Journal of Researches in Islamic Architecture

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Urban development plans define the process of planning for urban improvement based on both Islamic regulations and substantial principals of urbanism. The rights of private ownership are basically emphasized in Iranian constitution. Attempts of urban redevelopment plans are inherently in contrast with the private rights of ownership. 

Rules and regulations governing the urban systems are considered as a common point of Legal Studies and Planning. On the other hand, urban system as one of key elements of the relationship between the state and the nation regulates the proportionality between people and public based on private low and public low.

In this sense explaining the precise view of private ownership and public interest in the process of planning for urban re-development is the necessity that needs the interaction of these two main aspects of urban studies.

In order to understand the structural and substantial aspects of public interest and private ownership is in parallel with the questioning about the balance between private and public rights in the urban planning process. The right to the city is in no conflict with other civil rights in its truss sense, but there are some constraints and weaknesses in the definition of the nature and explanation of this right on the one hand, and its interaction with other, which has some consequences for urban development plans and programs on public scale and in the contax of urban regeneration measures on particular scale.

This research applied the qualitative approach and the analytical-interpretative methods. The methodology is based on the process that analysis and interpret the regulations of acquisition under the logical strategy.

These regulations are measured regarding seven elements of “constitution, civic laws, public interest, private ownership right, urban rights, justice and performance”.There are 76 indicators derived from these 7 elements among them the most compatible, conflicting and ambiguous ones are selected. In this analysis the weaknesses and constraints of these regulations are explained.

This output guides the researchers to propose the new approach in studying the urban regulations which could meet the needs of multiple interests and could lead to compatibility of interests in public and private sphere which is one of the critical goals of urban planning systems

The indicators of ownership and public interest are the most compatible ones in the regulative contexts. Also, the indicators of regulative process, administrative systems and implementation costs, are the most ambiguous ones.

For the most important conflicts between the goals of the right to the city and process of “Urban regeneration measures, we can refer to neglect to” private property rights. Rights to private space is the right that gives meaning to the living of residents in city. But the right to the city may not only be achieved, but injustice also manifests itself more in urban spaces when measure for urban regeneration forbids residents from the right to space with an aim to realize the right to the city, let the property right the residents remain at the periphery.

The rights of ownership, social participation, public interests and private ownership right are the most conflicting ones which challenge the redevelopment actions in urban planning systems

The result of the research ends in the mechanisms analyzing the procedural and regulative aspects of acquisition regulation. The research aims to enrich the concept and position of the right to the city by probing into imam Ali highway project from two aspects, property right and the right to city and parallel with it, it aims to define property on the hand and balance the existing conflict between property right and the right to the city, thus the research has a qualitative nature and approach and mainly rests on a critical analysis, in that using logical argumentation it analysis and investigates the position of the two concepts”the righto the city” and “property right” in the process of urban regeneration measures, both in terms of a case study(imam Ali highway in Atabak and Minaee neighborhoods) and documentary studies.

To recognize the structure of public and private law in the urban system of the country it is necessary to answer the question “what is the entity of the urban rules and regulations of country in the light of Islamic laws and regulations?” the methodology of research based on the system interpretation of the urbanization of the country is in order of governing on the legal sources.

This analysis is qualitative and determined using Logical reasoning technique and documentary studies method. Analysis of the actors of the private and public spaces of cities on the one hand and the redefinition of the public and private rights in the legal order of country on the other hand, guides us to the new pattern and approach regarding the rights of urban studies. This approach, by providing multiple needs and Compatibility varied interests between the private and public spheres, leads to the manifestation of civil rights ideals.With the applicable proposals, the balance between public and private interests is facilitated and these findings could lead to the sustainable interaction between these two critical and conflicting aspects of urban redevelopment actions.

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A review of the history of architectural conservation implies that ontological attitude of scholars and theorists in the field of historic places› conservation is one of the most important principles of conservation theories. Those features of historic places which are considered as more significant at the moment of recognition are often turned into an issue for conservation. However, there is not a clear understanding of such an issue, especially its theoretical basics, in Iran›s today community.
Accordingly, this paper explores the ontology of historic places by relying on Transcendental Wisdom ascribed to Sadr al-Moto›alehin Shirazi and based on the doctorine of «Principality of the Existence» which offers an explication of the existence of material beings. In this line, the mentioned relations between «material and form», «form and meaning» and «extrinsic and intrinsic aspects of things» in the system of Transcendental Wisdom and also the theory of Substantial Motion and its explanation apropos the fluid existence of material beings and finally transcendentalism›s conceptualization of the relation between «existent» and «being» in the world›s system are the main views taken from such a philosophy. In all, since this study is in line with Sadraei›s philosophy it enjoys analytical-philosophical nature and employs logical reasoning and analogical methodology.
Respectively, the historic place is scrutinized from three aspects. The first aspect refers to such a place «as a single measurable totality» whereas the other two aspects regard it «as a changeable totality» and «as an element within the contextual measures».
With respect to the first aspect, the existence of the historic place is considered as a measurable element enjoying several levels of emergence. These levels constitute the triple aspects of meaning, form (and its extrinsic determinations) and material. Also, corresponding to each aspect, the historic place gains some measures. Consequently, regarding the measures of any historic place, we can talk about the measures referring to meaning, form (intrinsic and extrinsic measures) and material.
Moreover, among these levels, each level is more significant than the lower levels representing the existence of the historic place. In other words, the existence of the historic place is manifested in its intrinsic form and meaning more than anything else and the material as well as the extrinsic determinations of the form are simply the manifestations or, in a word, the context for the emergence of the historic place›s existence. However, a historic place is finally a single entity which has existential integrity and the aforementioned levels are not separate from each other in reality.
Then, the temporality and mixing of the historic place›s existence with change is considered. In this respect, relying on the theory of Substantial Motion, the historic place is regarded as a «changeable totality» and evolving issue mingled with time. In this respect, the historic place is a fluid entity, not an object, which is a permanent becoming; it is a gradually-occurring matter and is like an entity scattered in time whose past and future constitute different parts of a single entity. Thus, in reality, we cannot talk about persistence and consistency in the existence of the historic place and just the issue of continuity in its existence can be raised. This continuity is possible due to the becoming on the orbit of measures referring to its particular existence. But the question that other than the measures of the historic place in the mentioned triple aspects what other measures referring to its particular existence can be found paves the way for paying attention to another aspect of its existence.
In this aspect, the historic place is considered not as a single totality but as a part of its surrounding world which can be the world in the broadest scope. It is argued that simply recognizing the elements within the existence of the historic place cannot provide full knowledge of it and it is necessary to consider its inevitable relation to the environment or more general context. Accordingly, the historic place as an entity becomes the manifestation of «being» and its validity depends on such a manifestation. In this aspect, the historic place becomes the manifestation (relatively speaking) of the names and attributes of the being and the regularities originated from it and, consequently, it is located under the existential systems of the world and its manifestations in the natural as well as the cultural world. These systems or orders have some manifestations in the nature such as a number of laws referring to qualitative and quantitative aspects of the place (meaning, form and material). In this respect, the cultural measures and orders receive their validity via corresponding to existential systems and thus they can be used as a criterion for the existence of the historic place.
In general, from the perspective of this study, the historic place is first and foremost an «integrated totality and objective measurable entity which changes permanently» while its particular measures (in the triple levels of meaning, form and material) are located under the existential systems manifested in the natural as well as cultural rules. It should also be considered that the validity of the historic place›s existence depends on its capacity to manifest the existential systems. Thus, the constant and necessary matter in it is the very orders or existential measures manifested in it which can be called «the aspect of being» or «Allah›s aspect» in a word.
 

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Façades are one of the architectural physical elements that play a significant role in the aesthetic preferences on their observer. The façade creates the first and perhaps the most important impact. Aesthetic is identifying and understanding factors that contribute to perception of an object or beautiful/pleasant process. In order to assess the beauty of a phenomenon, its factors and visual qualities should be studied, so finding a measure or a way to evaluate them are one of aesthetics’ priorities. Therefore, not only recognition of visual qualities, but also their quantitative evaluation is also important in aesthetics. Different visual qualities participate in the formation of façades, one of which is porosity. If these visual qualities studied, interpreted and measured, their factors, rules, and attributes can be extracted and using them as variables, the aesthetics of façades can be evaluated. This research is based on the question of how porosity can be measured and evaluated as one of the visual quality of façade and what is the relation between the quantitative measures of these buildings' façade's porosity?
The purpose of this research is to investigate the concept of porosity as a visual quality and to decode the art of designing and constructing façades in Iranian-Islamic architecture by quantitatively measuring the porosity. The study in theoretical part, using the analytical-descriptive method, has presented a theoretical framework. In the first stage a comparative method will be used. Collecting information in this research, in addition to documentary and library studies, will also include field studies that are used to compile the subject literature review 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, a quantitative method for measuring porosity will be presented using the criteria and components obtained in the previous stage, the classification of porosity elements, factors and effective variables of façade's porosity. Structured questionnaires will be used to find the relationship between these variables and their impact on each other and facade's porosity. In the third stage which is the case study section, the theoretical framework and the porosity quantitative measuring method are carried out in 30 main facades of historical houses of Tabriz city and gathered data are analyzed with descriptive statistics.
Based on the findings of the research, façades have a special feature called porosity number that is unique to them. The structure of the forming elements and the porosity changes of the façades also follow a particular pattern. The research also shows that the main trait of porosity is openness. Air circulation, light and the connection of internal and external spaces are major physical achievements of porosity and its spiritual achievement is space and raised meaning in architecture. Empty, despite 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 facades’ evaluations. Porosity is one of the basic visual qualities, which over time has found a more significant role in façade. 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 found in this study indicate that, at least in Tabriz 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 optimal and aesthetic level of porosity in the historical houses of Tabriz façades is close to 0.4 (40%).This pattern and alignment can 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 researches. This study showed that porosity as a visual quality and its quantitative measurement method can also be used as criteria of aesthetic evaluation of architectural façades.