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سال هفتم شماره 15 (پاییز و زمستان 1389)

The methods used to educate landscape architecture are as varied as designing techniques from the one hand and education methods from the other. The fact that students often lack a firm artistic basis to build on when they take on landscape architecture courses makes the education process more difficult.This necessitates an analysis into the methods used to educate landscape architecture and their effects on students. In this paper, we will introduce and analyze two basic approaches known as the systematic and the intuitive approaches. The collage method will be studied within the framework of the intuitive approach. To conduct this study we have analyzed the education process and final productions of a group of students taking their first course in landscape architecture in Tehran University’s faculty of architecture. These students worked with the collage method. To analyze the results we studied views expressed by the students themselves about the pros and cons of this method.Finally, we concluded that the collage method is an efficient method of education as it encourages creativity by boosting self-confidence.

The issue of thermal comfort, especially cooling,is highly significant due to the role that it plays in sustaining the environment and climate. Indeed,thermal comfort is the main constituent of vernacular architecture in all regions. Shelter as a man-made development, has taken climate into consideration in the form of passive cooling and heating throughout history.In spite of its significance, the issue of climate has been ignored in the past century. It can be argued that the purpose of construction is livelihood. In an urban context, thermal comfort comes alongside architectural development. In this paper, the indigenous architecture of different regions has been analyzed and the physical features of earth in arid and tropical climates have been compared with one another.By considering the climatic classification, and in order to achieve appropriate techniques for cooling by passive means by using the earth mass, several vernacular architectural structures have been examined.

The creation of a text could be the result of a desire for pleasure. This pleasure is felt both by the author of a text as he creates it and by his unknown reader. Pleasure may be the truth latent within a text, one which both the reader and author observe with satisfaction as part of the beauty of the text. Gadamer, a prominent contemporary philosopher regards truth and beauty as two indivisible factors within a text and particularly within a work of art. He believes pleasure is attained once the truth latent within a text is exposed. A photograph or picture, just like a pleasurable text, exposes its truth to that special spectator that manages to see that truth. Roland Barthes analyzes the pleasure attained from a photograph in his book Camera Lucida, devoted entirely to photography. Studium and punctum,two elements resulting in visual pleasure in a photograph were first introduced in Camera Lucida. These concepts can also be used to analyze pictorial (virtual) texts.

In the history of filmmaking, poetic films have always employed words and images to create a metaphorical and unfamiliar atmosphere conveying a deconstructive, extraordinary and abnormal sense that mold into dream-like scenes. Poetic films employ a metaphorical language, ambiguous images and complicated narrative structures to force their viewers to dig deeper into everyday experiences and to analyze the phenomena around them. Poetic films are avant-garde and experimental. They do not strictly abide by a particular genre but freely employ elements of various genres to accomplish aesthetic brilliance and a new visual language. These films are full of dramatic atmospheres, clear-cut shots and fluid camera moves. Editing is usually unconventional and a great deal of attention is paid to the structural aspects of images and the graphic effects of lighting, colors etc. Poetic cinema is full of questions, metaphorical concepts and hidden messages that can only be deciphered with knowledge of semiotics.

In the wide territory of Iran, there are gardens that are considered as valuable examples, from the point of view of art and architecture and popularized Iranian landscape design in other countries and especially in Islamic ones. Many books and papers were written about these gardens but not much talk about the reasons of appearance of the gardens that were mostly in hot and dry continents. Was the only purpose of design of these beautiful gardens, just a shelter from the heat? Are gardens, symbol of thoughts of their period? What were the reasons to build these masterpieces of landscape architecture? We can say that governor’s thoughts in different time periods strongly influenced every aspect of architecture, including garden design. Elements such as religion, recreation, government and politics were the main causes of these designs.

Landscapes contribute to the formation of local cultures and are a basic component of a country’s natural and cultural heritage. They help solidify a region’s identity and play an important part in people’s lives in urban areas and in the countryside and in wealthy and deprived neighborhoods.Landscapes play a vital role in personal and social developments. Thus, the entire society has a duty to properly protect and manage them. However, only a handful of scientific researches have been conducted about the role of landscapes and their role in sustaining natural environments. A large number of theorists believe in the relationship between humans and nature and ways to preserve and use this relationship in prepared environments but there has rarely been a scientific research to reiterate this necessity. This paper aims at studying the role of landscapes in creating a constructive relationship between people and natural environments as a key factor contributing to development. As a case study,we have looked into the river Khoshk in Shiraz with a three-dimensional approach focused on the river,the city and the people. The overall aim is to integrate this approach into a decision-making system, allowing us to identify factors contributing to the formation of a landscape that can help sustain the environment around the river Khoshk.

Fire temples and square domes are undoubtedly of special importance in archeological studies into the religious aspects of the Sassanian era. As Zoroastrian monotheists, Sassanians considered fire as sacred and over five centuries their kings built a large number of fire temples and square domes across the Persian Empire. The newly-discovered square dome called Demon House is one of the most important square domes of the Sassanian era. Citing Pahlavi texts and Avesta, both foreign researchers and Iranian archeologists have introduced it as one of the three major fire temples of the Sassanian age known as Azar-Barzin-Mehr. Though archeological excavations at the site of this dome did not provide enough evidence to prove that claim, studies show it was the nucleus of a greater structure that used to be ade up of four stone pillars, a circumambulation corridor,Padiav, a fire-place platform and a waiting room. The location of the square dome in a small stone mound among the heights of Rivand is quite unique and of extraordinary importance in studying Sassanian fire temples. Considering the significance of fire temples in religious studies pertaining to the Sassanian era and since the aforementioned structure had not been subject to any archeological excavation before, an Iranian-Polish archeological team studied the demon house square dome for the first time over two seasons.This paper has introduced the architectural elements discovered in the Demon House square dome and as part of a greater archeological study into religious structures in the Sassanian ear provides some notes about the significance and position of the Azar-Barzin-Mehr fire temple based on Pahlavi texts.