International Journal of

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Abstract Environmental Justice (EJ) concept consists of multifaceted movements, community struggles, and discourses in contemporary societies that seek to reduce environmental risks, increase environmental protections, and generally reduce environmental inequalities suffered by minority and poor communities a term that incorporates ‘environmental racism’ and ‘environmental classism,’ captures the idea that different racial and socioeconomic groups experience differential access to environmental quality. This article explores environmental justice as an urban phenomenon in urban planning and applies it in peri-urban environment of a metropolis. Tehran peri-urban environments which are the result of meeting the city- village- nature systems or "city-village junction" have gradually faced effects such as accelerated environmental decline, changes without land-use plan, and severe service deficiencies. These problems are instances of environmental injustice which make the planners to adjust the problems and use and apply the appropriate strategies and policies by looking for solutions and resorting to theories, techniques and methods related to environmental justice. In order to access to this goal, try to define environmental justice through justice and determining environmental justice indices to analysis environmental injustice in case study. Then, make an effort to introduce some criteria to select case study in two micro and micro levels. Qiyamdasht town as the peri-urban environment of Tehran metropolis is chosen and examined to show the existence of environmental injustice by questionnaire analysis and SPSS software. Finally, use AIDA technique to design a strategic plan and reduce environmental injustice in case study by introducing the better scenario to be used in policy- and decision-making areas.

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“The urban researches in Iran aren't applicable to the real challenges of Iran’s cities”. In order to examine the mentioned hypothesis, “existing problems of Iran’s cities” and “Iran’s urban researches” are compared by means of the urban news and research journals. The framework analyze method [a kind of qualitative research method] has been used to analyze the data in the form of axial-thematic codes. The findings showed researches conform to problems approximately 78 percent in themes but the importance and preference of both themes and axial codes in researches differ from existing problems, which indicates some researches don't concern problems.

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Thermal mass is the material's ability to store heat and release it after an amount of time and concrete is considered one of the best thermal mass material. Since concrete has been used widely in many building constructions, by considering the capability of concrete in terms of thermal mass, it is worthwhile to use this ability of concrete in order to build buildings more healthy and comfortable for an increase in the occupants’ performance. Ventilated Hollow Core Slab (VHCS) is one of the efficient ways to provide adequate thermal mass within buildings. The present study aimed to assess the thermal performance of VHCS; and its effect on the occupant's thermal comfort of a college building located in Luton, England, using a VHCS system as the exposed thermal mass. Various techniques have been used over two weeks and the recorded data were analyzed. Based on the findings from the review of existing literature in the field and the integrated approach outlined in this paper, results indicate that the application of VHCS as a thermal mass in university buildings decrease not only the daily temperature fluctuation but also the number of times with extreme heat or colds. Results also show the influence of the system on the level of habitants’ thermal comfort; though, this influence could be varied hinge on physical and psychological factors.
 

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Throughout cultural history, the architecture of shrines in Iran has been of most significant mythological values.  Due to the buried person's spiritual status, it has been sufficiently taken into account in the creation of sacred space and the manifestation of mystical beliefs. In the present era, due to lack of recognition in strategic research, historical semantics has largely been neglected in the field of religious architecture. The philosophical stand of this research is interpretivism; the approach is qualitative, and the method is logical reasoning. Three empirical, analytical and metaphysical theories have been applied in the research strategy. In the process of formulating theoretical foundations, semiotic and conceptual reasoning have been carried out. In the empirical analysis phase, field data were gathered and physical and conceptual modeling has been implemented. At the stage of the metaphysical theorem, the basis of the arguments is phenomenological. The results of the discussion show that the spatial hierarchy in the building, the diversity of Classical Elements and the hierarchical exposure of the people from the entrance to the tomb, is significant based on the mythological view. In analysis of the building, embodiment of the Classic Elements have been interpreted based on the sensory perceptions of the spaces, conscious travel from outside to inside the building, as well as understanding of the four mystical journeys which are: hierarchical ascending from soil to water, to air and to fire. Finally, it has been argued that mythical representation of birth and death is understandable in the transition among the sequences of spaces.

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The physical-geometric characteristics of buildings have a very important role in the regulation of microclimate conditions and the thermal situation of interior and exterior spaces of buildings. This research aims to investigate the amount of received direct radiation energy of vertical surfaces in buildings and determine the appropriate form, aspect ratio, and orientation of buildings in the cities of Ardabil, Tabriz, Sanandaj, and Hamedan in the Northwest of Iran with cold climate. For this purpose, six polygonal forms (with the same floor area and height) including square, rectangle, hexagon, octagon, hexadecagon (16-sided), and triacontadigon (32-sided) were selected to be examined. Afterward, the specified optimal form(rectangle) was surveyed with the aspect ratios of 1:1.2, 1:1.4, 1:1.6, 1:1.8, 1:2 and in the orientations of 180º, 165º, 150º, 135º, 120º, 105º SE and SW. Using the “Law of Cosines” computational method, the amount of received direct energy on vertical surfaces has been calculated and processed, for different months and during the cold and hot periods of the year. The results of the research show that the appropriate form of the buildings in the studied cities is a rectangle with an east-west orientation. The most suitable aspect ratio for the rectangular form with east-west orientation in the cities of Ardabil, Tabriz, Sanandaj, and Hamedan is 1:1.2. The appropriate orientation for the determined aspect ratio in the studied cities is 165° Southeast.