نشریه معماری و شهرسازی آرمان شهر
پیاپی 41 (زمستان 1401)

A sense of community refers to an individual’s experience of social life in an environment. Various research has demonstrated that the sense of community has had the highest effects on peoples’ participation in environmental functions, including working in a closed office space. The idea of belonging to society has brought about considerable social responsibilities and advantages over the last decade. The sense of community helps people to get together more in a working environment as they are together in the family. It also helps people to demonstrate better conduct and morality in a working environment. This study aimed to use multi-criteria decision-making methods to measure the sense of community indicators and to respond to the study hypotheses. In this regard, the study explored available resources to extract 17 components affecting the sense of community. The views of the population under study were investigated by developing, distributing, and collecting questionnaires. For this purpose, 60 questionnaires were given out to academic professors, experts, and specialists in architecture, while social, environmental, and behavioral components were prioritized. By eliminating incomplete questionnaires, 57 questionnaires were finally analyzed, and in the end, the BWM (Best-Worst method in the multi-criteria decision-making) method was used. Out of social components, environmental components, and behavioral components, the subcomponents of shared connections and social interactions, the subcomponent of using public spaces, and the subcomponent of society were respectively identified as the best components affecting the promotion of the sense of community in office spaces. To promote the sense of community in office spaces, such measures as attention to shared connections, attention to social interactions, and spatial capacities for employee cooperation in space were taken.

Children spend long hours in the school’s interior space and do various physical activities; therefore, a considerable part of physical activities and playing is done in the schoolyard. Children's play and physical activities will decrease if the schoolyard does not provide a suitable space for physical activities. Such a decline in physical activity is harmful to children's health. The extant study aims to investigate the effect of the schoolyard's physical features on children's physical activity. This is a quantitative-qualitative study that assesses children's viewpoints about schoolyard features by using a questionnaire. The studied statistical society comprised 8-12-year-old children in Tehran City, Iran. Sampling was done through multistage cluster sampling, and 120 children from selected areas participated in the survey voluntarily. The data of the considered age group of children were collected through a children-specific researcher-made questionnaire. After the data were gathered, the importance of each criterion was determined based on the t-test, and then the components were ranked. According to the results of ranking environmental subfactors affecting physical activity, "light" was the most prior criterion with the highest mean value rather than other criteria. This criterion was followed by legibility, flooring safety, shape diversity, and playground safety with the highest effect on children's physical activity in the schoolyard. Collective space obtained the next rank and group activity was at the last rank. Three factors were derived using factor analysis after determining the role and importance of the environment in children's activities. The environmental and spatial factors affecting physical activity included "attractiveness," "sociability," and "playability" of the environment. One can improve the children's activity and health by considering of mentioned factors in the design process of outdoors in schools.

Meaning perception in the architecture of the Safavid Era requires reviewing the thoughts of Shiite philosophers of that time. Substantial motion theory is one of the most important thinking schools of that era. According to Islamic philosophy, the truth of perception is not limited to material hierarchy, while the matter can provide the field for understanding meanings at different hierarchies by relying on the substantial motion theory. Safavid Mosques represent this thought in architecture. Perception hierarchies in Safavid mosques, including Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque, rely on the substantial motion theory of Mulla Sadra- emphasis on perception movement from the existence of the matter or substance to inexistence- providing the field for journeying the perceptual hierarchies from appearance to the essence. Therefore, this is multidisciplinary, qualitative, and case-study research. In the theoretical foundations part, this study explained three pillars in the perceptual hierarchies of Safavid Mosques by examining the importance of the matter in epistemological topics proposed by Mula Sadra and its relationship with the motion principle. The type of perception in Sheikh Lotfollah was then investigated in each pillar to find the importance of matter and body in the perception of mosques in the Safavid Era regarding the main purpose of this study. According to the principle of journeying from matter to meaning, the main question is about the importance of the matter in each perceptual hierarchy of Safavid Mosques. It is also asked how the substantial motion theory by Mulla Sadra is manifested in perceptual hierarchies of the Safavid Era. In terms of the importance of the matter in the perception, the results indicate that meaning perception in Safavid mosques, particularly Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque includes three pillars (stillness, motion, and unity), which are consistent with perceptual hierarchies of Mulla Sadra. In the stillness pillar, which is the least perceptual hierarchy (because of being mixed with matter), perceptions are confined to sensory issues. In the motion pillar, however, imagination power allows for achieving a spiritual perception of material affairs. Finally, in the unity pillar, light and transparency of space allow the audience to be united with the space's reality. The last pillar includes intellectual perceptions.

Design for positive emotions has moved to broader concepts, including overall life satisfaction followed by long-term effectiveness and satisfaction with product use, pleasurable interaction, and sensory pleasures. For this purpose, the present study evaluates the design process of joyful experiences as a case in urban furniture using persuasive design principles for the target group of children. This study used the descriptive method reviewing 30 studies conducted on the considered subject, and summarizing them in the research background section. The distinction between affections and influencing methods proposed by Tromp was examined using psychology. In this research, Fogg Behavior Model also helped as the base for all persuasive design and behavior change models to find and identify a lack of psychological elements. Therefore, successful global cases were selected to identify Joyful elements in urban furniture and compared them with 28 principles suggested by Kukkonen and Harjumaa in the framework of primary task, dialogue, system credibility, and social support groups. These principles can be used with qualitative features suitable for designing various products. Card sorting tools and participatory design were used to identify users' preferences, and the obtained ideas were developed using Lockton’s subjective ideation method, and ten 8-12-years-old users were asked to assess the three presented concepts in the frame of 9 emotional dimensions of the PrEmo Method. As PrEmo Method uses cartoon characters with sound and motion, it is more comprehensible for children. The research results indicated that final ideas obtained acceptable scores concerning positive affection, and the persuasive approach serves as a prominent factor and suitable guideline for designers to design exhilarating experiences and interactions. Moreover, these principles must be amplified to increase the user’s perceived experience quality.

Entrance to university is a new stage of life for many students, and the experience of living in a dormitory is a different experience of residence for them. Now, most student dormitories cannot meet the qualitative needs of students' residences. Conflicting activity areas exist in these dormitories; hence, students highly prefer to control and manage their interactions and communications with others. Accordingly, privacy is one of the components of a place that influences the sense of belonging to the place. The extant study aims to explain the relationship between privacy provisions in the dormitory and its effect on the sense of belonging to students. This study was conducted based on the descriptive-correlational method, and required data were collected through questionnaires and field studies. Dormitories of Yazd University were investigated as the case study. After reviewing the theoretical views and foundations of the survey quantitative and qualitative analyses were done using SPSS software and content analysis of interviews. According to study results, the most significant factors for the realization of privacy in student dorms can be classified to control over visual and auditory factors and access rate. The most important factor influencing a "sense of belonging" to the student residence place includes perceptual-cognitive factors (that are mainly influenced by the architecture and residence place), social factors (concerning roommates), and having suitable physic. The results indicate that student’s sense of belonging to the dormitory is considerably influenced by the desired privacy in the dormitory place for them. Finally, some recommendations have been proposed based on the mentioned factors to optimize the dormitory living conditions in future designs.

In recent decades, environmental psychology has been accepted as the basic knowledge of human-environment studies in many interdisciplinary fields, including architecture and urban planning. The present study aims to generally introduce environmental psychology and show how the studies in this field have been developed and what the most popular research topics and approaches are in this field. To this end, the present research follows two main paths. The first path includes the bibliometric analysis of the articles indexed in the Scopus database between 1972 and 2022, which included the keyword "environmental psychology", and the second path includes the content analysis of 40 most cited articles (out of the abovementioned articles). The analyses were carried out by asking key people and sources and investigating major research areas, the importance, and priority of topics, research approaches, and research examples. The results indicate that environmental psychology research can be classified into four main subject clusters including "sustainability", "place", "mental health", and "consumer behavior". Moreover, behavioral and cognitive approaches were identified as the most important and widely used psychological approaches in analyzing human-environment relations. Most studies have been conducted in urban spaces, followed by commercial, residential, educational, and work environments, respectively. These studies have been carried out on various scales, from macro scales such as planning to micro scales such as interior design. A significant number of studies have focused on human perception and evaluation of environmental qualities and their results such as satisfaction and place preference. The health area has been raised in this field in recent decades and is still considered a growing area. The issue of place attachment has been raised as one of the issues receiving researchers' attention, with continuous growth throughout the studied period.

In the face of an architectural place, the user’s sense is associated with spatial continuity (placeness) and sequence (temporality). For this, understanding the role of the concept of time in creating place dependence is of great importance, because a place is a situation that preserves a sequence of events to assist the user gain a full perception of his existence. In this connection, adapting architectural concepts to time semiotics basics to explore the concept of time in architecture represents an effective step to promote architectural analysis styles. This study uses the signification system analysis at one or more points in time, and one of the types of semiotics analysis of the syntagmatic dimension. Thus, it uses the role of time signs in spatial continuity and their relationships with architectural physical elements to study the effects of time patterns on architectural works as in an analytical method. According to the basics of semiotics as the selected approach of the study, understanding the role of time creation in architectural analyses is made by identifying the relationship between the concepts of time signs and traditional architectural examples. Theoretically, this study aimed to expand previous theories, fill theoretical gaps, and enrich the literature of the semiotics analysis of architectural works, thus practically helping understand how the concept of time was introduced to analyze architectural works using time sign rules. The conceptualization of time signs by the space fabric can, through analyzing place sign systems, add the concept of time to the realm of architectural analysis, which is carried out using the “conceptual analysis” of the transformation and sequence of the concept of time along with place.  Methodologically, the study used significant literature on architectural semiotics and collected and analyzed data by reviewing documentary and library studies. To organize data and develop a conceptual framework and expand the architecture literature, the descriptive-analytical method and logical reasoning strategies were used.

Built environments in any region have unique features reflecting the specific culture of that region because environments are formed based on people's mental patterns and these mental patterns are formed in people's minds according to their culture. People's mental images have been formed due to certain factors over time, and have played a significant role in creating sensory and emotional relationships and correct actions and reactions between people and their living environment. Therefore, studying the relationship between culture and architecture requires the investigation of people's mental images influencing the built environment, and the examination of cultural components and how they relate to the mental image. The present study is fundamental qualitative research carried out descriptively and analytically. Using documentary and library studies, the present study examines how clear mental images are formed in people's minds based on the cultural components extracted from Amos Rapaport's viewpoint to relate the two concepts of culture and mental image to show how they influence the built environment, what their important role is in the formation of built environments, and how the interaction between them and built environments is. Also, after extracting the components from Rappaport's viewpoint, for each of the components, according to their classification, two examples of Iranian architecture are selected and analyzed in the form of tables. The results show that culture from Rapaport's viewpoint influences the mental images created in people's minds. Moreover, the examples presented for cultural components indicate that lifestyle (environment-behavior interactions), social relations (caused by culture and mental patterns), customs (as a result of the repetition of behaviors), and opinions and beliefs (created over time) can be part of physical and perceptual-psychological factors of mental images and people form their environments based on these mental images. Therefore, the mental images formed in people's minds are effective in the formation of the environment.

Natural disasters yearly cause millions of people to become homeless. After the occurrence of any accident destroying people's living environment, it is necessary to provide suitable shelter as soon as possible. The solutions for providing shelter in the first days reveal that shelters don't provide thermal comfort and have inappropriate thermal performance, causing victims to either make changes in the shelter or leave them. The present study attempts to provide suitable relative temperature conditions for accident victims by proposing suitable coatings for the shelter. The present study is applied research in which the Design Builder software is applied for simulating and testing internal temperature conditions to reach the research goal, i.e. to propose an optimal climate shelter for cold climates. The results indicate that the coating made of fiberglass and cardboard on the dome form provides higher thermal comfort. Also, it is inevitably necessary to apply non-vernacular materials to use vernacular materials and maintain the thermal comfort conditions inside the shelter.

In different historical eras, architecture has illustrated some concepts based on their times through the space and content conveying political, cultural, and historical implications to the audience. According to Michel Foucault’s theory, in pursuit of the political goals of government, the whole structure of society is transformed under the shadow of dominant discourses and integrated to achieve the political power of the rulers. The architecture has also been affected. Various political orientations appeared in architecture during the First Pahlavi era when Iran transited from tradition to modernity. It is essential to examine how architecture follows these changes and how to responses it by understanding the modern government in Iran. This study aims to investigate architecture as an apparatus for the government system and examine the effect of rationality and governmental techniques of First Pahlavi on Foucault’s state anatomy. This is a qualitative study with a discourse approach and content analysis, and its findings are derived from library sources and field observations. In this research, the Pahlavi government was investigated based on Foucault’s Theory, and then the manifestation of the First Pahlavi era's discourses was examined. The mentioned discourses included traditionalism, archaism, militarism, and modernism or modernity in the architecture of educational, administrative, and service uses in Tabriz remained from the first Pahlavi era. According to the results of this study, the discourses that appeared in the Pahlavi era have been a part of the regime's ideology to achieve its goals, such as dominance over the society, authoritarianism, identity, national integrity, and modernity. These discourses have appeared in the architecture inspired by the dictator neoclassic architecture, imitating the West, advent of new uses for modernization of work system, modern spatial organization, the façades inspired by the ancient architecture, placement of public building around the square emphasizing centralism and objectivism.

The urban highways landscape is one of the most important components of the urban landscape, enhancement of sustainability and resilience of which is of great importance. Studying the urban highways landscape design elements and indicators with a landscape resilience enhancement approach is a useful tool to promote the quality of urban life and support making the landscape sustainable to cope with current and future environmental changes. Despite the important advancements made in the field of identification of highway landscape indicators, investigation of the designing elements and indicators from the landscape resilience point of view has been neglected. Therefore, the provision of elements and indicators for the highway landscape design is still required to enhance its resilience. Thus, the present study aims to, first, investigate the principles and rules of highway landscape design, and then, explain the factors affecting its resilience. In this regard, to formulate the theoretical framework, relevant studies and theories were collected, and analyzed by library studies and reviewing library resources, internet resources, and articles. Then, the relevant elements and indicators to urban highways design were investigated at two human and natural levels, with a focus on the landscape resilience aspect through content analysis of relevant studies. Findings indicate that designing urban highways landscape with a resilience enhancement approach can be designed with a focus on the creation of diversity (biodiversity) and complexity, connectivity, and interconnection of urban ecological networks, redundancy, modularity, multi-functionality, adaptability, visual quality, and aesthetics. These elements are proposed with the provision of the related definitions and design components.

The impact of the connection between education duration and course presentation method on the learning rate of graduates has always been a debatable issue within an integrated holism or as separate and parallel components. One concrete experience can be seen in the transformation process of the architecture education system since 1999 by changing the degree from a contiguous master's to a bachelor's degree. In the new system, course dispersion and lack of coordination of professors have led to inconsistency in the architecture education process reducing the individual skills and creativity of graduates. The mentioned problems have led to more inefficient architects rather than graduates or previous courses. The main question of this study is which one of the architecture education systems has had more influence on the emotional intelligence and creativity of graduates. This mixed research aims to examine the effect of two long-term (contiguous master's degrees) and short-term (bachelor's degrees) on the emotional intelligence and creativity of architecture graduates. The quantitative data were collected through an emotional intelligence questionnaire by Travis Bradberry and Greaves and Creativity questionnaire by Abedi. For this purpose, 30 graduates of architecture contiguous master's degree (MSc) and 30 graduates of bachelor's degree (BA) from the Azad University of Tabriz filled out these questionnaires. The results indicate that teaching architecture courses within long-term contiguous MSs improves the individual and social skills, and emotional intelligence (EQ) of the graduates. When these skills are improved, the mind of the architect can create new ideas. Therefore, long-term architecture education in the mixed method is a dynamic and targeted education since it improves the EQ and creativity of architects.

Semi-open spaces have played the role of in-between spaces for closed and open spaces, which have connected inside and outside, and increased the functional quality of these spaces next to each other. The role of semi-open spaces in the transformation trend of traditional to modern houses has unfortunately been neglected to lose their importance for the functional efficiency of housing. Hence, this study aims to investigate the functional efficiency of semi-open spaces in this historical trend based on the space syntax indicators for these spaces. Isfahan City was selected as a case study due to its historical background in housing scope. This study asks how the components of functional efficiency and space syntax indicators of semi-open spaces have changed in Isfahan's houses during different periods. To examine the role of porches and terraces in the houses, 25 traditional houses constructed in Safavid, Qajar, and Pahlavi eras, and 30 houses constructed over the last 30 years in Isfahan were chosen based on the diversity of semi-open spaces in terms of accessibility, area, connections, and form. Finally, duplicate samples were removed then 9 traditional and 14 modern houses were selected. The results indicated that choice, Isovist area, entropy, and connectivity were increased in semi-open spaces of the Safavid-Qajar eras during an evolutionary trend, which led to higher functional efficiency of houses, and the number of descending indicators were increased from Qajar to Pahlavi period. Moreover, only choice and entropy were increased during Pahlavi Period due to the distributive role of porches and the simplicity of spatial organization, respectively. From Pahlavi to the modern period, the smaller size of semi-open spaces, fewer accessibilities, lack of desired organization of spaces, and construction in floors led to a reduction in connectivity, integration, and Isovist area, and even increased control reduced the quality of private modern terraces, which all of the mentioned factors have led to the lower functional performance of houses in modern time.

The tourism industry plays a significant role in the development of countries around the world. This industry is considered a suitable strategy for developing countries, especially in less-developed areas or in situations where the profits of other economic sectors are declining. In Chabahar, as the case study of the present study, tourism has not reached a favorable position and provided opportunities for local and regional development, despite the location of this region in a unique geographical area with many natural and domestic assets and values. The present study aims to apply the sustainable tourism development approach (which was formed due to the adverse consequences of the traditional tourism paradigm) in Chabahar. To this end, qualitative content analysis and semi-structured interviews are used. The present study is carried out in the following steps: the review of the theoretical foundations related to sustainable development tourism, recognition and analysis of the case study in terms of the structures of the natural and living environments, and the tourism status, the review of high-level documents, and interviewing with local managers, tourist, and those familiar with the region. Unlike other existing research that has mainly examined and analyzed tourism in Chabahar in the economic dimension, the present research considers natural, recreational, cultural, and rural tourism to take advantage of the sustainable tourism development approach, in addition to investigating the reasons for the failure of the tourism industry in Chabahar, and provides some suggestions and policies in different economic, cultural, recreational, and political dimensions.

Application of urban renewal approach in designs and policies leads to the formation of gentrification phenomenon in some urban areas. This phenomenon occurs with numerous social and economic challenges and consequences, such as higher urban inequalities and injustice, pressures imposed by housing demand and displacement to adjacent slums, higher house prices, changes in local services, lower social capital, etc. The present paper was an applied study that was conducted based on descriptive and analytical methods, and data collection was done through documentary and bibliographic techniques. Moreover, qualitative content analysis and systematic review of data were employed to develop the conceptual model derived from textual data of previous studies (as secondary data). To extract the challenges to urban renewal, 89 papers were retrieved from ScienceDirect, Scopus, Magiran, Civilica, and SID databases, and 10 theses and dissertations were reviewed. The extant study aims to examine the renovated areas with an emphasis on the gentrification phenomenon in these areas to find challenges to renovated areas with the formation of the gentrification phenomenon. According to the results, among 20 extracted subcategories, "worn out fabric" had the highest frequency, and subcategories "place identity, revival, social cohesion, low-income classes, and population displacement" had the lowest frequencies. Therefore, social and cultural consequences and themes have received less attention, and some issues such as identity and sense of belonging to place have been examined less and limited.

Since research and study are necessary before doing any developmental action, the municipality that plays a vital role in urban management must have a desired and integrated research structure to improve and develop research infrastructures and potentials in various scopes by creating an optimal process. The extant study aims to evaluate the process of turning the subject into a researchable case by identifying general harms, problem-solving processes, and research processes in the municipality of 22 districts of Tehran. Moreover, this study presents some recommendations to be applied in the research to correct the problem-defining process and use the outcomes obtained from managerial procedures associated with urban studies focused on Tehran Municipality. This study used documentary and in-depth interviews to collect the required data and information. In this research, 25 in-depth interviews were done with three groups of experts, urban officials, executives, and supervisors based on the snowball technique. According to research findings, the conceptual model of the research process in the municipality of 22 districts of Tehran has been proposed and presented in six stages of project control system design, supervisor selection, RFP preparation and approval, recall and confirmation of executor, research, and application and mentoring system. The pathology was then analyzed by using the content analysis method. According to the results of interviews and content analysis, there are more harms and weaknesses in project control system design,  system and supervisor selection, RFP preparation, and approval within the research process of Tehran Municipality. In the research process, the proposed research in Tehran Municipality has been presented by developing the supply-demand model and policy-making approach and providing some recommendations to make this process applicable.

Nowadays, high urbanization growth has made many problems for human society and urban fabric, while urban planners do not have any suitable solution to solve the emerging problems o cities. The urban acupuncture approach means small-scale and low-cost interventions in sensitive and effective points, which can be used as an appropriate solution for improving historical fabrics' status. The extant study aims to apply urban acupuncture and the unique potentials available in the historical fabric of Sanandaj City, Iran to formulate some strategies for regeneration and increase vitality in this city. This study used a qualitative method to apply the urban acupuncture approach. To apply the urban acupuncture approach in the studied area, the considered principles were examined and divided into three categories: analysis and scrutinization (review of the area), determination of intervention points, and targeted measures. This study was conducted through the following steps: collecting library and bibliographic data, designing intervention zones' maps, reviewing the problems existing in the research area using Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire, analyzing problems based on the OWAS method, and generating the intervention points map. The statistical society of this study comprised residents living in the historical fabric of neighborhoods in Sanandaj City, which its data directly affects the research results. The findings indicated that urban acupuncture could provide significant changes, such as improved quality of life, presence of residents and tourists in neighborhoods, developed local economy, increase creativity, and alleviated social inequality by using some factors, including small-scale intervention, potentials available in neighborhoods, residents’ participation, cultural factors, and so forth.

Soundscape is the perceptual quality of heard sounds. This study examines soundscapes of nine spaces of three special types in Tabriz Bazaar, Bazaars’ aisle (Rasteh), Malls (Timcheh), and stores (Sarai). The extant study aims to find how the soundscape of the three spatial types is perceived and how special features affect the quality of soundscapes of studied spaces. For this purpose, perceptual components of soundscape were surveyed by individuals who were present in the studied spaces of Tabriz Bazaar. This assessment was conducted based on scores given to perceived loudness of sound, acoustic comfort, noise source acceptability, and soundscape descriptors through the questionnaires filled out by 384 members. The research results indicated that the soundscapes quality of different spatial types of Tabriz Bazaar was affected by the environmental qualities, specifications, and sound sources. In static and unpopulated spaces that provide the possibility for pause and watch, the soundscape is more pleasant. Overpopulation usually reduces the perceptual quality of soundscape. The sounds with the sudden incidence in quiet spaces have a bad effect on the acoustic comfort and quality of soundscape due to the sound pressure level (SPL) difference. Therefore, a component called urban soundscape clarity must be considered in the studies conducted on the soundscape of quiet urban spaces. Moreover, sound source acceptability and quality of soundscape will be higher if the noise sources are matched with the acoustic expectations of users, in other words, the sounds heard in the space are consistent with its nature.

Globalization process and rapid urban expansion have affected the historical fabrics causing forgetfulness and physical-functional worn-out fabrics. Therefore, the present study aims to identify drivers affecting the sustainable development of the world heritage area of Yazd City and investigate how these factors affect each other. Hence, this is applied research in terms of objective and an analytical-exploratory study in terms of method. Data were collected through the documentary-survey method. Moreover, the variables identified through brainstorming, literature review, studied upstream documents, field reviews, and interviews with experts were integrated, scrutinized, and then vague options were removed. Finally, 23 factors were introduced as the sustainable development drivers of the world heritage of Yazd in sociocultural, economic, physical-functional, and managerial-organizational scopes. Ultimately, the identified 23 factors were evaluated using the Delphi technique based on the opinions of 15 experts and elites through the MICMAC Software. The results of variables’ dispersion in influence and dependence diagrams through MICMAC Software indicated system stability. In the end, 10 key factors were identified with the strongest influence scores and 10 key factors with the strongest dependence. In terms of direct and indirect influence and dependence, seven key factors were identified as future development drivers for the historical fabric of Yazd. Managerial policies, social security, and well-being, rules, and regulations, incentive policies, tourism services' status, investment rate, public and private sector, diverse job opportunities, coordination between organizations, awareness level, urban management specialty, and upstream plans were respectively the most strategic factors for sustainable development of the historical fabric of Yazd.