International Journal of Architectural Engineering & Urban Planning
Volume:33 Issue: 1, Jan 2023

The physical-geometric characteristics of buildings have a very important role in the regulation of microclimate conditions and the thermal situation of interior and exterior spaces of buildings. This research aims to investigate the amount of received direct radiation energy of vertical surfaces in buildings and determine the appropriate form, aspect ratio, and orientation of buildings in the cities of Ardabil, Tabriz, Sanandaj, and Hamedan in the Northwest of Iran with cold climate. For this purpose, six polygonal forms (with the same floor area and height) including square, rectangle, hexagon, octagon, hexadecagon (16-sided), and triacontadigon (32-sided) were selected to be examined. Afterward, the specified optimal form(rectangle) was surveyed with the aspect ratios of 1:1.2, 1:1.4, 1:1.6, 1:1.8, 1:2 and in the orientations of 180º, 165º, 150º, 135º, 120º, 105º SE and SW. Using the “Law of Cosines” computational method, the amount of received direct energy on vertical surfaces has been calculated and processed, for different months and during the cold and hot periods of the year. The results of the research show that the appropriate form of the buildings in the studied cities is a rectangle with an east-west orientation. The most suitable aspect ratio for the rectangular form with east-west orientation in the cities of Ardabil, Tabriz, Sanandaj, and Hamedan is 1:1.2. The appropriate orientation for the determined aspect ratio in the studied cities is 165° Southeast.

Small Urban Parks (SUP) are vital parts of cities that can enhance the quality of the public environment. Visual Preferences (VP) in SUPs, which consist of diverse stimuli, are affected by multisensory perception, including the combination of auditory, olfactory, and tactile stimuli. However, the relationship between sensory stimuli integration (sound, smell, touch) and people’s VP has been neglected during the design process, which can influence the assessment of an environmental aesthetic and preferences. The main objective of the present study is to evaluate how multisensory can affect the VP of visitors through textual and photo questionnaires. Structural Equations Model and Regression were studied on 394 participants, chosen from 16 SUPs located in different parts of Tabriz, Iran. Results identified the “Human and Natural sounds, Human-Body and Natural smells” as influential factors on visitors’ VP; however, touch stimuli had no significant impact. In this regard, paying attention to the visitors’ experience of Natural Sound-Smell Stimuli and the Human-body Sound-Smell Stimuli are essential in designing SUPs. The outcomes of the current research provide a guideline for city planners and landscape designers regarding the relationship between senses and their practical implications in SUPs in order to promote people’s VP and visitation.

Urban squares reflect urban planning cultures, and also to some extent even a reflection of overall nations’ cultures. Squares are microcosms of urban life, offering excitement and repose, markets and public ceremonies, a place to meet friends and watch the world go by. They have been shaped by popular whims, by topography and architectural fashion. Some grew piecemeal; others were planned at a stroke, as a symbol of power or the foundation stone of a new development. Here in this study effort is made to compare two selected cases from two different cultures, West vs. East - Savanna, Georgia, USA vs. Hamadan, Iran. In this comparison, the indicators of the biophilic city (pedestrian, nature-friendly, accessible and sociable city) have been considered. Descriptive analytical method was used to collect and classify the indicators and space syntax theory was used to analyze and compare the placing pattern of squares in urban contexts. The method of data collection was library and field survey and data analysis tool were UCL Depthmap software. The study of biophilic city in the two studied cities revealed differences and similarities that are effective in increasing theoretical understanding, recognizing anomalies and understanding how indicators work in these two different urban structures and contexts.

One of the most famous historical squares of Iran is the Naghsh-e Jahan Complex, of which many studies have been done about its features and its effects on the urban space of Isfahan. The measurement of the geometric system governing the physical structure of this complex is considered an important part, of which no comprehensive research has ever been conducted. Accordingly, this study, aiming at analyzing the impact of the geometric organization and its order on the structure of the Square, and in particular on the location of its multiple accesses, seeks to evaluate this topic by using the relative measuring system based on the geometric rules as a process for the regularization of the space. The relative measurement system is one of the first ones, resulting in the application of geometry to the physical structure of the city and architecture. Its valuable benefits can be the application of dimensions and sizes with the identified coefficients in the cited plan. The present study is classified in the category of historical research, and descriptive and exploratory methods have been used in the historical research. Also, research on library data has provided the basis for analyzing the geometric structure of the Square and its dependent buildings. The research question can be formulated as follows: What is the relationship between the location of multiple entrances to the Naghsh-e Jahan square and its geometric system? The research findings indicate that the structure of the Naghsh-e Jahan Complex is following a geometric system with relative lengths based on the square shape, so the accesses location and the organization of the peripheral elements have all been subject to the mentioned system. Also, the results emphasize the benefit of a continuous process in planning the structure of the recent urban space, including its components, and considering it based on rational and inferential thinking, which, according to the geometric rules, is forming the hidden and revealed relations between the elements of the Safavid city.

The aging of the population in developed and developing countries calls for special attention to improve the quality of life for older people. Meanwhile, one of the key factors influencing the quality of life of older people is their mobility. Most of the previous studies have considered the mobility of younger people while considering the aging of the population, the mobility of older people needs special attention. This research aims to investigate the factors affecting older adults’ mobility in urban spaces. Thus, we examined Sage, Science Direct, Wiley, Taylor and Francis databases. Initially, 300 papers were gathered. In the following steps, after a more detailed review of the content of the papers and the removal of the unrelated ones, 28 papers remained which had the most relevance to the subject, and content analysis was done. The content analysis results show that the factors affecting elderly mobility are personal factors, lifestyle and attitudinal factors, and built environment factors. Finally, the model of the factors affecting elderly mobility is proposed. According to this model, the three factors proposed can affect the mobility of older adults directly and indirectly. Our findings add to the growing research on investigating older adults’ mobility factors. If urban planners get familiar with the factors affecting the mobility of older people in urban spaces, they can lead people to more sustainable modes of mobility and decrease car orientation in urban areas. Therefore, in future policies, the role of all the factors in the mobility of older people should be considered because the restriction of mobility can prevent the active participation of individuals in social activities and ultimately create feelings of depression and social isolation.

Urban green spaces provide a context where constant association with these spaces can result in reducing the incidence or diminishing the effect of many diseases. Different studies assessed the relationship between using urban green spaces and health benefits considering influential quantitative aspects. This research tries to look differently at this issue by connecting the urban green spaces qualitative aspects and their influence on encouraging individuals to use green spaces more frequently. For this purpose, the present study employs questionnaire-based interviews (no. 336) in two city parks in Urmia, Iran (The City Park and the Coastal Park) to collect the required information for assessing the interviewees’ physical and psychological health levels. The relationships between the hypotheses are later studied using SPSS analytical software. The results showed that relationships were found between using the parks and having better psychological health conditions, but no relationship was found between the duration of physical activity in the park and having better physiological health. The assessment of the obtained data emphasizes the importance of the park characters and features that lead people to engage with specific activities which cause certain health benefits as a result of that activity. The results highlight the importance of developing green infrastructures in today’s urban areas.

The advent of modernity in Iran weakened many structures and practices, including social hangouts in cities; therefore, the public was cynical about this space. While hangouts, as a third-place and public space in a city, promote social capital, vibrant centers, and citizenship education, Tehran Daneshjoo Park, as a public space with an urban scale and physical and social features, can also be considered a hangout for various social groups. The present study seeks to identify hangouts and factors affecting their formation, continuity, or fading in this space. Accordingly, documentaries were investigated via a descriptive-survey method. Then, interviews with space users at different times and with observation instruments such as photography and behavioral mapping were employed. The results showed a hangout for artists and art lovers, vendors, and food vendors, students and young women, people with sexual identity disorders, addicts and drug dealers, and the elderly. Also, functional components such as geographical location, urban theater building, and its architectural type, platforms and stair space structure, water pool, urban furniture, enclosure in space, social components such as the presence of social observers, drug distribution, and street peddler are effective in creating and the continuation of these hangouts. Most of these hangouts are formed as part of open space with a trans-regional scale.

The damages of COVID-19 to people's lives have highlighted the need for the usage of technologies to improve health. For this purpose, the identification of available technologies could facilitate the fight against COVID-19. This manuscript aims to explore the effective technologies existing in the literature on Interactive Architecture because these technologies are embedded in the daily life of individuals to respond to the real-time needs of people. Therefore, we conducted a scoping review in the Web of Science and Scopus databases, with no time and paper type limitations. Selected papers were categorized based on their content. Also, the guidelines for combating COVID-19 (based on the WHO and the national government tips) were reviewed and categorized. Afterward, the papers that shared the same themes by guidelines were selected to extract the technologies introduced in them. Finally, usage has been proposed for each of the technologies. Also, we examined the effectiveness of the technologies in the proposed sectors by asking about the experts' viewpoints. As result, we found that interactive ventilation, flexible walls, and eHealth technologies could be effective for the promotion of physical health during COVID-19. In that vein, interactive installations (such as interactive furniture) could improve mental health during quarantine by extending the space and providing the opportunity to connect with the outside world. Also, the virtual education environment was the most effective technology for education challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic.