Urban Sustainability
Ali Asadi; saeed Salehi Marzijrani; Hassan sajadzadeh; hosein kalantari khalil abad
Abstract
Highlights - In the residential buildings in the city of Arak, Iran, good construction quality was the first priority of the residents to achieve residential stability.- The cultural level and social homogeneity hold the residents’ second priority to achieve residential stability.- Causal conditions ...
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Highlights - In the residential buildings in the city of Arak, Iran, good construction quality was the first priority of the residents to achieve residential stability.- The cultural level and social homogeneity hold the residents’ second priority to achieve residential stability.- Causal conditions have the greatest impact on residential stability, followed by intervening and strategic conditions.- Factors involved in the creation of residential stability are stated based on facts and needs.-- The factor of tendency to move is stated based on wishes, ideals, and expectations. IntroductionToday, the study of a residential environment is important because of its effectiveness on important planning indicators such as residential relocation rate, quality of life, and housing demand forecasting, and the quality of the environment is a factor affecting urban population movements. Residential stability leads to community cohesion, the formation of social networks, and informal social monitoring, which collectively lead to the solution of community and neighborhood problems. The purpose of this research is to discover the factors affecting residential instability and the desire to move, especially with respect to the quality of the environment of residential buildings in the city of Arak, Iran. Theoretical FrameworkFrom the early 1950s, the big cities of Iran were exposed to massive migration. The immediate solution to this crisis was to build residential buildings in sparsely populated areas. The point that can be seen in the process of creating residential buildings in Iran is that they have often neglected the principles and criteria of urban planning in the planning and design of residential buildings and have failed to create desirable residential environments. They have also ignored the residents in the design of the buildings, decreasing their level of satisfaction.Moreover, the quality of the environment is considered as a factor affecting population movements within the city and attempts to leave the neighborhoods. The residents’ assessment of their residential environment is effective on the size of population attracted to and retained in the urban area, and it is an important factor influential on population mobility within the city.Studies have demonstrated in regard to the differences between planned and actual residential moves that 48 percent of those who have intended to move have left their homes after 5 years, while 14% of those who have planned to stay have also moved. Reducing residential mobility is a step towards building a stable neighborhood. MethodologyThe method of information analysis adopted in this research is based on the systematic approach of Strauss’ and Corbin’s theories in the three main steps of open coding, axial coding, and selective coding, which is based on continuous comparison.Open coding is based on general questions aimed at discovering the truth, such as why you stayed in this building, why you intend to go, and what factors make you stay or leave. Axial coding is aimed to establish a relationship between the concepts generated in the open coding step. The basis of the communication process in axial coding is to focus on and define a category as the central one and then place other categories as sub-categories below the main one.In selective coding, the utilized categories are theoretically saturated.The first and second steps are logically placed next to each other based on the coded concepts. Then, the researcher must choose the core category. Here, the major categories are related to each other in the form of a paradigm model (contextual model) around the core category.Results and Discussion The findings indicate that 23.5% of the residents tended to stay in their current homes for one to four years, while the estimated lengths of stay in their current homes included five to eight years for 17.8%, six to twelve years for 10.0%, and above sixteen years for 2.8%. The greatest impact on residential stability concerning the subject of the research is exhibited by causal conditions (such as the design and construction of a building), which are formed before its construction, and conditions other than the background ones (such as the location of the building in the city), taking shape after its construction, which include intervening and strategic conditions. Strategic conditions are exemplified by feelings of security and tranquility, congestion, and management, and intervening conditions include neighborhood relations, residents’ cultural level and social homogeneity, lack of economic capacity to move, and lack of buyers. The reasons for the poor conditions of the building (which are more personal and individual and are different for each person) include factors affecting residential stability and the desire to move.ConclusionGood building quality and cultural level and homogeneity were the first and second priorities of the residents to achieve residential stability. However, the respondents’ important reasons include the high level of reference to peace and security, high access level, proper management, and economic inability to move. Other items mentioned include proper location of the apartment and the building. Moreover, the results demonstrated that the factors that create residential stability are different from those that create the desire and tendency to move. The factors creating residential stability are stated based on facts and needs, but those for tendency to move are stated based on wishes, ideals, and expectations. Furthermore, the greater the distance between these two (real requests and wishes), the greater the desire to move.Acknowledgments This article is from the doctorate thesis of the first author with the title "Explaining the quality of the environment on residential stability and willingness to move in residential complexes using the contextual method (case example: Arak city) " In the Islamic Azad University, Arak branch under the supervision of the second and third authors and The fourth is extracted.
Urban Design
sara salehi; Hassan sajadzadeh; Mohammad Saied Izadi; kasra ketabollahi
Abstract
Highlights- The relationship between the city and the movies was addressed, and the cinematic sequences were evaluated.- Movie locations and the need to benefit from the diversity of urban spaces in Iran were addressed.- The streets of big cities in Iranian movies are places to pass through, not to attend.
Introduction
The ...
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Highlights- The relationship between the city and the movies was addressed, and the cinematic sequences were evaluated.- Movie locations and the need to benefit from the diversity of urban spaces in Iran were addressed.- The streets of big cities in Iranian movies are places to pass through, not to attend.
Introduction
The bond between the city and the movies is a two-way, strong one more than a century old. The movies has always been defined with respect to the city and urban spaces since the first days of its creation—late 19th century.
If the audience perceives urban spaces as having various functions and appropriate spatial qualities in the movie, the perception is associated with the real space and causes different feedbacks than those spaces in the long term.
Despite the increasing global desire to use the cinematic image of the city to achieve various layers of information, the Iranian movies still fails to present a correct image of the city. The beating heart of every city, urban spaces are still not used in the Iranian movies in the general sense.
While large, important cities such as Paris, London, New York, and Berlin are always in a two-way relationship with the movies and urban spaces, where the city and the various relevant issues are always exposed to cinematic representations as everyday, critical, or praiseworthy matters, reflection on such issues is still heretical in Iran. Especially, critical reflection about Tehran, as the main location in the Iranian movies, has not received much attention. A way to understand the urban space is to represent the city, urban spaces, and the complex, contradictory whole using the movies. Therefore, the main purposes of this research are to 1- examine the characteristics of different periods of the Iranian movies from the beginning of its formation to 2019, 2- examine different dimensions of selected works of the Iranian fiction movies after the Islamic Revolution of 1978, 3- extract urban space creation criteria in the fiction movies works, and 4- represent the image of a more human-oriented urban space in the Iranian movies. The latter suggestion is made because it is assumed that the Iranian cinematographer can achieve a dialectic of indicating the positive and negative aspects of the existing spaces in the country’s cities by using the correct criteria for representation of urban spaces in the movies, thereby nurturing informed, insistent viewers and causing active measures on the part of environmental designers to create more humane spaces.
Theoretical Framework
The final criteria were evaluated with the methods of analyzing the content, watching the movie, and surveying the city in the movie. Based on the conceptual model, the final criteria include the following in the order specified from the filmmaker’s point of view: the qualities of the urban space in the movie, diversity in the use of urban spaces, method of payment for the place, types of urban space, and types of character. The criterion of diversity in urban spaces, which concerns the use of these spaces in different parts of the city (not only in a specific region) with the urban surveying method in the movie, seeks the diversity of urban spaces presented in the city of Tehran in the fiction movies of choice produced after the revolution, and the final map is generated in the GIS software. 5 more criteria were examined first in the most important movies produced after the revolution with the method of content analysis and movie watching.
Methodology
In a comparative study, what can help the researcher to achieve his goal is greater emphasis on simultaneous analysis and examination of contrasts, as practiced in this research.
Findings and Discussion
All the above points indicate that the Iranian moviemaker still considers the city and its imposed modernity to be the source of many problems.
Another issue emphasized by Iranian moviemakers is to demonstrate the constant development of the city and its spaces regardless of the events of the story and peoples’ wishes. In some movies, no emphasis is placed on the urban space if actually depicted, and it is regarded simply as a background for the events of the story. All locations are focused on certain areas in Tehran and the like.
Conclusion
The results of the research demonstrate that we have not been very successful in creation of urban spaces in the past decades, and the few spaces that have been created and recreated have not been welcomed by cinematographers for various reasons. Moreover, the represented urban areas have been restricted to certain areas in Tehran, which has been subject to the conditions mentioned in the section on findings.
Furthermore, most of the selected movies in the fiction and urban fields were filmed in Tehran, and we are faced all around Iran with a pure centralism in terms of selection of the location of filming in urban spaces despite the availability of a variety thereof. This process should be corrected to address different aspects of various cities in Iran in fiction movies.
Urban Ecology
Pegah Yadegari; hassan sajadzadeh
Abstract
Highlights
The relative confinement of public open spaces of residential neighborhoods in cold climates plays an effective role in the thermal comfort of users.
Reducing wind speed plays a key role in increasing the thermal comfort of cold climates in winter.
Deciduous trees absorb sunlight during ...
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Highlights
The relative confinement of public open spaces of residential neighborhoods in cold climates plays an effective role in the thermal comfort of users.
Reducing wind speed plays a key role in increasing the thermal comfort of cold climates in winter.
Deciduous trees absorb sunlight during the day and reflect it to the environment in the evening and at night
Introduction
Because of the expansion of cities, it has become highly challenging to modify urban structures to address the drawbacks of the planning and design of open spaces, control microclimates, and improve thermal comfort conditions. Due to their effect on the quality of air in cities, urban microclimates are highly significant, and since urban spaces play an important role in creation of urban microclimates, urban designers and planners have the capacity and means to reduce the negative effects of climate on citizens’ health through implementation of proper designs.
Theoretical Framework
Urban spaces affect their users’ thermal comfort via their design elements. Various parameters can induce micro-climatic changes, such as the geometric patterns, vegetation, natural elements, and construction materials of the open spaces. These elements also play important roles in balancing urban thermal comfort during winter. While the effects of vegetation and geometric patterns on thermal comfort in public open spaces during winter have been studied independently, the cumulative impact of vegetation and geometric parameters during winter in cold and dry climates has not been investigated sufficiently. This article sought to address this shortcoming.
Methodology
The ENVI-met software was used for simulation and comparison of the thermal comfort conditions of the open spaces selected for this study. First, the design parameters of the selected sites were determined via field measurement, and were entered into the software for simulation of the thermal environments. The four climatic parameters of thermal comfort were measured during winter using ENVI-met . Then, a receptor was placed at the center of each selected site for investigation of thermal comfort at the pedestrian scale. Using these receptors, the parameters of space design and their impacts on thermal comfort were studied during the selected season.
Results and Discussion
The changes recorded for wind speed were larger than those in MRT, air temperature, and RH; hence, the differences in thermal comfort at the central points. According to the results, the Kolapa and Kolanj neighborhoods exhibited more favorable thermal conditions due to their higher PET values. Both Kalpa and Kolanj neighborhoods had north-south orientation. This type of orientation provides top-down access to the sunlight during winter. The H/W ratios at the central receptors of the Kolanj and Kalpa neighborhoods were 0.6 and 0.3, respectively. These H/W ratios provided greater enclosure than those of the other neighborhoods. While a H/W ratio less than one can be said to be suitable for cold climates during winter, it can cause thermal discomfort against wind speed if it lies below a certain threshold. This condition was observed in the Kababiyan neighborhood, where the H/W ratio at the central point was 0.13. As a result, the residents have to take protective measures against the winter wind and storms. In addition, dense vegetation caused a decrease in the SVF of the neighborhoods. The neighborhood centers with vegetation exhibited higher MRT values as well. The trees also raised the RH values of the neighborhoods. Because of the dry climate of Hamadan, Iran, vegetation can certainly improve thermal comfort in this city.
Conclusion
Recent climate studies have explored thermal comfort as an important quality of urban spaces. While thermal comfort can be achieved through a decrease in temperature in hot climates (as emphasized by most studies), it requires an increase temperature to provide thermal comfort in cold and dry climates. The presence of Hamadan’s citizens in the urban open spaces of the city always decreases in the second half of the year because of the cold mountainous climate. Limitation in or even lack of thermal comfort is one of the most important reasons for this change. With their high standards of sociability, the centers of the historical neighborhoods of Hamadan have always served as places for social interaction between the residents of the city. Therefore, this study attempted to assess the thermal characteristics of nine neighborhood centers in Hamadan using the notion of thermal comfort and the relevant variables.
Acknowledgment
This article has been extracted from a Master’s thesis in the field of Urban Design entitled Measurement and evaluation of thermal comfort in the centers of traditional neighborhoods with an emphasis on urban geometry and vegetation (historical neighborhoods of Hamadan), defended by the first author under the supervision of the second author at Bu-Ali Sina University.
Urban Design
Mehrdad Karimimoshaver; hasan sajjadzadeh; hossein troosheh
Abstract
This study addressed the relationship between high-rise buildings (as part of the urban environment) and mental health (one of the three major aspects of health: physical, psychological, and social), investigating citizens’ points of view on the high-rise Saeedieh Condominium in Hamadan, Iran. ...
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This study addressed the relationship between high-rise buildings (as part of the urban environment) and mental health (one of the three major aspects of health: physical, psychological, and social), investigating citizens’ points of view on the high-rise Saeedieh Condominium in Hamadan, Iran. The research sought to capture the influence mechanism and to help reinforce the insight of designers of such buildings into and their concern for features of the built environment from citizens’ perspective that can inadvertently affect their mental health. In recent decades, construction of high-rise buildings has been appealed to widely as a method of construction, replacing the horizontal growth of cities. However, it seems that vertical urbanism has paid little attention to citizens’ psychological aspects in urban spaces. Height is an intrinsic part of high-rise buildings and their most important formal feature, with a significant impact on citizens and their eventual perceptions and emotions, which makes it significant to scrutinize its influence. One of the most important issues is the impact of high-rise buildings on citizens’ mental health. Mental stresses constantly threaten human mental health, in part due to inappropriate urban environments and residences. This increases the significance of examining the urban environment to reduce the existing stresses. The purpose of this paper was to present better ways of designing high-rise buildings considering their impact on citizens’ mental health as well as to identify how the influence works. Therefore, the main questions of the study are as follows. What relationship is there between high-rise buildings and citizens’ mental health? How can height affect citizens’ mental health? In the present study, a qualitative approach was taken using the method of Grounded Theory. After in-depth interviews made in person with citizens, the transcripts were summarized and encoded in the three open, axial, and selective stages, and the grounded model was finally extracted by the MAXQDA data analysis software. The participants in the interviews included 24 citizens, 13 men and 11 women aged 17-65 years. Theoretical consecutive purposive sampling was used, where sampling would continue until adequacy (saturation) was achieved for theorization. It should be noted that saturation was achieved as felt by the researcher with comments from 8 men and 8 women—a total of 16 participants—, but the interviews continued, amounting to 24 with 8 additional ones, which served to ensure the achievement of saturation (although no changes were made in the eventual data). The findings demonstrated that high-rise buildings cause mental pressure in citizens due to issues such as improper enclosure, physical-visual consequences, sub-climate generation, landscape restrictions, social difficulties, overlook, urban area heterogeneity, and negative environmental effects and citizens’ long-term involvement in emotional reactions resulting from the mental pressure affects their mental health. With a frequency of 73, the issue of improper enclosure was found to be the most popular among citizens in the set of situational issues, playing a major role in the emergence of the interactive issues and the consequential ones as a result. It was followed by the issues sub-climate generation (with a frequency of 57), physical-visual consequences (with a frequency of 55), landscape restrictions (with a frequency of 30), urban area heterogeneity (with a frequency of 25), overlook (with a frequency of 22), and social difficulties (with a frequency of 12), in that order.
Urban Design
salman vahdat
Volume 4, Issue 15 , August 2015, , Pages 17-36
Abstract
Cities landscapes are exposed to observer judgments. However, the important thing point the public perception and reading of urban landscapes by urban space users. Since there is a variety of comments and opinions regarding city issues and the urban landscape and its priorities, and decision making ...
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Cities landscapes are exposed to observer judgments. However, the important thing point the public perception and reading of urban landscapes by urban space users. Since there is a variety of comments and opinions regarding city issues and the urban landscape and its priorities, and decision making should converge in order to cover all aspects of priorities, in this study an attempt has been made to explain the effective dimensions and factors of reading street landscapes. Furthermore, priorities of each of the sites were studied from the perspective of citizens in order to improve the quality of urban spaces in Hamadan. A qualitative research methodology was used; in terms of the study objectives applied research was used and in terms of the techniques employed, field observations and library study was usedto develop a conceptual model associated with reading the elements and aspects in terms of urban spaces. Finally, to examine and analyze the conceptual framework, expert questionnaires using the software Super Decision and the Network Analysis Process Model was analysed to give suitable answers to the following questions of the study: 1- What are the dimensions and components of reading street landscapes? 2- How do priority indicators and criteria affect the landscape of urban streets components according to experts? 3- According to what order are priorities and central streets of Hamedan organized based on parameters mentioned by? Based on the research, reading components of street landscapes can be both objective and subjective and three dimensions are presented: aesthetic (objective - subjective), semantic (perception, functional) and activity. In addition, 59 indicators were classified. Prioritizing landscape reading components in of Hamedan city streets based on citizens' viewpoints are shown below Bu-Ali Sina Street is first and has a weighting of (0.246) for quality readings of street landscape view and Shohada Street is last with a weight of (0.099). In this regard and in order to improve the urban landscape loci recommendations, such as improving street visual order, organization of walls and ancient buildings, paving the way for the presence of street art and graphics, defining and developing signs physically and semantically which isdesirable for promoting citizens’ reading of the spaces provided, can be studied. Based on the analysis and findings of the research, design and urban landscape management officials need to act in such a way as to maintain the initial values of urban design issues when making changes and new developments. Changes and new developments in urban spaces should be based on the social values and culture of the society and the target audience’s perspectives (citizens) to promote the values of leadership and guide the quality and quantity of space.
Urban Design
a l; ا س
Volume 3, Issue 11 , August 2014, , Pages 3-18
Abstract
Nowadays, a faster pace of changes and transformations in different phenomena such people's lifestyles has meant changes in their thinking and needs also. Since people’s lifestyles are more oriented toward isolation, it is more important to reflect at their lives collectively. People's need for ...
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Nowadays, a faster pace of changes and transformations in different phenomena such people's lifestyles has meant changes in their thinking and needs also. Since people’s lifestyles are more oriented toward isolation, it is more important to reflect at their lives collectively. People's need for places of social interaction and meeting psychological needs have become one of the requirements of urban life. Public spaces are the only spaces where all citizens of every class, age, race, and association have the right to use without any limitation. Environmental quality of urban public spaces is one of the focuses of recent urbanism research and attempting to create an urban public space that meets users desires behavior has always been considered as one of the main strategies of urban projects. Urban parks as a part of public spaces in cities have a fundamental role in resolving human needs. Most urban theorists believe that urban parks are one of the main components of an urban system because in addition to their functional role they increase socialization in urban spaces. Thus, in order to make these spaces more dynamic and to meet the needs of the people, the behaviors shaping the spaces should be noted and examined. Since most parks’ compliance with the needs of users and environmental qualities is, there is a need for a systematic program based on the behavior of users. Furthermore, issues such as neglect of social values, cultural - identity values, and the neglect of physical and structural values have lead to the formation of public spaces that do not meet people’s needs in urban areas. In addition, neglecting to improve the environmental quality of urban public spaces such as urban parks, not taking into account the effective qualities of urban transportation and connections, and the exclusive emphasis on the subjective perception by urban planners and designers has resulted in the formation of urban areas which does not have the capacity to be responsive and flexible in the accordance with people’s expectations and behaviours. For the purposes of this research, Mardom Park in the city of Hamadan was selected as a case study. This study aims to identify and assess the stimulants and patterns of user behavior in terms of their needs and the environmental quality of urban parks. This study was based on fieldwork with a cross-sectional approach and seeks to answer the following question: “what effects do behavioral patterns and domains have on improving the environmental quality of urban parks?” In this study, in order to provide a conceptual framework document-based research was carried out, theoretical issues explored in detail and then analyzed using existing approaches. For this purpose, in addition to the qualitative analysis of urban spaces and behaviors formed in space because of spatial characteristics, quantitative analysis of indicators using questionnaires was used. The quantitative indicators was analyzed by SPSS. The results show that the quality and amount of the influence of environmental quality factors on the quality of activities, which are primarily behaviors or behavioral patterns, are not the same. In addition, the analyses outcomes show direct influence of behavior on environmental quality and environmental quality on behavior. The results indicate on the one hand, human needs are the outcome of behaviorial influences on space and environment and the ability of underlying environment. On the other hand, enhancement of environmental quality and influence of environmental factors on areas and behaviorial patterns in urban parks are not only a quantitative and technical concepts.
