International Journal of

The importance of small urban parks (SUP) in mega cities has been accepted as an essential component of urban lung and restorative settings. As urban population in the world increases and the cost of maintaining large parks escalates, urban authorities are shifting their attention to creating and maintaining smaller urban parks. However, SUP may present a different ambience due to their location, size and visual appearence. In this regard, visual preference which is associated with spatial configuration and content of space, plays a vital role. This research examined 394 respondents’ visual preferences related to 16 SUP located in the city of Tabriz, Iran. It employed a quantitative photo survey method, based on Kaplan and Kaplan's information-processing and Appleton’s prospect-refuge theories as preselected variables by expert panels. Results indicated that mystery, as an indicator of having winding shapes of paths and expansive body of trees, was the most preferred spatial configuration of space, followed by coherence, refuge and complexity. Legibility and prospect as indicators of wide perspective and sky lines with clear focal points were the least preferred constructs. The results provide information on preferred visual configurations for SUP that may assist urban designers and landscape architects to improve their design of these specific green areas for the public.

This paper examines the utility of the air pollution Model (TAPM) in simulating meteorology and dispersion of PM10 and wind data in order to assess The Impacts of Wind Variability Function on Urban Heat Island for the day of 25, November,

2012 in Karaj city that experienced severe degradation in air quality. Drawing, Skew-T diagrams, maps of surface pressure (500hp), omega (850hp) and atmospheric conditions at 300 – 900hp  level are used for analysis. Due to wind patterns, the air pollution behavior is simulated regarding to resolution of 5 km for output amplitude. Simulations of the PM10 and wind data in ten metric levels from three point of city are prepared according to synoptic conditions. Meteorology and PM10  dispersion results indicate that in spite of prevailed wind direction (West to East) in the mentioned day the effect of wind threshold on the air filtration is reduced and heat island formation is occurred as a result of reduction in air flow speed in urban areas. Therefore, it is essential to consider adopted strategies to mitigate urban heat islands such as the principles of bioclimatic architecture,  urban  morphology,  urban  infrastructure-related  measures  (architecture  and  land  use  planning) for  urban planning.

The numerical investigation of computing the rate of radiated solar-energy requires equations as a function of solar-time according to the radiation angle of the sun (β) in the latitude 37°N and the shape. This paper implements the Lagrange interpolation to obtain the equations of normal diagram of elements based on data obtained from surveying. Also the method of Hann-window equation used to estimate the sun path. Albeit, the solar radiation angle effects on the length of element`s shadow on the ground but it is a function of solar-time too. The parameters of the dome traits did compute using the solar-geometry principles in a coexisted function of time to reach a viable equation. The amount of absorbed and wasted energy is presented by analysing its surfaces in the all sides simultaneously. Every single element of BM has been considered to define its especial equation of geometry to analyse their different reactions while transferring energy. Quantitative method of this paper has based on library method of research to define especial equations and field survey to experiment data analysis. According to the mentioned methodology, around 7,54e+4(Kcal.h/m2) solar energy radiate on the BM that its value is equal to around 9,43 (lit/h) energy of gasoil. In other word at least 75,44lit/day fossil energy is saved by the Blue-mosque.

When thinking about traditional Iranian architecture, one imagines extensive ornamental patterns that adorn almost every surface of mosques and other prominent buildings. Yet, many theories of architecture since the beginning of twentieth century have considered ornamentation a superficial and superfluous layer. But, are these ornamental surfaces superficial and can they be removed so easily? This paper uses a qualitative research methodology based on theoretical cross examination and critical analysis to highlight the significance of surface and appearances in architecture and argue that formulating a strategy to adorn architecture is in fact the generating gene of every architectural movement, from Modernism to Postmodernism and even to Parametricism of recent times. By setting up a philosophical and a theoretical discourse about the notion of surface and the various metaphors used in architectural theory, this paper concludes that from the woven walls of first architectural spaces to the clothed walls of modern times, surfaces have played a sacred role in architecture, and rather than being superficial barriers that mask reality, they are indeed the very materials with which architects demarcate space and create new aesthetics.

Due to audiences’ diversity, local cultural spaces have the highest share in residents’ mass life. Therefore, these spaces are the necessary environment for social relations and face-to-face communication of residents of urban area. If these are well qualified, welfare would be promoted. This study aims at identifying and evaluating factor influencing quality of local cultural spaces and aims to recognize and prioritize the factor using AHP analytical hierarchical process so as to promote them. This applied study has a descriptive-analytical basis with a population of 75 experts in urban planning and cultural matters and academic staff used as participants. First, the quality criteria of cultural space was determined based on the 4 main criteria and 26 sub-criteria in a hierarchical tree. Then experts were asked to score the major and minor criteria and specify their priorities based on paired comparisons. Applying the Expert Choice which implements the AHP, the weights of each criterion and sub-criterion were estimated respectively. Finally, according to the study’s aim, priorities were determined. The results obtained showed that the physical criteria, weighting 0.557, got the first priority and it was followed by social (0.162), economic (0.148) and environmental (0.133) criteria which got the second to the fourth rank. The sub-criteria affecting the "quality of cultural spaces" of the physical structure included safety, human scale and availability.

One of the main architectural characteristics in the central area of Iran is the relation between life and climatic conditions; e.g., the four-seasonal house which is a typical kind of the central-yard house. As the climate of Isfahan is more pleasant than other desert regions in the central part of Iran, wind towers are replaced with skylights to ventilate the pool area of hoze-khane. So far, several researches have been carried out to study the stack effect characteristics and to review wind tower performance. In this paper, a case study is carried out to investigate the effect of the skylight of Mosaver-al-Molki house on the flow pattern and natural ventilation. The performance of skylight on the internal air flow patterns as an effective tool in improving the natural ventilation is investigated by using the Ansys Fluent software. Other elements which have been discussed in this paper are the vault and the columns. These elements have a distinguished effect on distribution of inlet streams in different parts of the hoze-khane. Analysis of the simulation results were obtained for wind velocities of 2.5 m/s and 8 m/s. The numerical results show that wind speed of 2.5 m/s has better performance than wind speed of 8 m/s in terms of ventilation.

As a medium between people and the city, urbanscape makes a mental connection between individuals and their surroundings. It is usually difficult to conceive this mental relationship and its corresponding processes with usual methods. This study seeks to address the mental aspects of urbanscape and highlight its role and importance by using an innovative method.

In this study, map-based methods have been examined as one of the most effective tools for studying citizens’ urbanscape. Indeed, using maps provides a tangible model of the city and its spatial imagination by mapping people’s perceptions. In order to achieve the hidden layers of people’s perceptions, a combination of map-based methods have been examined in the study of Ferdowsi Square in Tehran.

First, 50 questionnaires in which interviewees were asked to draw remarkable element of the area were conducted (Cognitive map). Second, people were asked to mark the places that are meaningful for them in a provided map of the area and describe the reason (narrative map). Finally, the results of the former step as evaluative meaning were measured in investigated area (evaluative map). As the result, collective images completed by narrative maps and 4 categories of meanings attributed to the space have been recognized, collective, individual, physical-functional and sensory-emotional concepts. Moreover, the locations of detailed meanings and the intensity of each meaning or concept have been determined and located on the map. Through analyzing and comparing these maps; it is concluded that by developing map-based methods and combining them with other techniques and methods, deeper layers of individuals’ perception about spaces are revealed. So, spatial distribution of concepts and assessments of individuals that have been provided by these methods in this study seems to be very helpful in analysing mental urbanscape.

In this context, moving from traditional and structured methods to more evaluative and flexible ones that focus on deeper layers of individuals’ perception is extremely useful.

Preset paper aims to recognize the most important factors in creating a smart city in the city of Ahvaz. For achieving this, all criteria, which play an important role in creating smart cities, were collected using different resources based on descriptive-analytical method. At the next stage, a survey of a number of 40 urban planning experts was accomplished in Ahvaz city, which is the case study of the research, to rank smart city criteria and sub-criteria in terms of importance using Fuzzy TOPSIS technique. The results showed that among six criteria, “smart government” with the score of 4 percent was ranked as the most important criterion and “smart environment” with the score of around 1.5 percent was recognized as the least important criterion in the regard of creating a smart city. Moreover, of the sub-criteria, “Stable economy and ability to transform”, “Social and ethnic plurality”, “Crisis management and ability to organize human resources”, “local and regional accessibility”, “Sustainable resource management”, and “Individual Safety” were recognized as the most important factors in different aspects of making the city smart.

Environmental problems caused by fossil fuel consumption, on the one hand, and the upcoming prospect of ending these fuels on the other, attracted much attention towards sustainable architecture. Traditional buildings can be seen as a sample of sustainability; as they have used strategies to cope with the environment, which have been developed over the years, providing users’ comfort conditions for centuries. But before implementing these strategies in today buildings, we need to know the exact effect of their use; something that is regularly performed by an energy simulation software. Thus, first, we should know the ability of the software in modeling different design strategies, and secondly we should be certain of the validation of its results. This research aims to study the ability of DesignBuilder software (as one of the most applied software for building energy simulation) to model and simulate a complex traditional building. The accuracy of DesignBuilder thermal simulation results, in comparison with the experimental data is the main question of this study. To do this, Rasoulian house in Yazd (in hot and arid climate of Iran) was chosen as a case study and after simulating the entire building, the simulation results were compared with experimental measurement data. The results show that in most spaces, the experimental data were only 1–5°C different from the results of the simulation. Finally, the probable causes of these differences were analyzed and some suggestions were proposed to develop DesignBuilder, to be more applicable in simulating buildings of hot and arid climate.

The problems of distressed urban areas are getting worse year after year. Due to limited resources and Amenities of municipal organizations for solving every problem concerning urban distressed textures, it is essential to determine the priorities of each area based on identified factors and criteria. In distressed areas, there are different circumstances and distinctive citizens with their needs and special expectations, so in this article we face many criteria with fuzziness. This study aimed to apply the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) to prioritize the most important issues for each urban distressed area in Karaj. For this purpose a hierarchical model with 4 main factors (social, physical, environmental and economic) and 17 sub factors were suggested. Four zones of the city (central Karaj, Hesarak, Mehrshahr and Fardis) were analyzed. The findings of the paper suggest that social factors with a weights of about 30% are the most significant problems cause in these areas and physical factors with 27% weight we’re in second place. Among the areas, Fardis and Hesarak areas were most affected by social factors and Central Karaj and Mehrshar had the most priority for physical factors.

Trust, along with transparency, is an important indicator of a satisfactory relationship between a government and the public. Considering transparency as the key to trust in government, the purpose of this paper is to postulate a link between transparency and trust taking into account satisfaction as a psychological factor. This paper tries to find the answer of these questions: “Is there any significant relationship between institutional transparency and citizen trust? And what is the role of citizen satisfaction in this context?” In order to investigate these questions, through survey method of research, this paper presents the results of an experiment (N=384) testing three hypotheses by statistical analysis which involve the relationship between institutional transparency, citizen trust and satisfaction. Tehran municipality is elected as a specific institution. This study found that transparency will significantly increase citizen trust, and satisfaction will play a significant role in the relationship between transparency and citizen trust. As well, trust will increase satisfaction. This study found that transparency and satisfaction play a substantial role in enhancing citizen trust. Furthermore, transparency and citizen trust play a significant role in enhancing citizen satisfaction. The results show that among background variables (gender, age, education, income and history of residence) the two variables, education and income have a week significant relationship with trust.

Rapidly increasing urbanization in the world, especially in developing countries, let to increasing urban extents. Rapid urban growth causes to appearance many problems such as wasting environmental resources, inability of providing necessary services for citizens and unplanned growth. Urban mangers and planners need tools for understanding amount and size of future urban growths to prevent these problems. Urmia as capital city of west Azerbaijan province, in the last decades has considerable growth in both extent and population. This rapid growth caused to lose most high value agricultural resources in its surrounding. It has also caused many problems for urban management. Therefore, how city managers and urban planners can be aware of magnitude and location of Urmia city’s future growth and what is the best growth scenario for Urmia city? This paper uses a quantitative analysis research methodology to prediction and evaluation of growth scenarios for Urmia city. In this paper, SLEUTH model was applied to predict future urban growth of Urmia until 2050. Two different scenarios were employed include: Historical Growth Scenario (HGS) and Environment Protection Scenario (EPS). The result highlight that if the city continues its growth based on HGS scenario, in compare with growth based on EPS scenario, it would occupy more area. In this paper, we concluded that the EPS scenario can be more sufficient than HGS scenario. In addition, SLEUTH urban growth model can be used as a planning support model for urban planners and managers decisions for Urmia city based on scenarios.

Because of the suitability of coastal lands for different groups of activities such as recreational, residential and commercial functions, there is an increasing demand among different stakeholders to benefit from these natural lands. The conflicts between the users, sometimes, lead to exclusiveness and limitation of public access to the shoreline. This article aims to recognize the main agents and mechanisms intensifying the spatial segregation and limitation of public access to the coast. By applying the qualitative methods of Interview and documentary analysis in the middle shoreline of Caspian Sea, the categorization of exclusive public shoreline, their supportive contexts and spatial outputs, are formulated. Findings show that in contrast to the privatization of publish shoreline throughout the world, in Iran, beside the role of private sector, it is the government who benefit from the shoreline exclusively. In order to find the role of institutional contexts, analyses of the formal and regulatory documents, laws and regulations, showed the negligence in performance of coastal and agricultural land use control systems which accelerate the processes of land use change and creation of exclusive spaces in the form of gated communities. In the last step, the analysis of interviews with key actors showed the unsuitable spatial consequences especially social segregation and also decline in economics of coastal cities.

In today’s mechanized world, the need for a patient-friendly attitude in the hospitals and its psychological effects on the recovery time of patients has been proven. Considering the special pre and post-partum conditions of a pregnant woman, together with the fact that the mother and child cannot be treated as a patient case, makes these psychological effects more critical in this research, the mental state of pregnant women in association with the social support they receive, and its role on their stay and recovery, was considered. In this research we investigated the role of maternity ward architectural design on the quality of mothers social interactions. To achieve this, a survey has been conducted on the affect of maternity ward architectural design on the mothers social interactions with visitors, medical board, and other patients in maternity units of Tehran’s General Hospitals.
It was found that the establishment of social communications with visitors, hospital staff, and other patients had significantly positive psychological effects on patients. Not only the mental health status of patients was improved, also their recovery time was reduced. This was concluded that the design of healthcare centers should provide maternity unit’s patients effective communication opportunities by providing an appropriate space for patients companies, family members, and visitors.

How to design a city more legible is one of the main problems in urban design. To define the parameters that are crucial in designing legible cities is the main debate of this article. The research methodology was studying mental maps of the city dwellers and comparing the group image of the city with the pattern of continuity of salient elements and integration of the urban axes using Space Syntax theory. It was found out that to make a city more legible there should be continuity between salient elements of the city; between main integrators and visible fields of the landmarks, to form a coherent structure, or these elements should overlap to emphasize each other to make the city more legible. The relationship of these two elements in the city structure depends on the degree of irregularity of the layout and the presence of the rules of Gestalt of “good configuration". Each urban morphology according to its degree of irregularity and presence or absence of Gestalt rules can be categorized as organized, semi-organized and unorganized. The role of landmarks or visual clues according to the type of morphology differs from one type to another. To make a legible city, there should be a coincidence between the maps of main integrators to the landmark setting to emphasize the main structure of the city in regular settings (organized and semi organized structures). In irregular layouts, there should be continuity between pattern of visible fields of landmarks and main integrators of the city to form a coherent whole. The hierarchy of the urban axes in global and local level- most integrated and least integrated axes- will be followed by the hierarchy of the visual clues in global and local levels, which defines the nature of systems of reference in the structure of the city. The aim of the study presented by this article is to show how the interaction of landmarks and pathway configuration influence the legibility of the city and make the image group of the city.

Using the results of the assessment of desirability from the viewpoint of employees and the computer analysis of space syntax, the desirability factors of work desk arrangement in office space have been analyzed in the present study. Firstly a pictorial questionnaire was distributed among 113 employees in two offices of Tabriz city to obtain the desirable sitting places in the room (considering the position of the door of room, the angle of the sitting and the position of the desk of colleague). Next, using the space syntax software, the factors which affect the preferences of employees were analyzed. In this regard, indices such as Isovist, integration and distance from the door were studied. The results show the impact of these indices on the preferences of employees. The significance and impact of the indices have not been similar and in some cases, "distance from the door" has had the highest impact and the "isovist" has had more impact than "integration". In relation to the selection of the sitting place, this research has also demonstrated the impact of organizational and cultural factors on the preferences of employees. Such as the difference between the spatial value of various parts of the room in terms of distance from the door and the position of the door in different cultures, the difference between the results obtained from female respondents and the male respondents in relation to the index of "isovist from outside", as well as the difference between the choices of individuals with different occupational ranks.

Courtyard geometry plays an important role in the amount of received solar radiation, also heating and cooling energy consumption of buildings. Considering this geometry for finding its proper proportion and orientation is significant to increase indoor thermal comfort, and as a result reduce the amount of energy consumption. This paper mainly focuses on a dormitory courtyard in Yazd and investigate the effects of it’s different proportions and orientations on the dormitory energy demand to reduce energy consumption. A computer software (EnergyPlus) was utilized to conduct the survey on base model which was obtained from existing university student dormitories in Yazd in a hot-dry climate of Iran. The findings indicated that the proportions and orientations of the courtyard dormitories affect the cooling and heating loads. Also, the outcomes indicated that the use of university student’s courtyard dormitory with the proportion of 3/7 (width to length) and the orientation along east-west axis has the lowest required cooling and heating loads and could reduce the total energy consumption by 3.4 % compared with the most inappropriate courtyards based on their proportion and orientation.

Urban planning rules and considering land use regarding faults can change the consequences of natural hazard such as earthquake. Vulnerability risk is increasing in Region 1 because of existence of the north fault, steep slopes and continuous construction of high-rise buildings. It is clear that Region 1’s Master Plan shouldn’t be prepared without considering natural hazard such as earthquake. This study targets two main goals, first, to assess the degree of land use vulnerability to seismic risk and second, to classify areas based on their vulnerability degree. Nine indicators were extracted from previous studies to analyze the vulnerability of land use in Master Plan of Region 1, Tehran. According to different features of each indicator a score from 1 to 4 was allocated for each feature. The vulnerability degree of 181 areas were shown using Categorical Principle Component Analysis (CATPCA) in which areas were divided into four categories and the final result was visualized. The main results of this study showed that more about 50% of the areas were located in the highly-at-risk region. It was concluded that increase in the building density, number of floors, and distance from open spaces would be resulted in higher risk of earthquake damage. The major practical contribution of the present research was that it provided evidence to show that much focus required on reconsidering seismic risk in the future plans.

The aim of evaluating and studying the creative city indicators of the city of Qazvin is to determine the creativity trend of this city during the past years and to recognize the dominant field of creativity for this city. Therefore, this study has tried to analyze the creative city indicators about the city of Qazvin by using “descriptive-analysis” method as well as applying secondary data, TOPSIS model, AHP model and SPSS software. First, 13 indicators have been collected to determine the creativity trend from2009 to 2015, then the current trend of creativity in recent years has been obtained using quantitative models. Regardless of the year 2009 and the years before that, the best rank belongs to 2013 with 0.3228 scores. Generally, the creativity trend has decreased with a gentle slope in recent years. In the following sections, within introducing the dominant field of creativity among the five investigated fields, this conclusion has been made that the city of Qazvin has potentials to move toward a creative city.

This Paper attempts to investigate the patterns of land cover changes and also the process of urban growth in Shiraz Metropolitan Area. Since detailed information of current urban processes is required for future developments and managements of urban areas, this study utilizes remote sensing data and landscape metrics, as useful tools to gather information on urban growth and dynamics, in order to examine the spatial pattern of Shiraz metropolitan area (SMA) from 1986 to 2014. Since, the northwestern areas of SMA are superior in terms of ecological advantages, analysis of types and patterns of SMA growth were separately examined for each sector (NW, NE, SE, and SW). Five landscape metrics were used to analyze compactness and dispersion of urban patches derived from remotely sensed images. The results showed that over the past 28 years, SMA experienced sweeping changes with unexplainable growth during 1996-2006: a great horizontal expansion with 5.89 percent annual growth rate. After facing great urban sprawl, especially on the edge of the main city in the 96-06 period, periphery rural areas beyond the city borders started growing drastically during last decade. While measuring landscape metrics indicates a process of compactness in the growth patterns of NE, SE and SW areas, NW is going to be more dispersed in the coming years.