International Journal of Architecture and Urban Development
Volume:4 Issue: 2, Spring 2014

Though Muslims have been living in Nepal from the 15th century, they have started practicingtheir religious activities freely only after enactment of new civil code in 1963. This paper aims to explore the potentials and problems on the existing mosques, perception of the religious structures by Muslim community and analysing of existing legal and institutional framework before drawing a conclusion. The research methodology consists of combination of field visit and collection of detailed information, structured questionnaire survey and consultation with local leaders and municipal staffs. Detailed analysis of ‘Jame Masjid’ in Kathmandu and another ‘Masjid’ at Trishuli Bazaar in Bidur reveals that these mosques have become the centre of practising Islamic culture, promoting brotherhood among Muslim communities, learning place of Islamic education, besides their sentimental attachment. Social harmony between Muslims and other religious communities together with coexistence of mosques and ‘madrasa’ with Hindu religious structures in the same vicinity has presented a unique situation. However, inadequate information, low level of awareness among the mosque visitors and above all lack of government’s specific plans and policieshave hampered the conservation and development of mosque architectural and Islamic culture. To reverse this trend,development of mosques as Islamic cultural and community development centre, incorporation of salient features ofIslamic culture into local planning and building codes as well as in school syllabus and networking with domestic and international organisations working for local development is suggested.

It is not long time that residential complexes have been built in Tehran. Although during thistime, always influenced by some factors, configuration of the residential complexes has undergone fluctuations, rateof which has been very fast especially in recent decades considering the fundamental changes that have emerged in the housing debate. turning housing into an investment commodity. Residential complexes are generally evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively from two viewpoints. Qualitative issues that are often in connection with quality of living environment and its effects from social and especially cultural issues of residents have been given little attention in the past few decades and in contrast, quantitative issues have been more attractively motivated by profitability and economic benefits. The result of this imbalance is the housing status that we can see in all aspects. The present studiesindicate that in recent decades, the rising rate of construction and lack of sufficient control over housing sector resulted in the formation of the residential complexes regardless of cultural context, approval of settlement inconsistent with the culture and traditional attitudes of the residents and as a result, low quality of life in residential complexes. This paper is an attempt to assess several condominiums in different years in terms of quality and the effect taken from cultural concepts in all stages, including studies, planning, design and operation using field study and questionnaires and then to find a correct relationship between various components and finally, some recommendations are provided to improve the current situation.

To cope with the urban congestion problem resulted from rapid urbanization some cities are successfully using Electronic Road Pricing policy as a demand management measure. In 1982, Hong Kong Governmenttook initiative to experiment electronic road pricing in Hong Kong. Though, the project outcome reveals that Electronic Road Pricing could bring tremendous economic, social and environmental benefit for the city, it was not possible to run Electronic Road Pricing successfully due to huge public protest. Present paper aims to reveal the reasons of Electronic Road Pricing not being implemented in Hong Kong. This paper also scrutinizes the impact of Electronic Road Pricing in Hong Kong and will also suggest some policy guidelines for the government for the successful execution of Electronic Road Pricing in Hong Kong. This paper ends with a concluding remarks of Electronic Road Pricing can be an effective solution for long term success but the government need to take some public inclusion strategies to gain public support in favor of Electronic Road Pricing.

Recognizing the link between “Cognition" and "Architectural Creation” indicates that there is a relation between subject and object. Correct understanding of this relationship helps artistic creativity, especially in the architecture, to take steps towards proving truth that have caused works to be continued over the past times. Knowledge and cognitions in architecture are categories that today theory of which have been neglected to be explained. Failure to comply with epistemology1, i.e. incorrect epistemology, has resulted to subjective ideas which are emerged in the framework of ideologies expressed in architecture, as a form inconsistent with national and Islamic identity. So that once more, the ideas resulting from perception of the created works, with replacement of concepts and ideas instead of principles and truth of work, tend to reject previous cognition and suggest new cognition-based theories which not only will not lead to integration in works creation but it will be one step away from reality. This process continues until now, due to lack of understanding about the origins of the crisis, the trend is adopted as an individualistic process andart knowledge is juxtaposed with artistic taste. This study is an attempt to review and recognize the role of knowledge in the past process of Islamic architecture in Iran with an analytical- interpretation approach in order to show the role of knowledge in the circle of creation and understanding of architecture as causes of inefficient contemporary theories put forward in this area, by exploring a philosophy of cognition.

In order to respond to the problem of urban decline, different approaches have been defined in sucha way that urban regeneration approach became current in the 1980s (and more wildly after 1995) as a replacement for urban renewal. Urban regeneration is the holistic process of reversing economic, social and physical decay in areas where it has reached a stage when market forces alone will not suffice. This article approaches aimed at using urban regeneration planning in Dolatkhah case study situated in 19th Tehran municipality region using Analysis of Interconnected Decision Areas technique in order to respond its urban decline. Findings of this article show that the attitude of decision-makers to deal with urban decline is more physical than social and economic. Urban regeneration planning at the local level cannot answer all the problems of social, economic and physical urban decays and there is the necessity of planning system reform from top to down. The results of this article states that with a technical office establishment based on Tehran renovation organization support and with assuming of institutional planning implementation, community development asset-based approach is more adapted with Dolatkhah conditions. Institutionplanning and its process in Dolatkhah have been introduced in this article.

The inappropriate indoor environmental quality of a building causes different problems such asheadache and breathing difficulties which are called the syndrome of building sickness. These diseases reduce the efficiency of people and deteriorate the quality of their life. Studies carried out in hundreds of big office buildings across the world show that the indoor environment qualities of these buildings are about the average and a lot of employees are dissatisfied with their work place. Besides, the studies show that many of employees suffer from diseases associated with buildings. These diseases greatly affect the efficiency and working hours of employees and have grave economic consequences for the countries. If a space, including an office space, enjoys a qualitative interior, the employees`health and as a result their efficiency will improve. Therefore, attending to the indoor environment quality is a must in designing modern office buildings. The present field study was conducted on 10 office building in Kermanshah in winter 1390—a city which is located in a cold climate—and investigated the effect of environmental factors on the office indoor environment quality. The analysis of data by Statistical Package for Social Science Software1 revealedthat the variables of suitable view and landscape, and ventilation have had the greatest effect and the sun light variable has had the smallest effect on the indoor environment quality.

The experience of Iranian-Islamic cities represents the role of mosques on physical and socialorganization in urban neighborhoods. It appears that this role has been changed during the contemporary era. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of social and cultural contexts on the performance of local mosques. The main question of this research is: “What is the relationship between social context and the performance of local mosques?” The research hypo thesis is that the reseems to be a significant relationship between the social factors and the performance of local mosques in urban neighborhoods. Methodology of the research has been based on analyticaldescriptive method. In order to examine this hypothesis, the or etical and practical definitions of the survey’s variables, “social component of mosques and their performance in urban neighborhoods", are provided applying the theory of social capital. Afterward, the indexes of each variable are determined and applied in questionnaire to be evaluated in case studies. The data of the study were analyzed through SPSS software and the hypothesis was confirmed with 95%confidence level.

The term ‘deteriorated texture’ gives all experts as well as ordinary people almost the sameimpression. Despite common points in images, the differences put Iran cities in different categories based on deteriorated textures. This classification not only has negative effect on the audience from mental point of view but causes various problems for the experts in determining interference method. For example, the textures having different deterioration causes yet from body point of view have led to the same deterioration placed under the same category. This itself leads to new problems and results in the deterioration process. So, this study has based its performance on deterioration indicators through investigating different definitions of deterioration and putting aside formal definitions of deteriorated textures. Then, having reviewed interference perspectives, we put the final frame on deterioration indicators. We have analyzed several interference projects in deteriorated textures in order to come up with a theoretical framework and arrive at basic criteria. Of course, it should be mentioned that we have tried to select projects whichhave common condition with Iran so that the resulted criteria can be applied in deteriorated texture in Iran.

The neighborhood has had a long history in Iranian urbanization. Since urban plans wereintroduced by the authorities to shape urban development in Iran half a century ago, the concept of Iranian traditional neighborhood has been neglected gradually. The concept of neighborhood has not found the appropriate status in urban design and planning yet. One of the main reasons is that academics, professional urban planners, designers and managers use different definition and no consensus exists on definition of neighborhood. The aim of research is to compare residents’ perception of their neighborhood boundaries with boundaries of administrative-defined Neighborhoods which municipalities consider. The main hypothesis of the research is fundamental difference between these two views: top- down view from experts and urban managers who see the neighborhood as a spatial unit for city organizing and bottom- up view from residents who consider the neighborhood as the place of their social life. The Research methodology has been done base on the survey method and an analytical approach has been applied. The case study is located in Mashhad city in Iran. Four municipality-defined neighborhoods were selected in various urbanfabrics of the city. Findings indicate that residents’ definition of their neighborhood was influenced by socio-spatial factors and interaction of these on each other. There is a substantial and fundamental difference between residents’ definition of neighborhood and municipality-defined neighborhood. Finally, this study proposes recommendations for the better definition of administrative neighborhoods in Iran.

Nowadays, huge tendency to fashion and consumerism could be assumed as the origin of identitycrisis among women and in their houses. This phenomenon is like a veil between man and the fact of his human being. Given that the physical properties of man-made environments (house) are influenced by human properties and, in return, have an important role in giving identity to their audience, identification of different dimensions of these properties can be useful in the creation of physical environment with the goal of overwhelming such a crisis. In this study, the roots and effects of the tendency toward fashion and consumerism were explored. It is believed that modernism and materialism are the main causes for the current crisis. At the second stage, to understand the nature of relationship between humans and their environments, theories from semiotics, phenomenology, and semantics were studied. After reviewing many sources, it was found out that self awareness is the only way to promote women and their houses’identities. Finally, using a logical reasoning method, among all reviewed approaches, Endogenous Development Model was confirmed as the best approach to getting out of the kind of crisis explained above. According to the findings, this approach can pave the ground for inhabitants’ growth in addition to creating valuable places with their unique identity.