Journal of Researches in Islamic Architecture

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Performing diverse activities in urban spaces were assumed a part of the past culture. Moreover, now urban spaces do not have a specific definition in terms of quality. It seems that today’s materialist world is more seeking to increase return in investment and economic quantities and this quantity-oriented state have kept it behind the qualitative issues. For this, faded presence of people in spaces, makes performing this research essential. The effort of this study is to evaluate and have an adjustment comparison between components making urban spaces from the view of western theoreticians and Iranian-Islamic scientists. It seems that remarkable presence of social relations is among the most effective components in increase of urban space’s quality. The data of this study were evaluated in two qualitative and quantitative sections. In qualitative section by help of content analysis method the viewpoints were compared. The quantitative section was conducted by use of analytical description method and a questionnaire was prepared and it was studied in three neighborhoods of Tehran. The data extracted from this questionnaire was inferentially analyzed via SPSS software and they were analyzed beside the other findings gained from literature of the subject. The three neighborhoods of Hafthoz Square, 2nd Sqaure of Niroohavaee and 15 Khordad Street were selected in terms of morphology. The findings of this research indicate that highlighted presence of activities for communication and recreation is highly effective in improving the urban space’s quality. The need for comfort, removal of the need for food and eating is among other components which were effective in the view of people that all of these components in Quran are mentioned as specifications of the space around human being. As a result, the main components of urban space’s quality questioned in this study were convergent to the components introduced by Islamic resources which are neglected in contemporary urban planning despite the emphasis of western resources and scientists.

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Monuments and historical fabrics of each country are like a comprehensive mirror of all the principles and values of the community to showcase its ruling. One of most important principle in traditional architecture of Iran, especially after entrance of Islam, is privacy that has been deep impact on the formation of historical urban and rural spaces. Therefore the recognition of this principle in the formation of neighborhoods and homes and spaces associated with them are particular importance as the territory of residence. The entrance which is located on the border between inside and outside of the House measures has the most important privacy impact on the shaping of residential space that it’s neglecting under the influence of developments in urban and rural area of the country, leads to several problems in residential space. To the best of our knowledge, there are a lot of studies in the context of entrance space in hierarchical fabric. The most of these studies have reviewed the visual and functional features, but none of these studies have considered the interaction of entrance space with the most important adjacent public space, i.e. passages and their function in the hierarchical access network. The study of this issue is important in two ways first, this study considers the impact of different levels of generality of passages on the formation of entrance space according to protecting interior space privacy second, this study mentions the impact of this space and its location on protecting adjacent space privacy and surveillance of the public realm. The aim of this paper is to identify and introduce the homes entrance space of the Laft harbor as an example of a village with historical fabrics of country, which is including two feathers of compression and restriction as its characteristics for investigating of position and the role of entry spaces in articulating of the privacy principle. In this regard, in addition to pondering of written resources, discovery and field studies in order to take samples and determine the species has been used. Based on these findings, there are three general types of entrance space under, the entrance space formed in the main passage, the entrance space formed in the narrow area of main passage and main entrance located at the side and dead-end street was identified. Pir-Neshin pattern is the first and the most complete entrance type in wide area of main passage with the width of 4-7 meters. This pattern prevails in the historical fabric of Laft. The second type of entrance space that includes a variety of patterns without Pir-Neshin is observable in the narrow area of main passage with the width of 2.80-4 meters. The third type is the simple entrance which is observable in the side and dead-end streets with the width of 1-3 meters. In this paper, privacy is studied from physical viewpoint in three forms first, entrance space location in public passages second, physical component and its proportion and their impact on visibility control from adjacent passage third, the role of entrance as a community entrance placed on the joint point of side passages and public space. Then with preparing of privacy principle and control the vision, principles of positioning, performance and proportions of each species were investigated and consequently principles and innovations in this space were defined. Following as a result of this research was presented: Check the physical developments in relation to the width of the input space and place it against the password field in the access network hierarchy, indicating that whatever adjacent space width and general ferryboat is decreased, the components and key dimensions of input space are also reduced. With exploring the physical effect of written forms in the realm of General ferryboat, the ability and any particular role of component to control in the sight of the entrance door of the House was exhibited as a starting point of private realm. The deep impact of some simple forms on increasing of homes realm as one of the unique inventions of ancient architecture of loft was revealed to overcome the limitations of network communication and the creation of the related input space. With clever positioning of public inputs in the public realm, in addition to preserving the privacy and strong ties to the neighborhood, the entrance of certain area can be defined as well as public realm.

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Moving toward third millennium is characterized by capabilities in transforming human life. Specially, development of information technologies in everyday life lead to great changes in communication tools andour current understanding ofurban social life. Indeed, telecommunications because of independency from time—space constraints, provide a new unlimited space for social interactions in global scale. Now, this development in Islamic societies is remarkable, because Islam has many detailed rules in social relations. So, in this situation studying and exploring social and cultural dynamics in cyber environments and its implications for physical cities is a key task of urban planners in Islamic communities to sustain and develop these cities.

In this research, first of all we reviewed some of the basic concepts of social life from Islamic view. We explored the reflection of these rules in Islamic cities and spatial aspect. After that, for each concept, we explored the potential implications of Information technology for Islamic society in the information age. The results showed that Islamic cities are reconstructed as complex amalgam of electronic spaces and urban places,in which, Information Technology has dual impacts on the city: in one hand, a potential for more social interactions, sharing ideas and promoting social integration and in the other hand, encourage the polarization of society, dispersed social relations etc. This indicates only a few parts of complexities in this area and the necessitiesin rethinking Islamic city in the age of digital communications.

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Since the energy consumption has become one of the crisis of modern buildings, modeling the Iranian past architecture patterns could be helpful. The shopping streets as one of the main sectors consuming energy locate near the open spaces it seems, therefore, they need more thermal comfort. However, using passive techniques, the Iranian traditional bazaars architecture solved the problems regarding thermal comfort. The present inquiry aimed at investigating thermal comfort of traditional and modern commercial buildings from the perspective of solar radiation to compare traditional structures (with traditional design and materials) with modern ones (with modern design and materials). Therefore, Vakil (traditional) and Mollasadra (modern) Bazaars (with the same orientation), located in Shiraz with a semi-arid climate,  have been chosen. Vakil bazaar situated in historical context of city and Mollasadra situated in the first modern part built in 1980. A naturalistic approach was applied to investigate the relation between shadow on surfaces, shopping load and cooling needed in summer and the relation between the solar radiation on surfaces, shopping load and heating load in winter first, a number of questionnaires were used to survey 120 samples including both customers and shopkeepers to show the relation between shopping load and cooling or heating need second, Ecotect Analysis 2011 was employed to simulate surfaces with shadow and solar direct radiation in winter and summer to evaluate the relation between the surfaces received shadow and heating or cooling need. The results showed that along with a full shade in summer, the customers of Vakil Bazaar are interested to do shopping almost in all hours since there is no obtrusive solar radiation in contrast, customers of Mollasadra Street experienced a shadow from sunrise to 11:00 in summer morning thus 73.3% of customers in Mollasadra made complaints about the existing shadow since there is no shade in crowded shopping hours and points especially in summer afternoon furthermore, 93.3% of shopkeepers in Mollasadra used cooling and heating equipment which demonstrate congruently of orientation and quality in sunshades with climate. At the end, some suggestions regarding the mentioned problem in Mollasadra have been proposed.

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In this paper, the management of Islamic cities in the urban economic spaces and also the contemporary cities are viewed from three different looks:

First, the history of urban management through corporate institutions; second,  the modern systems in European and American cities such as BID (Business Improvement District); and third, structural changes and urban management in the business space of the cities during Pahlavi I and II eras. 

Through the first look at the history of the rule of the cities and urban management during the Islamic rule, we encounter structures and institutions whose main characteristic was self-autonomy against the government; sometimes they were also a coordinator between people and the government. Corporate councils and organizations governed the economic system of the cities which had its own special hierarchy such as corporate masters including workers, and students and a trustful elderly acknowledged by the city sheriff deputy and head of the corporate and neighborhoods who was introduced by the city sheriff. These institutions were functioning properly at the time; hence, corporate councils played a significant role in management of the cities and neighborhoods and specially the bazaars, independent of business organizations. These councils which were located near bazaars and mosques facilitated rising of Khums and Zakat or urban tax-collection system.

The first major, and obvious, question in a discussion of BID reforms is what “governance” and “good governance” mean. Despite its popularity the concept of “governance “is highly ambiguous and excessively broad, and has remained so today notwithstanding numerous attempts to clarify it. Indeed the elasticity of the concept is suggested as the key to its attraction, as some thinkers traces the intellectual context of the emergence of “governance” in academic and policy discourse: the notion of “governance” had an a priori attractiveness as it could refer to complexities entailing a good deal more than administration or management, namely the element of political restructuring and the handling of this, while at the same time including the administrative-management dimension. It opened the window for a focus on how “politics” or the political process was conducted and embedded within larger structures. The concept introduces the political dimension into an otherwise technocratic discourse of public issues but in such a way that allows more flexibility than an explicitly political approach. In practice, it enables the user to maintain a camouflage of political neutrality when necessary as governance discussions span the vast space between the political technical continuums and may hence be adjusted more towards one end or the other as circumstances require. The expansiveness of the concept goes further as governance literally can mean many different things to different people. We must summarizes the diverse meanings in the dimensions of substantive content and character. Along the first are those who define governance as basically the rules of conducting public business on one end, and those who see governance as the activities of steering public affairs on the other. The second dimension contrasts those who emphasize governance as process, and those who see governance as results or outcomes of public decision-making. Each of the various meanings – rules, steering, process or outcome – consists of highly variable contents.

To improve the business, corporate, spatial, and local auto governed and participation of all stake holders of the corporate in urban spaces, BID is proved to be effective in European and American countries. Proportionate to such changes, the urban management changed from the traditional methods of the corporate councils to corporate unities and corporate and the relevant state offices and corporate unities played a significant role in management of the corporate sections of the cities.

Since the 1990s, planning engagement with urban governance has sought to theorize space, scale and state strategy through multi scaled analysis of political and economic activity as a series of situated and context specific processes. A focus on multiple spatiality’s of state activities has led to ‘strategic-relational’ consideration of state power as social relations via a focus on the interplay between institutional forms and political forces. This approach shies away from focusing on national institutional structures and/or individual actors or organizations, instead considering ‘local political leadership’ in order to theorize broader structural changes. In reviewing geographical work on Islamic urban regime theory, regulation, growth coalitions and so on, which has considered how urban politics and policy are formed through public-sector and private sector coalitions of power which shape the ruling shows that research has concentrated on ‘functional equivalences’, not comparing institutions/actors but instead comparing similar modes, patterns and processes of governance.

Based on the past experiences of the entities managing economic sections of the cities and incomplete Modernism experience of urban development in the last 90 years, the paper attempts to localize and develop a new approach such as BID based of Iran conditions and experiences in order to assist the management efficiency of Iranian cities

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Mosque as a social worship center for continued dynamic life requires strong communication with the context achieved through the physical and natural human connection to the external environment. Appropriate communication between the building and the context of its formation is the most important thing in architecture .The role of between spaces in creating or making connection and detachment is important mentally and objectively to determine the quality of this relationship. Depending on the scale of the elements the quality of between spaces and their nature also varies in different conditions .The between spaces that make the connection between mosque and the outside environment various from functional structural and semantic in terms of historical development location and urban communication and it can be examined in terms of Islamic wisdom. Scale also plays an important role in these studies that can be from the macro scale (relationship of mosque with city) Midscale (the relationship between elements and spaces) and micro scale (elements of mosque) will vary.
This project examines the quality of between spaces and external environment at midscale and space that visitors to the mosque experience when they are crossing the street and entering the mosque. Analyzing this link to the entrance of the mosque is restricted from the outside to entrance of seraglio. It is assumed that the outward path is in the preparation of the prayer that has an important role to get a sense of spirit of approaching the mosque. Depending on the design, sometimes this rout is formed indoors and sometimes outdoor and semi outdoor. The main question is that how functional and semantic features represent this path in modern or traditional structures. How this relationship can be explained in terms of its functional structure and its effect on the implicit meaning. The characterization of between spaces is intended as a functional tool to create the desired link between mosque and outer urban environment. Thus, the purpose of the research is to explain this relationship to improve the status of existing mosques and to improve design of future mosques. The research method is logical reasoning. It is analyzed the feature of between spaces passing through the inside of mosque from three dimensions  structural functional and semantic in twelve specimen that selected from mosque in regional mosques in Tehran in a range from traditional to modern is analyzed. After examining the structural and functional features of graft inside and outside of the mosque its implications are analyzed and they are using the semantic differentiation technique .The method of semantic differentiation for expressing someone s feelings about space and it is used with bipolar adjectives .These traits were selected according to the purpose of study to express the meanings associated with outer space of the mosque to the entrance to seraglio. Research model that developed by introducing key elements  emphasize on balancing functional and semantic structural dimensions in the formation of outside and inside the mosque .By examining the semantic differentiation graph that is divided in two group of mosques  that have modern and traditional design , It can be said that the entrance space in modern mosques by enhancing traits such as  cheer excitement and self-esteem  rather than creating spiritual and practical communication  between the inside and outside  only exemplifies a stronger physical appearance .
The findings show that in the design of most contemporary mosques instead of updating the spiritual foundations that embedded in traditional patterns, the social worship function of the mosque has been reduced to the function of day. These results in the order and hierarchy of the spatial layers that bonded outside and inside the mosque. Traditional patterns are more successful in most aspects than modern ones. Most contemporary mosques rather than being a focal point for responding to people ,s  spiritual needs  are likely more at the service of side functions such as formal ceremonies .In this regard sometimes the entrance to separate halls for ceremonies is more important than hierarchy of entry and approach to spiritual function of the mosques worship. In other words in different social platforms of design innovation should not be undermine functional structural principles and implications of entering the worship space of the mosque. Rather they must have a deep and accurate understanding of meaning and concept and perform functions tailored to the needs of day in hierarchy of functions .In new structures the formation of between spaces and inside the mosque can be balanced by design arrangement .These layers of space begin from outer space and counter of the mosque and by passing through the entrance space with appropriate elements reach to the entrance layer of seraglio. Thus with respect to the spatial concepts appropriate to the spatial layers, there is a possibility of diversity   and innovation in designing the entrance to the mosque. It should be done by using green and flooring areas in harmony with the spiritual uses of the mosque and it should provide the perfect backdrop for pauses and movement in everyday   use and various events. Although in modernizing marginal functions or elements that combine with mosques .The main function should not be affected but the existence of consonant functions reinforces the role of mosque s as a center of social cultural activity. Thus new designs can follow the evolution of time and can be on the path to excellence and evolution of meaning embedded in rich architecture of Iranian mosques.

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Gender has a key role in Islamic thought and considers it as an aspect should be trained. Now a days in light of psychological and social studies, there are more information about gender differences. These differences influence education and training via “gender identity” and “sex-typing”. So it’s essential to consider gender differences in out door open spaces design. The goal of this study concentrated on the effect of gender differences in Islamic thought on outdoor open space design. Reviewing mental differences and growing and structural aspects between boys and girls, we have built a frame for open interview which concluded to Delphi process. The study is a qualitative and operational and conducted a Delphi process between 7 psychologists and 15 architecture experts. The result is an applicable list of architectural considerations for outdoor planning. Using hot and bright colors, suitable areas for congregation, simple geometry, curved corners and miniature elements can be suggested for girls. Mild colors, encounter space, sophisticated geometry, expert and job acquaintance dedicated space, different levels, ballgame space are suitable for girls.

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1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Conclusions

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