International Journal of Architectural Engineering & Urban Planning
Volume:23 Issue: 1, Jun 2013

Using outdoor public spaces as a place of social interaction is in a great consideration these days. Providing tolerable thermal condition as long as possible is one of the primary stage for people’s presence in these places. Outdoor thermal indices are introduced to help architects making appropriate decisions in climate responsive design procedure. By doing some field study research in extreme climatic condition of tropical city of Kuala Lumpur, this article will introduce a research method of data collecting and data analyzing using outdoor thermal indices. How to do an effective and helpful research for design requirements is the aim of this method. Field data are collected by a Kestrel portable weather station in different outdoor spaces of the city centre. Weather data are analyzed in three levels of meso, local and microclimate. Architectural properties of the place are explained as the respective climatic design solution. Software named SIKRON is designed to speed up the analyzing process.

This paper is an attempt to Numerical Modeling and Experimental Study of Air Flow in the Yazdi Wind-Towers. Wind Towers has been known as one of the most effective climatic elements in Iranian traditional architecture. This paper is an attempt to evaluating Yazdi wind-tower to discussion the two main questions: 1. What is the role of Orientation of wind-towers span, regarding to climate and height of it, in Yazdi wind-tower? 2. How isthe performance of Yazdi wind tower in natural ventilation and air flow in the different seasons of the year? Computer Modeling and Simulation methods and Logical reasoning have been applied in this article, and study of Library Resources was another part of research.Thus, first, the wind-tower has been modeled in computer environment, then after Appling the climatic characterize, final simulation figures and diagrams have been extracted. Results indicate that increasing of the cooling power and optimized efficiency are one of the most important principles of wind-tower design process, and Yazdi wind-towers has mentioned this fact through 4 seasons of the year. By validate computer modeling and simulation, this paper clarify that Iranian traditional ventilation systems has many undiscovered secrets and facts, which need further investigations. This article indicates that natural tactics, which have been applied in the traditional architecture of Iran, can be mentioned as methods to using this valuable heritage in contemporary architecture.

The importance of Iranian ancient as architectural heritage have to competent international prestige a nd respect due this is important with regard to proper conservation met hods based on non-destructive evaluation methods and non-contact testing; providing enough accuracy and speed to bri ng performance to stabilize while correct location and age value of valuable architectural aspect of quantification. Qu ality and originality of these valuable cultural po ints of view, maintenance, protection and restoration in principle be enough a nd intervention measures in the field of strengthening and improvement due seismic in these important historic monuments. Thus re-assessment actions shall be effective with accuracy, speed and lack of unnecessary destruction in order to maintain these buildings may be accompanied by gentility. Therefore, we should transfer the newest technical knowledge through appropriate training and non-destructive with non-contact methods in the field of architectural restoration for ancient monumental wo rks in these objectives will be achieved. Based on any particular monument, rules and technical measures appropriate to its historic monument need to be used. This paper tries to explain while doing it is specialized modern academic training and evaluating the existing technology in architecture, the importance of attitude in non-destructive observing methods, assessment, measurement and diagnostic engineering features of monuments. The methods of documentation, studies, classify scheme, explain the profile of engineering methods of pathology, evaluation, analysis and formulation process of expanding the structural weakness of monuments and finally race precision appropriate intervention measures, modeling, strengthening and durability of the architectural heritage of Iran th rough the training consideration of a new curriculum.

Creativity and innovation are major drivers for developments of societies and nations. In this way, research activities have an extremely significant role whose promotion is strongly dependent on the creativity and innovation. There are several factors such as the built environment, which affect the creativity and innovation. This paper extracts a set of design rules for researcher's offices in an "architecture and urban design research center", which lead to the growth of researcher's creativity and innovation. The type of plan, namely open or closed plans, and spatial aspects of researchers’ offices are investigated from the perspective of factors influencing the creativity and innovation. The spatial aspects, chosen based on the available literature, are privacy, beauty, spatial diversity/flexibility, and proximity/visibility. Additionally, four factors affecting the creativity and innovation consist of tranquility/physical comfort, motivation, creative thinking, and communication. The survey methodology, with a 26-question four-choice questionnaire, was adopted here for the sake of numerical studies. The sample group covered 91 faculty members and Ph.D. students associated with Architecture and Urban Design Departments of several universities in Tehran. The collected data has been analyzed through a statistical method, named repeated measure analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA), and the most affected creativity and innovation factors by spatial aspects are specified.

School buildings as a major part of public buildings are considered as one of the basic consumers of energy in Iran. Based on building typology and occupancy patterns, school buildings have a great potentiality for energy optimization while providing thermal comfort. This study investigates the architectural design parameters such as orientation, optimum window to wall ratio, space organization, sun shading, building shape etc. which have a great impact on the energy demand. For the purpose of this study a typical elementary school has been selected, modeled and analyzed by integrating different design measures using a dynamic simulation software tool. The optimum amounts for various architectural design parameters are calculated. The results reveal that through energy efficient architectural design the primary energy demand of the studied case has reduced by 31% while keeping visual and thermal comfort compared to the existing building.

The Qajar dynasty was a time of civil wars as well as the wars against Russia, meanwhile, Qajarid Shahs, understanding the power of sublime art both in internal and external political relations, tried to expand and renew the style of the mural decorations which is the issue of this article. Increasing the relations with European countries like England and France, Fath Ali Shah and his court were influenced by European diplomacy, culture and art. Also they were deeply inspired by pre-Islamic royal and artistic concepts and styles. Early Qajarid murals were the obvious return to tradition; this study tries to identify the sources and socio-political reasons that lead to this movement. In the other hand, realizing the function of the mural decoration and political determination of the king and his court in early Qajarid period, which moved away from the common Zand theme and function (the Persian former dynasty) and followed the imperial art of the Achaemenid and Sasanid eras, can explain their formation of historical compositions and majesty of their artworks. By the seventeenth century, as a result of extended contacts with Europe the unfamiliar tradition of painting in oil on canvas was gaining currency among Persian artists. Although the medium was borrowed from European painting, the style remained largely indigenous. The influence of imperial Sassanian and Achaemenid themes also appeared on the carved figural reliefs. Mural decoration and art were led to serve political affairs in order to legitimise the Qajar dynasty.

Based on a gender equity perspective and within a pluralistic civil society, women should have equal rights for presence in and use of urban open spaces. Despite this, various factors decrease their presence including inappropriate design of space, as well as socio-cultural obstacles. Since women’s major place of presence and activity has traditionally been in or near home, neighborhood open space is chosen as a relevant case study. Through a questionnaire survey of 180 subjects, 90 male and 90 female, of both marital status the criteria affecting their presence are investigated. Results show that environmental quality factors are more effective than socio-cultural factors on presence of women in urban open spaces.