International Journal of Architectural Engineering & Urban Planning
Volume:31 Issue: 4, Oct 2021

The design of religious spaces around the world is of particular importance. Spaces such as churches, synagogues, graveyards, cemeteries, and shrines are among religious buildings. Such spaces are specially designed for each religion and faith. All forms of architecture should be easily reflected in form and space, given the meaning of the word “religion” (faith, religion, method, tradition, sharia, method, and way [rule of life]) based on the more manifest concepts in religion. The purpose of this study is to investigate approaches and methods for measuring sensory factors in architectural environments, in the form of a review [article] and literature review, on how to measure sentiments in architectural space. Therefore, this study seeks to answer this question: What are the methods for measuring sensory factors in architectural environments? This study is desk research in nature, to define all the issues raised in the theoretical section using a descriptive-analytical method to analyze the content and logical reasoning and collect the required data on the concepts by doing a literature review. Findings indicate that the architecture in the past sought to take advantage of the formal dimensions of religious buildings, such as mosques and churches, as a medium for a spiritual leap into the world of truth and meaning. Religious (sacral or sacred) architecture can also be translated into organizing components to navigate the appearance of phenomena and remember their interior to enhance the spiritual spatial quality. One has to note that the effects of the architectural body and buildings built affect people's minds. Thus, if this issue is ignored, the created space will cause confusion and a negative effect on the minds of the users of the space for sure. In the field of sensory factors in architecture, architects and urban designers can answer most of the hypotheses by using cognitive sciences.

The main aim of the current paper is to shed light on space syntax theory and criticize its origins and fundamental thoughts.
In order to criticize the space syntax theory, this paper provides computational models of three residential layouts in the city of Tehran, Iran. The main question is how far space syntax theory is able to predict the movement and behavioral patterns of residents in a residential layout in Tehran. In other words, this research explores whether space syntax computational models can cover the behavioral patterns or there are gaps. The hypothesis is that although the configuration of settlements is the primary foundation to natural movements, it demands behavioral settings theory to interpret the behavioral-movement patterns. Comparing the Depth Map models with observations reveals that the configuration of residential layouts has a causal relation with the formation of spatial-physical structure. The integration analysis, based on the space syntax methodological–conceptual framework, is able to predict the general movement patterns of the residents. But when it comes to the behavioral patterns, the synomorphy between physics and behavior can perform a more accurate prediction. The behavioral settings theory by Roger Barker has developed the synomorphy in order to find the adaptations between physical environments and behaviors. The research findings nonetheless support the theoretical understanding that the urban environment’s spatial configuration provides a fundamental condition for the movement patterns but barely can offer a good interpretation for the micro-level behaviors by the residents.

Political stability and economic security have led to forming small and independent agricultural units in different regions of Iran in a period. They were shaped by combining water with residential, religious, service, and agricultural elements and are referred to in local communities as the "Farmstead" The historical documentation recorded their presence from the 4th century AH until the Safavid era from an economic and jurisprudential approach. Then, domestic and foreign elites introduced them in the form of books and travelogues in the Qajar era; however, they did not mention the architecture of the farmsteads and their features.  in 2008, for the first time, some Farmsteads are introduced by field surveys in Niasar, and the qualities of their formation and structure are considered by publishing papers. The Landlords have built them with two types of agricultural castles and agricultural complexes. In addition, they have determined the location of farmstead by water resources, and their formation was subject to economic and security equations. The main research problem is insufficient knowledge of the historical farmstead of Iran in the national and international communities. These monuments are ruined due to various reasons in a period, and eventually, the people have forgotten their names.The current study aims to introduce the historical farmsteads of Iran by investigating their past and present status and A main question in this research is: What are the physical and functional characteristics of Iran's historical farmsteads? according to this,The interpretive-historical method is used to read the written documents and survey their historical propertise to reach the research aim  and question. Thus, interviews with farmstead dwellers observation and review maps of historical monuments, and library studies to examine written documents constitute research tools. These farmsteads were studied in the central plateau of Iran, especially in the cities of Kashan, Qom and Yazd. Some of them were known as castles until now. But in this article, by examining their physical and functional characteristics, it has been determined that they are farmstead and in addition to agricultural land and water, they have physical elements such as Castle, mills, water reservoirs, baths and mosques. Thus the Castle has been a part of the farmstead-related elements. they also have social, cultural, and economic systems. The current research can help to register farmsteads in the list of national monuments of Iran as an independent collection.

Energy-efficient buildings reduce energy demand. The parameters of the building envelope, as an interface between the interior of the building and the outdoor environment, can greatly influence energy consumption. The main objective of this study is to ‎optimize the parameters of buildings’ envelopes for reducing energy consumption while ‎considering‏ ‏the common style of architectural design in cold-dry regions. The case study research methodology is used to investigate the effect of various openings characteristics on the energy performance of the building. This paper studied one of the stories of a high-rise residential building as the case study and component blocks were used for the rest of the stories. To find an ‎energy-efficient model for the buildings’ façade, considering the effective parameters, ‎numerous simulations were performed by the EnergyPlus as an energy simulation engine. The factors analyzed in this article included the type of glazing, the type of window frame, the window-to-wall ratio (WWR), and shading placement. The results show that a combination of Low-E ‎glazing ‎ and Argon gas with a 5.98% reduction, a UPVC window frame with a 0.36% ‎reduction, a WWR of 30% with a 1.57% increase, an overhang shading with 20cm thickness ‎and 15cm depth with a 1.12% reduction in annual energy consumption can cause a total ‎reduction of 2.45% in annual energy consumption compared to the initial model.‎‏ ‏These ‎changes did not compromise the required lighting for the interior spaces while reducing the ‎energy consumption of the building.

Achievement of thermal comfort in the built environment is one of the human life needs. Many studies have already explored the issues around human comfort in relation to the surrounding thermal environment. However, most of these studies used quantitative methods that fall into the positivist paradigm. Despite the conducive results obtained, many aspects of the thermal comfort are neglected as the nature of comfort is directly associated with the human dimension. Therefore, it is necessary to adopt a different approach such as qualitative and mixed methods to better understand the underlying mechanisms of thermal comfort concept and its achievement. These methods could reveal other aspects of human comfort that have not been considered. However, the application of these methods requires fundamental knowledge of ontology and epistemology. Therefore, this paper reviewed and compared the dynamics of the application of the paradigms in thermal comfort studies and their methodologies. Analytical findings among the methods of studying thermal comfort showed that only quantitative studies were not sufficient to create the applied knowledge in this vein. As this is a human-based field, its methodology should be first selected and then designed in the right way respecting the context where a study is going to be carried out. In this process, qualitative studies can determine contributing factors, then quantitative studies can find the relationships between these factors.

Nowadays, due to rapid urbanization, People can’t participate in outdoor activities. On the other hand, environmental issues such as climate change and heat stress have caused thermal dissatisfaction for users. In this regard, studying outdoor environments becomes crucial. In the present historical context, lack of responsive urban layout consequences not only morphological problems but also causes thermal dissatisfaction during the passages. The present study aims to find the responsive layout pattern for providing an approximate outdoor thermal comfort based on local criteria and limitations in summer and winter; which requires the minimum intervention in the current context.  In this regard, we intend to represent three basic street patterns (Linear, Grid, and Circular) as alternative designs and attempt to localize them with the current urban layout. For analyzing the prototypes, we used Envi-met Beta software to compare the average amount of climatic factors, orientation, and H/W ratio for the alternatives. In addition, the PMV factor (=Predicted Mean Vote Model) was used as a measurement index of outdoor thermal comfort. According to the outcomes, the Radial pattern with dominant NE-SW oriented passages prepares adequate solar energy in the winter. Also, it could balance the high radiation during the summer, whereby provides optimal thermal satisfaction in both hot and cold seasons.