Space Ontology International Journal
Volume:7 Issue: 1, Winter 2018

During the last 2 decades, the effects of the physical and social environment on the healing process, recovery and well-being of patients, families and staff in hospitals have been proved.There is a growing recognition that healthcare architecture could do more by promoting overall wellness, and this requires expanding the focus to healing.The research on evidence-based design (EBD) has demonstrated the power of environmental design,but EDDmost links between design and outcome such as safety and efficiency, while there is a difference between efficient environment and pleasing humanized environment.Humanization is the result of user-centered concept in design. The present study aimed to evaluate the perceived environmental quality indicators thataffect the degree of humanization in hospital design. In this descriptivecross-sectional study, first, the user-centered level of the hospital environment (humanization) was determinedin three selected hospitals in the city of Tehran by two hospital designing and planning experts,and then,with the data collected from patients, staff, and visitors (n=184) the relationship between the variableshas been found. Analysis of the data was performed in SPSS V.19 software using standard tests.The results of the study showed that there was asignificant relationship between the user-centered levels of hospitals and the users’ comments on perceived environment quality of a hospital from various aspects. Out of 12 quality indicators, 10 were meaningfullyrelated with the user-centered level of hospitals, and 4 had asignificant relationship with the user type. The results indicated that the group of patients was more sensitive to the changes in environmental quality conditions than other groups of users.

Tehran suburb city rail Exploitation Company (Tehran subway) presents public transportation services to more than 3 million people in a day. Therefore, the way these services are presented and customer satisfactions’ rate with the services presented to enjoy high importance. In the matters applied to the survey, first the expectations that users of this public transportation system have and the perception they had after using these services were examined by servqual services quality assessment model.The aim at this study is surveying the gap between the expectations and perceptions of customers from services presented by Tehran Subway Company.To provide necessary solutions to eliminating this gap or at least minimizing it with the aim of increasing subway service quality level by this model.The findings showed that the performance of Tehran Subway Company was under the expected rate of citizens from the credibility dimension, reliability dimension, empathy dimension, answering dimension and items marked of servqual model. Therefore, there is a need to take extensive practical measures for removing defects and mitigating this gap.

The spatial inequality of the environment arises as a planning problem when the spatial structure of the different districts of a city is distinctly different; Differences that require different programming solutions for different regions and meeting the objective of creating spatial equality in a city. Nobahar and Vaki-Agha are two districts with unequal urban space located in north and south of Kermanshah city in Iran. Nobahar district of Kermanshah is characterized by regular geometric pattern, medium and large granularity, semi-compact texture, and regular granularity of parts. Vakil-Agha district is characterized by physical exhaustion, lack of safety standards, and solidity. Despite the fact that urban infrastructure services possess identity values, they have a low level of spatial and housing status.Considering the conditions and laws of Iran, the best option that is the basis of this research, is the pattern of citizen participation in urban affairs for mitigating this inequality. The research method is descriptive-analytic. The path analysis in this study was conducted using LISREL8.5 software. ANOVA test was used to determine the difference between variables based on gender, age and dependency. The participants for this study included all the caretakers of the households living in of Vakil-Agha and Nobahar districts in Kermanshah. The results showed that the participation of citizens in Iran and in particular in Kermanshah, both in the districts of Nobahar and Vakil-Agha, faces with some structural, socio-cultural, political-managerial, legal and spatial barriers. In some cases, despite the emphasis of senior management of the municipality of Kermanshah on the necessity of citizen participation in urban affairs, this necessity is not pursued by urban managers and citizens, and the participation of citizens is mostly formal and symbolic. The obtained results of the model in both regions can be a solution for managing citizen participation in unequal human environments in Kermanshah.

As an inseparable organ, courtyards have influenced the history of architecture with their presence in the context of constructed sites and in a wider sense (architecture), it has provided permissive answers to numerous aspects of climatic, cultural and security demands of the residents. Discovering different aspects of environmental and climatic function in the central courtyard of the traditional residential structures in the cold regions of the country is the main goal of this research. The main fundamental subject that this research is based on, is “to what extent a closed yard in a region with cold climate can be responsive to the unfavorable climate conditions?” and “to what extent it can protect the residents against the unfavorable climate conditions?” In order to answer the main questions of the research, the traditional courtyard houses in the city of Tabriz are selected as the case studies. The methodology of this study is quantitative. Through comparative analysis, the samples were used based on the outdoor thermal comfort criteria using simulation software. ENVI-met numerical modeling method and the Rayman software model were employed. For this purpose, the PMV and PET indices are calculated and analyzed as the measure for estimating thermal comfort indices in the open spaces and also other indices including air temperature, mean radiant temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed that influences the thermal comfort. The results indicate that according to the PMV and PET indices, courtyards and their adjacent open spaces will be set outside of the comfort zone, especially during the winter, and closed yards does not possess the capability of thermal improvement in comparison to the exterior open spaces. Also, results of the study indicates that, by decreasing the area of the courtyards and the surrounding walls along with the increase of the shaded areas, we are not only limiting the possibility of ventilation in the summer but, this will also decrease the amount of passive heat storage in the surfaces of courtyards in the cold seasons. As the most important accomplishment of this research we can focus on the fact that physical specifications of traditional houses with courtyards in Tabriz do not possess a climatic approach, and the central courtyards in this region are elements which are subordinate to the historical, social and cultural or safety roles of them .

Gender expresses the social and cultural identity of men and women in society. It has balance or not, considering various factors such as cultural, religious and social beliefs, norms and values, the level of women and men's liberties in the family and society, the structure of power (patriarchy and maternity) and the degree of their cooperation in providing livelihoods. The purpose of this paper is to study definition of gender in the northern cities of Iran and, in particular, to compare this concept in two cultures of Guilan and Mazandaran in the Qajar era. Although it seems that the Qajar houses of Guilan and Mazandaran are very similar to each other because of the climatic similarity of the two regions; but the comparative study reveals differences in the shape and organization of the space, the degree of privacy, the manner and degree of controlling private and public realms; which is due to the importance of gender components in the formation of traditional housing. The present research claims that limits of privacy and the methods of creating visual and physical barriers in the Qajar houses of Guilan and Mazandaran have been distinguished from one another due to different ways of life in these two regions. This paper first considers cultural differences to measure this claim. Then, it studies the effect of gender identity components on the physical structure and spatial structure of the houses by the selection of eight case examples from the middle class houses in the historical context of cities in Guilan and Mazandaran provinces. The results of the analysis show that life style, livelihood, social relations, religion, security and women's veil have influenced the concept of gender and the difference of this concept in the cultural structures of the two communities has caused obvious differences in the ways for making privacy.

Space and society are clearly interrelated in such a way that conceiving of the former without the latter as well as understanding society without its spatial components is impossible. Public urban spaces provide the grounds for citizens' social interactions and communication. More importantly, active presence of people in these areas promotes levels of social interaction, sense of cooperation and citizenship. The urban public spaces enjoy favorable social dimensions. The present study initially investigated the distinction between public and private spaces and then examined the effect of social dimensions of public spaces including concepts such as people and regions, territoriality, trust, security, informal monitoring and social network on the degrees of peoples’ use of such areas as Chamran promenade located in Shiraz. To collect the necessary data, the library and field methods were employed and 150 subjects were chosen and surveyed as the research statistical sample. Finally, the data were analyzed through logistic regression analysis using SPSS. The results indicated that social dimensions, i.e. territoriality and social networks play a key role in the degrees of peoples’ use of public urban areas