International Journal of

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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.

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Respect and reverence for water and trees are institutionalised in many ancient civilisations due to socio-cultural traditions, values and beliefs. In Iranian societies, respect for trees and water, separately and in composite form as gardens, is a well-known cultural value both before and after Islam. Therefore, the first part of this paper explains the value and importance of plants and gardens according to the religious and socio-cultural beliefs of the Iranian people in various historical periods. The paper continues by focussing on the history of the Persian garden city during the Timurid and Safavid dynasties. The straight streets, long-lasting gardens and the water supply of the three capitals of Samarqand, Herat and Isfahan are explained individually according to their historical references. Furthermore, it explained the special idea that has had direct relation with religious believes. In Safavid period designers often used the gardens as parables of Heaven. This idea influenced on urban design and was important in selection of green spaces as composing elements in urban fabrics. Finally, the paper classifies the features of Charbagh Street as an axis of the city of Isfahan, and compares these features with the features of the axes in the cities of Samarqand and Herat. The results of the study compare the design innovations, features and origins of the Charbagh axis of Isfahan, the Safavid garden city, with earlier garden cities of the Timurid period.

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Lighting plays a key role in night escapes of urban spaces, in a way that it can be effective in giving identity to them. By considering this importance and inexistence of a process for composing urban Lighting strategy made this study to be conducted by the objective of providing process for compilation of context-oriented lighting strategy in urban spaces. Reaching a suitable solution for Lighting in urban spaces, a process is needed which can encompass all different aspects in the context of lighting. In this way, a process is proposed via that this shortage can be compensated. This process, at first considers basic urban studies including historical, cultural, religious, social, ceremonial and land-use and then the design scenario is propounded and in order to investigate the urban spaces context via space syntax method, the integration parameter is used. Later on, guiding is propounded which can be analyzed by Intelligibility parameter from space syntax method. And also designing alternatives can be analyzed by space syntax method. By studying the organizer structure and its prioritizing, we could achieve the lighting originated from the context. The last part of process is based on observance of the topics related to light pollutions which has a very critical role in lighting. In this study the analytic-descriptive research method with modeling and simulation are applied to achieve a context-oriented lighting process in urban spaces. The results of this study are showing that the provided process can be applied practically for lighting by considering the urban context. So this study has practical aspects and it can create a suitable strategy for lighting urban design and planning.

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Following development and qualitative and quantitative changes in communities, that have made substantial changes in historic environments, the authenticity concept has attracted attention in order to strike a balance between conservation and development approaches. The concept of authenticity as the transmitter of values and significance of cultural heritage, is regarded as a key criterion in the process of conservation and thus, the need for clarification of its factors has been emphasized in the international documents. This paper aims to refine the prioritization of authenticity factors in the plans and measures of the revitalization project of Atique Square in Isfahan, Iran. To achieve this, firstly the conventions and the international documents related to authenticity are reviewed using qualitative research methods and content analysis strategy consequently the effective factors in measuring authenticity have been selected in three main categories : ‘historical-evidential values’, ‘artistic values and creativity’, and ‘socio-cultural values’. After that, prioritizing these factors in the Atique Square revitalization, is analyzed by quantitative research method and correlation strategy. The findings indicate that the ‘historic- evidential values’, ‘socio-cultural values’ of the context and ‘artistic values and creativity’, in descending order, have the highest to the lowest contribution in explaining the concept of authenticity in the measures taken for the project of the Atique Square revitalization.

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Over the last few decades, some newly developed areas in the city of Isfahan have had serious problems in providing such urban design qualities as legibility, and this has led to various problems for the citizens like difficulty in way-finding, orientation or addressing. In order to solve this problem and enrich the legibility of newly developed areas, planners and designers should utilize appropriate principles extracted from the inhabitants' cognition and expectations. This paper attempts to understand how people form their cognitive maps in urban areas and find their way within urban places. Hence, it tries to identify and evaluate different kinds of urban elements (the most important elements which provides legibility) by using casual-comparative methods on the basis of such factors as the reason of being distinctive, the type, context, function, adjacency, heritage value and type of the adjacent route that residents of Isfahan have used in shaping their cognitive maps. The findings of this research showed that the most important characteristics which affect the distinctiveness of urban landmarks in the citizens cognitive maps include: having distinctive form in their surrounding environment; being located along the urban main streets or near the junctions; being established in a central area or having heritage value; having such urban functions or land uses as tourism, commercial, leisure, religious or transportation.

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Sound as a non-visual component of landscape, has a significant impact on individuals perception of space. Because unlike the landscape that seeing and looking is totally an optional action, soundscape regardless of people comes to be heard and understood. Lack of attention to quality of emitted sounds in the environment may leads to problems such as noise pollution, lack of concentration, noise annoyance, disturbance and lack of privacy in people conversation in the urban spaces. A qualitative- quantitative assessment of soundscape is essential. In this regard, Naghsh-e-Jahan square in Isfahan, Iran as an urban space needs to be studied. The aim of this study was to evaluate the physical indicators of soundscape in Naghsh-e-Jahan square and to discover people perception of sounds. For this, questionnaire (n=385) was used. Indicators of L_Aeq and L_denwere evaluated via St-8851 sound level meter. Field sound metering (429 points with 10 meters intervals near to the walls in depth of 2 and around the fountains and 20 meters intervals in the interior space) has done. In order to complete coverage of noise events and acoustic condition three temporal frameworks; day time (07-19), evening (19-22), night (22-07) were selected. All the field studies were in winter of 2016. Collected data entered into the GIS map and noise maps produced. Results of questionnaires showed that the most unpleasant sounds were motorcycle and cars and gharries and most pleasant sounds were water sound. Results showed that in some points such as around the central fountain, entrance of Qeysariyeh Bazar, loop between Sepah and Hafez St. and pass of carriages, and the mean overall L_den is higher than standard levels of noise in urban spaces 55 dB (A) and need to be controlled and reduces up to stand. 

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This study aimed at evaluating the conformity of Isfahan urban development plans with the comprehensive model of human Islamic needs. This study, in terms of objective, is practical and, in terms of methodology, it is a descriptive-analytical research. The most important data collecting tool used in this study is the bibliographic method. The results showed that the processes of preparing, testing and approving the urban development plans in Isfahan are largely incompatible with the comprehensive model from all three dimensions of the content, structure, and process. Regarding the content, they are based on the Western one-dimensional anthropology, which needs to be revised and supplemented. In terms of the structure, they neglect the levels of priority and the relevance between human needs. Therefore, there should always be a preference of allocation of land and per capita in accordance with changing nature of the city, and the needs and content principles of the Islamic-Iranian city should be prioritized based on the requirements in appropriate and inappropriate times. In terms of process, they are implemented in a linear mode and in three stages of identification, analysis, and presenting proposals, which causes lack of dynamism, irreversibility and the stiffness and ultimately the failure to fully realize them or disregard them and make decisions for gaining interests regardless them. Making corrections in these three parts of urban planning, its compatibility with the foundations of Islamic vision can be attainable