Architectural design

With the formation of local and national governments during the 3 rd -5 th centuries A.H. [9th - 11th A.D.], the circumstances were prepared for adaption and recreating cultural and artistic traditions of Sassanid period. In this regard, Samanid governors played a key role. Amir Ismail Samanid came up with a style which became a pattern for numerous mausoleums and on the other hand connected the architectural elements and designs of Sassanids with the Islamic era. The Mausoleum of Amir Ismail Samanid itself shows how the Sassanid architectural elements appear in a new format. Both the design and construction of this building appears to have been carried out objectively, and Amir Samanid had somehow intended to follow the Sassanid dynasty. Studying the architectural elements and features of the Ismail Samanids Mausoleum as well as adaptions from the Sassanid architecture, and also its historical and cultural contexts (the revival of Iranian identity and returning to the traditions of Sassanian, during the 3rd – 5th centuries A.H.) are the main objectives of the present paper.

This paper intends to highlight one of the key concerns of housing designers i.e. the influence of open space on human satisfaction as well as their attachment to a particular place. Consequently, neighborhood open spaces with their meaningful layout seem to be constituent elements of residential complexes. Although, architects and designers try to create qualitative areas among buildings, the function of open spaces has not fully been defined yet. As such, the current research aims not merely to elaborate on the role of open spaces, rather tries to propose designing criteria for residential complexes. Based on previous researches, the paper has investigated open space characteristics by taking into account Ekbatan residential complex in the west of Tehran metropolis, hence; proposed a model with effective variables. A survey was done after randomly selecting household samples there. Findings demonstrated the principal role of open spaces in the attachment to neighborhood. Security and quietness were the two other important criterions for those residents. Based on these findings, it can be said that the physical attributes play two roles in the neighborhood attachment; first, they facilitate social activities and provide opportunities to develop social attachment and second, enhance architectural attributes including aestheticism and density.

Since nature of architecture is quite different from that of other fields of study, the criteria used for judging projects in this field continuously undergo some changes. On the other hand, because of the undeniable role of human factors in judging the projects, there is always a percentage of deviation from the standard given the interests of the judging committee. The standards of judging architecture projects can be divided into these general classes: idea, process and technical issues. The standards of judging architecture projects can be classified as such: Selection, placement, relations of function, form, volume, internal arrangement and circulation; Considering the studies, analyzing and planning the body of the project; Considering the substrate of the project and recognizing the facilities and their limits; Engineering of the project: considering the relationship between technical knowledge and designing; Using imagination, innovation and creativity when it comes to the idea of the project and the quality of developing this idea; Providence: flexibility and variability of the design in the future; Being aware of the factors affecting the formation of the design (moral, tribal, and cultural); Being practically logical and realistic, paying attention to the applicableness of the design and its compliance with the topic; Taking into account the technical principles, structural systems and machineries; Graphic (visual) and oral (introduction and defense) presentation method. Reviewing previous studies that have focused on different methods for judging student projects shows that we can divide these methods into the following classes: Evaluation by the professors (throughout the project); Group display of the works; Evaluation by the classmates; Personal evaluation; Traditional methods of judgment; Written judgment of the professors; Evaluation by the professor (regarding the completed project).