International Journal of

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the light of the Genius Loci theory. The theory has been verified in many studies by the traditional-Islamic philosophers. Proving the closeness of these two viewpoints in extent and type of the environmental influences on disposition can open a venue for applying the theory of Genius Loci to establish a basis for environmental design in regions with Islamic and traditional cultures. This research traces the origins of this theory to the ancient Islamic philosophy. In the first step, the relationships between environmental and cultural characters are explained in four climate-dispositional patterns using Christian Norberg-Schulz’s theory of Genius Loci. The second step deals with the philosophical origins of the theory within the Islamic thoughts through four patterns. Islamic philosophers have considered the types and the extent of climate’s influences on disposition and have distinguished different faculties and behavioral affordances for various temperaments and four climates - “hot and dry”, “hot and wet”, “cold and dry” and “cold and wet”. Temperament and the hot and dry climate have shown to be suitable for the moral training of the mankind and assume the character traits of the God. The findings of the present study, the phenomenologist’s ideas concerning the character type and environmental/cultural characters in different climates, and the association of the environment and human, have over lapses with the theories of the Islamic philosophers.

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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.

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Abstract Creating suitable classrooms that can meet the educational needs of mentally-retarded students is vitally important. The present study explores the effect of three physical characteristics of classroom environment on the creativity of educable mentally-retarded children: window view, window size, and classroom size. The participants, one hundred 9-to-11-year-old girl students, took the Test of Creative Thinking-Drawing Production (TCT-DP). The results indicate that natural window view, larger window size (which provides a broader vision), and larger class size positively affected the creativity of the students. The findings of the study can be taken into account in designing psychology-oriented classroom environments that can improve the creativity of students.

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A review of findings shows that Persian gardens have attracted a wide area of interests between psychologists and environment designers. The main reasons behind the attraction of Persian gardens are natural content and particular landscape configuration. To study these features, overall organization examination is employed according to psychological pattern. One of the impressive psychological patterns to evaluate the natural landscape is preference matrix which has been developed by Stephen and Rachel Kaplan. In this study, characteristics of Persian gardens are reviewed and they are analyzed according to the Kaplan preference factors (coherence, legibility, mystery and complexity). Hence, four gardens namely, Fin, Shazdeh Mahan, Eram and El Goli, with different topographies are randomly selected and have been analyzed based on the four mentioned factors. Because of the inseparable relationship of human behavior and environment, the research methodology applies psychological approach based on a descriptive – analytical method and to implement this method library documents are used. As the discussion demonstrates, concepts created from the relationship between factors and Persian gardens' characteristics are associated with coherence, legibility, mystery and complexity. It shows that elements shaping the Persian gardens have close relationship with these factors because they are important in perception of the natural environment. Based on analysis, the elements in Persian Gardens are used to provide the best psychological and aesthetic responses for viewers. Also, it can be concluded that, the quality of the material and semantic makes them more attractive.

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Traditional building technologies have much to teach us about how to design regionally appropriate structures. The Orosi is one of these useful technologies, which has been used for many centuries in order to control the harsh sunlight in Iran. This architectural element was rather important because the intensive solar radiation could easily damage valuable carpets used in most spaces in Persian buildings. The main question of this research was how much could the traditional Orosi windows reduce the harmful spectrums of sunlight? In order to investigate this effect, a combination of field study, laboratory measurements, and case study research method was applied. Nine Persian traditional Orosi windows were chosen as case studies and the windows’ geometric lattice (Gereh–Chini) and glazing color combinations were drawn and plotted. The experiment was carried out for carpeted and non–carpeted spaces. In order to measure the light transmission of the sample tinted glazing from the Orosi windows, a T80+ spectrophotometer was used. After calculating CIE and skin damage factors and visible transmittance for each piece of glass, an area weighting was used to calculate these factors for the entire Orosi. The results show a significant difference between CIE damage factors of the Orosis in carpeted and non–carpeted spaces where the carpeted spaces had the least amount of CIE damage factor.

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As a medium between people and the city, urbanscape makes a mental connection between individuals and their surroundings. It is usually difficult to conceive this mental relationship and its corresponding processes with usual methods. This study seeks to address the mental aspects of urbanscape and highlight its role and importance by using an innovative method.

In this study, map-based methods have been examined as one of the most effective tools for studying citizens’ urbanscape. Indeed, using maps provides a tangible model of the city and its spatial imagination by mapping people’s perceptions. In order to achieve the hidden layers of people’s perceptions, a combination of map-based methods have been examined in the study of Ferdowsi Square in Tehran.

First, 50 questionnaires in which interviewees were asked to draw remarkable element of the area were conducted (Cognitive map). Second, people were asked to mark the places that are meaningful for them in a provided map of the area and describe the reason (narrative map). Finally, the results of the former step as evaluative meaning were measured in investigated area (evaluative map). As the result, collective images completed by narrative maps and 4 categories of meanings attributed to the space have been recognized, collective, individual, physical-functional and sensory-emotional concepts. Moreover, the locations of detailed meanings and the intensity of each meaning or concept have been determined and located on the map. Through analyzing and comparing these maps; it is concluded that by developing map-based methods and combining them with other techniques and methods, deeper layers of individuals’ perception about spaces are revealed. So, spatial distribution of concepts and assessments of individuals that have been provided by these methods in this study seems to be very helpful in analysing mental urbanscape.

In this context, moving from traditional and structured methods to more evaluative and flexible ones that focus on deeper layers of individuals’ perception is extremely useful.

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Urban morphology, including buildings’ typology and their configuration, affects sky view factor and insolation, which are two of the most influential parameters in urban microclimate. These become even more important in extreme environmental conditions. In this research, challenge was to generate various rule based urban morphologies in a parametric environment. Then, to evaluate them based on mentioned parameters to find the fittest climate responsive morphology. The evaluations are done using grasshopper definitions connected to Ecotect and genetic algorithms in grasshopper in a relatively short computing time. Introducing a high speed and user-friendly environment for designers to introduce forms and evaluate them in several iterations was a main consideration. The tool consists of two parts. First, the generative algorithms to create various rule based morphologies. Second, the analysing algorithms, which find the fittest climate responsive urban morphology based on insolation and sky view factor. As a case study, the program is used on different urban morphologies in Yazd to find the fittest solution. Gaining the maximum sky view factor while having minimum insolation on building surfaces is ideal in hot and arid climate. Anyhow, these two suggest contradicting solutions for urban form. Based on the existing urban fabric in Yazd, various block typologies and their arrangements are generated parametrically. In each scenario, iterations of evaluation find the most suitable ones. After comparing the fittest versions of different types, the most proper building typology, collective arrangement of them and the best orientation are provided as result. 

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Designing the maternity ward of hospitals is crucial due to the special conditions of mothers before, during, and after birth. Numerous environmental factors affect mothers, and it calls for an evidence-based design of these spaces. Although many investigations have drawn their attention to the issue, there is a paucity of research in terms of the significance of the birth environment factors. Therefore, the specific question of the research is that to what extent each of these factors is significant? In order to answer this question, the researchers devised a questionnaire based on which the most prominent variables could be ascertained. The questionnaire contained four main domains, including fear cascade, facilities, aesthetics and support, and the researchers distributed them among mothers in four hospitals in Golestan province, Iran. Six influential spaces affecting mothers, including communication space, hospitalization room, nursing station, neonatal room, operation room and external space, were investigated in this regard. Using the descriptive-analytical method and SPSS software, the research hypotheses were tested, and the Friedman test was employed to rank the domains and their variables. The findings demonstrated the significance of the aesthetic domain and such variables as the nursing station, natural light in corridors, and view to the doctor room. The study offered fresh insights into the design of a peaceful maternity ward.

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Historical fabrics are known as a national heritage and treasure which are full of spiritual and human concepts. However, we are witnessing that many of these historic districts are being forgotten, abandoned and destructed as the emotional relationship between human and its residing place is fading out. Sense of place is a concept which focuses on the emotional and internal relation between people and their environment. Sense of place consists of three dimensions, namely: place identity, place dependence and place attachment. This research is trying to identify the most significant components regarding the sense of place. It is assumed that by improving these components, a higher level of sense of place is achieved in historic fabrics. These components could also help urban designers and architects that contribute to the historic fabric of the city. Qualitative content analysis methodology was used to elicit the sense of place components from 175 studies. Screening of the systematic reviews and extraction of information on included studies was performed using a validated framework. Finally, the Delphi method is used to find the most related components of the sense of place in historic districts. The results for the physical factors show that the most important attributes are “valuable landmarks and fabric”, “form and physical characteristics”, “communal spaces and public gathering places”, and “visual harmony and unity of the facades”. The results for the set of activity factors show that experts were generally reliable in their responses. The mean value for “events in place” is 4.94, which indicates that experts perceived this attribute as the most influential determinant. Other important attributes are “social activities and interactions”, “proper roads and pathways”, “legibility and identification”, “land use and functional diversity”, and “accessibility and permeability”. In the meaning category, “vitality and happiness” is the most important attribute to evaluate the sense of place in the historical fabrics. “History and originality of the place” is then ranked second, and “aesthetic, beauty and arrangement” third. In the individual-social category, “memories and experiences of place” scored the highest followed by “cultural, religious and ritual ceremonies”, “mental imagery of the place”, and “awareness of historical values of places” (mean value of 4.24).

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Students’ residence halls have been studied repeatedly during the last decades from various perspectives (eg satisfaction). However, our knowledge is very limited in terms of students’ emotions towards various residence hall interior and exterior spaces. Besides, very little study exists on the impact of homelike furniture on students’ emotions. The question driving this research is whether the replacement of institutional furniture with home like furniture affects students’ emotional states towards their residence hall? The research follows a mixed, multi-staged methodology. Stage one used structured interviews of students about what might make a residence hall similar to home environments. This second stage evaluates students’ emotions toward their current residence halls (with institutional furniture) and modified images of the same place with homelike furniture. We used SAM to evaluate students’ emotional reactions in terms of valence, arousal, and dominance. The findings of the study suggests that home like residence halls significantly affect students’ positive emotions. The most positive emotions (valence, arousal, and dominance) were reported on kitchenette, corridor, and yard spaces and no significant differences were found on in-room décor.

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This study aims to investigate how lighting design can be used as an environmental design feature within historic sites in cities to turn a space into a place through placemaking processes. Accordingly, the research question is: What artificial lighting design aspects need to be taken into account in historic sites within cities through a placemaking process? Naghshe-Jahan Square’s in Isfahan, Iran, is chosen as the case study as it is registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This research uses ethnographic research methods as a qualitative research method for collecting data about the lighting scheme of Naghshe-Jahan Square. Based on the main aim of placemaking which is to Strengthen people’s connection with the public places they share in order to maximize shared value, this research uses two ethnographical techniques; behavior observation and semi structured interviews with the visitors of the historic site. Accordingly, people’s behaviors and interaction with the site and their opinions on how the lighting of the site makes them feel and facilitates their needs is collected. The findings of this study suggest that artificial lighting can positively influence turning historic sites to places at night-time and accordingly improve the quality of people’s lives in cities.

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