Architecture and Urban Development (IJAUD)

The building sector accumulates approximately a third of the final energy consumption. Consequently, the improvement of the energy efficiency in buildings has become an essential instrument in the energy policies to ensure the energy supply in the mid to long term moreover is the most cost-effective strategy available for reducing carbon dioxide emissions This paper is studying the main objectives for an effective sustainable building taking into account the environmental sustainability aspect, where it has introduced the main principles for developing building concept and the governor concepts for this development for forming sustainable building skins, also it is focusing on the different techniques in terms of natural ventilation, sهادیng techniques, and energy conservation and its role in enhancing the internal environment. The main objective of the paper is to investigate the impact of different ventilation strategies that can be implemented in new and existing buildings in hot climates So that it can reduce the amount of energy needed for building and sustainability in this climate.

Since the quality of apartment buildings is noted, the way of increasing attachment and discovering its effective variables is challenging subjects for researchers in this field. Person, place and process (P.P.P) model of place attachment as the most precise model of them, evaluate attachment to three parts of person, place and process. What is going to be studied in this research is to evaluate attachment of residents to the open space of such buildings. Then, identifying the effective variables and suggesting practical solutions to improve quality of such environment are the subsequent goals of this research. This is practical research with correlational cases study method.used for Ekbatan and Iran Zامین apartment buildings and SPSS is used to analyze data. The findings show that in both cases, attachment is in high degree while physical and social attachment in Iranzامین apartment building is more than Ekbatan. In addition physical attachment is more than social attachment in both cases. The results show that in personal dimensions, designers should pay attention to the expectations and variety of needs for different ages of residents. In place dimensions, type of territories, accessibility, and flexibility of spaces in designing open spaces are the key points for designers. In addition, the way these types of buildings are managed is so important in the process of place attachment that shows it is needed for their managers to have some special skills to respond to the mobility character of place attachment.

Housing developments in Lagos State peri-urban settlements have contributed immensely to the alleviation of the challenges of housing deficits in central Lagos. This research aims at exامینing the characteristics of housing development in the peri-urban settlements of Lagos State, Nigeria. Using a case study approach, housing developments in peri-urban settlements in Ibeju-Lekki Local Government Areas were selected to represent the rapidly urbanizing metropolitan peripheral areas in Lagos State. Data was collected through primary and secondary sources which include survey questionnaires, direct observations and in-depth interviews. Using two-stage sampling techniques, a questionnaire was distributed to households in purposively selected 16 peri-urban settlements in IbejuLekki. Data collected through field survey were analyzed using frequencies, percentages, cross tabulations while qualitative data were analyzed using descriptive analysis. Findings demonstrate that different housing initiatives in the peri-urban settlements performed differently in typology and resident’s perception. Socio-economic attributes revealed a multi-cultural households composition, reasonable literacy level. It is recommended that improved quality and user performance peri-urban housing development can be achieved through residents’ participation in housing policy design and also by timely regional policy response to the pace of housing development in Lagos peri-urban settlements.

In a wide range of the central boundaries of the Iranian plateau, encompassing an important part of the arid areas in Asia, the phenomenon of desertification is a long his tory. In this arid and waterless expanse, living conditions are fully dependent on access to water due to the supremacy of the Kavirs and deserts. The most important and oldest ways of obtaining water have been Qanat or Kariz (underground water canal). Here, we show that Qanat is one of the most important environmental sustainable tools in the local-regional environments of the Iranian plateau. Qanat improves the unfavorable conditions of the earth and the natural bed of the region along with its path and helps the ecological duration of the environment. At the end of its path, in the place of its rising (emergence), Qanat is regarded as one of the most original factors in shaping, formating, and duration of microclimates. However, in view of the dependency on the biological, economic and occupational (vocational) activities, the presence of Qanat and its entry to the boundary of the flourishing conditions affect the durable formation and shaping social and economic activities in its habitats along with the preparation of the groundwork for durable ecological aspects. As a result, by collecting and classifying library documents through a qualitative analysis, this study tries to present solutions concerning the sustainable use of Qanat at present and in future through the emphasis on the effect of Qanat on various ecological and social aspects of its surrounding environment and the necessity of preservation and revival of this important human innovation as a historical heritage.

 International construction companies have settled in Africa and especially Nigeria, to compete for infrastructural projects, in a bid to extend their services across their borders. The trans-border extension of the services offered by these international multi-nationals exposes them to the political risk factors pertinent with the host country. In order to survive the harsh realities of the political risk indicators operational in Nigeria, especially the north-eastern part of the country, that has been plagued with civil unrest associated with the terrorist operations of Boko haram, it has become necessary to identify and manage these risk factors, to ensure the continuous survival of international construction companies in Nigeria. This paper seeks to identify and assess the prevalence of these political risk factors influencing the corporate performance of international companies operating in the North-east of Nigeria. Data for the s tudy was collected through structured questionnaires administered to 78 expatriates project managers from 6 international construction companies in the 6 states in the North East of Nigeria. Collected data was analyzed using relative importance index and factor analysis. Findings revealed that terrorism, corruption, insurrections, sabotages and kidnapping were the top five risk factors with the highest frequency of occurrence. It was also revealed that terrorism, kidnappings, sabotages, corruption and change in government are the risk factors with the highest impact on operations in the region. It is therefore recommended for the federal, state and local Governments to provide security for lives, properties and investments, companies should do more corporate social responsibilities and purchase political risk insurance cover to minimize their losses

Development of science and technology and the growing trend of globalization has pushed the urban communities toward competition on absorbing foreign capitals and construction of macro-scale projects. This competition has affected not only developed countries but also developing countries such as Iran- since it is expected that each urban development will finally result in an increase in the quality of housing environment and suburbs, constructing macro-scale projects will be justified if they lead to increasing the quality of the housing environment and the suburbs. Accordingly, the present study focuses on identifying the effects of Velayat Park (as a mega- project on the quality of the surrounding environment: The indexes of environmental quality were considered using library studies and world literature review. Identification and method of assessing indexes and the satisfaction of the residents. The analysis of the results was carried out using statistical methods of Gama test analysis through SPSS software.