Architecture and Urban Development (IJAUD)

The study evaluated the physical qualities and satisfaction in students’ housing in selected Students’ Housing for the University of Ibadan. Through survey method, eight hostels were purposively selected to capture variation in gender, level of study and hostel design. The sampling frame showed that 5605 students at UI were found in 2,147 rooms. One out of every 10 (10%) of the rooms were selected which amounted to 215 students selected. The result shows that the functional qualities of the hostels were perceived among the students to be well above average (55.3%). Similarly, both aesthetics (95.8%) and structural (89.3%) qualities of the hostels were perceived to be excellent among the students. Also, respondents were satisfied with various services and amenities provided in the Halls of Residence (54.4%) and 35.3% expressed neutral satisfaction. The study concluded that, Physical qualities and Satisfaction are important in the study of Students’ Housing Design.

This paper reviews the experience of Persian designers and planners for creating the most livable and greenery capital city in the hole region of Middle East throughout the 17th Century. New concepts of urban green development emerged in that time. Some of these ideas where extremely creative and vanguard from there era and still some of them are the main theoretical basics of urban green planning in the modern world. This paper focuses on Isfahan’s greenway planning ideas and discusses how the city transformed to a sustainable city in Safavid period. The discussion is based on the combination of the organic and planned forms of greenway design, which was unique by that time and made the garden city of Isfahan. The Maddies1, which are the branches of water derived from the river and flowed inside the urban context, are studied as the bases of organic greenway and the Charbagh2 and Naghshe-Jahan Square are investigated as the planned green developments.

Banjarmasin is known as a tidal waterfront city and it is called City of a Thousand Rivers. The city level was approximately -16 cm below the sea level and almost a swamp-land. The urbanization and the city development programs have changed the city’s physical and spatial plan from a wetland to a mainland structure. The issues of the city's transformation have changed the city structure from the waterfront city into the mainland city. Confusion about its architectural identity occurs in the tidal land context from the water-based architectural typology transformation to land-based architectural typology. Reinterpretation of architectural identity needs to be made so that the image of the tidal city will not disappear. The purpose of this study is to revive the architectural identity of Banjarmasin city. This research will be useful for academic and practices for the local management control of the city’s government The research procedures could be interpreted as typo-morphological in a tidal waterfront city, through several approaches employing the interpretive-descriptive-retrospective methods in the history of Banjarmasin’s urban development and Banjar’s community adaptation in this tidal environment.The research findings are: The architectural identity of tidal city can be found in the adaptation of Banjar’s community behavior; The architectural tidal identity has been fading, becoming ambiguous and unfamiliar to the present generation of Banjar community; Reinterpretation of the tidal architectural identity may serve as a guideline for the city’s lay-out developing from the architectural design of the present and the future.

Urban space can be the most successful public arena in this century if employ the potentials for collective cooperation in creative ways in order to provide further services. The theory of creative city tries to strengthen the qualities which enhance the image of a city for the citizens and create a dynamic city in terms of culture and intercultural learning. Therefore, the existence of generator, open, and the popular spaces are necessary along 24 hours a day. Since the nightly work and activity gradually became parts of the urban life, urbanization requirements converted night into day for people, and the urban spaces allocated a special position in this phenomenon. Desirable urban spaces should be made in response to the present urban environment of the cities. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to present designed solutions in order to interactive lighting to create live and urban spaces. The study uses a qualitative research method and a case study, based on field studies via a questionnaire and direct observations, meanwhile recognizing the principles of making creativity in urban spaces and the study of physical and social environments of Ahmadabad Avenue- Mashhad are investigated by using SPSS to analyze formal, qualitative and visual values in the space. Results of this study indicate whatever emphasized in urban design and the darkness comes following the sunset, may arise disorder in its performance, to helping artificial light modeling keep its efficiency during the night.

Climate is one of the many factors such as socio-cultural values, economics, materials, administrative factors and technology that influence architectural forms. The climatic solutions effecting on architecture, differ in various regions, cultures, time and technology. The climate of the province of Golestan plays an active role in the formation and diversity of vernacular dwellings. This region is in contact with numerous environmental factors. It is limited by Alborz Mountain in the south, by Turkmenistan desert in the north-east, and by Caspian Sea in the north-west bringing about high humidity in this province. With this background, the paper's question raised: "How do the climatic design principles of vernacular architecture respond to microclimates in this region?" In this paper, the focus is on building's envelopes and shells in three local climatic scopes of the region. The paper is based on a combination of research methodologies: field research (integrating case studies) and archival research. The climatic data are being analyzed by Mahoney tables providing preliminary design recommendations. They are grouped under eight headings: layout, spacing, ventilation, openings (size, position and protection), the relation between building and ground, veranda, wall and roof. This essay argues about the knowledge and skill of vernacular and traditional bioclimatic construction suggesting conceptual strategies for improve current dwelling aiming to a sustainable future.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the preferences of urban dwellers for various elements of urban parks in order to provide some important suggestions for rehabilitation of urban deficient parks. In this regard, this study has conducted a survey in one of the oldest parks in خرمabad, Iran, to reveal the overall satisfaction of the park situation and to explore the preferences of users regarding the characteristics of appropriate hard and soft landscape elements of the park. This paper uses five independent combined analyses covering elements of the urban park, including locational, functional, physical, visual and the vegetation characteristics in order to provide the most preferable elements for rehabilitation of this park. For finding significant results, questionnaires are distributed among 100 park users during spring 2014. Findings of the research show general dissatisfaction regarding the existing condition of the park and provide some key points that can be helpful for improvement of the quality of the park based on visitors' ideas.

Nowadays, planning is no longer considered merely a scientific and technical career nor a government responsibity. It rather functions as a bridge connecting the planners to institutional changes. In other words, the planning theory does not develop in a social, economic and political vacuum, but is formulated by individuals in social situations with the aim of clarifying the enviroment recommending appropriate procedures and processes. The purpose of this research was to identify the explanatory and normative capability of the Strategic Structural Plans theory in the context of institutionalism so as to enhance the capacity of its application in practice. For this purpose, the grounded theory was adopted as a research strategy within the framework of qualitative methodology. The data collection instruments involved desk study, interviews with experts, managers and specialists, collaborative observations on the environment. The research environment included macro and micro levels. At the macro level, the focus was on comprehensible conditions and components of Iranian spatial planning system, while the micro level served to exامینe on the local scale the urban planning and management through sample mining in Mashhad, Iran. As a result of this analysis, a total of 159 concepts, 44 categories and 9 major categories and 6 topics were recognized. Among the categories identified, institutionalism in the theory of Strategic Structural Plans was selected because of the frequent appearance in the data and its relation to other categories as axial category, where the paradigm model was outlined emphasizing on the causal and context condition, intervention, strategies and consequences.

City is the most complicated and tangible creature of man. There is a critical mutual communication between human and city; and the effect of one’ living environment is beyond question. Graffiti is a new urban phenomenon, which has drawn attention in light of its connection with protestation culture and street art. Thanks to symbolism of graffiti, the artists have added mysterious aspects to their work and distinguished themselves from formal culture. Social protestation is the most notable feature of the graffiti found in Iranian cities. However, to the best of our knowledge, there has been no notable research work in Iran on the relationship of human, society, and existence from of graffiti symbolism viewpoint in particular. The present study is an attempt to survey and evaluate common symbols used on urban graffiti through documentary research. Technique and content analysis in stratified semiology based on Iranian-Islamic culture were taken into account.