Architecture and Urban Development (IJAUD)

Modern architecture has vital impact in Nigerian architecture even though there are some socio-cultural and religious factors and elements of traditional architecture and use of traditional materials and principles of design that still exist. This paper will be discussing on how modern architecture failed in the aspect the of conservation and restoration of palace buildings which are the focal points within the walled cities that is directly captured as significant historical buildings. Basically the palace serves as a whole administrative and non-administrative building based on its division into various functional spaces. Moreover, the palace building construction as well as changes and fortifications occurred overtime which is seen directly from the facades. This periods includes; vernacular pre-colonial and post-colonial period. Therefore the research illustrates how imported modern architecture affected the palaces of the country at large. For this paper two particular palaces namely; Hadejia and Kano emirs palace in the Northern region dominated by the Hausa/Fulani’s will be used for the comparative and descriptive criticism. Relevant information will be collected from the buildings and then from the findings, analysis of the building based on some certain parameters such as; building location, period of construction, and materials used will be considered and most of all the criticism of the failure of modernist architects in terms of conservation and restoration of the two ancient palace buildings will be judged based on the final view point which will imply the trends of modernism in Nigerian historical buildings.

Looking at the role of climate in indigenous settlements of Gilan, which are formed based on the Uniformitarianism principles for the environmental comfort of residents in the basic body, and stability and compromise with the natural factors, as a basic and immutable principle over time has created various species in its context based on the needs and availability of basic infrastructure. Gilan's Western plains, as a geographic split of microclimate (mild and wet), which has its own unique characteristics, in formation of variable species, according to the needs of households, in terms of population growth and vernacular materials, which is associated with the formation of a space with sustainable self-sufficiency for local residents, and in addition to optimal locating is appropriate in terms of orientation and e building elongation. Accordingly, the comparison between variable species in a microclimate (plain geography) with its own unique features will be obtained as separated assessments from body to climate framework, with deductive components which can form a native settlement, through field work on sustainable buildings in plain villages and functional analysis of samples, attached to professional population of Housing Foundation, which have special knowledge of the characteristics of rural housing related to rehabilitation and re-run today's models. Therefore, providing transparent assumptions on the challenges and principled solutions through questionnaires with derivatives percent available for population, has managed to improve the quality of the results of this study.

The Egyptian new towns experience is among the most comprehensive and ambitious, regionally and worldwide. Initiated as a governmental policy within a general strategy to tackle the multitude of problems burdening Egyptian settlements in general and major and secondary cities surrounded by agricultural land. New towns were thought as an effective partial solution for the problems of: encroachment of agricultural land, lack of urban land for development, deteriorating fabric, infrastructure and facilities and low quality living. A variety of New towns were proposed as a result of extensive, serious and comprehensive studies and joint endeavors of local and international experts. The new towns aimed to create self-contained growth poles in the desert which would absorb and redistribute population and activities, offering cheap housing and a healthy environment. Some new towns, have seen considerable success in attracting industry, attributed to their favorable location near Cairo. However, success in encouraging people to relocate to the new towns has been limited. A central criticism of the Egyptian programs is that all new towns together will have absorbed a maximum of 20% of population growth by the year 2000. Aim this paper to address the issue of “Encouragement of settlement and attractions for new cities and communities in Egypt”.

In comprehensive urban development plan, a vision of Tehran has been considered as a world city. Tehran is also considered the regional medical center in the world of Islam in the comprehensive scientific map of Iran. In the era of globalization, medical tourism is a growing market in developing countries and has become one of fields of competition in regional development. According to the importance of strategic planning for the development of medical tourism in the globalization process, the effect of medical service globalization in the mega city of Tehran, and Tehran's response to the requirements are essential to investigate Tehran as a medical tourism destination. This is a descriptive survey and also an analytical and exploratory study. Quantitative and qualitative methods were employed in this research. Data were collected using in-depth interviews with 20 experts and a Delphi questionnaire. In the first step, a desk study was performed and the conceptual model was developed. External (environmental threats and opportunities) and internal (strengths and weaknesses) factors were analyzed by SWOT matrix. According to the SWOT matrix, medical tourism industry was in WO and SPACE matrix confirmed the result of the IE matrix. Percent using four strategies calculated and strategies ranked quantitatively by QSPM matrix as follows: i) Marketing and Information System Development, ii) Public Infrastructure Development, iii) Product Development, iv) Human Resource Development. Accordingly, policies were developed..

Energy efficiency in office buildings has been the center of attention for many researches. This special attention is due to highly energy consumption in this building type. Refinement of facade and building’s envelop is a good approach to reduce buildings energy requirements. Double skin facade concepts are commonly used to achieve that object. Although the concept is not new, there is a growing tendency from the architects to put it into practice. However inappropriate selection of technical parameters in this kind of façade, such as its interior/ exterior openings, layers, materials and sهادیng device would lead to reverse expected results. The objective of this study is to improve and optimize the thermal performance of an office building in hot and dry climate. For this purpose a suitable double skin façade concept is designed to reduce the building’s annual energy requirements. This concept is optimized by integrating with a windcatcher. The optimization is performed based on simulating a designed office building by Energy Plus software. The results revealed that double skin façade integrated with wind catcher can significantly reduce annual energy requirement by 26.65%. The proposed solution can be considered as an effective platform for sustainable architecture and reduction of energy consumption.

The success of urban spaces is proportional to the extent in which that space is being used and to human presence. In fact, architecture and urban planning should attempt to enhance social interactions and human soلیداrity rather than differentiation and separation. However, today what is witnessed in most of urban spaces is reduction of relationships and social participation of those residing in these spaces. On the other side, in recent decades, with the increasing progress of technology most of traditional patterns have been changed, and these changes have altered culture and life appearance in Iranian community. What is observed in today’s societies is the reduction in level of people’s social interactions. Regarding the role and function of cultural complexes as a space for improving social interactions, the physical structure of cultural environments should play a significant role in boosting people’s social interactions. The purpose of this research is to identify social interactions and effective physical components affecting promotion of social interactions among people in cultural complexes which provide an opportunity for individuals to take a relief from daily tensions, to gather together and interact. The methodology used in this research is descriptive and analytical, exploiting library studies in order to achieve the desired results. Finally, after studying various theories and effective physical components in promotion of social interaction in public urban spaces such as cultural complexes, appropriate architectural strategies have been provided. The results of this research indicate that six components of stagnation, aggregation, integrity, vitality, spatial determination and flexibility are among most important physical factors affecting the promotion of social interaction in cultural complexes.