نشریه نامه معماری و شهرسازی
سال چهاردهم شماره 32 (پاییز 1400)

The challenge between the old and new has always been a matter of discussion. This gap has been widened with the modernism movement and the new language of architecture. This issue manifests itself more acutely in new designs in historical contexts. On one hand, conservation rules and regulations, and on the other hand, the negligence and inconsistency of new projects in the field of heritage are the subjects of serious controversy. The use of the language of contemporary architecture in understanding the traditional style of life and construction, identification and adequate perception of the local architectural system of the site and the spirit of the place can result in a design that is compatible with the heritage of the place. Meanwhile, planning a new design in a rural heritage site is a difficult task due to its special features and the complex socio-cultural, economic, and natural relations, and that is why in practice there are fewer successful examples. Analysis of the effective factors in the design of rural heritage architecture presents a perspective for designers. The new design can play a significant role in preserving, encouraging, improving, or enhancing the values of built heritage in attracting the public attention and providing amenities for its owners and even neighbors. The purpose of this article is to study and develop effective principles and criteria in the design of new buildings and architectural elements in rural heritage sites, in order to achieve multiple criteria and principles and the key relations in the design of buildings and new elements in a rural context. The research method of this study is qualitative. Studying and analyzing the international documents, which are part of the achievements of valuable experiences in design in heritage contexts and their related challenges, will assist in developing these principles. Also, by examining various approaches and theories in this field the question of how to appropriately deal with rural heritage in order to protect its values, can be answered according to different approaches of architectural design. In the next step, the research examines and analyzes the designs that have been done in the historical village of Maymand (case study) and tries to check the compatibility of the designs with the principles that have been developed in the first part of the research. In addition, the validity of the research and the verification of the data will be assessed in this way. The results show that the principles and rules of conservation in a historical context cannot be considered as a limitation, but could be interpreted as an opportunity to create a lasting heritage in the future. These criteria help to enrich the new design and create identity. The designs made in the village of Maymand, which has proved its success due to several years of operation and the acceptance of the residents, showed good adaptability to the principles and components obtained from the theoretical foundations of the research. Finally, it was found that beyond the physical criteria, the basic factors are the ones that play a decisive role in the success of a design in rural heritage.

Urban geometry and the materials used in urban fabric play an important role in the microclimate of cities and the mitigation of heat islands. Materials can absorb solar and infrared radiation and scatter the accumulated heat into the atmosphere. The use of large quantities of construction materials such as bricks, concrete, asphalt mixtures, stones, etc. in urban areas, instead of using natural terrain and green areas, is one of the main causes of the Urban Heat Island (UHI). Urban surface materials, as a major interface element, have a significant role in improving microclimate and comfort conditions and reduction of heat gains. An experimental study was carried out to evaluate the effect of various urban surface materials on the potentiality of increasing ambient air temperature in Tehran. 30 conventional paving and roofing materials, which are being used in Iran, were examined during the summer of 2014. The thermophysical properties and solar reflectance values of these materials were measured, in order to determine the impact of the thermal and optical performance of the samples under study on ambient and surface temperatures and their effect on UHI in the hot-arid climate of Tehran.  A statistical analysis using F-ANOVA and t-test was performed to identify the effect of physical properties including surface color, surface roughness, and construction of these materials. A spectrometer and an infrared camera were used to quantify the surface reflection and emissivity of the materials. Samples were placed on an extruded polystyrene (XPS) layer -except grass and asphalt that existed in the site- to eliminate the heat transfer between the ground and the samples. The surface temperature of the materials was hourly measured using T type contact thermocouples for 24 days. Also, temperature fluctuations were studied in relation to outdoor temperature. The highest thermal changes in the materials mostly occur in the mid-day, when outdoor temperature and solar radiation are at their maximum. Most of the analysis was carried out between 11:00 am. and 05:00 pm. The results show that dark-colored surface materials have more tendency to absorb solar radiation compared to the smooth and light-colored ones and were warmer. Some materials were warmer than ambient air temperature which is related to the physical, optical, and thermal properties of the samples. Comparative analysis of current pavement and roofing materials used in Tehran showed that most surface temperatures of materials surface are more than 54 ˚C and the Solar Reflectance Index (SRI) and albedo are lower than 50% that will lead to higher surface temperatures. According to the measurement results and the increase of UHI in Tehran metropolitan area due to the density of the city, the use of light color and smooth materials with high solar reflectance, regardless of their shape, and more greenery covers are more appropriate for Tehran. It is also an effective strategy in mitigating urban heat islands, decreasing cooling load during summer, and improvement of thermal comfort in urban spaces, provided that nuisance glare is prohibited.

Due to the emergence and influence of elements of architecture from different places, there is always confusion in determining the architectural style of facades. Identifying the characteristic elements of the prevalent styles of residential facades in the city of Tehran that have gradually taken a certain style over time brings about many benefits. Identifying and distinguishing styles and determining their characteristics can be effective in future analysis in guiding the visual tastes of the community and creating visual harmony in the cities. The purpose of this study is to identify the physical elements of prevalent residential façade styles in Tehran so that a basis is provided for the classification of facades. For this purpose, the facades of middle-height residential apartments located in seven municipality districts of Tehran which represent the postmodern, late modern, and neoclassical styles were recorded by the camera. Then, the physical elements of each style were recorded in a table according to the images. The frequency of each physical element was determined by the logical reasoning and analysis method. This research is a case study with a descriptive-analytical approach. A total of 2303 facades were analyzed, of which 1131 were late modern samples, 1086 were neoclassical samples, 85 were postmodern samples, and 1 was a combination of the three styles. 40 physical elements were identified in the postmodern style, 39 physical elements in the late modern style, and 44 physical elements in the neoclassical style. The late modern and neoclassical style façade categories are prevalent in almost equal ratios, while the postmodern style accounts for only about 3.7% of the total facades examined. In the postmodern style, there is an attempt to renew the design elements of Iran’s past architecture. Therefore, identifying the physical elements of the postmodern façade style can be beneficial in designing residential facades that are linked to Iran's past architecture. A pattern was identified in some of the postmodern facades that were analyzed which included the presence of three physical elements at once: arches, awnings, and vertical divisions. This could indicate a new style of postmodern design. Several identified physical elements are specific to a facade style. These physical elements are either rarely observed or do not exist at all in the other styles. These include 17 physical elements specific to the postmodern style, 13 physical elements specific to the neoclassical style, and 2 physical elements specific to the modern style. Therefore, the greatest variety of physical elements specific to a style is evident in the postmodern style. The elements specific to the postmodern style include: bricks as the most used material, embossed brick volumes, turquoise/blue tiles or elements, brick frames with light-colored materials within, vertical facade divisions, cog-jagged volumes/materials, awnings, void in the roof guards, designed guards, brickwork around windows, fakhr-o-madyan design (wall barriers in gardens, bazaars and religious places made of bricks in the form of a grid of empty spaces so that the outside can be viewed from the inside), brick designs, vertical façade divisions, stepped brickwork, curved volumes, arches in the roof guards, lozenge designs and textures, and vertical façade divisions + arches + awnings.

Considering that knowledge, skill, and value are the three most important criteria for an urban designer, the present study aims to examine the general and specialized skills that are required by urban designers. Generally, the pedagogy of urban design and its teaching methods is one of the most important research issues that have not received much attention. However, research in the field of education in each discipline can help the graduates succeed in various fields. In the meantime, the acquired and expected skills of urban designers are one of the research fields related to urban design pedagogy that can lead to clarification and even guide the teaching methods. Since the role of studios in improving skills is very practical, the special emphasis of this article is to examine the improved and developed skills in the final studio of urban design, which is a platform for testing the theoretical and experimental knowledge learned in the other courses. According to the purpose of the research, after formulating a conceptual framework based on the interrogative method and developing the evaluation framework of this studio, three types of evaluation methods for educational programs have been used including goal-oriented method, expert-based method, and participation-based method. The research method in this section is based on the mixed analysis method. In the section reviewing the approved educational programs in the field of urban design in Iran in 2009 and 2013, the qualitative method was used. For reviewing the educational program of urban design studios in the sample universities around the world that were selected by the non-probability method, also qualitative method was considered appropriate. In reviewing the skills learned in this studio at the university, the views of students in this field in five universities in Tehran, including Tehran University, Shahid Beheshti, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tarbiat Modarres, and University of Art were examined and questioned in 2020. 50 questionnaires were distributed equally in mentioned universities. The data were then analyzed quantitatively with SPSS software. To confirm the results of students’ approach, the viewpoints of professors were also collected through 10 questionnaires. In the next step, to identify the skill gaps between university and profession, the opinion of private-sector employers was obtained by distribution of 12 questionnaires which were then quantitatively analyzed. The results showed that the skills emphasized in the approved curriculum (2013) such as feasibility and implementation skills were considered less important in the universities. According to the students’ viewpoint, this studio prepares them to some extent for entering the profession and less emphasis is placed on the implementation skills. Examining the views of employers and comparing the results with the views of students and professors showed that the most significant gap between the profession and the university is in implementation skills.

One of the main issues in the field of urban planning in Iran is the performance of urban development projects. Urban development plans have been prepared in Iran since the 1960s. However, over time, they have encountered some problems in practice. In order to identify the problems, the performance of urban development projects has been evaluated in different periods. According to the requirements of the time, various solutions have been presented in order to improve the process of preparation and approval of urban development plans in Iran. Most of the evaluations have been done in relation to the physical recommendations of the performance of the plans and most of the solutions have been presented in order to change the methods of preparing urban development plans. In the global literature today, the nature of the discourse of planning and decision-making in the public sphere is followed by scholars such as Foucault, Allmendinger, and Healey. Accordingly, the attitude towards urban development plans in this study has shifted from an empirical perspective to more flexible and deductive perspectives. In the field of urban development plans, this article seeks to reveal the components affecting the process of preparation and approval of plans in Iran based on the experiences of the city of Mashhad. In order to achieve this goal, the present study will use the capabilities of new methods of the grounded theory called situational analysis. The use of situational analysis could show us that the factors influencing the preparation and approval of urban development plans in Iran are very diverse, dynamic, and complex. Different factors affect urban development plans and they are influenced by different discourse worlds at different scales. Data collection tools in this study include field data and library data. Field data collection includes 17 interviews with specialists. There were also 546 interviews, reports, and articles published in the press that were used to collect library and documentary data. Data analysis in this study was carried out by using the proposed method of Adel Clarke using location maps and arena/social world maps on the national and local scales. The results of this study showed that in different social worlds, different discourse structures affect the preparation and approval of urban development plans in Iran. Areas affecting the preparation of urban development plans were divided into three categories: political, intellectual, and social capitals. As a result of the impact of these three types of capitals, different planning methods and decision-making methods have emerged. The analysis of the arena-social world map in this study showed that there are content differences in the fields of social capital, intellectual capital, and political-managerial capital at national and local scales. consequently, planning tools and decision-making methods are also expressed differently at national and local levels. At the local level, due to the role of municipalities in urban development plans and their vital relationship with the people, there is a tendency for short-term, collective, and action-oriented decisions, while at the national level due to centralist approaches and oil revenues, long-term, governmental, and idealistic measures are in focus.

The prevalence of obesity and non-communicable diseases has become one of the serious concerns in Iran due to lifestyle changes such as reduced physical activity and consuming high-calorie foods. At the same time, the role of the built components of the environment in increasing physical activity, creating a healthy food environment, and thus reducing obesity has attracted increasing attention from decision-makers and researchers. However, after two decades of focused international efforts to find the links between built components and health variables, there are serious ambiguities about the results of these studies. In this regard, the present article has tried to provide these ambiguities as a circle of challenges in the form of a research agenda concerning theoretical and experimental gaps on this issue in Iran. A narrative review has also been used in this study. Narrative reviews are generally comprehensive and cover a wide range of issues on a particular topic, but do not necessarily follow clear rules of search and analysis. Systematic reviews focus on questions, and their main contribution is to summarize the data, but narrative reviews seek to interpret and critique the data, and their main goal is to gain an in-depth understanding of the subject. A variety of databases and search engines such as Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science have been used to find the articles. Chosen articles were selected based on the subject, the number of citations and the novelty of the findings. Various studies have shown conflicting findings that make it is difficult to reach solid conclusions about relationships and turn them into policies. An important part of these ambiguities stems from a series of methodological challenges that undermine the findings of the studies and eliminate the possibility of an analogy between the results. Accordingly, this section refers to the classification of the most important of them. Findings show inconsistencies between objective and perceptual criteria, ambiguity in the definition of neighborhood unit, unreliability and validity of self-selection of residential units, mediating variables and ignoring the displacement of the target group and the dominance of cross-sectional studies. It makes it difficult to draw sound findings that can provide strong theoretical underpinnings for translating them into strategic policies. To complement the results of this study, it is necessary to provide a research agenda for better understanding, creating theoretical support, and its empirical application in the country. From this perspective, redefining the neighbourhood unit in terms of adaptation to the daily activity environment in different climates and cultures in a comparative way can greatly facilitate the comparison of findings and the possibility of achieving a consensus on hypotheses. Secondly, recording and updating various spatial and physical changes of cities in parallel with Cohort research at the same time intervals on individuals could be effective for clarifying the causal relationship, the effectiveness of interventions and develop clear and strategic guidelines for designing and planning different neighbourhoods. It is also recommended that conducting "health impact assessment" in local plans and measuring the "burden of disease" on the urban scale, could support the establishment of institutional and constitutional frameworks in the country's urban policies.