International Journal of

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Today’s housing, as a private realm of human life, has changed in comparison with the past which was made regardless of quality, desirability, and lack of paying attention to the human needs and its psychological consequences; That is to say, residential units have turned into a set of closed spaces and their open and semi-open spaces have been merged into the urban spaces which disrupted their fundamental functions. In such a situation, reviewing and paying special attention to these spaces together with closed spaces in Tehran is really necessary. But this question is proposed that what are the indicators affecting the quality of open and semi-open spaces in contemporary housing? And how much do they affect the quality of these spaces? This research has a mixed (quantitative-qualitative) method which is applied in terms of purpose, and in terms of data collection method it is of descriptive-analytical and survey type. The statistical population includes 380 inhabitants in residential apartments in the Zafaranieh neighborhood of Tehran. After collecting field information through the questionnaire, the indicators affecting open and semi-open spaces, including: functional, behavioral, physical, environmental, social and perceptual-semantic by using statistical analysis software were analyzed. To investigate the significance of relationship between the mean difference of the scores of the effective indicators, the one sample T-test method and intragroup one-way analysis of variance have been used; the results obtained from the research showed that in the open and semi-open spaces of residential apartments in the Zafaranieh neighborhood, the physical, environmental and behavioral indicators with the mean score of 4.17, 3.52 and 3.22, respectively, have somewhat more favorable and more appropriate situation than other indicators, and currently their efficiency ratio is at moderate limit. However, the functional, social and perceptual-semantic indicators with the mean score of 2.68, 2.57 and 2.21, respectively, are in an unfavorable and inappropriate situation, and their efficiency ratio is at weak limit.

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Housing has always been studied due to its role in the daily lives of humans. This significant issue is a main subject of architectural research. Yet, each study investigates a limited number of factors effecting houses. The main aim of this study is to comprehensively investigate different subjects about housing determined by researchers and experts in Iran and other countries. Having an explicit list of important housing variables can help study the work in this scientific area to a high context and provide researchers with new ideas as well. Heading forward, 187 articles published in 15 Iranian scientific-research journals, along with 276 international papers from 15 Q1 and Q2 journals published in 2013-2017 were investigated. To find out the importance and ranking of each variable, this study, as a systematic literature review, implements Shannon’s entropy method. This methodology is a weighting tool to indicate the amount of uncertainty and challenge of components in a continuous probability distribution. All the factors measured, described or presented are extracted from Iranian and international papers which were respectively 264 and 281 in number. Based on resemblance of the concepts, they were classified in different categories of environmental factors, architectural elements, geometry and proportions, fundamental concepts of architecture, standards and codes, psychological and social concepts. Among these categories, the tangible physical areas including environmental factors and standards and codes have been considered in international papers in a quantitative perspective which should be further explored in Iranian studies. In contrast, qualitative and intangible factors such as the fundamental concepts of architecture and psychological and social concepts, which include variables that require more time to be understood, have been more challenged in Iranian articles. With the use of SPSS and 0.771 Cohen Kappa agreement coefficient and Shannon Entropy tool, in Iranian studies, the components of privacy, culture, area, lifestyle, mental and emotional comfort, satisfaction, security, identity, territory and meaning have been more important, attracted the highest attention, and can be recommended to be addressed in international papers. Whereas, light, ventilation, sustainability, climate, sunlight, temperature, green space, energy consumption, thermal comfort and wind are the most debated factors in international journals and can be focused more in Iranian articles.
 

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The consideration of environmental sustainability has permeated both conscious and subconscious realms throughout history. In the context of Boushehr city's historical architecture from the Qajar period, a myriad of sustainable residential structures attuned to the regional climate, ensuring occupants' thermal comfort, are evident. This sustainability, devoid of adherence to a specific theoretical framework, adeptly caters to the pragmatic needs of the building users. The primary objective of this study is to conceptualize the historical architectural composition of Boushehr, focusing on materials, and to conduct a thermal assessment of two structures, one historic and the other contemporary, within the city. To achieve this goal, a comparative analysis of traditional and modern building materials in Boushehr was executed through the utilization of Ecotect and Energy Plus simulation software, complemented by extensive survey and on-site investigations. The findings of this analysis reveal that traditional building materials, beyond their inherent harmony with the regional climate, exhibit superior physical properties compared to their modern counterparts. While advancements in technology have enhanced the chemical and mechanical attributes of contemporary building materials over time, amalgamating the advantageous physical attributes of traditional materials renders the latter more environmentally sustainable. Despite the fact that rooms constructed with older materials exhibit a higher average monthly temperature than those utilizing modern materials, the diminished heating and cooling loads of the former contribute to positioning older residential structures as closer approximations to a more sustainable archetype.