy evaluation framework and apply it to analyze the success and failure of the population concentration organizing policy in Tehran over a specific period of time. To answer the above questions, a three-stage process has been designed and applied; in the first stage, using the indexing method, which transforms the concept of policy evaluation into detectable elements, a policy evaluation framework/ design is proposed. An evaluation design identifies what questions will be answered by the evaluation, what data will be gathered, how the data will be analyzed to answer the questions, and how the subsequent information will be used. This paper is focusing on evaluating the conceptualization of the given policy. In the second stage, related decisions affecting the organization of concentration of population and activities in Tehran are reviewed by tracking the legal texts and planning documents, which indicates the elements of the policy of organizing the concentration of population in Tehran. These include both urban and regional planning and sectorial policies documents and texts. In the third stage these traced documents have been analyzed using the proposed policy evaluation framework and the results of the policy evaluation have been reported. The final result of this paper is that although the policy of organizing population and activities concentration in Tehran from 1960s until now has positive impacts in terms of its goals, it has some shortcomings in terms of its conceptualization including unintended side effects, taking unachievable goals, not being internally coherent and not being consistent with policies in other policy fields.

Bazaar in historical Iranian city has a function as a living urban structure weaving the urban elements and residential neighborhoods while maintaining its own existence and integrity, and providing functional and cultural services to the city. Due to the impacts of physical, social and economic urban transformations, and despite its all unique characteristics, the historical bazaar in todays’ Iranian city has been neglected and uninhibited, losing its fundamental role as an integrated whole and functioning only as a historical monument of the urban form. This paper aims to deeply investigate the principles of physical integration of the historical bazaar through its physical characteristics and qualities. The research method is developed in two phases: (1) desk study was used to explore the basic and current literature of urban form related to physical integration and for the text analysis; qualitative content analysis was applied developing a conceptual framework; and (2) physical integration of two important historical bazaars of Iranian cities (Kerman and Shiraz) was investigated according to the proposed conceptual framework through updated maps and historical documents of two bazaars using observation technique. The results indicate that the physical integration of the historical bazaar has three dimensions as follow: (1) morphological integration comprising of element-whole inter-dependence, linkage of positive urban spaces, gradual growth through hierarchical organization, and permeability; (2) visual-aesthetic integration consists of visual qualities of Iranian architecture and urban form, and space heterogeneity; and (3) functional integration comprising of hierarchical movement systems, respecting the context and mixed uses and hybridity. The analysis of the physical integration in Kerman and Shiraz bazaars indicates that Kerman bazaar is in better situation in terms of morphological and visual-aesthetic integration than Shiraz bazaar. However the functional integration of two bazaars has vanished and their roles as an economic-social structure of the traditional city have been lost. Both Bazaars can’ t afford to adapt new needs and lifestyle of the citizens, leading to downturn, abandonment, or even demolition of their buildings. Now, Kerman and Shiraz bazaars offer only few local goods and handicrafts, as well as being heritage buildings and structures that are historical-cultural tourist destinations, and function only as historical monuments of the urban form. As a result, the physical integration in Kerman historical bazaar has been maintained in some parts due to the preservation of morphological and aesthetic characteristics of bazaar and its elements, resulting in its perception as an integrated organism. Taking all into account, this research concludes that physical integration has multiple dimensions which should be maintained and preserved simultaneously through conservation and improvement of physical characteristics and qualities of the built environment in order to reach the physical integrity of the historical bazaar as a whole. The research findings have implications for urban regeneration programs and plans in the historical fabric of Iranian cities. The spatial-structural role of the historical bazaar should be stated in these programs and plans in the format of design guidelines and principles.