International Journal of Architecture and Urban Development
Volume:14 Issue: 3, Summer 2024

To harness the multifunctional capacity of Green Infrastructure (GI) in enhancing environmental quality and sustainability, it is pertinent to uncover the socio-demographic characteristics that can motivate residents to make use of GI in their neighbourhoods. This study assesses the socio-demographic predictors of residents’ attitudes towards the use of GI in Lagos Metropolis, Nigeria. Data was gathered using the multi-stage sampling technique through questionnaire administration in four Local Government Areas (total n=1560). Results from descriptive and multinomial regression analyses reveal that age, educational level, rank in occupation, and type of housing, among others, emerged as predictors of residents’ attitudes toward the use of GI in the study area. In the adjusted multinomial regression analysis, only the rank in occupation of the residents has a significant association with the attitude of users of the GI facilities. In particular, compared with the management staff/business owners, those in the senior staff cadre are approximately twice (1.837) more likely to have an averagely good attitude toward the use of GI in Lagos Metropolis. This study demonstrates the importance of availability and publicly accessible GI facilities for different occupational ranks/levels of residents in a crowded city. The results can help to better plan and design GI facilities, responding to the needs and distribution for usage across different strata of society among the urban population in developing nations.

Artificial intelligence technology has become an influential and trending topic in architectural layout design. The core technology of AI, machine learning, has attracted the attention of architects as a decision-making tool. The focus of many studies that apply machine learning to layout design is using the generative adversarial network (GAN  within a given boundary. Previous research demonstrates that training a GAN with labels can help a computer understand how spatial elements relate and the logical relationship between spatial elements and boundaries. However, this paper applied conditional GAN to generate space layouts with given boundaries and supplementary conditions. The supplementary conditions provide designers control over the generated layout plans by satisfying input boundary and user requirements. It also allows designers to generate different layout plans within the same boundary. To achieve this, a method for dividing image channels is proposed so that both given boundaries and supplementary conditions become the model's input. The dataset consists of 660 apartment plans in Hamadan. The dataset is split into a training set and a test set. The training set includes 594 images, and the test set includes 66 (10%) of the images. After training the model with the training set, the model is tested using the test set. Finally, the model outputs are evaluated based on quantitative and qualitative methods. The results show that the supplementary conditions provide further guidance to the model for space layout generation based on user preferences and reduce the image quality problems of the synthetic images.

Working children, like any other child, must learn skills that are necessary for childhood in order to communicate with society and develop their personalities and emotions. Children who work typically cannot learn these skills because of their living circumstances. The current study aimed to provide a suitable environment and context for the improvement of children's social relations in educational and care centers by providing workable solutions that are appropriate to the morals and social needs of working children to improve their social ability and skills. This is because one of the most influential factors in learning and improving children's skills is providing an environment in harmony with the needs of children in line with that skill. This was applied descriptive-analytical research in terms of method and qualitative and was performed using direct and non-interventional field observation coding. According to the results, factors such as playability of the environment, a sense of security, environmental attraction, event-ability, proper furniture, curiosity about space, connection to nature, breadth of vision and scenery, permeability, climatic comfort, a sense of belonging and space flexibility affected the improvement of working children’s social skills. Meanwhile, the playability of the environment and connection to nature play the most important role in the formation of social behaviors and the improvement of social skills in working children.

Childhood, as the first and most significant period of a person's life, is the founder of children's abilities and creativity (between 2 and 10 years of age). During these years, the child is highly affected by the environment and shows a high level of curiosity about the surrounding environment. Due to the presence of a majority of children aged 2 to 6 years in kindergartens and the need to pay serious attention to their open spaces for the education and development of children's creativity, this article explains the factors affecting the growth of children's creativity in the open spaces of kindergartens. In this regard, some of the effective factors in the development of children's creativity that should be considered in the design of the open spaces of these buildings are provided using the descriptive survey research method. The statistical population of the study included educators and kindergarten staff. Structural equations were used in SPSS and AMOS software to analyze the data. According to the results of the study, it can be stated that the development of children's creativity will not be possible only through educational programs but also through flexible spaces, using natural elements, and children's participation, which will children's creativity. In this regard, the component of children's participation is the most effective in the growth and development of children's creativity. After that, space flexibility, natural elements, space playability, color and light, kind, sense of security, and space legibility, respectively, have the highest effect on the development of children's creativity.

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 holistic 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. This mixed research aims to examine the effect of two long-term (contiguous master's degrees) and short-term (bachelor's degrees) on the creativity of architecture graduates. The quantitative data were collected through a Creativity questionnaire by Abedi. For this purpose, 30 graduates of architecture contiguous master's degrees (MSc) and 30 graduates of bachelor's degrees (BA) from the Azad University of Tabriz filled out these questionnaires. The analysis of quantitative data was done through the independent two-sample t-test using SPSS software. Qualitative data were analyzed through grounded theory. The results indicate that long-term architecture education using the mixed method is dynamic and targeted education since it improves the creativity of architects. When an architecture student has high levels of creativity, s/he will be able to find unique design solutions and, therefore, determine their design path and achieve a desirable design by choosing the right concept and idea. According to the studies, if students are taught architectural design with an appropriate teaching method, such as a combined teaching method, their academic creativity can be enhanced.

Focusing on the methods of encouraging and punishing architectural design students, the current research has compared this topic in two methods of face-to-face and virtual education so that the results can be considered as a strategy used by professors in teaching architectural design courses. The present research has been done by comparative analogy method through content analysis with the help of library studies and survey in the form of analysis of available resources as well as interviews with fifteen instructors of architectural design who have more than ten years of teaching experience in this field Considering the analysis of interviews and their coding and comparing the ways of encouraging and punishing students in physical and virtual education of architectural design courses. The professors emphasized that, in general, the type of behavior, the type of speech, the nature of the lesson, the student's ability, physical condition, and mental condition are among the things that should be considered in encouraging and punishing students. Considering that corporal punishment is not correct and can also question the self-esteem of people, the teacher must consider the best way of punishment for wrongdoers according to the mentioned cases. On the other hand, it should be avoided to encourage a person in the class constantly or to encourage a specific person because of good behavior in the class, and encouragement and punishment should be done only because of academic issues.

Examining the issue of population aging has put the elderly in urban and residential environments at risk due to reduced movement, space perception and mental capacity. Therefore, the present study aims to evaluate mental health research of the elderly in the neighborhood space, using the qualitative approach, descriptive method, systematic review and co-occurrence keywords technique, the resources of the Scopus database were examined by using the VOSviewer software. The findings showed that the words "greenness", "cross-sectional survey", "physical activity", "objective built environment", "perceived built environment" and "Covid-19" have been used more in recent years. The most studies were conducted in China (37 cases), America (21) and England (16). Scientific productions in the 1982 to 2019 went through an upward trend and in 2020, it had a rapid downward trend. From 2021 onwards, these productions have followed an upward growth again. Correlation, survey and descriptive methods were the most used methods with a frequency of 71, 60 and 58. The most used tools were questionnaire, interview and mapping with frequency of 78, 48 and 31. "Green space" was the most used variable with 66 repetitions. After that, the variables of walkability, accessibility and safety were ranked second to fourth with repetition times of 37, 31 and 27. The results of this research, in the form of network map, help mental health researchers to take steps to speed up meeting the needs of the elderly by knowing as much as possible about the research gaps.

Optimization is a prevalent topic in today's scientific forums, and the field of architecture is no exception. Optimization in architecture aims to optimize available resources and reduce construction costs. What makes it necessary to address this issue in the current situation is the widespread use of inefficient patterns in the design, implementation, or operation of modern buildings, which leads to waste resources. The present study examines architectural samples in Isfahan, referring to the Iranian-Islamic concept of "Ghana'at," which conveys the concept of "satisfaction with less." By extracting instances of contentment in the use of space, the research aims to define effective strategies for optimization in the architectural process. So, this research has been conducted in three steps: Brainstorming sessions to identify instances of optimization in architectural samples, categorization of similar topics to explain effective strategies for optimization using Maxqda software, and finally, prioritization of the solutions based on the opinions of 30 experts in architecture and urban planning who are active in the construction industry in Isfahan through pairwise comparison of criteria. As a result, 15 solutions for optimal use of space in the architectural process were introduced in the form of 5 strategies: "efficiency," "multifunctionality," "environmental friendliness," "self-sufficiency," and "recyclability." The most effective solutions under each strategy were identified as "build as required," dimensional adaptability of architectural spaces," "preventing ground destruction in the construction process," "fixing Unfavorable dimensions and angles with the help of architectural elements," and "developability of the building."