Soffeh
Year:2001 | Volume:10 | Issue:31|Papers Count:10

During the past few decades the theoretical fundamentals of regional development have been widely discussed. However in most cases these theories have merely focussed on a certain single aspect of development and environment through theoretical approach and models. The aim of this article is to put foreward a homogeneous and multi-dimensional regional development. It aims to discuss coherently and comprehensively the areas of "sustainable development" systemic view of planning! Endogenous development and peoples participation. It needs to emphasize that the present study in fact is a general conception which with no doubt could be corrected and developed by experts.

The Muslim city can be studied in different respects either in terms of single elements and spaces, or in terms of the city as a whole. A subject importance in planning, the role of nature in the city may be analyzed in terms of the interaction between natural and built environment, the relationship between Man and Nature, and the natural phenomena. This article focuses on the subject of "the garden" in explaining the impact of natural elements on Islamic urban development; based on the limited definition that "the garden" refers to a single unified combination of natural and man- made elements, where the natural elements are selected by Man and arranged in a certain composition along side man-made elements. The garden such defined, includes a variety of urban open spaces- residential or public courts, parks, enclosed green spaces in the city as well as open spaces surrounding public buildings and containing natural elements.The characterisitic of nature, its elements and impacts on human life can be generally studied from two points of views. The former considers physical, environmental, and biological aspects common in all societies, while the latter concerns the symbolic meaning of natural elements and their response to specific psychological and spiritual needs. This article primarly treats the second aspect.

An important part of tangible cultural heritage consists of historical monuments- in particular religious buildings which symbolize a certain art and cultural attitude. The heritage is not only considered sacred by the community of believers in that faith, but it is also a key to understanding ethnic characteristies of that society for the outsider. Since in most societies-especially in the ancient society- religion plays the key role in all aspects of social life, religious architecture studies will significantly contribute to understanding the social life and cultural aspirations. Some valuable samples of religious architecture which belong to prominent ancient faiths are found in Middle East and Mesopotamia, although many of these are now abolished. Yet ironically, for the pioneering monotheistic faith of the Jewish people still in practice today, there are no remnants of architecture which could he ranked parallel to those monuments.A brief study of the causes reveals several subtle points useful in understanding the formation of any sacred architecture.

U.N called year 1999 "The Universal Year of the Elderly" to attract the world's attention to this age group and to revise the conditions of their life and to remind them of the limitations caused by old age which sooner or later happens to anyone. We are facing with an increase in the number of active alert old people in our country, though, it is not comparable with the rate of growth in the developed industrial countries. So it is gradually becoming important to prepare the grounds to take this trend into serious consideration. Old age means inevitably accepting a few physical and mental limitations. However since specialized discussions of such limitations are not relevant to this article, we have merely tried to describe this issue very generally and briefly to put forward a few tips in order to make- up for their limitations through making their environment and accommodations suitable for their conditions. The main aim of writing such an article is to mention and analyse the conditions of environment and housing related architecture and designing, under the name "Environmental Specifications". This can be useful to make- up for a large part of the limitations and simplify the process of finding fundamental solutions for a suitable environment for the elderly. The intention of writing this article is to complete the researching projects named "The principles of designing housing suitable for the elderly" done by the "Building & Housing Research Center."

One of the excluded subjects in the frame of programs and designs which are related to built environment such as housing, is a quality discussion, particularly the effect of cultural values. Meanwhile the main attention of housing preparation experts is concentrating mainly on subject and quantity matters, specially economical matters. This article is trying to state and briefly introduce some quality characteristics of desired housing as the honour of cultural values. To gain this aim after the introduction, considering the above characteristics, the criteria's of design and the acquired methods will be titled. 1- Quality characteristics of desired housing. According to the "unitism thought" which is taken from the Islamic Culture, housing is not separatable from the related subjects of human life. One of the most noticeable subject is observing the quality and quantity factors together. So in this part the overall quality characteristics of housing will be considered the meant quality characteristics mostly include those cases which are introduced in Islamic instructions either as housing and living location characteristics or what can have positive effect on quality for human life. 2- Design Criteria's In this part we will talk about the criteria's which by respecting them the stages of programming, designing, and performance, we can collect the opportunity of manifesting, the desired housing for the society who think about the noted quality characteristics. In other word, each of these play their roll in glowing to real meaning of one or more of the noted characteristics. 3- Acquired methods of quality characteristics several human groups such as: designers, programmatic, politicians, manufactures and consumers play their roll, in creating, changing and manifesting, the pattern of housing. This part of this article will point to some cases of related subjects which can be effective on the mental and practical preparation of these groups, in other words, a set of methods will be presented that by putting them in use the possibility of manifesting the quality characteristics of housing will be prepared.

Current educational system in Iran is intended to be taken place in an inner space, namely classroom. However, the architectural pattern of Iranian traditional schools indicates both interior and exterior space taking part in spatial organization of teaching and learning. It appears that the present educational system, which, at implementing level, is confined to an inner space, neglects the functional potential of the central courtyard in traditional schools, on one hand, and lacks the constructive and supportive aspects of modern learning environment, on the other. Moreover, in modern schools a progressive attitudes towards the pupils' Education has led to the appearance of an active learning environment, which facilitates their experience, observation and interaction. These objectives can further be achieved through the architectural pattern presented by Iranian traditional schools, such as the school of Chahar Bagh in Isfahan. The court in these schools plays a significant role in providing an active and interactive learning environment