نشریه نامه معماری و شهرسازی
سال شانزدهم شماره 41 (زمستان 1402)

In the last few decades, urban scholars have recognized the importance of power as a key concept in urban planning. Planning is subject to exercise of power, meaning it cannot do everything and in most cases is far away from its normative goals and planner positive intentions. The exercise of power can take place in every stage of planning, from proposing a plan to approval and implementation of it. If planners take into account the power operation, instead of ignoring it, they can improve their analyses and empower their discipline. Therefore, planners have been recommended to pay attention to power. Beside the outstanding research in this field, planning still lacks a coherent body of power-related theories and research. One of the reasons for this shortcoming is the absence of comprehensive attention to various dimensions of power. The interdisciplinary nature of planning has caused it to use other sciences and disciplines to develop itself. The power concept roots in political science, hence studying political science can help planners to better understand the nature of power and its operation. Among political scholars, there is not a consensus on the nature of power. Some of the scholars such as Arendt. and Parsons have focused on the positive side of power and most of them have revealed the negative and dominant side of it. The last group has introduced four dimensions of dominant power including overt, covert, latent and disciplinary power. The present critical research, by applying fourth dimensions of power, aimed to reveal all the visible to less visible dimensions of power in planning. The case of this research is the development of mega malls in district 1 of Tehran metropolis, sometimes contrary to the approved plan, which were emerged and boomed in the last two decades. Mega malls are mega projects with mixed retail and recreational use. The problem is how these mega projects, which create many challenges for the city and citizens, are still booming. Examining this problem using the fourth dimensional power exposes all dimensions of power exercise in mega mall development. This research is qualitative in nature and has used the grounded theory method. This method has three traditions including classic, interpretation and constructivist. According to the constructivist tradition, which was developed by Kathy Charmaz, researcher views and studies can reflect in the research and the theory constructed through researcher interaction with the interviewers and the collected data. The main data for this research were gathered from 18 semi-structured qualitative interviews with citizens, urban managers, mega mall developers and urban experts, three documents related to mega malls, 23 articles and 35 interviews documented on websites. The data was analyzed through initial and focused coding, it was then categorized and themes were proposed according to power dimensions. The result is that the process of mega-mall development is in line with the interests of power, monopoly, rationalization and legitimization, and the product of this is an environment that is similar to panopticon.

The issue of urban facade preferences for users is one of the most important issues in the field of urban design. The answer to this question has been considered by researchers in the form of various objective and subjective methods. This study intends to use machine learning method as a predictable approach to evaluate the preferences and also desirability of urban facades for users. Therefore, the aim of the research is to design a predictive model that its output is the level of user preferences of residential facades in Tehran. According to the expected output, the data provided to the model consists of residential facade image. Due to the necessity of standard data in the machine learning process, residential facade images submitted to the Tehran City Facade and Landscape Commission in the years 2016 to 2019 have been used. Out of the original 800 images, 278 images were chosen in selection process. The input of this predictive model is images along with features. The features considered in this research have been obtained using the approach of visual preferences and image processing. The issue of whether the physical characteristics related to the visual preferences approach and the statistical characteristics obtained with the image processing technique both have an effect on the level of visual preference was tested with machine learning and the results showed that the use of both the feature provide better results. Since the supervised machine learning method has been used, it was necessary to present the labels to the machine. Therefore the number of preferences were carried out through an online questionnaire by users (218) in four categories of low preferences (0-25%), medium (50-26%), good (51-75%) and very good (100-76%). By selecting the models and determining the amount of 80 to 20 as the training to test data volume, the learning process was carried out and then using the confusion matrix, the validity of the models used in machine learning was tested. Also, to ensure the predictability of the machine, at the end, some new facades which were neither training nor test data were presented to the machine and the degree of predictability of their visual preference was checked by the machine and with the result of the survey. Based on the results, three algorithms of support vector machine, decision tree and random forest with 100% accuracy and X-G-Boost method with 97% accuracy have performed best. Based on the results, the importance of the influence of elements on users' preferences, includes the minimum distance between windows, the ratio of transparent to opaque surface in the facade, the presence of gardens in the balcony, the variety of materials, the maximum distance between windows, the number of openings, the length of the balcony, the number of balconies, the number of floors, the variety of colors, the decorations used on the roof, the type of roof lines (continuous, discontinuous), the number of entrances, and the ratio of the height to the length of the building.

The contemporary formal housing market in Iran has been inappropriately commodified at the expense of deprived households and has failed in the provision of affordable decent housing for low-income families. The stock of Iranian housing market has developed significantly during the three last decades. Despite the massive growth of the housing market, there is a large amount of housing needs that are not satisfied appropriately and decently. The increasing proportion of informal settlements in the periphery of the big cities is irrefutable evidence that the affordability of housing in the formal market has declined for families with limited financial resources and that formal policies of affordable housing have further impoverished these families. The informal practices in the housing system have facilitated the provision of housing for low-incomes through unconventional ways. Consequently, the gap in the housing market (i.e. unsatisfied housing needs) has widened. This paper focuses on the last three decades (the period starting from the late 1980s) and looks at the state of the existing housing market. It aims to understand how, within the existing structures and their institutions, the housing system in Iran through its development has failed to address the housing needs of low-income households. In other words, it aims to identify the factors (such as path-shaping agencies or path-dependent institutions facilitated or impeded by some discourses) that have led to the inability of the formal housing system to provide decent and appropriate housing for a substantial part of society. In this paper, we employ the ASID (Agency, Structure, Institution and Discourse) model to study the housing system in Iran. Aside from looking at the development trajectory of the housing system, we point out the most pivotal actors (e.g. real-estate capital, the State and informal practice), institutional dynamics/structural shifts (e.g. regulatory framework, welfare system and family), and dominant discourses (e.g. homeownership and developmentalist ambition) and integrate them in the ASID model. The paper is divided into four main sections. The first section presents methodological and theoretical approach of the research. The second section provides a clear perspective of the existing realities in the housing system and attempts to understand the contemporary trends in this system, identifying the gaps in the housing market. In the third section, we argue that the aggregated consequences of (a) the decisive role of petroleum/real-estate capital in exploiting housing as a commodity for rent speculation, as well as the developmentalist/rentier characteristic of the State that carries out neoliberal strategies and undermines welfare policies to promote de- commodification policies in housing, and the contemporary social demographic change and evolution in the institution of household, which introduces different types of housing demands, explain the failure of the housing system in Iran. The third section provides an analytical argument to evaluate these factors comprehensively, and underlines the role, interest, and strategy of specific actors in Iran’s housing system. The conclusion, the last section, argues that existing relationships among the main actors of Iran’s housing system, structured by economic, social and political dynamics, make this system incapable of providing decent housing for low-income households.

Due to demographic changes and the growing trend of urbanization and the consequent increase in energy demand in recent decades, energy supply has become one of the main concerns of human societies. The use of passive solutions and renewable resources for sustainable design, especially in the construction sector, is one of the ways to deal with the consequences of the crisis due to limited fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions. Among renewable energy, solar energy plays an important role in meeting the needs of the building, especially lighting. Daylight is one of the basic components of a passive solar building design. Proper integration of daylight with architectural design is considered one of the most effective means of reducing energy and the environmental problems and improve the quality of visual comfort and health. Among the various daylight systems available today, toplighting is used because of its ability to provide uniform daylight in spaces without facades or in deep rooms. The use of skylights in large stores, due to the high energy demand of this type of building and also the potential of using natural light, can reduce energy consumption and introduce daylight to deeper spaces. The purpose of this study is primarily to investigate the thermal and lighting performance of the installation of skylights in store buildings and in particular the Shahrvand Al-Ahmad branch store in Tehran. To achieve this goal, after defining the parameters affecting energy and light performance, the process of simulating daylight and energy was done in two stages: 1) skylight, and 2) clerestory. Models with parameters including the dimensions of the skylight, the height of the north and south curb, the type of glass in the model with skylights, and the height and type of glass in the model with clerestory were simulated, so that an appropriate solution in terms of light and energy can be achieved with the help of multi-objective optimization process,. The objectives are energy use intensity (EUI) and spatial useful daylight illuminance (sUDI), which were evaluated after the optimization process with the help of Pareto front diagrams. Finally, in the two mentioned models, sensitivity analysis was performed to evaluate the effect of the studied variables on the outputs.  According to the results, the skylights with SFR of 4.97% to 6.09% with the lowest curb height and double glazing with 0.10 emission coefficient, and high clerestories on the north and south walls and low clerestories on the east and west walls with double glazing with 0.10 emission coefficient have the best performance in terms of daylight and energy. Also, the skylight provides the same level of daylight with more uniformity compared to the clerestory in the same conditions, with 35% less glass area but with 12 kWh/m2 of higher energy consumption. According to the results of sensitivity analysis, the dimensions of the skylight and the height of the southern clerestory have the greatest impact on daylight and energy use in the model with skylights and clerestories, respectively.

Iran is in the period of transition from tradition to modernity. This shift is evident in the universities of this country, particularly the architecture faculties, which are one step ahead  in embracing modernity. Especially in the art faculties, where there is more freedom of action and there is an attempt to imitate the education of modern and sometimes post-modern societies. However, due to lack of necessary infrastructure for education in these societies, there are many problems. For example, the academic architecture education in Iran and America, which are the subject of the current article, were modeled after the architecture of the French University of Boraz, but the same method is used in the universities of Iran, with a slight change to the approved curriculum. The Ministry of Science has overseen the transformation of the term system into a workshop and vice versa. This change has involved scattered and repetitive experiences, disconnected from cultural and social characteristics, which have continued until now. However, in architecture school of Western countries, especially in the America, due to the societal progress and the post-modern era, the educational process of Bouzar University in France, which had a professor-centered education, has been abandoned and learning environment that relies on cooperation and learning from peers have been replaced, which requires flexible spaces and appropriate teaching methods. Architecture teaching and learning has gained a lot of attention in recent years. Combining architectural education with learning theories and their characteristics helps purposeful education and its improvement. This research aims to study the experience of architectural education in the two countries of Iran and America based on three Behaviorism, Cognitivism and Constructivism theories. The method used in this research is qualitative and phenomenological and is based on the purposeful sampling of eight professors of universities in Iran and America. The findings of this research have been shown in the form of two explanatory codes (academic education experience and academic environment experience) obtained by extraction from 115 descriptive codes, 12 interpretive sub-codes, and 6 interpretive codes. The findings indicate that architectural education in Iran is moving from the characteristics of behaviorism theory to cognitivism and architecture education in America is moving from the characteristics of cognitivism theory to constructivism. The experiences of the participants in this interview indicated that there is an obvious difference between the architectural education of Iran and America as developing and developed countries. The most fundamental differences are existence of a professor-oriented educational system, with centrist and general topics, determining role of professors and the role of inclusiveness, insufficient equipment and technology in Iranian universities. In contrast, the universities of America feature a student-oriented educational system, with regional and practical topics, the role of professors as facilitators, students as creators of knowledge, being equipped with technology and advanced equipment. Finally, solutions have been proposed to overcome the current problems of architecture education in Iran.

As a result of an irregular urban renewal process, numerous new buildings which are often incompatible with the visual elements and qualities of their contexts, have been constructed in old parts of cities where valuable historic buildings are usually located. These constructions cause damage to the visual integrity and relation between the historic buildings and their context, and also harm or block the views towards them, reducing the opportunity for the viewer to recognize and appreciate aesthetic and cultural values of the buildings. Determining visual buffer zones for the historic buildings and implementing related regulations to their sourounding areas, which control the visual dimensions of new buildings, are considered a useful tool for mitigating the negative impacts and restoring the visual qualities mentioned. This paper aims to develop a framework for determining the visual buffer zones and the related regulations, which suggests the essential visual parameters that must be considered, and the main structure of necessary guidelines that must be implemented. The literature review is conducted on key concepts of the research such as definition and a brief history of implementation of buffer zones for heritage properties, different aspects of visual dimensions of built environments, and the main visual qualities of urban spaces. On this basis, the theoretical framework is developed which represents the definition of and the approach towards the visual buffer zones for urban heritage buildings that is adopted in the reaserch. To achieve the research objective, a descriptive-analytical study is carried out on three urban heritage buildings, which their visual conditions are affected by inappropriate new buildings constructed in their proximity. In the first stage, the visual characteristics of each historic building and its context are investigated. Secondly, the visual dimension of all kinds of existing human prospects towards the historic buildings, including linear and wide views is analyzed as a whole to indicate the main visual parameters responsible for the visiual situation of the prospects. Mosque and religious school of Moayyerolmamalek in Tehran, Alaoddoleh Tomb-Tower in Varamin and Zand’s houses in Qom, have been selected as the case studies, by considering a number of factors such as the diversity of use and architectural typology. The data is gathered by taking photographs of each historic building from the existing views towards them, desk research, and other relative methods and analyzed mainly through image processing, using graphic softwares. Based on the results,  main visual parameters which must be considered in determining appropriate visual buffer zones are recognized and classified in two groups: the “context parameters” such as location, topographic conditions and massing of the buildings forming the context, and the “historic building parameters” such as height, scale, materials and details. Additionally, based on analyzing and comparing the parameters’ scale of impact, the structure of essential visual guidelines is suggested as a spectrum including fundamental to secondary guidelines in three main classes of “height”, “massing” and “façade composition and details”.