Islamic- Iranian Cities
mohamadmannan raeesi
Abstract
The holy Quran and Imams’ hadiths as the most important Islamic religious texts which have significant capacity in various fields of human knowledge, but have often been neglected in academic research. Among the issues raised in these Islamic ...
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The holy Quran and Imams’ hadiths as the most important Islamic religious texts which have significant capacity in various fields of human knowledge, but have often been neglected in academic research. Among the issues raised in these Islamic religious texts are the city and its features based on which some studies have been conducted and the concept of Islamic city has been developed. On the other hand, one of the main problems dealt with in recent decades (especially in the field of urban development) is the development pattern which can be classified into two main patterns: horizontal development and vertical development. But, due to various problems, in recent decades, the vertical development pattern has spread increasingly in most cities, especially in metropolises. Accordingly, this research addresses this problem from the perspective of Islamic teachings (especially Shiite jurisprudence). Therefore, the main problem that is investigated in this article is desirability or non-desirability of vertical development of residential buildings in Islamic city (based on Shiite jurisprudence). The research method applied in this article is a mixed method. According to the features of various stages of this research, archival research method was used to collect data. Meanwhile, the researcher used logical argumentation and qualitative content analysis to analyze the data. In this way, propositions (especially the jurisprudential hadiths) that are directly or indirectly related to the problem of this research were extensively investigated using qualitative content analysis. Then, research findings were obtained based on the analysis of propositions through logical-argumentative method.According to the findings, vertical development pattern is not desirable in Islamic cities because of various jurisprudential reasons such as visual dominance and some of Imams’ traditions like star sightings, etc. Moreover, vertical development of residential buildings is in contrast to the content of some Quran verses like: “What, have they never observed the heaven above them, (and seen) how we built and adorned it, leaving no crack?” (Qaf Surah, verse 6); “bear then with patience what they say. Exalt with the praise of your lord before sunrise and before sunset” (Qaf Surah, verse 39); “Therefore, be patient with what they say, and exalt with the praise of your lord before sunrise and before sunset. And in the watches of the night and at the edges of the day, exalt him, so that you will be pleasing” (Taha Surah, verse 130). According to these verses, Islamic city should be built in such a pattern that people be able to see sunrise and sunset and thus vertical development pattern of residential buildings is not desirable in such a city. However, it should be noted that the Islamic city has some other features and horizontal development alone is not enough to make a city Islamic. In addition to the physical characteristics, there are some other features such as city identity that define an Islamic city.Residential Buildings, Vertical Development, Shiite Jurisprudence, Islamic Teachings
Urban Sustainability
Ahad Nejad Ebrahimi; Nastaran Najdaghi
Abstract
There are some problems in the historic fabric that eclipse values of these sites in cities. Sustainable urban regeneration approach is the best approach to solve these problems. Due to the nature of this approach and the intervention platform, the role of education must be clarified in this process. ...
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There are some problems in the historic fabric that eclipse values of these sites in cities. Sustainable urban regeneration approach is the best approach to solve these problems. Due to the nature of this approach and the intervention platform, the role of education must be clarified in this process. This study was conducted with the aim to determine the effectiveness of education on urban regeneration. At first, the viewpoints of experts were collected by Delphi technique and then a consensus was reached on the positive impact of education on residents. Afterwards, the women living in Sang-e-Siah neighborhood were chosen as the statistical population to assess the viewpoints of residents. This study is an applied research employing the descriptive and analytical methods. The main objective is to elucidate the effectiveness of education for women living in the Sang-e-Siah neighborhood in Shiraz on sustainable urban regeneration. The main question is “How much effective is the education of the culture of citizenship, preservation of historic heritage, vocational skills, and environmental protection on successful implementation of urban regeneration plans?” Data was collected through questionnaire, interview, and field study. T-Test and one-way ANOVA were used to assess the factors’ effectiveness. The results show that there is a significant positive relationship between women education and sustainable urban regeneration. Women have selected as the target population because of their higher presence in the neighborhood during the day and their higher impact on the education of children. The data collected from the study population was used to clarify the effect of education on the implementation of urban regeneration plans. Experts’ opinions and the views of women living in the neighborhood were compared. According to experts’ opinions, educating residents is the most effective approach of education-oriented urban regeneration with such effective components as social, physical, environmental and economic factors. However, based on the views of women living in the neighborhood, the most effective factors on women education in order of importance are environmental, social, physical and economic factors. As the mean value of t statistic was more than 3 for all the four factors, it is concluded that the effect of women education on all the four factors is above average. Also, research findings indicate that differences in individual characteristics of respondents can change the impact of sustainable urban regeneration programs with age being the most effective factor. It is therefore suggested that educating residents will be set as the objective of sustainable urban regeneration plans as a pivotal element of urban planning. In addition, to develop the theoretical approach, it is suggested that residents’ education will be classified according to different age groups. Finally, it is recommended that the impact of education on urban regeneration process will be measured by determining the feedback from educated subjects.
Urban Scape
ali asadpour; Paria Barzegar; Niloufar Keshavarzi
Abstract
Attention to the users is one of the main factors in successful architectural design. Therefore, for successful urban design with which all age groups can interact, it is necessary to know enough about each of them. For example, the mental and physical scale of children is different from adults. As a ...
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Attention to the users is one of the main factors in successful architectural design. Therefore, for successful urban design with which all age groups can interact, it is necessary to know enough about each of them. For example, the mental and physical scale of children is different from adults. As a result, design requirements for them are also distinct from other age groups. However, this issue has been underestimated in today’s urban design in Iran. Accordingly, the first step to find out design principles is to identify the factors which are considered by children. In other words, their mental image should be investigated because it is the result of a two-way communication between the observer and the environment. It is through this interaction that the observer selects, organizes and gives meaning to what he/she sees. The purpose of this paper is, thus, to identify physical (elements and components) and non-physical (behaviors, events, memories) factors effective on 5-7 years old children’s mental image of Shiraz urban streetscape. It should be noted that the choice of the street is due to the fact that it is the first and most important site in people’s relationship with the city. In this research, mental images were obtained through the sketch map (children drawings) technique. The statistical population of the research consisted of 111 children selected out of 257 children aged 5 to 7 years in District 1 of Shiraz (based on field visits in 2016). A total of 118 drawings were collected by this method. In addition to descriptive analysis, they were analyzed through exploratory factor analysis in SPSS 22. Children’s drawings were examined from three dimensions in consultation with their teachers: a) in terms of drawing elements; b) in terms of color variation and the level of details drawn by the child; and finally c) the level of exaggeration in the drawing of the elements. The results indicate that sex has no meaningful correlation with the type of drawings and their content. Therefore, sex was removed as a factor of analysis. The most frequently drawn physical elements on the street (fixed and movable) are cars, street linings and traffic lights which were drawn with exaggeration in 27% of the cases. Short and tall buildings were also seen in the drawings as part of the physical elements defining the streetscape. In addition to these, the sky-related elements (e.g. cloud, sun and rain), natural elements (e.g. green space, mountains, living creatures and humans) and even events (e.g. accidents, respecting the rules, playing, etc.) were an inseparable part in children’s drawings. The streets drawn by children were without color variation or lots of detail. This could indicate lower color variation of current streets. The children in this study referred to a combination of natural elements and games as the main factor in their mental image of the street. The subsequent factors included street regulations, the sky, street structure, city landscape and intersection structure which were extracted from factor analysis.
Urban Sustainability
Golnaz Mortezaei; Mahmoud Mohammadi; Farshad Nasrollahi; Mahmoud Ghalehnoee
Abstract
Rapid progress in technology and, consequently, the increasing growth of urban population has inevitably led to the development of residential neighborhoods. Changes in the form of urban texture and their inconsistency with climatic features, together with the rise of energy demand, have had manifold ...
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Rapid progress in technology and, consequently, the increasing growth of urban population has inevitably led to the development of residential neighborhoods. Changes in the form of urban texture and their inconsistency with climatic features, together with the rise of energy demand, have had manifold adverse consequences such as global warming and climate change. According to previous research, most energy in cities is consumed by residential buildings which is highly affected by the city shape, an issue which needs to be amended. Therefore, since buildings account for a significant portion of energy consumption in cities, wise decisions should be made for designing new urban textures that reduce energy consumption. Research on urbanism and energy efficiency has offered different views. The vast majority of studies conducted on the optimization of energy consumption in urban areas have focused on the impact of urban shape on fuel consumption in transportation or have evaluated energy consumption in micro scales. But, as thermal performance changes in scales beyond the building scale, researchers must analyze the thermal performance of buildings in larger scales such as neighborhoods. The missing part in this field is the assessment of energy consumption in neighborhoods. To fill this gap, the present paper attempts to assess the primary energy consumption of cooling, heating and lighting systems in new patterns of residential texture on neighborhood scale. Afterwards, on the basis of primary energy criterion, efficient and inefficient patterns are identified and, finally, some strategies are provided for optimizing energy consumption in new residential areas. The present study is an applied research conducted using descriptive-analytical method. Data was collected by documentary and field methods. In the first step, the concepts of primary energy, energy efficiency, and typo-morphology approach are described and analyzed in order to formulate the theoretical framework of the research. The relationship between microclimate and morphology is also investigated. Then, following the typo-morphology approach, the residential texture of Sepahan Shahr, Esfahan, Iran, is categorized on the neighborhood scale. Finally, simulating the primary cooling, heating, and lighting equipments’ energy consumption in the residential textures via Design Builder software, results are analyzed based on the comparative approach and statistical tests. The results show that there is a strong correlation between primary energy consumption and indicators of design layout, mass placement, form of the building, height of the building, and open spaces. Also, there is a moderate correlation between primary energy consumption and block proportions. Moreover, based on the results from the variance analysis, common row patterns and square-shaped patterns are the most and least efficient patterns of new residential textures, respectively, though the lighting systems’ energy consumption is lower in square-shaped patterns. Other patterns, such as H, T, I, and L shapes are in mid-level for primary energy consumption. Among these patterns, the H-shape is the best choice for four-storey buildings with high-density.
Urban Planning
mohammad mehdi Azizi; Reza Asadi
Abstract
Large shopping malls have been a popular phenomenon in recent urban development plans and projects in many developed and developing countries. In Tehran, the capital of Iran, these projects have been largely noted and developed in recent years. This phenomenon can have major effects in various aspects ...
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Large shopping malls have been a popular phenomenon in recent urban development plans and projects in many developed and developing countries. In Tehran, the capital of Iran, these projects have been largely noted and developed in recent years. This phenomenon can have major effects in various aspects that need to be recognized, analyzed and evaluated. One of the aspects of these projects is their morphology in terms of their scale, position and role in urban development (community or regional shopping malls). This paper aims to find the criteria and indicators for classifying these shopping malls. The main questions of the research for Tehran shopping malls are: “Which variables are appropriate to classify shopping malls in Tehran?” “How suitable are these variables to be used in shopping malls of the city?” “If shopping malls in Tehran cannot be classified in any global categories, what are the reasons? One of the well-known shopping malls constructed recently in Tehran is “Korush Shopping Mall”, located in the western part of the city, District 5, which was selected as the case study of this research. The related literature and experiences were reviewed to analyze physical, economic, management, and ownership aspects as well as the limitations of the project. Various criteria, variables and indicators were used for evaluation of data collected using questionnaire and field research. Among these are travel time and distance, shopping mall site and land area, types of commodities, employment opportunities for local residents, shops’ ownership, aims of shopping for consumers, and the extent of entertainment facilities. Classification of the case study was done according to indexes and variables. Two data sources were used to analyze the variables: first, data collected from the site and features of the shopping mall; second, data collected from 380 surveys filled out by consumers. The results showed that Korush Shopping Mall could not be classified into any specific type of shopping mall in the literature review and the global categories. It has various features from each type so it could not belong to any type of shopping malls, especially community or regional shopping malls. Specialized goods, the number of retail shops, tenants, and limited site area are the main factors in categorizing shopping malls, but Korush Shopping Mall lacks these features. One of the major results of the research was that most people visiting this shopping center aim for entertainment rather that shopping. The main reason for this is that most items in the shops are products of famous brands and their prices are much higher than what low and middle class people can afford. Furthermore, based on the results, the law and guidelines related to the construction of retail markets in the Master and Detailed Plan of Tehran are among the main reasons. There are not any special rules for shopping malls, an issue which allows for lots of mixed variable in any shopping center in Tehran. Although the area of regional shopping malls should be at least 4ha, the regulations in the Master Plan of Tehran clearly mention that 1 ha site area is suitable for retail centers on the city scale. As a final note, it can be claimed that shopping centers, such as Korush Shopping Mall in Tehran must be planned and constructed based on their roles, sizes and locations. It is thus recommended to conduct feasibility studies for their aims and effects in advance.
Urban Design
yaser shahbazi; Azita Balali Oskui; elham shahabi
Abstract
Flexibility index was added in the functional dimension as an effective factor for realizing the origin of desirability and promoting the creation of territorial perception. Flexibility refers to flexible furniture design and the flexible use of space in the form of both socialization and desocialization. ...
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Flexibility index was added in the functional dimension as an effective factor for realizing the origin of desirability and promoting the creation of territorial perception. Flexibility refers to flexible furniture design and the flexible use of space in the form of both socialization and desocialization. Culture is one of the most influential factors in determining territories, and differences in cultures demand the diversity and flexibility of territories. For example, within the scope of A and C, geometry provides flexibility in socialization and desocialization space. Face-to-face communication is possible in social organizations, and the distance between sitting spaces is within socio-advisory intervals. Organizing desocialization brings about social interaction. These practices should also be used in the design of public spaces. In public or semi-public places, spaces are sometimes considered as community-friendly places for people’s visits and sometimes as vacant spaces. According to John Lang, it should not be assumed that face-to-face relationship reduces the presence of people in social spaces. For such behaviors, there should be a previous inclination, and the territory should be in places acceptable to the people. Urban spaces should emphasize human pauses and must include factors such as good artistic design, proper spatial structure, hierarchy, physical comfort, flexibility of security, readability, engagement and popular participation, identity and cultural values for the realization of a universally desirable place.The Tabi’at Bridge, as the largest pedestrian overpass built in Tehran, Iran, was selected as the case study in this research to evaluate the desirable territory in public urban spaces. The 270-metre bridge connects two public parks – Taleghani Park and Abo-Atash Park – by spanning Modarres Expressway, one of the main highways in northern Tehran. The word tabi’at means “nature” in Persian. Construction of the bridge over a large highway was described as a big challenge, with platforms and temporary tunnels built to ensure that nothing fell onto the road below. The results of data analysis showed that providing security, particularly in the form of social monitoring and territory control is important for women. They also ask for the tangibility of territorial boundaries with men and the proper definition of the territories through design factors. Women also want more flexible spaces than men. Men demand wider and more arrogant walkways than women in the territories. Although the slogan of the project was “Nature Bridge is a place to stay” (Diba Project Designer, 2014), 33% of the desirable spaces identified in this study were deprived of the first means of establishing a territorial position in design process (A, D, I). Also, 53% of the spaces designated for pause lack a proper quality and only reduce the physical fatigue resulting from human factors such as age. This is while the precondition of a pause space is a territorial space. This highlights the importance of low-priority issues such as providing spatial indicators of territory which are absent even in well-designed architectural and urban plans.
Urban Design
Esmaeil Shieh; Mostafa Behzadfar; ahmad ali namdarian
Abstract
The concept of urbanscape has many complexities and ambiguities. These ambiguities lead to misunderstandings among the academic sources and professional circles. “Scape” and “landscape” have also deviated from their original meaning and nowadays are used for different purposes. ...
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The concept of urbanscape has many complexities and ambiguities. These ambiguities lead to misunderstandings among the academic sources and professional circles. “Scape” and “landscape” have also deviated from their original meaning and nowadays are used for different purposes. The concept of “image” and readability makes them more complex. Specially, the scape of cities has some common meanings with mystic literature in Iran leading to further misunderstanding. There are some disciplines referring to the concept of urbanscape, such as urban design, architecture and landscape architecture, and landscape urbanism. Each of these disciplines deems itself as the originator of the term “urbanscape”.This article tries to review various literature on these two concepts and their complexities. Reviewing these concepts shows that urbanscape has been affected by different paradigms of the philosophy of science and, nowadays, there is a paradigm shift in this field.This article shows that previous definitions have been based upon “positivist” and “critical rationality” paradigms. In these two approaches, urbanscape has been studied separate from the society. In line with this, urbanscape was considered as a physical dimension of the urban form or as perceptions of users. The development of a new theoretical framework for urbanscape needs fundamental reviewing in these paradigms. It needs a paradigm which justifies the “why” and “how” of urbanscape rather than just describing it. In other words, the new definition should pay attention to the mechanisms and basic structure of urbanscape.This article uses the qualitative method. Reviewing Henri Lefebvre’s notions, it uses the paradigm of “scientific realism” to develop the theory of urbanscape. Urbanscape is then considered as the “output of society’s reality”, an intrinsic reality which is always reproduced. Urbanscape could not be divided into subjective and objective scape before, for the relation of these two is not just a phenomenological one. Lefebvre’s “production of space” theory is based on a new definition of dialectic leading to the concept of spatial trialectics.From this point of view, a comprehensive framework is achieved by using phenomenology and semeiotic approach. According to these two approaches, urbanscape is not “subject or object” alone, it is also the output of a social fact conceived by users in a phenomenological and semiotic dynamic relation. Urbanscape is then divided into three categories which are produced and reproduced by influential forces on urbanscape. Perceived scape, conceived scape and lived scape are the three types of scape produced in a trialectic relation of influential forces.These three scapes are phenomenological aspects of urbanscape. However, these three are produced by the semeiotic dimension. This dimension is the factors that can create the phenomenological aspect of scape and are called forces. Each force is trying to produce its own scape. There is a sort of complexity, competition and dialogue between the forces.Therefore, urbanscape is neither a physical dimension nor a practical one; it has also social aspects produced by various forces.
Regional Planning
amirhosein abdollahzadeh; esfandiar zebardast
Abstract
There are two main approaches to housing planning on national or regional scales: first, comprehensive housing plans and, second, subject-specific housing plans. Comprehensive housing plans bear a significant flaw: their lack of economic evaluation, which only comes at the end of the planning process. ...
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There are two main approaches to housing planning on national or regional scales: first, comprehensive housing plans and, second, subject-specific housing plans. Comprehensive housing plans bear a significant flaw: their lack of economic evaluation, which only comes at the end of the planning process. This makes them quite distant from economic realities of the province or region. However, in subject-specific housing plans, the emphasis is on the most consequential and primal issues and therefore the economic and financial factors are very well reflected. Therefore, these two approaches to planning take opposite directions as the first step in one is the final step in another. One is planning-oriented and the other is implementation-oriented.In the analysis of housing in national or regional planning sectors, the main method is to calculate an appropriate coefficient in different economic sectors for input-output charts. The calculated coefficient for housing sector can be used in housing planning for estimating investment, economic efficiency, job creation, export and import demand and supply.After data collection, 30 provinces were selected using input-output charts of 2001 fiscal year to be observed in a period of 10 years. The coefficients for different economic sectors show that water supply, electricity and natural gas are the frontline sectors followed by leisure services (e.g. hotels and restaurants), public services and the construction sector with a coefficient of 1.25. The annual inflation rate was applied in each sector and then the input-output chart of 2011 was produced in which the water, electricity and gas supply were again identified as the leading sectors. Finally, the housing sector with a coefficient of 1.167 was identified as the third on the national level.The charts were recalculated for each province using the RAS method by applying the sector estimates for each province and calculating the medium consumption, production and added value of each province. The results show that housing and construction sector remains the leading sector in most provinces. The coefficient is in the range of 1.56 to 2.24. In most provinces, this sector has the second to fourth rank. In Kohkilouyeh & Boyer Ahmad and Sistan & Balouchestan though, housing ranks first. Also, in Semnan, Qazvin, Zanjan, and Markazi its rank varies from 6 to 9. In analyzing the role of housing in economy using input-output tables and quanti-connectivity method, construction and housing sectors ranked first in the economy sector within the 10-year period. Construction sector was identified as the leading one in provinces. In this sector, three basic indexes in the input-output analysis include intermediate consumption, output and added value. Output rate is 6-8%, intermediate consumption is 4-6% and added value is 3-5% in provinces. These values are very low as compared with their consumption levels. Moreover, in the provinces, housing sector has the highest output to other sectors and the lowest input from other sectors.
