Journal of Researches in Islamic Architecture

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Performing diverse activities in urban spaces were assumed a part of the past culture. Moreover, now urban spaces do not have a specific definition in terms of quality. It seems that today’s materialist world is more seeking to increase return in investment and economic quantities and this quantity-oriented state have kept it behind the qualitative issues. For this, faded presence of people in spaces, makes performing this research essential. The effort of this study is to evaluate and have an adjustment comparison between components making urban spaces from the view of western theoreticians and Iranian-Islamic scientists. It seems that remarkable presence of social relations is among the most effective components in increase of urban space’s quality. The data of this study were evaluated in two qualitative and quantitative sections. In qualitative section by help of content analysis method the viewpoints were compared. The quantitative section was conducted by use of analytical description method and a questionnaire was prepared and it was studied in three neighborhoods of Tehran. The data extracted from this questionnaire was inferentially analyzed via SPSS software and they were analyzed beside the other findings gained from literature of the subject. The three neighborhoods of Hafthoz Square, 2nd Sqaure of Niroohavaee and 15 Khordad Street were selected in terms of morphology. The findings of this research indicate that highlighted presence of activities for communication and recreation is highly effective in improving the urban space’s quality. The need for comfort, removal of the need for food and eating is among other components which were effective in the view of people that all of these components in Quran are mentioned as specifications of the space around human being. As a result, the main components of urban space’s quality questioned in this study were convergent to the components introduced by Islamic resources which are neglected in contemporary urban planning despite the emphasis of western resources and scientists.

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Human’s perception and cognition of city form based on his mutual interaction with the environment. The knowledge of urban design, which is aimed at creating a good environment for humans, tries to identify ways of deepening the relationship. It has mostly utilized the achievements of environmental psychology, but the notion of perception, as an epistemological issue, has its conceptual roots in other cognitive domains such as philosophy. Philosophy can be considered the origin of conceptualization of perception while this notion has suffered from the inattention of urban designers. The present research aimed to make maximum use of the viewpoints of Iranian philosophers on the notion of perception to identify productive achievements of philosophical opinions in this regard, including those that are applicable to urbanknowledge. It tried to attain this goal by drawing comparative analysis between philosophical achievements and those of environmental psychology. In this study, the notion of perception was explored and investigated based on content (including issues based on the content of perception) and procedure (including issues based on its procedural structure and its design in urban design) in the following two cognitive fields: philosophy and environmental psychology. The effectiveness of the use of philosophers referred to in each section was assessed as well. The present manuscript adopts an interpretive (non-positivistic) approach and uses the logical reasoning method to perform a comparative assessment of the viewpoints of two areas of knowledge. Research findings were tested using the Delphi method (theoretical saturation) and the principle of research. This study aimed to answer the following questions: How are the thoughts of Iranian philosophers effective for perception as compared to environmental psychology? How can the opinions of Iranian philosophers be used for explaining the nature of structure of the perception process and its application to urban design? Among Iranian philosophers of Islamic eras, the theories of the following famous philosophers have had the most contribution to the growth of philosophical movements in Iran: Avicenna, Sohrevardi and Mullasadra. Research findings revealed that application of the thoughts of Iranian philosophers is useful for clarification of the nature of perception and its contents as well as refinement of the structure of perception and its phases. The process of perception has the following levels with respect to philosophy: sensory perception, imaginary perception, illusive perception and rational perception. Each of these phases is differentiated from other levels using a constructive factor. Each phase also has a specific function and product. The most important issues derived from the opinions of philosophers are presented in the following table. The research adopted an interpretive approach (instead of a positivist approach) to the analysis of contents of texts. It also studied the viewpoints of the aforementioned two cognitive Results of comparison and integration of the two theoretical areas showed that environmental perception is a “subjective and objective process [12]”, which results from the interactive (mutual) relationship between the human and environment. This process has a dynamic and progressive nature. It depends on human’s constant growth and his mental construct. During the perception process, the mental image resulting from the influence of the environment is re-created to demonstrate the true essence of the environment. The perception process is composed of distinctive steps and various functions which are classified in the following three groups: reception and selection (emotional perception) organization and preservation (imaginary perception) and interpretation and signification (rational perception). In addition, numerous factors (human and environmental) influence the process and mechanism of perception in the form of stable dynamic factors.

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Despite rapid quantitative growth in recent years, little attention has been paid to the quality of learning environments in contemporary universities. With the rapid increase in the capacity of universities and establishing new academic units and courses, growth in physical spaces in universities and higher educational institutions has accelerated considerably in recent years. Quantitatively oriented perspective to the issue of education has led the learning to be limited to the classrooms learning environment merely and therefore growth and improvement in universities only be done in a course of study for students. Lack of attention to the psychological needs of human beings and one-sided approach to the issues of education (apart from nurturing) are weaknesses of the current educational program which have affected the contemporary collegiate architecture as well. Developing and shaping of contemporary environment of universities have been suddenly and quickly, that caused poor quality of the current spaces. These factors include: 1. Inappropriate sites outside the cities or vicinities to provide the basic needs which impose additional costs 2. Formation of more than 40 percent of universities without Primary comprehensive plan 3. Purely quantitative perspective to the development of educational spaces 4. Shortage of welfare as a result of unforeseen developments 5. The high level of occupation and appliance at universities the major cities 6. Lack of attention to campuses in many universities Based on the principles of environmental psychology, structure, shape, form, color and specification of the environment effect on behavior, learning, social interaction and communication. Accordingly, respecting the proposed theories about human psychological needs of physical needs to needs of growth and self-actualization, by studying the physical spaces of the traditional Islamic schools of architecture as fulfilling the psychological needs in all aspects, could be reach the principles and models of the design physical spaces in contemporary university education. This article is to scrutinize the physical characteristics of Iranian Islamic architecture and specifically the traditional schools architecture such as Chahar Bagh and Agha Bozorg, which their architectural formation were based on Islamic perspective, to detect principles and components that is confirmed by Islamic monotheistic viewpoints and the theories of environmental psychology as well. This paper benefited from logical conclusion by interpreting and analyzing the structure of individual spaces, their spatial hierarchy and ultimately analyzing the whole of architecture of these schools, to detect the ideas and strategies employed to meet the psychological needs of human, to be able to extract contemporary design strategies for the spaces of university campuses such as training classes, public places, privacy and relationship with nature. All these principles could be exploited to contribute towards improving the overall sense of place and achieve more concurrence in the education, training and nurturing of students. In traditional educational system unlike the current system, there was no separate between in education and other aspects of student life and what the student had been learning was following the same lifestyle. Framework of traditional schools had been providing space for this attitude. All of these schools, such as Chahar Bagh of Esfahan, Ghiyathiyeh Khar Gerd Khaf, Motahari School (Sepahsalar) and etc., had been included of rooms for all students. Student’s living spaces were located at all four sides of the courtyard. Identifying and analyzing the spaces composition, as well as tiny spaces of Islamic traditional schools could find the principles of wisdom. The results indicate that: 1. Composition and harmony between the life spaces, worship and education spaces had been for development and improvement in all aspects of life. 2. Being together living, educational and converge spaces, had been providing the need to housing and shelter and had been creating a peaceful and secure environment. This could not be seen in the current universities. 3. Existence of hierarchy of spatial 1) central courtyard 2) semiprivate porch and 3) private rooms, have created feature interactions at different levels and degrees. The central courtyard has been the common factor of linking. The common factor and spatial hierarchy in the current residents of universities are not seen as a particular form. 4. Form and layout of classroom rings while creating a strong relationship between teacher and students have been created the participation. While in existing classrooms is one-sided relationship. 5. Coordinating components of traditional schools have created sense of balance, continuities, purpose, legible and transparency. While in the majority of contemporary spaces of universities, distribution of forms and colors and etc. has created Illegible or even a stressful environment. 6. Inverted form of traditional schools operates in order to increase concentration of mind and separation of interests outside of school. 7. The strong geometric plan of central courtyard and green spaces, have been acting as the driver's mind to thinking. While in the contemporary college campus, green space, is filling the empty areas. 8. By giving rooms to students in the educational environment created a sense of competence, self-esteem, consequently the environment and responsibility for their learning environment. 9. Semiprivate porch space in traditional schools have played role of debate and free discussion space, which have caused the development and promotion of students ultimately. It is while in the current hostels there are no such spaces.

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After the industrial revolution, men intended-more than ever-to use energy, specifically the fossil fuels. Moreover the quick growth of population have added considerably the speed of the critical status of environmental affairs. The side effect of industrialization result many problems such as the depletion of natural resources, the increase of polluting levels in surroundings, extinction of many species of animals and plants and the environmental crisis. Due to the above mentioned problems human approach toward nature has been changed. The approval of Stockholm Declaration in Environmental Conference of United Nations Organization is a turning point in formal human attitude during history towards natural resources and the utilization systems of ground. The mentioned declaration and 1974 Declaration of KOKOIK have confirmed the complexity and seriousness of social- environmental crises. Furthermore, they have emphasized upon the necessity of devising and demonstrating healthy environmental strategies in order to upgrade socio-economic and fair environmental developments. Also these affairs led to the "earth Commission" in 1992. During the mentioned commission, the 21 Declaration and Rio Declaration about environmental and development were approved. On the other hand religion have many instruction about protecting nature. In Abrahamic religions' view, the question about what has intrinsic value, is presented based on innate belief in God. That is, the intrinsic value in the universe belongs to God and value of other creatures is definable based on it. Therefore, all parts of the universe obtain value based on this relation and human being is responsible to provide proper care for them. It can be stated the criterion for an action in this view is consisted, which God is considered as human responsibilities (Abedi, Shahvali and Mohaghegh Damad 2007, 65). Islam as a universal and holistic religion claims is able to answer variable needs in every epoch and have deterministic laws for all relations and ranks of human. However, it does not mean that it is defined clear laws for every specific and contemporary subject. It contains very general laws, which specific laws can be deducted for each subject. One of the subjects is “environment”. By looking in Islamic texts and the Quran it can be understood that environment and caring about it is considered as important subject in Islam. Many of Quran's verses imply about it. In addition, many of Quran's chapters have name that is the name of natural phenomena and even many times swear an oath is on a natural phenomenon. Human begin is invited to think and contemplate about them. Editing environment's law is long history in Islam. A set of Muslim scholars' fatwas about environment preservation, ancient monuments, city interconnections, the quality of operation, architectural structures, using passageway, drainage bases, public places, installing windows, place of industrial buildings, cleaning the urban passageway, and behaving with animals are evidences of this claim (Pak 2008, 141). This paper presents a comparative study of Islamic approach with the contemporary approach in dealing with the environment. In this research, with comparing these two approaches, common aspects in contemporary conservationists’ statements based on Islamic visions, are revealed. The main question in this research is: why and how religious sources in various fields including environmental issues could be the solution? Do these instructions cover contemporary concerns in the field of environmental crises? After dealing with contemporary environmental crises, the need to change attitudes to the nature was realized by human. This is while the Islamic instructions have a lot of teachings in the case of conserving environment from 1,400 years ago. Therefore, the aim of this research is to expose the necessity of deeply studying the Islamic texts again and applying them in the related realm of natural environment such as architecture. A combinatorial research method is employed in this paper, which is based on the logical reasoning and quality approach. After studying the Islamic texts that is related to the natural environment and contemporary approach in this realm, the adaptive studying method of “Jorj F. Berdy” is employed for comparison of these two approaches. This method has four levels: description, interpretation, adjacency, and comparison. The items which is described and interpretation are environment, nature, balance of nature, development, avoiding damage of nature and components of nature. In addition, the defined criteria in this comparison are determined by documents studying and experts surveying of the “Delphi” approach. The final criteria is classified in three category: paradigm level, field level and component. After documents studying, adaptive studying, and analysis of these two methods in this research, the necessity of extracting the Islamic instructions and approaches for natural environment conserving is revealed. Besides this research shows that practice of Islamic instructions which are communicated to humans regardless of the particular time and place would have prevented the current environmental crisis and also shorten many ways that mankind had chosen according to his experience and avoid a lot of damages to the environment.The closer examination of these doctrines can open new horizons for the completion of these theories.

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Mankind is always interacting with an environment that contains various meanings and layers with each of which the environment behaves differently, and on the other hand, this behavior is effectively reflected back to the environment. In recent decades, experimental environmental psychology has sought to help solve the issues posed to human societies by pursuing two objectives of theoretical understanding of human interactions with the environment and applying this understanding in practice. In pursuit of these objectives, the area of knowledge has succeeded to build theories and achieve practical findings. Nevertheless, applying these achievements in an Islamic society faces theoretical and practical challenges in both "description" and "prescription", which in turn necessitates further investigations about "Islamic Environmental Psychology". The present study aims to present an applied paradigm of environmental psychology in interaction with Islamic thoughts, which can be used to organize "location-behaviors" of contemporary living in order to facilitate the realization of an Islamic lifestyle. In regards, the present study began with the three constituents of "location-behavior" that is, humans, the environment and the mechanisms needed for the human-environmental interaction, and posed three questions: what social, psychological and cultural characteristics of humans, from the Islamic perspective, affect the environment? What are layers of the environment that affect humans under certain circumstances? And finally, what mechanisms are required for a human-environment interaction in Islamic viewpoint? To answer these questions, two frameworks were proposed: The first relies on environmental psychology by accepting the assumption about different layers of the environment (from the objective to the subjective environment) and assesses the effect of sociocultural environment in a comparative study. The second framework relies on the Islamic doctrines and develops a reference framework consisting of both Islamic views and environmental psychology views. Following a survey of the two proposed frameworks, the second one was taken as the reference comprehensive framework in this article. To develop this comprehensive framework, the relation between religious epistemology and experimental science was first discussed. Unlike the modern perspective that sets the religion-science-art trinity against the emotion-intellect-sense one, in respective order, or at most assumes a unity between religion and art by mixing emotion with sense, the Islamic perspective holds that religion rules these three areas, and only one aspect of religion is strongly associated with emotions,which is "faith". In the second step, the Islamic version of environmental psychology debate was analyzed in three areas of the individual-entity system within the framework of the anthropology of religion, the collective-social system within the framework of religion’s attitude toward society, and the body-space system within the framework of religion’s attitude toward the body, not as separate distinctive areas, but as three spatial human-environment experiences. That is to say, the fundamental difference of environmental psychology from an Islamic viewpoint is so vast that it expands from the "bodily area" to the "spiritual aspect" in the individual-entity line, from the "corporeal world" to "incorporeal world (the invisible)" in the body-space line, and from "routine patterns of life" to the debate on the "united ummah as a timeless entity" in the collective-social line. In the final step, a three-layer system was devised to discuss the intended paradigm, which includes collective references to the current state of the society and Islamic texts. The first layer includes identifying "local phenomena" as clear points in Islamic jurisprudence and ethics, whose "position" in religious sources is identifiable in behaviors, rituals, sensory perceptions and spiritual perceptions. In fact, theidentified "local phenomena" have not yet really emerged in environmental psychology within an Islamic framework, and if this layer is the only one concerned, this phenomena can be more or less studied in experimental environmental psychology. For practical purposes, the phenomena can be classified in two areas –"general local behavioral-psychological phenomena", indicating phenomena with no direct relationships with the environment,and may only be affected by it, and "specific local behavioral-psychological phenomena", indicating phenomena with an established bodily-environmental aspect. The second layer, which is the first real step toward an "environmental psychology" within the framework of Islam, seeks to identify the (correlative or causal) "relationship mechanisms" between "general” and “specific” local phenomena in religion that have been identified in the previous layer. Finally, the third layer emerges from linking and creating connected loops of general and specific mechanisms of the second layer and through creating a sub-system, and may have certain concepts and components in common with experimental psychology. According to the results, two approaches are applicable in the development of an Islamic environmental psychology paradigm: a conscious approach and a meta-conscious one. The first approach is informed and based on the rules and regulations of jurisprudence and Islamic orders. In this approach, attempt is made to extract the basic concepts by reference to the original Islamic sources and to understand the Islamic position on man-made environment irrespective of the external determination of the past centuries. The second approach is meta-conscious and normative (relying on values and knowledge), is based on the recommended or prohibited behavioral patterns, provides a system for the regulation of behavior-body relationships, and takes priority over mentalities and even time and place values. Although an axiom of all religious doctrines, this approach has been less emphasized in theorizing, compared to symbolic concepts. Compared to the mainstream "behavioral sciences" as "subjective" perspective on the role of social behavior, this approach proposes a middle perspective in forming architecture and an "objective" perspective, based on the role of the subject and object and the third factor, culture, in relation to the role of architecture in society. The final outcome of the present study, that is the Islamic environmental psychology paradigm, aims at producing theoretical and practical knowledge and addresses four conditions: past conditions, i.e., the quality of life before modernism (the popular culture), present conditions, i.e., the current quality of life, desirable conditions, i.e., the quality of life deserved by humans from the viewpoint of Islam, and possible conditions, i.e., the quality of life that can be handled by humans, in order to create behavioral benchmarks in accordance with Islamic view point. The authors recommend that both conscious and meta-conscious approaches can be used, since the conscious approach is based on jurisprudence and orders and thus acts as a framing shell, prevents distortions to some extent, and is also the doorway to theoretical knowledge and implications. also, the second approach as the meta-conscious one, should ideally create environments that are affected by the recommended behavioral patterns of Islam.

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Discussions derived from epistemology and its sub-branches are of the most important theoretical grounds affecting theoretical basis of art schools in particular architecture styles. During recent decades, two approaches of epistemology have been reciprocally shaped to know how one can paraphrase the meaning of physical environment. In the first approach, the audience and his knowledge are main foundations in the process of perception and cognition of environmental meaning. However, there is audience meaning nobility in this approach and therefore, all meanings are considered convincing and neither can be granted as final meaning of environment. So it can be called "Audience-Oriented" approach. While the second approach, has a perceptible reality in the final meaning of environment that should be received during a firm process. Accordingly, it is not impossible to discover the intention of environment architect by reviewing his work and (only the meaning which accords with this intention is considered convincing) the only meaning that accords with this intention is considered convincing. So, this approach can be called "Author-Oriented". In addition to comparative analogy between two above-said (these two) approaches, this study clarifies a third one that makes its cognitive base on Islamic (thoughts) teachings. According to this new approach, the main foundation of the process of environmental meaning paraphrase is the physical environment (or text) and so it can be called "Text-Oriented". In order to explain and collate the triple approaches, the present study (this research) uses archival research while enjoying, simultaneously, the logical argumentation research to arrange data resulted from archival studies.

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Environmental crises are one of the major challenges that human community is facing. Different schools have expressed different solutions to solve these crises, for example: Conservationism, Preservationism, Social Ecology, Animal Rights, Land Ethic, Ecofeminism, Stwardship, Sustainable Development etc. Sustainable development is a recent solution of human society proposed in response to inappropriate human exploitation of the environment. Sustainable development has been defined in many ways, but the most frequently quoted definition is from Our Common Future, also known as the Brundtland Report: «Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains within it two key concepts: the concept of needs, in particular the essential needs of the world›s poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment›s ability to meet present and future needs.»

All definitions of sustainable development require that we see the world as a system—a system that connects space; and a system that connects time. In the extensive discussion and use of the concept since then, there has generally been a recognition of three aspects of sustainable development: Economic: An economically sustainable system must be able to produce goods and services on a continuing basis, to maintain manageable levels of government and external debt, and to avoid extreme sectoral imbalances which damage agricultural or industrial production. Environmental: An environmentally sustainable system must maintain a stable resource base, avoiding over-exploitation of renewable resource systems or environmental sink functions, and depleting non-renewable resources only to the extent that investment is made in adequate substitutes. This includes maintenance of biodiversity, atmospheric stability, and other ecosystem functions not ordinarily classed as economic resources. Social: A socially sustainable system must achieve distributional equity, adequate provision of social services including health and education, gender equity, and political accountability and participation.

However, there are still environmental crises and pollutions in the world, and failure to fulfill its goals would be owing to the roots and fundamental view of this approach to the human and environment as well as the relationship between human and the environment. Therefore «Human» should be studied in Western Philosophy.

Islam Religion has also recommended specific procedures for the use of nature and human relationships with it. The Holy Quran, The Sunnah, wisdom and Consensus are four fundamental sources of rules and laws. They contain provisions on how to best handle the environment and ensure sustainable development. God Almighty made all other creatures and blessings in the universe (e.g., water, air, animals, plants, inanimate creatures, the earth, sun, moon) accessible to human beings. That means that human beings are entitled to utilize and search for these resources to build their own lives and the universe, in accordance with God’s instructions.

Methodology

This article compares these two thoughts (Sustainable Development of Islamic religion) through a descriptive-analytical method. The methodology of this research is descriptive-analytical. The present article first investigates the relationship between human and the environment during classic era (Ancient) and Middle Ages and also its evolution to the Modern Ages and then, implies to the Sustainable development and its characteristics. Next, human and the environment are defined in Islamic philosophy and texts, and the relationship between them will be also explained. Finally, the relationship between human and the environment will be compared under these two thoughts.

Results

It has been shown in the present research that changing in the concept of human and the replacement of human with God in the Universe is one of the causes of environmental crises. The solution to overcome this problem is changing the people’s attitude to the concept and position of modern human. Sustainable development accepts the so called definition of Human during Renaissance, and then focuses on the sketchy concepts regardless of the causes of these crises. Sustainable development wants to fight against the pollution and environmental degradation through those ruling patterns causes such environment for human, and wants to get the help of the same methods and procedures of destructive development.

Thus, From the perspective of Islam, nature is a living existent, intelligent with reason; although it has been created for human, but human is not allowed to use it all that wish, because it is trusted to human and human, as the “Steward of God” must be trustee to the other creations of God and do all its assignments. While the focus of sustainable development is regarding the fact that nature is a place for the growth and development of human and it must be also used by the next generations. Meaning that, nature is not respectable by itself, but also it is important due to its function. This is why it is not clear how to use it and human community has different interpretations of exploitation of the nature, since there are different views on the human prosperity and development. The results show that there is a need to the revolution and changing conceptions of human and also re-illustrate nature and human relationships to resolve these crises. The place of nature and human within the universe must also be revised.

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Qualitative aspects of housing always considered as the most critical planning tools and have gained great interest in recent housing research. Housing areas in order to provide social development, involved the environment around in addition to residential units. This paper tries to assess the quality of traditional houses, describe and analyze them to achieve the criteria to devise guidelines in the next step which are effective for increasing the quality of contemporary housing. Iranian traditional houses have a kind of internal spaces structure on the basis of religious and traditional ideas of Iranian families.These houses have manifested native-traditional models of the past history of Iran which have originated from individual and collective cultures of the people, who have been formed, have grown, have been manifested and have reached perfection. Study of Iranian contemporary architecture indicates that it has been changed with regard to its rich and meaningful history during the time. Roots of the principles governing the traditional houses can be found in Iranian thoughts and culture. Any building which is constructed aims at fulfillment of some living needs. Traditional houses are not only a shelter. Residence indicates meaningful link with the place which can include all of the different levels of private and general life environment. This link is an effort to find identity and to have attachment feeling toward a place while our modern houses couldn’t have fulfilled the most primary needs of residence i.e. tranquility and physical relaxation and generally inspired quality expectations. In this regard, to reach the aim through qualitative approach and case study strategy, this value of the Iranian traditional housing was investigated.
This study was carried out by qualitative method and in order to final assess of the data, AHP method was used. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is a structural technique to organizing and analyzing complex decisions, based on mathematics and psychology. Rather than prescribing a «correct» decision, the AHP helps decision makers find one that best suits their goal and their understanding of the problem. It provides a comprehensive and rational framework for structuring a decision problem, for representing and quantifying its elements, for relating those elements to overall goals, and for evaluating alternative solutions. Therefore the method of collecting data was based on lists for interview techniques, observation, investigate the features of place and space, measuring attitudes and by searching the literature and documents and maps about the subject. So at first multiple systems of residential environment quality assessment were studied and then a model to assess the quality of housing for this paper was developed. In the second step through the main factors of the model, 5 criteria have been determined to assess the quality of housing.In the next stage parameters derived from the lists in relation to each criterion were analyzed compared to the data of other criteria and the overall impact of research factors in reciprocating reviews and alternatives obtained in relation to the main criteria have been introduced in traditional houses. Then by analyzing and interpreting of these alternatives and considering the effects of lifestyle, human needs and conditions of contemporary society strategies to improve the quality aspects of contemporary housing have been proposed. The term lifestyle can denote the interests, opinions and behavioral orientations of an individual, group, or culture. The term refers to a combination of determining intangible or tangible factors. Tangible factors relate specifically to demographic variables, i.e. an individual›s demographic profile, whereas intangible factors concern the psychological aspects of an individual such as personal values, preferences, and outlooks. Therefore, a lifestyle is a means of forming a sense of self and to create cultural symbols that resonate with personal identity. Not all aspects of a lifestyle are voluntary. Surrounding social and technical systems can constrain the lifestyle choices available to the individual and the symbols she/he is able to project to others and the self.According to the results of the research there is a significant relation between the quality of traditional houses, human, the architecture and the past lifestyle that emanates from traditions and original values. The evaluation showed that in order of importance the criteria of human needs, environmental, physical, functional and structural qualities have contributed in this meaningful relation and among them the first three criteria are more effective. Although in general comparison the coordinated presence of all proposed criteria resulted in lasting quality. Recognizing the traditional strategies and perception the Persian culture and life style can help modern architects to design suitable contemporary house design. People really need a house that response all its duties, not only merely be a shelter.Hence the main orientations for the development of housing in the qualitative aspects should be provided with development of long-term, medium-term and short-term goals. Providing desirable housing according to the physical and spiritual needs of Iranian families is one of long-term goals that must be met in the future.

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Human beings, as a social creature, need others to get their peace of mind and safety. Such needs encourage or force the idea of cooperation and partnership with others, while the formation of interpersonal relations in a society affects people to use a common environment. Today, urban planners and designers, in the form of professional specialists, are trying to engage their users through collaborative design approaches to identify the underlying aspects of the problem, highlighting those aspects, and proposing practical solutions to get public views. Nowadays, it could be said that the designers choose the middle path of independence and its opposite point being conservatism in design; in other words, they knock themselves out of their power position. A good number of studies have demonstrated that the use of user requirements increases the chance of success in the environment as people in the community know more about the needs and requirements of their environment than specialists. Hence, in recent years, popular participation has received considerable attention from theoretical and practical aspects. The present article was aimed at exploring the concept of participation and determining the criteria for attracting participation in the environment by reference to Western and authentic Islamic sources in order to achieve the principles and desirable criteria for participation in the environment while taking into account the shared values, beliefs, and common needs of the ideal society. In this regard, some questions were raised including the differences and the implications of the concept of participation in the environment from the two perspectives of Islamic and Western thoughts. Considering the fundamental-theoretical nature and the qualitative research approach, a collection of data was compiled through an interpretive-analytical method based on documentary studies to answer the question and collecting data and reviewing the literature of the subject. In the first step, the process of participation in Western literature was defined and applied. Then, the application of participation in various areas of environmental design and indicators influencing the participation of individuals in the environment were examined. In the second step, we tried to inspect the concept of participation in the environment from the perspective of Islamic thought. First, issues related to Islamic ethics, ethical principles that are social (not individual), and especially those related to participation in the environment were scrutinized. The available sources of Islamic sciences, especially the Holy Qur'an, hadiths, narrations, and sayings of Islamic scholars were used in this regard. The principles, criteria, and the results were then obtained by studying the verses and hadiths along with the study of the characteristics and manifestations of participation in the environment with a multi-faceted view. In the third step, these principles were determined in a comparative manner to identify commonalities and distinctions by combining the two previously examined categories. The findings indicated that in Western thought, the level of participation in the viewpoint of theorists involves a spectrum of non-participation to spontaneous participation. Besides, many views are formulated in a general way solely with regard to the background of individual mentality and the consideration of the ideals of intellectual and architectural institutions without considering the culture and social beliefs of various societies. Originality aims at the individual dimension and the consent of the parties while individual preferences are prioritized. In Islamic thought, one of the ethical principles of Islam in society for realizing a united nation is participation which has been emphasized abundantly. The principle of participation also has secondary ethics each of which has complementary components in itself that leads to the mixing of the spectra and levels. It could be said that all categorizations and principles were a subset of spontaneous participation and one can achieve the desired participation in the environment by observing them. The results of the adaptation of concepts and manifestations in both Islamic and Western thoughts provided different criteria for participation in the environment. The comparison of the principles pointed out that Western theories differ from the Islamic method in terms of participation of the environment in a fundamental element that is the importance of sensing and reasoning as the sole source of knowledge along with neglecting divine resources as unitary and complete resources. Contrary to the western-oriented view that focuses on individual dimension and satisfaction, the Islamic perspective emphasizes components such as cooperation, endowment spirit, jihad, and charity as high levels of participation. Numerous references to the symbolic crystallization of Islamic values in the physical form of the recommended architecture testify to the claim that the Islamic viewpoints lay down the basis of all works in the reverence of God and in the spiritual dimension of man. This clearly shows that religious and cultural values are preferable to all minor or short-term needs and ideals and norms derived from Islamic values are beyond individual and group needs and preferences.

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Considering request, need and welfare of children has a long record in West and gets back to 19^th century. The idea of child friendly city was adopted in 1996 to make cities liveable for all and its goal was to put the children on top. This is how countries distant themselves from mere concept and utilize CFC principles today. On the other hand, paying attention to child proper spaces has no long record in Iran. Most children`s spaces are external copies of other countries experiences with no regarding to social and cultural context.The research is decided to compare the way in which a child intercommunicates with city environment from two Islamic(Philosophy, Religion and Gnosticism) and Western perspectives, by deduction in qualitative research, studying Islamic and Western theories toward children and compiling effective environmental factors in child and environment interactions. Comparative study includes similarities and differences in two scales: major (child environments) and minor (environmental factors) both in Western and Islamic documents. In major scale, Islamic instructions focus on the environment as a channel to transfer concepts and religious ethics. In minor scale Islamic instructions emphasize on 4 subjects that can`t be seen in western`s: teaching rituals via playing, limiting girls playing outside, limiting girls playing with boys and preventing children from entering infidelital environments. While CFC of west is summarized in participation, equal right with other citizens, mental and physical health; a proper environment for children in Islamic documents, besides proving children`s rights, relief and health as necessities of child growth, emphasizes on values and norms in functional environment. In addition, it advises that a child ought to grow in a place which her temperament does not get hurt to come to relative perfection. Here, an Islamic-Iranian model named “child preceptor city” takes form. 
The research in theoretical part, using the analytical-descriptive method, has presented a theoretical framework. In the first stage (study of relevant texts and identification of the defining components of research), a comparative method has been used. The methods of collecting information and the subject history in this research, in addition to documentary and library studies, will also include field studies that are used to compile the subject literature review and to find the thematic framework. At this stage, by expressing the perceptual concept, the architectural porosity elements as well as the study of its theories, criteria, rules and components are explained. In the second stage, using the criteria and components obtained in the previous one, the classification of porosity elements, the selection of criteria and the facades' porosity effective variables, as well as structured questionnaires to find the relationship between these variables and their impact on each other and the amount of facades' porosity a quantitative method for obtaining it will be presented. In the third stage and in the case study section, the theoretical framework and the porosity assessment method are carried out in relation to the 30 facades of historical houses of Tabriz city and the research data are analyzed based on descriptive statistics.
Based on the findings of the research, the facades have a special feature called porosity number that is unique to it. The structure of the forming elements and the porosity changes of the facades also follow a particular pattern. The research also shows that the main trait of porosity is openness which the space is inside it. Air circulation, light and the connection of internal and external spaces are the major physical achievements of porosity and its spiritual achievement is the space and the raised meaning in architecture. Empty, in spite of the lack of material has an equal value, and sometimes more than full, and how it is created and placed not only increases the physical and spatial quality but also can have an impact in evaluations. Porosity is one of the basic visual qualities, which over time has found a more significant role in the facade. Porosity has a hidden and mysterious pattern that can be the result of aesthetic feedback from architects, observers/residents, and environmental conditions of the region. A certain evident percentage of porosity and a Specific pattern and alignment of porous space arrangement in this study indicate that, at least in Tabriz's environmental conditions, a specific pattern of porosity is a part of the aesthetic preferences of the architects and the residential-historical architectural users of Tabriz city. This pattern and alignment can at least be considered by contemporary architects in this cultural-climatic area as an aesthetic factor. Of course, the generalization of these features to other cities in Iran and beyond requires more and wider research.

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This article is about value-based foundations of internalizing of geometry in young students of architecture. Training of geometry has long been an important part of architectural education that can be pursued back up to ancient Egypt and Babylon. But in modernity it has passed a radical change from a sacred one to a value-free job. But more precise look will show that this value-free claim has not been of real truth. Here via interpretative-historical analyze it has been shown that four basic values are historically attached to the geometric facts of architecture that all of them have affected architectural education. The four value-giving areas of human life are the transcendental, the individual, the social and the materialistic ones. Putting emphasize on every of the four as canon of value makes a different type of architectural training system of geometry. In this study five types of geometrical approaches towards architecture upon value structures are introduced: 1. the absolute geometry: this approach refers to mathematical view of geometry and could be traced back to Platonic academy. But in its relationship to architecture the absolute geometry is linked to Aristotle’s conception of geometry and its Islamic followers such as Avicenna and Farabi where he considered form as a production of the mind upon given information of the object. He sees form of no value-based content or meaning.  This aspect of form could be realized in contemporary paradigm of parametric design while it has its counterparts in 19th century model of education of architects i.e. the tradition of polytechnics; 2. Geometry as a mirror of the transcendent: it has been the main stream of geometrical thought in Islamic world as well as some other traditional civilizations. But in the contemporary time it was modern movement that put such a heavy value on form a distinct platonic view of le Corbusier. It has its base in enlightment thinking of Ledoux and Bulee. In the field of education this was crystallized in Bauhaus style where Platonic volumes had their transcendental place as highest reference of creation; 3. Geometry as manifestation of the subject: this trend can be linked to Romantic thought. In Romanticism the hidden part of Kantian self was perceived to be emerged in artistic work of hand. So the hand drawings and sketch found a special attention from artistic architects. This view has been extended into current educational content of architecture. But it has its counterparts in primitive architectural analysis. The homology of body, home and the universe that Eliade among others presented is a semi-subjective theory of geometry for vernacular architecture. Presentation of self via hand sketch has a symbolic use in architectural education today; 4. Geometry as the manifestation of nature of the materiality: it is another product of Aristotle’s geometric thought that was manifested in his conception of the term of “form” but in contemporary architecture formalist movement of deconstruction and other critical theories is based on self-referring formal composition of either absolute formal components or synthetic collage. Architectural education of some Avant-grade schools such as AA school of London follows this current of geometric bias; 5. Geometry as united nature of the world: ancient view of Pythagoras about numerical order of the world has been an examplary vision for some traditions of architecture. Molla Sadra’s theory of existence presents a different unity concept between human and nature. In currnt times some other theories claim this role of geometric order that unites world of subject with nature. Christopher Alexander’s view in “Nature of Order” proposes such a vision to geometric value of artifacts that can make them like living beings. In terms of architectural education apart from vernacular tools of cultural transmission could be traced in works of Alexander’s followers.
 

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The idea of child friendly city, to reach child welfare, makes urban spaces proper for childrens` activities. Today mant countries apply child friendly city principles, but most designed urban spaces for children in Iran are other countries` preceding examples and experiences, with no regarding to cultural context. However, urban planning does not reach its goals unless all citizens` needs are included. Children need an environment to address and be challenged in it. A place has to encourage children to discover and develop their infornations. Islam not only pays attention to present needs of children, but also considers them in a path named “Perfection (Kamal)” and presents a plan to cross it. A designed place with attention to Islamic values has to be the equilibrium point of human different needs. In other words, material tools pay the way for reachimg spiritual aims. Islam divides children age range into three 7-years phases. Children need to be free and trained by playing in first 7 years. They need to learn hoe to recite Quran, also scientific lessons in second 7 years. The most effective factor on children behaviors is the environment here which highlights the role of urban spaces in child pedagogy. Third 7 years are the time for asking help from children and teach them Halal and Haram issues. Due to the importance of the relation between child and the environment in second 7 years, this research focuses on 6 to 12 years old children.
It is obvious that there is no Islamic Iranian example of urban designing project that considers children as city members and their present and future needs along with growing up in the environment. Hence, this research is decided to find the answer of this question: How can neighborhoods open spaces affect training Islamic religious contents to children, as well as meeting their present needs?
Studing religious, gnostic and philosophic resources, as theorithical basis, and by usig deductive strategy to set a theorethical model, also inductive strategy to test the model in field study, an Islamic Iranian model named “Child Preceptor City” is presented. According to this model, a proper city from Islamic perspective adopts content approach (the nature of childrens` needs) as well as procedure approach (the process of children growth) and these two approaches together turn a city to an active preceptor.
Findings show that there are five criteria forming child preceptor city structure: training contents (Responsibility, God-contentment, Endeavour, Moderation, Loving God, Believe in resurrection, Purposefulness, Surveillance, God-obedience); training methods (Theater, Story telling, Contemplation, Field Trip, Encouragement and Punishment, Observation, Having a role model, Kindness, Consulting, Preaching); environmental features that are divided in four categories: Geographical/Physical (Physical realm, Physical desirability, The least physical risks, Natural elements, Affordable setting, Light and shadow), Functional (Priority of function to the form, Interacting with other children, Family motivation to play outside the house), Perceptual (Social support, Presence of an acquainted adult, Considering path and landmark, prior to other cognitive elements, Mental realm, Challenging and complex environment, Discoverable environment), Behavioral (Various behavior settings, Regular freely playing, No restrictive environmental rules); cultural environment; and characteristics of a special age group. The relations between them are defined as: training contents are transferred to children with specific characteristics due to their age range, by training methods; with the help of environmental features, in a cultural bed. Contributed environmental indexes in transferring religious contents to childrens, were ascertained by Delphi method. To answer the research main question, six middle class neighborhoods in Tabriz city were selected in which the relation between environmental indexes and religious contents were studied by indirect observation and semi organized interviews with 72 childrens 6 to 12 years old. As findings show, environment can play role in informal pedagogy and transferring religious contents to children, besides formal pedagogy at school or home. It can be either obstructive or empowering in a way that environmental empowering indexes ought to be identified while obstructive ones need to be omitted.
“Feasibility of having a personal realm” and “social support” as empowering indexes, have the most frequencies in target neighborhoods; whereas “various behavior settings”, “affordable settings”, “social and physical risks” and “complex and challenging environment” as obstructing indexes, have the least frequencies. “Family motivation to play outside the house”, “the least physical risks” and “designed park” are environmental superior indexes in Parvaz district. “Presence of natural elements in parks” and “the least social risks” distinguish Zaferanieh district from others. “Physical desirability” and “Presence of natural elements in the neighborhood” are strength points of Yaqchian. “Off-neighborhood land uses” in Golshahr, “Physical risks” in Vilashahr, “Family dependency on car” in Yaqchian, “Family having control on children” in Zaferanieh, “Social risks” in Parvaz and “Family disagreement with playing outside the house” in Sahand district, are obstructive indexes which limit child-environment interaction and consequently, complicate receiving religious instructions.

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The system of the Islamic Republic, like other political systems, is trying to find the right model for the environment In order to make the realization of its political goals possible. Because the political intentions of any military are influenced by its vision of the originality of the individual or society, the role of this issue in the appropriate environmental model for the Islamic Republic needs to be pondered. Therefore, this study has been conducted with the aim of examining the concepts of individual and social originality in the system of the Islamic Republic and the appropriate environmental model for achieving its goals. To this end, this study seeks to answer the question of what factors affect the freedom and control of the environment in the Islamic Republic system and what model it should follows? The method of this research is a comparative study that has examined the types of governance systems and various environmental conditions in it with the tools of logical reasoning. For this purpose, three main steps in research have been designed. In the first step, the types of environment in liberal and social systems are examined based on the originality of the individual or society. In the second step, the originality of the individual or society in the thought of the Islamic Republic system is examined and the role of this belief in the creation of the environment is introduced. In the third step, multinature environments are introduced as an efficient model for expressing the characteristics of the studied free environment in the Islamic Republic system. Finally, it introduces a suitable environmental model for the Islamic Republic system and was concluded that the studied free environment is a suitable environmental model for the realization of both individual and social originality in the Islamic Republic which through regional identities in the environment and based on culture and original architectural patterns of each region is realized. In this case, the studied free environment simultaneously meets the needs of governance, people's individual tastes and desires, and the temporal and spatial conditions of the environment. Because microcultures in religious governance are influenced by collective unity and the teachings of religion, the whole environment in Islamic society will be united with a variety of environments in their own configurations that derive from their religious identity. Therefore, environmental perspectives that express the features of multinature in the environment can be used as a model for theorizing about the quality of the emergence and evolution of the environment in the Islamic Republic system.

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