Soffeh
Year:2013 | Volume:23 | Issue:61|Papers Count:9

Although primarily based on the Quran and Sunna, the Islamic interpretation of numbers and mathematics is also inspired by the pre-Islamic Persian culture and the Greek philosophy. Therefore, numbers and geometry not only serve the purpose of building sacred monuments, but they also become instruments for spiritual symbolism demonstrating the divine manifestation in creation of the material realm. This symbolism is used by the distinguished theosophist philosopher of his time, Seyyed Heydar Amoli (c. 1322~1382 AD). In his famous book-Jame’-ol-Athrar wa Manba’-ol-Anwar (A Compendium of Ciphers and a Source of Enlightenment)-he employs a fine allegorical language with particular reference to reflection of light in an ornamental mirror finishing. The close association of such mystical interpretations and architectural form lends itself to a hypothetical causality between Islamic philosophy and modes of Persian architectural expression.

This paper is a comparative study of words referring to the external appearance in English and Persian languages as representatives of occidental and oriental thinking. Three types of words are distinguished: (i) those referring to external appearance with no reference to meaning; (ii) those referring to an appearance containing meaning; and (iii) those that refer to meaning in addition to appearance. This study demonstrates that in both studied languages there is virtually no word, which refers exclusively to appearance. Another significant point is that in English, words denotative of a range of meanings are used solely in a single sense. While in Persian, a single word is used to simultaneously signify a range of meanings from material to extramundane. This could be attributed to the occidental preference for exactitude of speech versus the oriental predilection for multifaceted expression. Nevertheless, this difference between languages necessitates an inevitable obliteration of meaning in translation between oriental and occidental languages.

Christopher Wolfgang Alexander (born October 4, 1936 in Vienna, Austria) is an architect noted for his theories about design. He wrote his seminal book titled A Pattern Language to empower anyone to design and build at any scale. More recently, his quest for the nature of order is notable among his writings. In The Nature of Order: an Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe (2003-04), which includes The Phenomenon of Life, The Process of Creating Life, A Vision of a Living World and The Luminous Ground, he puts forth a new theory about the nature of space and describes how this theory influences thinking about architecture, building, planning, and the way in which we view the world in general. The mostly static patterns from A Pattern Language have been amended by more dynamic sequences, which describe how to work towards patterns (which can roughly be seen as the result of sequences). Sequences, like patterns, promise to be tools of wider scope than building (just as his theory of space goes beyond architecture). This paper attempts to review Alexander’s theory in a wider frame encompassing developments in technology as well as those in philosophical thought.

This paper attempts to investigate the impact of School architecture on the formation of high school students’ identity in Yazd City. To this end, the Academic Identity Status Scale questionnaires were used, the validity and applicability of which in Iranian conditions has already been tested. To reduce the impact of the intervening factors, seven schools were selected for survey. The results of the survey were then compared between those schools which had a traditional design and those with a Modern design. This comparison indicates that schools of traditional design provide a better environment for the positive formation of identity than those with a Modern design.

This paper reports the design process for an exposition pavilion using Grasshopper 3D software. This software is a visual programming language developed by David Rutten at Robert McNeel & Associates. It runs within the Rhinoceros 3D CAD application. Programs are created by dragging components onto a canvas. The outputs to these components are then connected to the inputs of subsequent components. Grasshopper is used mainly to build generative algorithms. Many of Grasshopper’s components create 3D geometry. Programs may alsocontain other types of algorithms including numeric, textual, audiovisual and haptic applications. Using a spiral generating curve and changing its parameters such as aperture, the initial snail shape moves towards a limpet. An initial model of the limpet was made with an scale of 1:10. The problems of supports and shape and size of construction elements were solved using this model. Then a 1:1 model was constructed using cardboard elements and a tensegrity support made of three bamboo rods. The full-scale pavilion covered an area of 6 by 8 meters and rose to a height of 2.8 meters. It was designed and built by the students of the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shahid Beheshti University and erected in the central lobby of the Faculty.

Risk management studies have paved the ground for the study of uncertainty in project management, which focuses on the origins of threats and opportunities, instead of focusing on threats and opportunities per se. Stakeholders are key factors in causing uncertainty. This paper attempts to examine the impact of uncertainty in a real case. The Expansion of Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf, Iraq designed by Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shahid Beheshti University is a project that demonstrates the role of a multitude of diverse stakeholders. For the sake of analysis, the Salience Model was chosen amongst eight different models proposed for assessing interest, power and legitimacy of stakeholders. Nevertheless, to include the interactions between different stakeholders, this model was combined with the Network Model. As a result, the key project stakeholders were determined with respect to their impact as the Shrine Guardian, main contractor, donors, terrorist groups, and local contractors. The most important sources of uncertainty with significant impact on cost, time and quality of the Project include the social conditions in Najaf, progress rate and change of officials.

This paper attempts to investigate the role of Iranians in developing the basic mosque patterns. To this end, one of the oldest mosques in Iran is systematically compared to a pre-Islamic monument in the same geographical territory. Tarikhaneh Mosque in Damghan is probably one of the oldest Iranian mosques which later restorations have not changed its basic design or construction methods. It is essentially a colonnaded courtyard. The colonnade becomes deeper adjoining a prayer hall on the south side, i.e. towards the direction of qibla. This mosque is compared to the Sassanid palace of Tappeh-Hesar in Damghan area. All researches have unanimously referred to identical construction methods in both buildings such as foundations, brickwork in columns and walls, vault and arches, decoration of column capitals, etc. This analysis supports the hypothesis that Iranian places of worship and palaces have significantly influenced the design of mosques in later centuries. For example, the somewhat wider middle span in the courtyard of the Tarikhaneh Mosque becomes taller and wider opening (eiwan) in mosques of later periods.