International Journal of

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Iran is located in a high-risk seismic zone of earthquakes. It has thousands of valuable historic buildings, mostly made of unreinforced masonry, which is quite vulnerable to natural hazards, especially earthquakes. The conservation and seismic upgrading of these buildings is vital for their survival. However, resources are limited and some sort of prioritization is needed in order to allocate the budget. There are several factors, which should be considered when ranking heritage buildings, but this paper mainly focuses on the values of historic buildings and describes a survey undertaken to find out whether it is possible to rank them. The method applied is choosing a particular group of people and determine whether they can classify buildings into a hierarchy? The results showed that most people could perform this task, so some sort of hierarchy exists, although different groups might choose different hierarchies.

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The traditional architecture is the achievement of mankind experiences in different geographical/cultural and social domains. The traditional architecture of Iran as a valuable outcome is one of the live and spirited instances of the history of human life that through pondering and research and close relationship with its natural, historical and human environment would be obtained. The repeatability of it contemporarily is somehow difficult so the Iranian architects and urban planners mostly focused their attentions and efforts on preservation and conservation of it. A brief review of such literature provided within this era outlines that mostly current studies and researches focuses on the outcome of such architecture or at most consider the characteristics of their creators and are less surveyed the creation and its process context. The attitude of traditional architect toward designing context or "the place of design" is one of the least considered aspects of traditional architecture. Such attention would lead to noteworthy achievements even in today's attitudes toward design and effective factors. The evolution manner of architecture traditionally which is in place of attention in this paper, provides a method of direct reference of the traditional architect toward the place of design or "earth" even when some written documents of them are not available. To achieve such goal this paper mainly concentrated on the remaining resources. In this respect the historic habitats of Yazd could be mentioned as one of the paragons of "Iranian Traditional Architecture". This paper briefly expresses and points on this fact that the creation of architecture traditionally happened in a totally different existential scheme in compare to modern era that specifically seeks such difference within the attitude and approach toward earth (site) or the place of design. The theories of two notable personalities of contemporary architecture "Christian Nordberg Schultz" and "Christopher Alexander" are considered. This is necessary where as while fulfilling the reliability of the paper and points on some notable similarities within their theories by what's recognizable in Iranian architecture and declares the different fundamental aspects, too. In respect to the subject, part of paper considers the clarification and illumination of traditional architecture.

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Quality is the most important consequence of an urban design project, and its promotion is the final duty of an urban designer. So "urban design guidelines" which use environmental improvement factors in their structure, have an effective role in promoting urban space quality. "Urban design guidelines" are the most important instruments in urban designers' authority, to reflect and appear improvement plans in urban spaces and create the bridge between research (theoretic studies) and practice (professional efforts). The paper guidelines are generic statements that specify the goals, the design pattern for achieving them and the evidence supporting the linkage between goal and pattern. On the other hand, decisions about how to address the issue of parking are among the most important in making the city center a high-quality place for people. The city center cannot have a pedestrian orientation, a concentrated diversity of uses, or a continuity of street-level activity if parking is not well designed. Attention to varied types of existing parking in city center area (such as on-street parking, surface lots or parking structures), the main idea of this paper is to promote the quality of city center spaces, by using different urban design guidelines.

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This paper presents a critical examination of the status of urban planning as a discipline and profession. The paper is comprised of two main sections. The first is a theoretical review of various selective related studies conducted in English-speaking countries, with a particular focus on those from the United Kingdom and the United States. The second is a survey of 61 professional and graduate urban planners in Iran, which was conducted using a non-probability sampling method. The most significant variables examined are the essential skills and competencies of planners, the inclination to pursue the same field of study once more, and the discrepancy between academic education and professional training. In conclusion, the theoretical and survey-based findings are interpreted from sociological, epistemological, and political economy perspectives, and recommendations are provided. This article is distinctive in its use of an interpretive approach to quantitative and qualitative findings, as well as its combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to achieve a form of causality in the issues of the field and profession of planning.

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  In this paper, authors tackle three very important questions that need to be answered if a theory of design is to be constructed. The first is what designers do, Which we attempt to illustrate with the help of case studies and theories of design practice. The second question is what guides designers. Here, authors try to present some of the proposed normative positions about design, to show the similarities and differences between positions and a framework of how they can be categorized. The main (third) question is how the design thinking process can be represented drawing upon on a review of recent studies of design practice and designer's creativity.

  One approach to design thinking is to extract the features of the designers' strategic knowledge, for which comparative studies between expert designers and novices are useful. Also, controlled experimental studies may be adopted in order to understand the nature of the idea generation process.

Finally, the methods of research and representation of design thinking in order to gain a deeper understanding of the designers' creativity are proposed.

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When a specific building is examined and analysed for its architectural merits, it is the visible, superficial aspects, which are considered, for example: aesthetics, function, spatial relationships, and landscape. One of the most important invisible factors that should be considered in the design process is the safety of buildings against natural hazards, particularly against earthquakes. While the provision of earthquake resistance is accomplished through structural means, the architectural designs and decisions play a major role in determining the seismic performance of a building. In other words, the seismic design is a shared architectural and engineering responsibility, which stems from the physical relationship between architectural forms and structural systems. It is economic to incorporate earthquake resistance in the stage of design than to add it later in the structural calculation or strengthening after completion. In addition, a building with proper earthquake-proof design will be more effective against earthquakes than the one with complementary strengthening. This paper will demonstrate that evidence for this lies in many historical buildings, which have withstood earthquakes throughout the hundreds of years without having been reinforced with special material. The fact is that the master builder or Mimar (traditional architect) of historic buildings was simultaneously designing the architecture as well as choosing the suitable form, proportion, and material for the best structural performance.

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The present paper will investigate the specific elements of architectural design based on Islamic beliefs, by taking Iranian Architectural values and vernacular climate design methods into consideration. This research will assess the spirit of experimental elements, created by the inhabitants, according to recent scientific findings. The main concentration will be on the physical design of rural areas in hot, arid and sunny regions of Iran in order to have active and healthy environments and to emphasize on transferring all these sustainable values to the future.

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Shohada (Sepah) avenue in Qazvin, a historic city, is a part of Safavid era infrastructure of the city. It connects various important cites and poles like Jame' mosque, Imamzadeh Hosein, Dowlat-Khaneh and the Traditional Bazaar complex to one another. This axis in KhomarTashi, in Kabir Jame' mosque - preservation and restoration of Jame' mosque complex as principle core of the city which is engraved in Kufi epigraph under the mosque's dome, is located on the western side of this avenue. This is a valid document that shows neighborhood organization of a Saljuqi city. This epigraph describes management terms of the city, income resource and has references on civil society with shared responsibilities like a covenant. Sepah Avenue has a pivotal role in this historic context and is remnant of pre-Safavid era. Therefore, studying its historical evolution is necessary to define its position in contemporary historic city. This article contains direct findings of a research accomplished by the authors in a field study in Sepah Avenue and evaluates restoration and revitalization goals of Sepah Avenue.

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Preparing thermal comfort conditions in outdoor public spaces is one of the considerations of architectural design. If the constructed area does not support comfortable conditions in outdoor spaces, it will cause microclimatic problems for pedestrians and adjacent buildings. Regarding the different thermal comfort conditions in outdoor spaces in comparison with indoor, several indices have been produced for outdoor thermal analysis during recent decades. The different methodology and approach to these indices have provided a diverse set of responses to thermal prediction of outdoor spaces. This diversity has made it difficult for architects to decide how to use these indices in outdoor design strategies. To provide a same basis to compare these results, this article will introduce each index with its definition, its basic calculation method, and its thermal condition categories. Following these information a psychometric chart that is provided by the author, shows its thermal categories as a graphic method. Using this psychometrics for thermal analysis will make it easy to compare different indices and their outdoor thermal predictions. Those architects, who are familiar with Building Bioclimatic Chart of Givoni for analyzing indoor thermal conditions, will find this method easy and practical for analyzing outdoor thermal condition by choosing an appropriate index.

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Throughout the early and mid 1990s, there was widespread faith in the compact city model's ability to provide urban sustainability. However, where compact city policies had been implemented, follow-up studies began to show the predicted benefits did not happen as they should be. The article tries to peruse two opposite approaches of "Urban Sprawl" and "Compact City", with an analytical - critical procedure and their consistency with sustainability. It also compares sustainability strategies of the new urban design paradigms (such as New Urbanism, Transit Oriented Development (TOD) and Smart Growth) with compact city considerations. At the end, the article discusses about the question that does the compact city paradigm creates an obligatory context for sustainability? In fact, This article supports the belief that instead of concentrating on one particular solution, there is a need to recognize and accept the fact that a divers urban futures are likely to exist within a city and that urban compaction should only be seen as one way of achieving sustainable urban form. As indicated in the article ,each country should adapted the compact city considerations that best suits the local conditions and makes the best contribution to urban sustainability in a way that is both acceptable and feasible in their local environments. Because of the many challenges that the compact city concept faces, the focus should be on creating a diverse urban forms and sustainabilities that are most likely to 'fit' the area they are to be implemented in. Indeed, there should be a greater focus upon the processes, functions and design of the city and how they contribute to sustainability, rather than just the density dimension of compact city which occupied most of the literature throughout the 1990s. By concentrating on a more micro level scale, urban design can help overcome acceptability and feasibility critiques of the compact city that correctly highlight the radical cultural, political, social and institutional changes that will be required to move away from the sprawl.

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Examining the universities postgraduate landscape architecture table in Iran, indicates the increasing growth in the establishment of this major course in most universities nationwide, since almost 10 years from the beginning of the first academic course of this major in the Shahid Beheshti University (SBU). As a result, every year the number of graduated entering the market is increasing in this major. Which in this case no clear condition exist, the suitable professional contexts and prefaces for graduates and professionals entry for graduation in this major in and out of university is a big obstacle. The aim of this paper is checking the causes and most important factors to select this major in Iran, of which market conditions is one of the most important factors in the process of this research. The result of research shows the opportunity of developing the landscape architecture, the opportunity and chances of finding a job in the future and earning high fees is part of the most important general factors to choose landscape architecture major in Iran. Additionally the professors, friends and landscape architects, the most important reason for choosing the landscape architect is personal. Besides these cases, landscape architecture department credence’s, the quality of professors and location for College choice is the most important deliberation in this major.

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This research experimentally analyzes the issue of Sociopetaloid of architecture space. Sociopetal represents spaces where people come together or stay away from each other, and when they stay away from each other it is also called sociofugal. The research methodology was primarily compiled by presenting a pattern with a theoretical standpoint regarding the Sociopetaloid of space using hypothesis testing with a case study with the aid of polling, first on-site presence technique, then a cognition map tool and a questionnaire.7 public spaces were selected amongst 3 distinguished independent the university of science and technology(IUST) faculty buildings for the case study. The data underwent correlative analysis using the SPSS statistical software and meaningful relations were determined between the variables affecting Sociopetaloid. The following main results were achieved in this research: • The psychological-social factors of users directly influenced the Sociopetaloid of the public architecture space and were considered as an establisher. • Physical-spatial factors influence Sociopetaloid. This influence has two types one with "direct affordance" and another with "indirect affordance". • Sociopetaloid of public space is achieved with proper synthesis of the spatial- physical elements of architecture and psychological-social elements of users. This Sociopetaloid increases with a high synomorphy between the space physic and interpersonal behaviors.

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Technology has had many influences on the Iranian society in different eras. Today, information and telecommunication technologies have revolutionized the basic structures of society and a new network society has been propagated inside the traditional and semi-modern context. In countries like Iran, which are in the process of modernization, a chaos deriving from the transition period is observed that leads to a certain peculiarity. In this transition era the norms of traditional societies, which offer discipline for these societies, have been eliminated in favor of new norms that are not codified yet. The transformation to the new situation and also the confrontation with the electronic world has instigated many disorders and anomalies in the society, with its physical expression becoming visible in contemporary architecture. Today, Iranian architecture is affected by Kitsch Art and has become superficial. Using attractive visual capsules and exploiting the human habit of imitation, information viruses have spread everywhere and have changed the physical world dramatically. The propagation of networks has made this process even faster. This paper reviews the confrontation of Iranian architecture with the electronic realm and investigates the role of visual viruses in the formation of the physical fabric of Tehran. It is argued that in the future, emphasis on design supported by collective intelligence [1] and individual creativity can decrease physical anomalies in the built environment.

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In some climates, massive buildings made of stone, masonry, concrete, earth and … can be utilized as one of the simplest and most effective ways of reducing building heating and cooling loads. Very often such savings could be achieved in the design stage of the building and with a relatively low-cost. Such declines in building envelope heat losses combined with optimized material configuration and proper amount of thermal insulation in the building envelope could help to decrease the building's cooling and heating energy demands and building related co2 emission into environment. This paper presents a typical study of thermal mass buildings, especially, a kind of masonry building called YAKHCHAL, where most of the buildings are constructed out of mud or sun-dried bricks. They behave like a thermal mass building types. In this climate, there are great many buildings which have been adapted to their climatic conditions. Such traditional solutions may help to overcome the energy crisis which the mankind faces today and may face in the future.

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the light of the Genius Loci theory. The theory has been verified in many studies by the traditional-Islamic philosophers. Proving the closeness of these two viewpoints in extent and type of the environmental influences on disposition can open a venue for applying the theory of Genius Loci to establish a basis for environmental design in regions with Islamic and traditional cultures. This research traces the origins of this theory to the ancient Islamic philosophy. In the first step, the relationships between environmental and cultural characters are explained in four climate-dispositional patterns using Christian Norberg-Schulz’s theory of Genius Loci. The second step deals with the philosophical origins of the theory within the Islamic thoughts through four patterns. Islamic philosophers have considered the types and the extent of climate’s influences on disposition and have distinguished different faculties and behavioral affordances for various temperaments and four climates - “hot and dry”, “hot and wet”, “cold and dry” and “cold and wet”. Temperament and the hot and dry climate have shown to be suitable for the moral training of the mankind and assume the character traits of the God. The findings of the present study, the phenomenologist’s ideas concerning the character type and environmental/cultural characters in different climates, and the association of the environment and human, have over lapses with the theories of the Islamic philosophers.

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Nowadays, with the development of the economy, the demand for energy is increasing rapidly while the energy supply is growing shorter and shorter. Researches indicate that energy consumption in the residential sector counts for the main parts of the total energy consumption. This paper evaluates the effect of building orientation on exposure to the solar radiation in a NESW orientated case of urban residence in semi-arid climate. SW envelope, with an annual exposure of 13.52 percent, only improves the thermal comfort of the house because of its annual climatic radiation trend. For vertical NE surface with insufficient winter radiation exposure of (0 %) and cool summer radiation exposure of (3.38 %), it could be concluded that the NE elevation is suitable and in demand in the summer but not in the winter. Total annual horizontal solar radiation exposure percentage of (83.04%) indicates that huge non- climatic roof radiation is inappropriate and should be omitted. Finally, the effects of solar radiation envelopes on electricity and natural gas consumption were thoroughly discussed.

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Despite the utilization of several earthquake resistant traditional techniques in Iranian architecture throughout the centuries, the high seismic vulnerability of Iranian vernacular constructions is obvious. One of the latest innovations in building earthquake-proof emergency dwellings, prior to introducing the modern seismic design codes, took place during the successive destructive earthquakes of 1871, 1893 and 1895 in Quchan, located in northeast of Iran. These new shelters withstood shocks successfully during the 1893 and 1895 quakes and were in use for at least the next 30 years. Therefore, this local effort of building earthquake-proof constructions will be introduced in this paper not only as an intangible heritage of the regional knowledge, but also as a successful experience in building earthquake resistant installations. In this article, the process of innovation of these new shelters, their specific earthquake resistant features which did not have any peers in shape in the history of the construction in the region, their evolution and finally extinction is described. Furthermore, the paper comprehensively focuses on describing the capability of these shelters in comparison with similar geometrical forms of construction to indicate how local people chose the best shape alternative based on the following three factors: seismic resistance, ease of built and the amount of spatial similarity with previous local buildings.

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Respect and reverence for water and trees are institutionalised in many ancient civilisations due to socio-cultural traditions, values and beliefs. In Iranian societies, respect for trees and water, separately and in composite form as gardens, is a well-known cultural value both before and after Islam. Therefore, the first part of this paper explains the value and importance of plants and gardens according to the religious and socio-cultural beliefs of the Iranian people in various historical periods. The paper continues by focussing on the history of the Persian garden city during the Timurid and Safavid dynasties. The straight streets, long-lasting gardens and the water supply of the three capitals of Samarqand, Herat and Isfahan are explained individually according to their historical references. Furthermore, it explained the special idea that has had direct relation with religious believes. In Safavid period designers often used the gardens as parables of Heaven. This idea influenced on urban design and was important in selection of green spaces as composing elements in urban fabrics. Finally, the paper classifies the features of Charbagh Street as an axis of the city of Isfahan, and compares these features with the features of the axes in the cities of Samarqand and Herat. The results of the study compare the design innovations, features and origins of the Charbagh axis of Isfahan, the Safavid garden city, with earlier garden cities of the Timurid period.

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Experts have found that natural environment could have positive impacts on patient’s treatment process. The impact of natural environment on mental state and lowering the stress level of the patients is undeniable. In this study, the impacts of natural environment on patient women in Tehran general hospitals were investigated. After conducting a topical study of the issue on hand, using field observation method, opinion of the patient women in a few of Tehran’s general hospitals was asked. Moreover, number of doctors and architects were asked to furnish the study with their opinion on this issue. After analysis of the answers, interesting conclusions on effect of open and green space on patient women were drawn. Based on these findings, designing open green spaces adjoined to the maternity ward could be in a way that encourages social behaviors, personal progress and convenient interaction with others and elevates mental and physical health of the patients.

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This research aimed at identifying natural organisms and their properties in the technological samples of contemporary architecture. The main questionswere: "Which properties of natural organisms are effective on the technological works of contemporary architecture?" and "How much do they affect?"This descriptive-analytic research was conducted using archival method to access the theoretical literature, and surveying method for collecting the data required. Case studies were selected and analyzed from theinternationally famous technological works made from the sixties (Hi-Tech style) till now. The case studies were divided into two periods, 20th and 21st centuries 8 works each period. The results indicated that properties such asunity, balance, proportion, hierarchy and efficiency have had most used between properties of natural organisms in technological works of contemporary architecture, and properties such as restorability, reproducibility and developability have been neglected.