Soffeh
Year:2001 | Volume:11 | Issue:32|Papers Count:7

Now that -deo favente- Soffeh enters its tenth years of publishing, it is a good opportunity to mention two points to our readers. The first is that ten years ago some of us never imagined that Soffeh with its limited size and resources could survive for more than a few issues. Despite the shear necessity for scientific research in architecture two important facts were the causes of this doubt: 1- The "conventional" style of reading in architecture usually starts with a glance at pictures and drawings and in most cases it stops just there. 2- To enter a competition with colorful presentations of international journals is by no means an easy challenge. Fortunately the ten years lifetime of Soffeh demonstrates that the architects who are not simply satisfied with mere visual pleasure and who search for a deeper understanding are not few. For them the superficial appearance of a publication is not an essential feature. The second point is that while Soffeh aims at applied, research in architecture and planning in. order to address the current problems, it has intentionally avoided hurried solutions in a pragmatic gesture. The resultant of the two approaches has guided Soffeh towards introducing the basic elements for problems solving, rather than offering final simplified solutions that will cause more problems in the long run. The readers can find the solution by themselves; and the community will benefit from the "common intellect". Now it should be sincerely admitted that Soffeh has gone only half the way in this direction, as there are two prerequisites to this end: 1- More rapid delivery of fundamental papers in all fields related to architecture and planning; and 2- A contextual structure, which not only provides an easy access to information, but also determines the key issues not addressed. On the former, owing to the present potential, it is now clear that it is necessary to publish four issues a year instead of two. Hopefully this will soon be realized thanks to the contributions of our academician colleagues and the readers.  On the latter, to develop a scientific contextual structure for indexing Soffeh articles and publishing a collection of articles in a volume is already on the agenda. For the time being, the table presented in the appendix will hopefully serve our readers.

Quality is one of the central concepts in urban design knowledge and profession - naturally with a great theoretical and practical significance. Apart from theoretical importance, due to quality crisis currently experienced in most Iranian urban environments, quality has become a serious question from a practical point of view. Many officials, academicians, and practicing urban designers have increasingly expressed their concerns over lack of quality in urban design of the country. However, due to equivocal and elusive nature of the concept of Quality, so far there seems little consensus among the diverse views. To provide a common understanding of urban design quality, it seems as if some theoretical clarification of the concept is needed. This paper aims at inquiring the concept of urban design quality, by developing a theoretical framework to explain the concept, identifying its components. The paper consists of five major parts. First, the concept of Quality is etymologically discussed. Next, the concept is examined in terms of "modes of existence". Then, a review of the literature on the notion of "good" urban design and the qualities concerned is presented and the criteria applied in a number of urban design checklists is examined and the results are reported. Finally, the paper concludes that: 1- Urban design quality could be effectively explained by means of an enhanced version of Canter's (1977) pioneering "place" paradigm as suggested by this study and entitled "Sustainable Place Model"; 2- Urban design quality comprises three components namely "experiential-aesthetic quality", "functional quality", and "environmental quality".    

Deprivation, diverse border conditions, and the number of neighboring countries demand immediate planning for developing an adequate national plan of action. Nevertheless, good planning takes into account the experiences of other countries which have found solutions to the border problem. The border situation between the former East/West Germany - treated in this article – is one of these experiences. The lessons of that experience can be effectively used for planning in border regions of Iran. Major lessons of that experience include: the necessity of understanding the complexity of the problem; providing the necessary conditions and infrastructure for development; solutions for underdevelopment and serclusion of border regions; and employing special aid and support policies for development in all respects.

The paper aims at analyzing civil defense planning in an age of modern and ultra- modern armaments. In the middle ages, fortifications were the usual form of defense appropriate for the weapons of their time. Nevertheless, new approaches were adopted in civil defense planning after the evolution of military technology and emergence of military engineering. Civil defense planning and shelter has been treated adequately in some developed countries as a response to modern and ultra-modern weapons. The article presents a proposal for civil defense and shelter provision in Iran, on the basis of a vast survey of defense types.    

Architecture deals with different aspects of knowledge: the building Technology on one hand, the psycho-physiological characteristics of the human being on the other. At the same time it deals with the sensational field of art. It not only explores the syntactic material world, but also searches the semiotic domains of interpretation, as well. It is in fact a multi-faceted, multi-dimensional phenomenon. That is why "to do architecture" requires a vast knowledge of different sciences. This article is a general introduction to the diverse sciences necessary for architects, while explaining some of the new sciences recently applied to the theory of architecture and probably not well-known in Iranian schools of architecture. It is hoped that the subject is further explored in other articles.

To design a mosque is doubtlessly one of the simple, yet intricate problems in architecture. Simple, as the mosque does not have a complex spatial composition; intricate, because its perceived logical beauty necessitates a deep understanding of diverse fields of knowledge. The article enters the field of environmental psychology in quest of designing an appropriate environment for the basic prerequisite of prayer, i.e. contemplation, although the article intentionally concentrates on a single semiotic dimension of the mosque, but it is hoped that the findings will be useful for partial understanding of the logical aesthetic system in the "House of Lord".