فهرست مطالب mehran kheirollahi

Recent research has shown that the built environment affects human mental health. This research has often been done in the fields of psychology and has been less studied in the field of architecture as the main link field of space design. Since humans spend most of their time indoors, especially in the interior space, its impact on human health cannot be ignored. One of the parameters of mental health is emotion. Many components have been influential on human emotions, among which the architectural space has had the greatest impact. Therefore, the focus of the research is also on it. Also, the emotion component can be measured with the new paradigm of neuro-architecture.

To measure the interior space, the apartment type has been considered due to its greater prevalence in the city and the 40 years (after the Islamic revolution), and selected samples of 96 apartments that were the winner of the Architecture Prize(due to their spatial quality) have been selected. After gathering samples, they were grouped into four categories and modeling was done based on them. The display of four architectural spaces is done by VR glasses. The questions are as follows:  How does the physical residential interior affect human emotions and brain activities? And how do these emotions appear? To answer these questions, we used the correlation research method, and to record the dependent variables, an EEG device with 19 active channels and an elastic cap was used. For EEG data analysis, the EGLAB toolbox was used, the inferential statistical method of the Wilcoxon test was used to review the data significance among each group, and the Kruskal-Wallis H method was used to check the data of all groups. The statistical population of the research was 24 people with an average age of 28 years, 10 males and 14 females.

Based on the data analysis, in the Spac1 experiment, the most activity occurred in the Prefrontal cortex (PFC). In Space 3, the most activity took place in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). (ACC) Theta band modulations are about 52% and in the alpha band, 71% of changes were recorded in about 5 minutes. The number of changes in the theta band was 4 and the alpha band was 8 Hz. In Space 2, the most activity was recorded in the temporal lobe, and Space 4 in the parietal lobe. In the figure below, the brain map shows the average changes in each space.

The results of the present research showed that the architectural interior space with dominant curved forms such as arches, and brick materials and its pure color had the greatest impact on emotion and pleasant excitement. In the long term, this issue can create peace and achieve mental health. In addition, since the issue of esthetics has always been of interest to architects, the results of this research have shown that the interior space with wood materials and even rectangular forms is experienced from the user's perspective as beautiful.

From the phenomenological point of view, the life-world of every human is a place he lives in. Place and human not only are against each other, but also they are sincerely acquainted and reflect each other. So place considers as a "everyday life phenomenon" that human lived experiences are formed in it. As the lived experiences are formed directly without voluntary thinking, they are the reliable source for achieving the desired features of the place. The purpose of this study was to explain the characteristics of the place based on the lived experiences of its users. This research seeks to answer the question that based on lived experiences, what are the characteristics of a space to become a place in the heart of the city?In this research, Shohada square of Mashhad has been chosen as a case study. To answer the question of the research, we have used Moustakas phenomenological research method. This Study composed of two parts: theoretical and field researches. The theoretical part includes the available information about phenomenology of place. The field part is taken from open and semi-structured interviews with sixty participants. After providing textural and structural descriptions and combining them together, six basic characteristics of the place was achieved: Introversion, Centrality, Enclosure, Density and Objectivity.

The failure to adapt existing architectural education models to the evolving cultural and technological landscape of the digital age, coupled with the rapid advancements in computer programs within the architectural profession, has underscored the imperative of establishing a proficient framework for architecture education that aligns with the demands of the contemporary architectural landscape. In response to this exigency, architectural design concepts have emerged as instrumental tools in the instructional paradigm of digital architecture, mirroring the crystallization of modernism during the Bauhaus period—an era marked by significant shifts in theoretical and design perspectives.The principal objective of the current investigation is to comprehend the educational framework of digital architecture with the intent of bridging the existing gap between architectural education and professional practice. The methodology employed for data acquisition in this study encompasses comprehensive library research and an examination of pertinent documents. The convergence of architecture and digital education has introduced a novel trajectory for the advancement of pedagogical practices within the discipline of architecture. However, the integration of laboratory activities and technological components in practical training remains sluggish, necessitating responsiveness to societal demands, increased financial allocation to educational infrastructure, and the mobilization of teaching resources to facilitate widespread adoption and sustained advancement. The adoption of a research project-oriented approach to teaching has proven instrumental in achieving the objectives of motivating students to contemplate various facets of the nexus between technology and the environment.

Architectural space has many effects on human mental and physical health. From a cognitive perspective, some effects are self-conscious and visible in behavior, while some are hidden and their understanding requires meticulous analysis. The range of effects is from positive to negative. Many studies have been conducted in the field of environmental psychology, but due to the use of traditional methods, they failed to provide an answer to explain how architectural space affects the brain. Today, with the emergence of the new trend of neuroscience, the way of this effect has been clarified.

The current research was carried out with the aim of identifying the cognitive effects of architectural space on brain activities based on neuroscience and sought to clarify the different levels of short-term and long-term effects of architectural space on the brain.

The current research has achieved the purpose of the study through qualitative approach and a descriptive-analytical research method, using the review of existing sources and studies, and has specifically addressed the effects of architecture on cognition and brain activities. The study period was between January 1st. 2010 and December 22nd. 2020. The following databases were used: Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, Arts, and Humanities Citation Index, and Emerging Sources Citation Index.

The results of the research indicate that the architectural space can be categorized in three different levels in terms of the importance of the effects from simple to complex. At low level, architectural space affects metabolic settings, basic and immune responses; at middle level, it affects orientation and stress; and at high level, emotion, memory and attention are affected by architectural space.

It seems that the current research field is a step in the direction of clarifying the effects of architecture for the researchers of environmental psychological fields and opens a clear path to achieve a healthy space in this field.

Problem statement: 

Mental health has received a lot of attention in recent years from various fields. One of the parameters of mental health is emotion, which has been influenced by various environmental, social, cognitive, and motor factors. Architectural space as one of the important environmental components has an impact on emotion and has neurophysiological effects on the human brain. Since humans spend a lot of time in the interior of architecture, it has doubled in importance. Despite the great importance of this issue, little research has been done in architecture so far, and most of the research has used qualitative methods of interview, observation, and questionnaire, which, due to the influence of the author, there has been a possibility of orientation in the results. Nevertheless, with the advancement of technology and the emergence of the field of neuroscience, new quantitative tools and methods have been provided to researchers to measure emotion, and it has led to the formation of a new paradigm of neuroarchitecture.

The present research aims to review the studies conducted in this field so that in addition to clarifying the effect of interior architecture on emotion, the methodology of the studies is also analyzed and provides a clear path for future researchers. Therefore, the present research questions can be expressed as follows: Which physical components of the interior space of architecture affect emotion? What effect has their exposure had on neurophysiological emotion? And how do these emotions appear?

The present research employed the systematic review methodology. In this regard, the inclusion criteria such as terms, measurement variables, measuring instruments, and publication date were defined. The way of searching databases of studies, selecting and assessing their qualities were defined, and the final studies were introduced and analyzed.

The results indicate the effect of the physical parameters of the interior space such as form, materials and texture, furniture, ceiling height, architectural details, and openness to nature on emotion, each of which is one of the emotional states and feelings such as enjoy, pleasure, arousal, and disgust have appeared. The present research is a window to the issue of mental health, which introduces a field for using the interior space of architecture as a type of treatment or prevention.

The built environment is rapidly expanding because of the growing need for architectural spaces in urban life. However, not enough studies have been carried out about the effect of architectural space on cognition and brain activities. Earlier studies on the environmental psychology of architecture qualitatively were not able to respond to this query. However, nowadays with the emergence of the new theory of neuroscience and its connection with architecture, researchers have found valuable results shedding morelight on the ways that architectural space affects the human brain through the use of modern tools in neuroscience giving rise to a new paradigm of Neuro-architecture. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of architectural space on brain functions and human cognition by measuring brain activities. The main questions in this study were: what are the literature, key concepts, research methods, and techniques in the field of architecture and neuroscience? In addition, how many fields are such resources divided into?

The present study has introduced and analyzed the available resources from 2010 to 2020 via a systematic qualitative method.

The resources are divided into two main categories of theoretical and experimental studies. The focus of the present study is on experimental studies indicating that the physical elements of the architectural space are generally related to the visual field, affect cognition and brain activities, and cause different emotions.

The results revealed that these studies are classified into five general areas of stress reduction, aesthetic judgment, navigation, attention, and emphasis on visual elements and human experiences. EEG technique, fMRI, and some auxiliary tools, such as eye tracking, have been used to measure the effect of architectural space on the brain.

In recent years, the participation of architects and children in architectural design for children has been the focus of many architectural designers. Since creative response to architectural issues is an important criterion in the qualitative evaluation of architectural work The key is to find a tool to assess the effective level of creativity of the children involved in the design process. Explain the results of the evaluation of the child's creative abilities in improving the quality of the participatory work to the architect. Research Question: This study seeks to answer two main questions: 1- What are the steps to create tools for measuring and evaluating the level of creativity? 2- How can an architect choose his or her most creative little colleagues on a level beyond the usual ways of engaging with children?

This is a qualitative research with an applied purpose. Preliminary data were collected by library method. To analyze the content and infer from the data, the combined method of Sandlowski and Barroso was used. The validity of the conclusions was checked using the Glynn tool. The results were categorized in MaxQDA 10 environment. The proposed research tool was used experimentally four times in June and July 2020. The first and second time were performed by the authors and by retesting on 30 children (15 boys and 15 girls 8 to 12 years old). The third and fourth stages were performed by two other examiners on two separate groups of 30 people with the same sexual and age conditions. Validation of test results was performed by inferential statistics and by calculating Pearson correlation coefficients in SPSS 25 environment.

The results showed that in the field of answering architectural problems, children's creative abilities are different from each other. Therefore, it is necessary that those capabilities of the child that can be effective in the production of participatory architecture works be evaluated and evaluated by the architect before starting the participatory process to provide a platform for more creative children to enter the design process. Therefore, the tool "Measuring the level of creativity of children participating with the architect" was presented in the form of "instructions" and "table of quantification and final inference". This tool was formed based on performing four games and the method of calculating and measuring children's scores And contains three "worksheets". The first worksheet is the "Game Execution Guide" which describes the order, instructions, purpose and basis for scoring each game. The title of the second worksheet is "Score sheet" in which the characteristics of the child being tested, the assigned small grades and the raw grade calculated according to the instructions in the worksheet are recorded and a worksheet is completed for each child. The third worksheet is called the "Level Measurement and Determination Worksheet". "Raw grades" of children are recorded in this worksheet according to the results in worksheet number 2 And according to the guide in the worksheet and based on statistical standards, the "standard score" of the child is calculated in the components of fluidity, initiative, flexibility and expansion, as well as the "final standard score with positive or negative sign".

Human beings respond to the architectural spaces cognitively and emotionally. Research has shown that emotional feedback affects human health and well-being. Previously, researchers used qualitative methods such as observation or interview to measure human emotions in built environments, which did not provide a clear answer to human emotional needs because of researcher's unintended bias in research results. Today, with the advancement of cognitive and behavioral sciences, architects are able to quantitatively establish the impact of the built environment on humans using biometric data and provide more accurate results. The questions raised in the research can be expressed as follows: What is effect of the built environment on human emotions? How can these effects be measured? And how can it be effective in architectural design? The aim of this study is to identify an experimental methodology using a biometric data set to measure and record human emotions, which can be used to evaluate architectural design. The present study is carried out in two steps: In the first step, the related studies of 2015-2020 were identified using the systematic review method with a specific entry and exit criteria; and in the second step, different methods and tools of measuring and recording human emotions in the environment were investigated through descriptive-analytical method and logical reasoning. The results indicate that studies in this field are divided into three main categories: evaluation through cognition and perception, evaluation through visual features and evaluation through space navigation. The study ends with considerations for implementing a comprehensive approach that uses the biometric response as an evaluative method for designs in the future research.

The present study seeks to research the future and draw a vision for new approaches that are independent of physical presence, in the processes of design and participation, based on the abilities of children in the use of digital social networks.

Documentary and library methods were used to identify the common tools of participation, their characteristics and the way they are used, and to examine the opinions of experts about the role of cyberspace in the lives of children in the present century. A descriptive survey method was used to study and analyze the experience of children using social networks in the pandemic era. The data collection tool is a researcher-made questionnaire and the sample size is 384 children and 384 parents according to Cochran's formula. Inferential statistics and SPSS25 software and one-sample t-test were used to analyze the data and validate the findings.

Digital mass communication leads to the development of the effectiveness of traditional methods of participation because children are able to use social networks, communicate with software faster than adults, interested in commenting and participating in group discussions based on virtual networks and the use of image language and the use of these networks is not limited to the pandemic era.

Mapping the future of partnerships with children based on the use of "online participation platforms", while opening new perspectives in the fields of partnership, design, programming and artificial intelligence, has led to improving the efficiency of participatory processes. It also provides a platform for children to make more comprehensive and thoughtful statements about issues related to them.

Statement of the Problem: 

Architectural issues have various aspects, and creatively responding to such issues is an important criterion in evaluating the quality of architectural works, thus seeking effective factors on these aspects is of special importance for prompting the quality of responding to architectural issues. Nowadays, participatory architecture is a general approach which focuses on involving individuals and specialists in the process of designing. In this regard, observing children’s civil rights aiming at obtaining a mutual understanding between the child and the designer is considered as the main focus of designers to children in the processes of participatory designing while frequently ignoring the abilities of children’s thinking system in the areas of idea development and designing. Therefore, using the abilities of children’s thinking system in creating architectural works and its conditions is the main issue in this regard.Research Question: How are the theoretical foundations of the effectiveness of the architect-child participation explained in improving the quality of responding to architectural issues?

The current study aims at introducing a new aspect of participation beyond the general perspective of research so far conducted in this area while considering fundamental concepts in the area of children thinking.

This research applies a qualitative, fundamental, and descriptive- analysis based method in addition to seven-step meta-synthesis method by Sandelowski and Barrosos. The study results indicated that "architecture-child participatory thinking" can be introduced as a new "architect-child participation" method. In this new method, the product of participation is developed based on "architecture-child interactive thinking", and the role of children is upgraded from "respondent" to "the main thinker". During the design process, children make "creative comments" alongside the architect and the architect simply "standardizes" the end product.

Nowadays, participatory processes in architectural design for children are considered by many architects. Children's drawings are often used as the participation tool, and the results of participation depend on the architect's interpretation of these drawings. The main problem is the degree of applicability of participation results with children in a given area to children in other areas. Children participating in different participatory processes do not possess the same characteristics of the living environment. Therefore, this study investigates the effects of children's living environment on the results of participatory processes by examining the role of children's living environment in shaping the content of the drawing. To this end, 100 urban and rural children in a participatory process draw on a common design theme. Then, the authors compared and analyzed the content of the drawings. The results showed that the content of children's drawings mainly reflected the characteristics of their living environment. Besides, the children's living environment was found to influence the outcome of participatory processes by influencing their drawing content. The results of interpreting the drawings of children living in an area are entirely local and insufficient, and their use as a design criterion is inefficient for children in other areas and does not yield the desired results.

Children are an important part of the citizenry of any society.They are also different mentally, physically, in personality, and in behavior. The look and needs of adults are different. Children are always exposed to adults by different environments.Hospitals are one of the environments in which children generally interact and spend time in their lives. In the meantime, therapies are often undesirable and frightening to them. Therefore, the fundamental issue of establishing an emotional bond between the child and the therapeutic environment is considered as one of the effective factors in the process of treating children. Therefore, it is necessary to address the issue of designing desirable therapeutic spaces for children. The purpose of this study was to investigate the doctrines of child participation in the design process of child-friendly spaces (Case Study: Bojnourd Therapeutic Spaces). The research began with the question, "What are the general principles of designing child-friendly therapeutic spaces?" The research method is descriptive with a practical purpose. The statistical population of the study consisted of 6-12 year old children living in Bojnourd who had at least one hospitalization history. The sample size consisted of 50 boys and girls who were selected by purposeful sampling. Due to the lack of appropriate physical or mental conditions in hospitalized children, they were less likely to cooperate with the interviewer. Therefore, children who were previously healthy and hospitalized were used. They were observed during the period of August and September 2019. The method of data collection was library, observation and open interview. Theoretical foundations of the research were extracted from library resources. Studies show that there are many tools for engaging with children. Painting was chosen as a tool for engaging with children. Since children will participate maximally when they are confident the outcome of their collaboration is practical, the interviewer shared with the children at the beginning of the discussion that "We want to help you design a hospital based on your ideas". The interviewer also committed to all the children and their parents that all of the respondents' personal information was kept with the research team. The children expressed their ideas and ideas in their paintings. At the end of each painting, the child was asked to describe his or her painting. The examiner noted the important points behind each sheet. The paintings were quantitatively analyzed by experts in the field of child psychology and architecture. The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics using Excel 2010 software and inferential statistics using SPSS 25 software. Findings showed that the characteristics of desirable therapeutic environment are summarized in terms of children, respectively, in three domains: architectural features, personnel behavioral principles and the existence of specific characteristics in therapeutic spaces. The result of the research in the field of architectural features showed that the teachings of child participation in the process of designing child-friendly therapeutic spaces consist of five principles. These include focusing on the design of inpatient rooms, the controlled design of outdoor and green spaces, the inpatient room as a home, the childlike appearance in the entrance design, and the childlike appearance in the form and outline of the building.

The work of architecture is believed to depend on the governing thought in the process of architectural designing. This thought can be analyzed, developed, experienced, and interpreted. Creativity is the only domineering force in the idea of designing which is in quest for freeing architecture from the routine methods, and also finding the novel systems to answer the questions in architecture. Therefore, a special fixed and stable place is considered for creativity. However, the background and history of research and clash of ideas in recent years explains for the change in reconsidering the general ideas, and interpretations on creativity in the process of designing. Today, the approach that considers the process of designing an outcome of responding to the demand on creativity in architecture through logical and analytic methods is no longer credited. Instead, the process of designing is considered in a creative and intuitive way which is metaphysical rather than argumentative. This change in attitude and the relevant interpretations have introduced clear evidence; however, there remain many questions involving the identity and quality of the creative occurrences in the process of designing. Therefore, the intuitive approaches and interpretations about creativity have been so over generalized and complicated that have left a lot of obscurities behind. This article is an attempt to respond to some of these questions by identifying the ways the intuitive creativity occurs and also to present a descriptive stream in the emergence of creativity which means creating ideas only happen according to intuition.