JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN PLANNING
Year:2020 | Volume:12 | Issue:27|Papers Count:6

The high-rise residential buildings are among the contemporary architectural phenomena, which are multilateral and interdisciplinary phenomena. The question of this research is how to make sense of these buildings. The high-rise residential buildings can be a reflection of social discourses and the impact of cultural-social factors on understanding the meaning. This study was performed in order to understand some part of the cultural and social meanings of high-rise residential buildings, which this paper present them as one of the semiotic sources of social and cultural discourse after interviewing with Tehrani’ s citizens. For this purpose, three groups were considered for this study according to multiple indices in 22 regions of Tehran Municipality after examining high-rise construction in Tehran, i. e. Group A: District 1, Group B: District 2, 3 and 6, and Group C: District 22. This research has been performed within post-structuralist cognitive paradigm, by qualitative approach and using discourse semiotics method. The research is descriptive-analytical in terms of type of results and is theory-based in terms of purpose. The analytical method in this study is discourse analysis, relativistic as well as post-probing reasoning method, and data collection was done using library and field study method. Interview data is investigating social interaction by natural data. Tehran’ s citizens are tower residents, tower management, tower neighbors and real estate consultants which are target group of the research. This study is aimed to find some part of social and cultural meaning, and to study the effect of citizens’ discourse on reading architectural meaning using discourse semiotics. Accordingly, with the discourse analysis tools, it is possible to understand the meaning of the residential towers in Tehran within discourse distribution and discourse order. This study showed that citizen discourse analysis has two implications; first, the family's social position in high-rise residential buildings indicate a particular focus in semantic, second, in connection with the community and urban community, there is a common opportunity for architecture. Based on this study, the faç ade of the towers shows the preferences of residents, their life style and social identity. The residential high-rise building is an area where the separation is continuous and, the faç ade of the towers can be the tool of such separation. Social groups also have their own manifestation and signification of the faç ade of these buildings, and here it becomes a realm for differentiation of groups. Although the faç ade is not created by the person and the inhabitants, it is chosen by them and according to their social perspective and is manifestation of their cultural system. On the other hand, the faç ade represents the probable preferences of residents. Architectural and conventional identity manifestation can be seen in some of the limited samples from Tehran residential towers. The classic Iranian pattern is a fusion of social characteristics and characteristics of Iranian architecture, while in most cases, these are not in accordance with the characteristics of the Iranian house and a Tehrani family.

Boosting users’ attendance of open urban spaces depends on those qualitative features that enhance their feelings of security. According to theoreticians, the dwelling is happened somewhere to achieve an individual’ s calmness. However, it is often the case that our dwellings and urban spaces do not provide this level of calmness. In this paper, the authors try to define the role of securing privacy on achieving the aforementioned qualities. Based on the theoretical foundations of the dwelling (according to Schultz), these qualities define the practical, theoretical and poetical aspects of the dwelling with the aim of providing comfort, calmness and imagination thus enhancing the overall quality of the dwelling. This research aims at determining the rate of enhancing the qualities of the dwelling by the effectiveness of “ achieved privacy” . This is achieved by extracting data which indicate the rate of achieved privacy as well as data which present qualitative levels of presence. The research then aims to define the relationship between these two main factors. Users organize the environment and follow privacy mechanisms consciously or unconsciously to provide a desirable level of privacy depending on many personal and environmental factors. As a result, psychological security is accomplished. Discovering and utilizing environmental potentials (including elements as a refuge from undesirable vectors such as a shelter or a friend, desirable covering voices, or imaginative and memorable elements, … ) and privacy mechanisms (such as selecting the direction or geometry of position, … ) can help designers in achieving more efficient designed environments. This research is descriptive and analytical. It’ s a correlational research and it draws on surveys. The data has been extracted from non-participant observation and structured interviews; (multiple choice questions-the questionnaire with closed questions). Participants who have taken part in interviews and the people who have been observed were seated around the big pools and fountains of Naqshe Jahan square. The correlation between two main statistical concepts; “ achieved privacy” and “ upgrading levels of dwelling quality” are analysed employing statistical analysis software; SPSS. It shows that achieved privacy has an impact on upgrading the level of a dwelling with 0/406 ratio which indicates that providing privacy is one of the most effective factors to upgrade the quality of the dwelling. Also, the results state that proactive behaviours of defending the territory, which one has been lately claimed to, to define and protect the spatial territory from the outer world, may cause and be effective on achieving privacy and also dwelling upgrade. The proactive defending behaviours are done to expand the borders and have an authentic scope. These behaviours include identification, defence and invasion. also, the rich environment of senses and meanings can help to provide the context for achieving privacy and upgrading the level of the dwelling; Desirable senses help to achieve concentration whilst getting rid of unwanted senses. And as the final result, Meditation and connecting to the imaginary world as a result of isolation from an ordinary life can occur. Which is what Schultz calls the poetic aspect of the dwelling.

The weakening of identity and semantic aspects of housing is one of the most fundamental problems in architecture, which may be due to problems in pedagogy. Thus, using semiotics, as one of the most important factors of meaning is one of the best solutions in promoting meaning in spaces. Semiotics is usable by perception concept and mental images in education of architectural design of dwelling. Literature review shows that research has mostly focused on definition of ‘ meaning’ and ‘ sign’ terms and expression of theories and problems in architectural education. Thus, practical attitude for the concepts of meaning and signs in the process of housing design education is much needed. The first question of this research is “ What are the most important factors of semiotics for meaningful housing design education? ” The second question is “ What is the most important fundamental factor among semiotic elements in design education? ” This research tries to promote the levels of meaning aspects in housing design education by answering these two questions. The most important purpose of this paper is discovery and expression of the elements of meaningful design education using semiotic approach. This is considered for achieving the main goal of promoting identity by paying attention to social culture. This paper uses Delphi technique and document mining research method. These methods are used to explore and collect data from some university professors. The criterion for the number of interviewed professors has been “ theoretical saturation” . Sampling methods include “ random convenience sampling” , “ random theoretical sampling” and “ snowball sampling” . Semi-structured interviews and questionnaires are used as tools for data discovery. According to the results, the most important semiotic factors for meaningful housing design education include: “ design perception” , “ researched-based essence for entire of the design process” , “ user’ s participations in design process” , “ semantic aesthetics” and “ semiotic meanings” . These five elements are the answer for the first question. “ Mental perception” is found to be the most important factor among semiotic elements in design education. The “ design perception” is created by educating meaning layers interaction, based on conformity with psychological aspects of users, in design and conceptualization stages. One of the ways for user’ s participation in design process is using actual sites for connecting students and users for paying attention to user’ s needs. According to professor’ s views, the most important aspect of user’ s participation in design process is known as user’ s assessment in ideation and shaping ideas. “ User’ s participations in design process” is suggested for recognition of site’ s context, for example social culture of users and perception of user’ s needs and designing based on the results of research. The most important elements for creation of “ semantic aesthetics” in students’ views are “ semiotic factors in spatial perception” , “ strong contradictions and distinctions between predicate and subject” , “ exquisite manifestation of open space in housing design” , and “ light based design” . The factors that create the most significant “ semiotic meanings” in design education include: “ positive and negative spaces” , “ pause and move spaces” , “ social culture of the context” , “ historical, symbolic and climatic values” and using “ physical proportions to achieve semiotic form” .

Ideal residential environments must be consistent with human lifestyles as well as be adaptable to human life changes. A study of the perennial changes in the dwelling of the Qashqai tribe showed that modifications have taken place, at the same time as or after specific social changes, to accommodate these changes in their dwelling. Therefore, a systematic study was undertaken to understand why and how showing that subjective meanings play an important role in guiding the physical changes of the dwelling body to accommodate social change. Therefore, according to the nature of the problem, a "qualitative research method" with a "targeted theoretical sampling" and a "means-end model" were used, and changes in the physical features of the dwelling environment were documented through preparing architectural drawings and the diagrams of behavior settings, and the semi-structured interview. According to the objectives of the study, the case of "Qashqai Tribe" was an ideal example for studying social changes and the role of meanings in the changes of dwelling environment, along with cultural integration, in terms of the possibility of changing dwelling features. The findings were analyzed through analytical tables of spatial changes and feature-consequence-meaning diagrams. The features of the built environment are responsive to human subjective meanings. Mental meanings are the most important factors that the environment must respond to. The findings of this study indicate that the features of the built environment are "affordances" at the service of human subjective meanings. The affordances of the environment relate to certain meanings in the human mind and are meaningful to humans, so the important issue is "affordance-meaning adaptation". Meanings are values in the cultural system and affordances are features of the environment. Individuals communicate the meaning and affordances of environmental features and employ the features that afford their meanings. Thus, "affordance-meaning adaptation" is a condition of human mental satisfaction. Man, by virtue of his talent, understands the affordances and uses them according to his capacity to afford mental meaning. Man uses the heuristics of the features of the environment to afford meaning, and if there is no affordance in the environment, creates features that are tailor-made for meaningful accountability. If the affordances of the environments to afford meaning are not efficient in establishing human life events, the features of the environments creating the appropriate affordances will be continuously changed by the meanings. In everyday life, human relationships and social status are constantly changing, therefore, with regard to their mental values and meanings, human beings assess the conformity of existing affordances with the social changes affecting their lives. In the course of evaluation, if the affordances are not adapted to the new conditions, the features of the environment are constantly changing to accommodate changes affecting human life. The charts of "changes-consequence-meaning" of dwellings illustrate that the features of the dwelling environment are continually evaluated for affording meanings, and, if necessary, the spatial features of the dwelling environment are altered in accordance with the social changes of the household to respond to subjective meanings.

The objective of this paper is to discuss the challenges of dominated urban planning intervention (DUPI) in achieving urban planning goals for blighted areas in Iran. Based on theoretical review on considering public services as one of the major goals of urban planning, it is clear that in the profession, the government failure as well as the market failure make planners to adopt new approaches in solving the problem. In this regards, the lack of public services has always been one of the major problems in Tehran, especially in the blighted areas. In spite of large-scale urban reconstruction efforts since the beginning of 2000’ s, there is still a significant shortage of public services in the neighborhoods, although the situation has become more critical due to population growth and increased number of residential units. The main point here is that debates on providing public services is an important discussion nowadays, and it is not just about Iran. Since 1990s, by promoting the ideas of ecological and social sustainability and doctrines of responsive planning (after postmodernism), especially after global financial crisis of 2008 and its economic recession, and exploring ideas of energy saving and usage of information technologies in planning, approaches for development of human settlements have extremely transformed. All dimensions of urban planning intervention are affected by these changes. Facing new causes of uncertainty and a sense of failure in such intervention lead researchers to question consolidated planning methodologies. In this regards collaborations in public interest, values, public participation, equity, and environmental sustainability have become major issues and concerns in urban planning and design. The methodology of this research is based on mixed research method. Through sixteen deep conversations with main stockholders, the six challenges of DUPI of Iran were identified. Therefore, the reasons for impossibility of providing public services in dominated urban planning in Iran were analysed and discussed. The paper consists of a short review on various theories of planning purposes and intends to elaborate the institutional approach as one of the innovative solutions for urban planning discipline which acts desirablely in local conditions and promotes its usage for solving of DUPI challenges. It seems that this approach is significant in urban planning procedurally and substantively for three reasons: as a means (that is, as means of analysis); as and end (that is, as objects of analysis); and as design (that is, as phenomenon to be reformed). Promoting the institutional approach requires a change in the structure of Iran’ s urban planning and recognition of development institutions (such as developers) and defining developmental ethics, based on the recognition of development agencies. The research tries to describe the arrangements of institutional approach as an optimal approach consistent with new trends in Iran urban development. The case study, which was discussed in this paper, was an important statement of government for intervention in Tehran blighted areas. This pioneer project was considered to be implement by a developer (the private sector) under government supervision. Finally, based on theoretical debates of this paper, the case study was critically assessed and suggestions were made to strengthen its institutional approach.

Recent developments and the pace of construction in cities and subsequent urban disruption call for a more accurate look at the issue of townscape and, at a smaller scale, the urban faç ade and cityscape. One of the important elements of the urban landscape is urban bodies. Urban bodies are among the most effective elements affecting the quality of urban spaces, the modification of which can increase the quality of the visual landscape of the city. The constitutive surfaces of each body are called "faç ade", which is the most important vertical element of urban landscape. In the meantime, the street view should be considered as one of the main components of urban bodies. Codification a visual landscape management framework for urban bodies is of particular importance and should be proportionate to various components such as context, physical conditions, and land-use type. However, unfortunately, by looking at the bodies of most of the country's metropolises such as Tehran, it becomes clear that these views are not in good condition, especially in terms of aesthetics. What can be seen in Tehran, much more than the desirable features, are the problems of the urban landscape. This issue needs serious investigation and action. On the other hand, the existing practical approaches of urban landscape design only aim for organizing of urban faç ades. Hence, one of the biggest problems is how designers ignore the three-dimensional approach to urbanscape while considering the two-dimensional view and provide cosmetic-decorative solutions. Therefore, in this research different analytical tools of urban faç ades and the way they can be applied have been introduced. Since the comprehensive faç ade analysis must evolve a 3D output, the techniques are studied to reveal the principles, faç ade levels, measurement tools, and the applicable software. So, the purpose of this study is to explain the importance of faç ade analytical studies in urban design and to identify factors affecting their design, as well as to introduce faç ade analysis and modeling techniques. In this paper, we try to study the factors affecting cityscapes, to develop a conceptual-analytical framework of the relationships among these factors to present appropriate analysis techniques, methods, and software related to it. Therefore, the present study, with an applied-analytical approach and subject-oriented development, while analyzing the urban faç ade holistically and comprehensively and explaining the types of it based on location and uses, formulates and introduces its analysis techniques. As a result, a comprehensive analytical toolbox and up-to-date techniques, and the way each one could be applied in the analysis process, evaluation, and design of the urban faç ade and cityscape are presented to the experts with a succinct introduction of the software associated with each of the faç ade factors. Finally, an example of faç ade modeling is presented based on “ inverse modeling of faç ade layout” to demonstrate the power of applying modern techniques over traditional and manual analysis. This allows for a combination of modern and traditional approaches to take advantage of both.