International Journal of

---

Accessibility is one of the important factors in public open space design and the creation of equitable neighborhoods. Limitations caused by physical disabilities should not be a barrier for accessing desired spaces and people must be able to live with the greatest possible independence regardless of mobility limitations. The purpose of this paper was to identify the inclusive criteria of pedestrian design and explore the physical characteristics of equitable neighborhoods in Iranian cities. People who experience disabilities have equal rights to have access to the physical environment, communication devices and different services for education, recreation, social participation, accommodation, health and employment. This study was based on the analysis of the morphological characteristics of the Iranian traditional towns (Yazd and Nain), the socio-historical information, and the direct observation of the spaces, and interviews. The findings of the research showed that social equity and shaping an inclusive community are among the problems of developing countries. Based on the findings related to physical limitations of people with special needs and their attitude toward the varied problems they face, some key solutions have been proposed to guarantee better independent movement and achieve equity of access. People with disabilities should be equal to others in terms of their access to urban spaces, regardless of gender, ethnicity and type of disability. Safety and convenience are some ways for promoting public health especially its mental aspects. Finally it can be said that inclusive pedestrian networks will provide the people especially those suffering from physical disability and moving limitations with more accessible routes and help them participate in personal and social spheres of life more effectively.

---

Living in satisfying urban environments is important for an individual’s well-being. In order to create such environments, planners, designers, and policy makers need to understand the structures that cause residents to feel satisfied with their environments. This paper focuses on the perceived quality of urban residential environments: dwellings and neighborhoods. First, literature review was conducted to extract a list of relevant attributes of environmental quality (EQ), which in turn became the theoretical basis for the rest of this work. Next, the general research methodology, the multi-attribute evaluation of perceived quality of urban residential environments, was presented. Hierarchical multiple regression was used for data analysis. Using written questionnaire, residents in two neighborhoods of Tehran, Zafaranieh and Khaniabad were asked to evaluate their present residential situation on the various residential attributes. Due to the presence of north-south dichotomy in Tehran, researcher tried to compare perceptions of the residents of these two neighborhoods. Regressing the general satisfaction evaluations on the specific evaluations revealed a model fit which appeared to be relatively high (49%). It was concluded that next to physical attributes, psycho-social attributes and attributes of built environments are relevant attributes, and EQ may best be seen as a hierarchical multi-attribute concept. Subjective evaluations varied across two neighborhoods and results showed that older people were somewhat more satisfied with their residential environments than younger people.

---

Isfahan is a historic city that has experienced several urban developments throughout its shining and glorious past. They began in Al-buyid and Seljuq periods, and continued through the Safavid urban evolution in the sixteenth century. Zayande-Rood is an important and effective natural element in the city's landscape and plan. This article reflects the conclusion of a historic study on revitalization of Zayande- Rood's riverfront. The interaction of Zayande- Rood, its nature in Isfahan plain and the city in Safavid period is the main scope of this article. Therefore, the historic changes of the natural-historic environment of the river are studied. The documents used in this study are historic texts, foreign and vernacular tourists' travelogues, and historic maps and pictures from natural – historic environment of the Zayande- Rood River. The conclusion is cognition of: I) Interaction between Zayande- Rood river & Isfahan in Safavid Era, II) Theory of the Safavid development of Isfahan in relation to the river. They provide a theoretical base for planning, conservation and development plans of the city, especially for the Zayande- Rood's natural-historic environment.

---

Experts have found that natural environment could have positive impacts on patient’s treatment process. The impact of natural environment on mental state and lowering the stress level of the patients is undeniable. In this study, the impacts of natural environment on patient women in Tehran general hospitals were investigated. After conducting a topical study of the issue on hand, using field observation method, opinion of the patient women in a few of Tehran’s general hospitals was asked. Moreover, number of doctors and architects were asked to furnish the study with their opinion on this issue. After analysis of the answers, interesting conclusions on effect of open and green space on patient women were drawn. Based on these findings, designing open green spaces adjoined to the maternity ward could be in a way that encourages social behaviors, personal progress and convenient interaction with others and elevates mental and physical health of the patients.

---

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.

---

---

---

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.

---

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.

---

It is claimed that perception is the result of objective measurement and subjective reaction, when people immerse in an environment. This statement is the main theme of this paper. This study tries to set a framework in analyzing built environment that is to comply with human perceptive processes. The approach of this article presents a methodology to assess the perceptual environment . The paper initially reviews the literatures that deal with perception theory and perceptual procedures. As a case study, a part of historic Noghan Bazzar in Mashhad has been examined to understand how people's perception and behavior can be directly influenced by landscape features. To explore this relationship a research technique has been employed that employs perceptual assessment survey by experts. Some measures introduced in this paper are useful to understand how environmental qualities, as well as patterns and combinations of particular qualities, affect people’s perceptions of landscape. The outcomes would be the identification of a connection between the designed, physical aspects and the subjective sense of environment. The result of this study could be employed as a research technique to analyze the built environment in order to recommend design solutions, especially for valuable old heritage fabrics of cities that encompass common memorable spaces and convey common social values.

---

There is abundant literature regarding virtual reality as a technology of interest in the present age. However, there are few comprehensive studies on strategies that can improve the level of urban design research using this technique. To investigate the issue, this paper first reviews the concept of virtual reality. Next, the opinions of experts in the field of virtual reality technology are summed up and key elements needed to create a virtual reality experience and key operators that establish the actual interaction of users with virtual environments are discussed. The use of Virtual Reality Modeling (VRM) in the urban design process and is also elaborated on. Uses of this technique in urban projects and advantages and limitations of its use in the field are discussed. Finally, the paper attempts to provide practical solutions and strategies to improve the quality of semi experiments developed virtual environment. This can improve the results and findings of research conducted with the technique. Strategies discussed in this article have been mostly derived from practical experience and research in recent years by the author. They can help provide a more robust analysis and reduce the errors made in the virtual environment.

---

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.

---

Housing is the second need after food for human beings. Since the housing crisis began with the increase in population, respective governments were forced to construct houses for a large number of families. Ignoring the qualitative aspects of these houses has caused social and cultural harm. Therefore, designers need to pay more attention to the quality of housing and living environments. The main objective of this study is to find the most important factors that affect the quality of low- income housing. In order to achieve this goal, the first stage of the research was to undertake a systematic review of the literature and interview the residents. The housing environment factors were classified in four categories: environmental, functional, formal and semantic factors. In order to give priority to the factors, a questionnaire was distributed among 15 experts (according to the Delphi technique, two rounds of surveys were taken). In the first round, some factors were removed and a new category was added. In the second round, experts gave priority to the factors. Once the data was collected, the next stage was to analyze it. The statistical analysis was performed using SPSS software (version 18 SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). The results obtained - based on the weighting of each factor - showed that some factors, such as interior space function, volume, relationship with nature, safety and social security are the most effective factors of low-income housing quality.

---

The purposeofthispaper is to examinethe impacts ofphysical contextson theefficacy oflocalmosques. The main question of thisresearchis: “What istherelationship betweenphysical context (including:number and space share per head of mosque in neighborhood, functional radius of mosque, the location of local mosque, local adjacent land uses and finally legibility and identity of local mosque in neighborhoods) and efficacy of local mosques? The research hypothesisis based on the assumption that there is a meaningful relation between physical context of mosques and their expected socio- cultural efficacyinurban neighborhoods. The method of the research has been analytical descriptive.In order to examine the hypothesis, variables “physical components of the mosquesandtheirefficacy" have been assigned. Applying“the Theory of Environmental Quality”, theindexes of each variable have been determined and applied in questionnaire to be evaluated in case studies. The data of the study wereanalyzed through SPSS software and the hypothesis was confirmed with 95% confidence level. Theresearch resultsrevealedthatphysicalcontext ofmosques can have a positive influence on their function of efficacy which consists of socialsolidarity, sense of belongingand sense of religiousaffiliationsofpeople through the five above mentioned factors.

---

Due to the superiority of functional requirements of equipment and systems over human requirements in the field of architectural and environmental design of industrial buildings, users have to adapt themselves to the conditions which might be followed by imposed biological and psychological pressures. The present study examines the components and environmental parameters influenced by building features (thermal comfort, lighting quality, office layout, interior decoration, acoustic quality, air quality, cleanliness and maintenance) in typical control building of combined cycle power plants. Using a questionnaire based on Vischer’s model of environmental comfort regarding people’s environmental perception, the level of users’ satisfaction with the environmental factors and their self-estimated performance in relation to these factors at the two levels of physical and functional comforts has been determined. The statistical analysis of the results shows that the lack of consideration of the environmental comfort parameters of workspace in the process of architectural design of industrial buildings influences users’ satisfaction with these factors which is directly related to their self-estimated performance in workplace and consequently their job satisfaction by decreasing them. Taking into account the fact that the amount of impact of various environmental factors on the individuals’ function was evaluated differently, prioritizing the physical factors in the work place for corrective purposes was finally done using affectability of performance in the degree of satisfaction with any factor.

---

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.

---

Even though the positive influences of nature on human health have been known for many decades, few studies have been carried out exclusively about the psychological benefits of exposure to water and sky as natural blue elements in built environments. Hence, close-ended questionnaire along with structured interviews (with open-ended questions) are applied to investigate the main question of this study: what are the effects of blue elements’ exposure on psychological restoration of university students? 81 students of architecture, urban design, and painting with graduate and post graduate degrees are considered as the participants and the main central courtyards of two traditional dwellings, which currently are used as educational environments, are selected as the case studies in the hot-arid climate of Yazd, Iran. The results of the close-ended questionnaire show that among natural elements, water has the most significant influence on fascination and being away (two components contributing to restoration). Besides, although in comparison to water, the sky has less effective influence on fascination and being away in the studied environments, it is as important as green elements in fostering fascination and being away. Through content analysis of structured interviews, it is revealed that not only is water the most preferred and important natural element of both courtyards but also students’ pleasantness, refreshment, and relaxation from stress are mainly due to water exposure. In conclusion, the study tries to highlight that in addition to green elements, it is essential to consider blue elements. Besides, some design strategies based on their exposure in educational environments have been recommended in order to foster the psychological restoration of university students.

---

School environments are connected to children perceptions and emotions. The goal of this research is to explore children subjective perceptions of their school environment using “Q-sort methodology” as a unique method for environmental studies. This paper makes two main contributions. First, the research provides a study design to identify children’s perceptions of school environment that propose new information about what children prefer and can be used in the design of school spaces by designers. Second, it evaluates Q-sort methodology for gathering data directly from children concerning about their perceptions and preferences to clarify their perspectives of  the environment based on these objectives. The questions that this paper addresses are: 1- What environmental components in schools do children percieve positively and prefer? And, 2- How can research with children about their place perceptions using Q-sort? According to the purpose of the study, the respondents included 30 children (boys) from the first and second grade of two private primary schools in Kerman. The research, based on q-sort methodology, used interview as a tool for collecting data and discourse analysis for analyzing the data, and exploring the children’s perspectives. The study revealed that children interpreted spaces psychologically and had positive perceptions of and preferences for informal, personal, hiding, cozy, home-like and playground spaces and so on, likely due to affording their psychosocial needs.  The result shows that future school designs should explore strategies that use connections of physical and psychosocial characteristics of child's environments to foster positive experience and perceptions.

---

Learning environments have the ability to enhance the quality of education and produce optimal behaviors. The management of educational environments raises the quality of education both physically and psychologically .This research attempts to modify higher educational environments by enhancing creativity, accountability, motivation, self-actualization, and interaction. This study is quantitative and qualitative research done through a descriptive-survey method. Included in the study used for research were published books and articles that resulted in the development of a theoretical framework and the collection of two groups: environmental and human factors. Then, field resources were used. Students of University of Guilan were randomly selected as the statistical population and the sample was modified based on Morgan's Table. Afterwards, environmental and human variables were prioritized by the Delphi method as a result of interviewing several architecture and psychology experts. A closed-ended questionnaire was made, its validity and reliability were examined (Cronbach's alpha), distributed among the target community, entered into SPSS, analyzed by Chi-square and Friedman tests, and lastly the data was extracted. Based on the findings of survey, the impact of environmental and human factors on each other were identified and ten priorities were concluded to be the most effective on the relationship. Finally, with a semi-structured and an open-response interview with several architecture professors, design suggestions were proposed.

---

Several researches of developmental psychology have emphasized the importance of childhood as one of the most effective periods of life. Play as a tool of acquiring experiences has a wonderful effect on child development. Through the play, children can communicate with the world around them. The child psychologists and environmental psychologists, by focusing on the interaction of humans and the environment, believe that play provides the opportunity for experience and direct interaction with environmental factors for a child. In this review, by using descriptive and analytical methods, descriptions about the concepts and theories of play, motivation and environmental affordances have been surveyed. The proposed approach was based on Gibson’s "Theory of Affordances" (1979) describing an awareness of the environments and their functional significance or meaning. The main question was about the process of kids’ interaction with the environment through the environmental affordances to motivate kids to play. Kids tend to the physical environment to satisfy the play need as an intrinsic motivation. By studying the childchr('39')s interactions in the play environments, the ability of the environment which can be entitled the environmental affordances to motivate kids to play (EAMKP) was achieved. More precisely, the quality of the elements and physical components of environment as extrinsic motivation factor encourages kids to play, so kids are encouraged to play. Individual features, physical and socio-cultural environments were considered as the effective factors on kids’ motivation to play.