فصلنامه مطالعات شهری
پیاپی 32 (پاییز 1398)

The husseiniye is a religious place in Shia Islam, where the mourning ceremony of Imam Hussein (PBUH) and the martyrs of the Battle of Karbala is mainly held. Apparently, the husseiniye has come into existence as an extension of the structures of the mosque and religious places such as the zaviye and the tekiye and as a result of integration and reproduction of parts of their structures and functions. Many concepts have been lost in the design of the contemporary husseiniye as a single building, which is open to the public only in the months of Muharram and Safar. The husseiniye and the tekiye are among the entities that are responsible for the important celebration of the Battle of Karbala. Sanctuaries have always had a particular status as internal organs of any city or village, and religious buildings have always been regarded as one of the most fundamental components of the fabric, structure, and shape of a city. Therefore, the mosques, religious buildings, worship centers, and social and cultural centers in a city constitute a long-standing identity that can never be separated from its social and urban structure. Moreover, man is a social being, and needs social interactions and communication with others. Urban spaces play a significant role in the realization of this characteristic, and the courtyards of mosques and religious places such as the husseiniye are among these spaces. The Iranian husseiniye or tekiye is a symbol of the link between time, place, and people, with an identity distinct  from that of public places with the same function in other countries due to its quality as an urban space. It is also unique as the only open urban space with a religious function in the Islamic urban development culture. Given the cultural characteristics of our country, particularly the role of Islam and religious beliefs in Iranians’ national and social identity, the necessity of investigating the physical qualities of the husseiniye seems obvious. The purpose of this research was to recognize the effect of the Ashura rituals on the configuration of the city of Na'in, Iran based on the pathway pattern. On that basis, it can be stated as the research hypothesis that the pathway pattern of the groups of Ashura mourning, routinely held in the city, has such a significant effect on the formation and spatial organization of the city and locations of the husseiniye buildings that it cannot be disregarded in their analysis. According to what was stated, the research question concerns the aspects of the social and religious identification by the rituals in Na'in. Therefore, we conducted a structured study of seven husseiniye buildings in Na'in to examine the physical indicators of the husseiniye and their adaptation to the factors influencing the formation of buildings as open urban spaces and to analyze human pathay in the husseiniye using the pathway pattern. The research results indicate that the factors effective on consideration of open religious places like the husseiniye as open urban spaces include the general quality of convenience and communication with the surrounding passages, multiple entrances, the interaction established between the people, and urban life spirit. Thus, Nowgabad Mosque has the greatest number of alternative pathway patterns with six entrances, and the Husseiniye of Gowdalu has the lowest with two entrances. Better recognition and employment of the principles for design of such spaces, including location, flexibility in form and function, and rich symbolic concepts, can greatly contribute to persistence of the physical expression of a culture in the environment and identification of the Iranian city.

An increase in the use of public transport offers one of the most convenient strategies for alleviation of the problems resulting from the excessive use of the private car (congestion, pollution, noise, etc.) in most urban areas. Rail transport systems provide a sustainable transport model in cities, with advantages including very high safety, passenger convenience and comfort, absence of traffic congestion, low energy consumption, proper speed, absence of fossil fuels, and low passenger transport costs. For improvement of public transport, it is necessary to develop appropriate tools for measuring and monitoring the quality of service. From among the variety of methods that are there for measurement of transport service quality, one based on customer perspective was adopted in the present research, aimed at segmentation and analysis of citizen expectation from urban railway in the city of Isfahan, Iran using the Kano, FAHP, and FTOPSIS models. For data collection in this applied descriptive-analytical study, a mixture of library and field investigation was conducted. Based on the library study, the theoretical framework of the research was formulated, and fifteen of the most important citizen expectations were identified. These included 1. proper waiting time for passengers to receive service, 2. Internet (WiFi) and mobile network access on the train, 3. use of other public transport systems next to the stations, 4. provision of information on the train, 5. attractive environmental graphics, 6. adaptation of the stations for the disabled, the blind, and cyclists, 7. convenient train spaces in terms of cleaning, cooling and heating, and air conditioning, 8. provision of transport service to passengers on holidays and during off-hours, 9. security at the stations, 10. appropriate location of the stations, 11. proper appearance and suitability of the staff, 12. availability of elevators and escalators at the stations, 13. train arrivals matching the timetable 14. availability of parking spaces at the stations, and 15. enhancement of passenger transport capacity. Based on the field method, the required data were collected using three questionnaires: Kano, paired comparison, and significance assessment. The research population was divided to two groups. The first group, answering the Kano questionnaire, included all the citizens taking Isfahan urban train. Morgan’s table was utilized for specification of sample size for the first group, based on which, sample size was set to 380, and the simple random sampling method was used. The second group, who answered the questionnaire for paired comparison between the items and that for significance assessment of the indicators, included experts engaged in the field of urban trains. Finally, the results of item ranking indicated that the item titled proper waiting time for passengers to receive service had priority over the other items. In urban public transport systems, it is very important to determine waiting time for passengers at the stations to benefit from the provided services. Proper scheduling that results in reduced waiting times can greatly affect user satisfaction, and can be essential for system management. Availability of a credible schedule allows passengers to adjust their arrival times at the stations, thereby experiencing shorter waiting times.

Plenty of research has been conducted worldwide on the notion of segregation and the factors effective on it. Globalization, economic crises, rise and fall of governments, and failure to invest in the housing sector are some of the major factors that have made segregation severer in cities. The current conditions of segregation and discriminatory behavior indicate the potential for economic growth without exploitation, including human resources and social and economic communication. Cities have turned into more of places where phenomena such as extreme poverty, social harm, and social segregation are concentrated. As a term, segregation, which denotes separation of some individuals in a group from others, is a major urban problem that jeopardizes integration in the city, and prevents it from functioning properly as a single whole. A variety of approaches have been adopted to confront segregation, including the analytical approach adopted in this research to investigation of segregation from environmental, physical, and spatial aspects. The theoretical framework of the research for the study of this urban problem involves the theory of space syntax examined from the perspective of urban space configuration. The theory is based on the idea that there is mutual interaction between the physical and social structures of the city.  This research involves a case study of a district in the city of Sabzevar, Iran known as Kuye Golestan, and is aimed at reducing social segregation by identifying its physical structure and presenting solutions for its improvement. The investigation also seeks to assess the effects of syntactic variables on non-syntactic parameters to help obtain a specific classification of the factors with the greatest impacts on the physical structure. This is an exploratory study with a hybrid method, where both quantitative and qualitative methods are used for answering the research questions. The qualitative method was implemented through a field study using observation as a technique and a checklist as a tool, and the quantitative method was implemented through a spatial analysis of the axial lines in the UCL Depthmap software environment. The syntactic variables were assessed as independent ones, and the non-syntactic variables as dependent ones, and the relationships between them were finally evaluated using multivariate linear regression analysis in SPSS. The results of the study demonstrated that there were significant relationships between the syntactic variables and lighting, landscape, noticeable corners, convenience, valued elements, entrances and openings, building quality, and building age, in order of priority. On that basis, maximal changes in the physical structure are expected to be achieved through changes made in the above variables, which would lead to changes in the social structure.

It is already inevitable to address the issue of meaning and to discover the deep semantic layers in social, cultural, and artistic areas and also in architecture. The observation that this has not been the case in regard to urban spaces and architecture has put an emphasis on the requirement for use of intellectual and philosophical methods depending on meaning with a critical, profound attitude. One of the most important such methods is the semiotic approach examining a wide range of phenomena. Therefore, a link was established in this research between the role of semiotics and the quality of the historic monument known as Sa'd al-Saltaneh in the city of Qazvin, Iran through the use of the semiotics methodology for finding the place-making elements. Used as a caravanserai in the Qajar era, the monument has continued to function in a novel form as a dynamic urban space after reconstructed in the past few years, Due to the citizens’ continuous visits and sense of belonging to the place, it presents its particular space features, turning the search for surrounding space concepts into a subject to be contemplated. It is assumed that use of semiotics can lead to a more accurate interpretation of the place and promoted space quality as a supplementary role. In other words, the place-making elements, developed as a result of the visitors’ experience and sensory perception are studied with respect to the building and its context of location in the transition from semiotics. The method of semiotics used in this research takes the form of an analytical method, which makes contemplation and manifestation in the semantic domain possible through prioritization of the background and concentration on interpretation of the visitors’ mental presumptions in confrontation with the work. In fact, it becomes perfectly possible through semiotic contemplation in the process of transforming and understanding a sign into a meaningful sign, referred to here as promotion of space into place, to refer to mental presumptions and learn about the historical, social, and cultural context that influences the perception of a rich image of the place in the audience’s mind while relying on his sensory perceptions and experiences in a deeper interpretation. According to the stated hypothesis, the purpose of the present research is to identify the factors pertaining to the concept of place with a semiotic perspective and the descriptive-analytical method, next adapted to Sa'd al-Saltaneh historic monument using observations, interviews, questionnaires, and cognitive maps through croquis drawing after explanation of the above factors by means of semiotics. In the above questionnaire, sample size was obtained by the Cochran formula, and data analysis was made using SPSS 20 through presentation of data frequency and mean and Spearman’s test of correlation. The research results indicate the importance of the role of semiotics in the search for the factors promoting space to place, such as consideration of the context and adaptation to the environment, meaningfulness, cultural and social values, the identity and durability of the space, and memorability. The study also involved an examination and realization of the above factors in different relations between the individual and the place from the perspective of considering the semiotics of perception, historical, cultural, and social memory, and audience mentality.

The environment and space are two basic platforms for supporting multidimensional human needs. Hence, the dwelling, where architecture, society, and culture are closely interrelated, has a significant behavioral effect on the residents’ spirits and social interactions at different levels. The impact of environment design and visual quality on people’s behavior and mental health has also been demonstrated in research by environmental designers, including William White, Appleyard, Kevin Lynch, and Alexander. Moreover, investigations of different residential environments indicate that every dwelling has its own behavioral effects on the residents’ psyches. This study investigates the hypothesis that the physical environment of a residential condominium is critical for increasing the psychological and social indicators. Furthermore, the sub-hypothesis suggests that the environmental (physical) components of the residential condominium (sound, light, space dimensions, etc.) influence the specification of the above indicators. The significance of the study lies in the idea that a dwelling should reflect its residents’ public images and private lives. This implies adherence to the residents’ diverse economic, political, cultural, and, particularly, individual philosophies, which vary from person to person in different communities. Since the three basic aspects of quality of life concern physical, mental, and social health, a dwelling can provide a sense of security and mental peace and lead to fundamental changes in personal, social, and other relations. The purpose of this descriptive-correlational study was to investigate the effects of the physical characteristics of a residential condominium on the improvement of the residents’ psychosocial indicators on a neighborhood scale. Data analysis was made using the correlation and multiple regression statistical methods. In order to confirm the variables obtained using the Delphi technique, 18 architecture and psychology experts were sent a questionnaire was sent to 18 architecture and psychology experts, modified on that basis to the final questionnaire. The research population included 186 available households from among the 439 residing in four residential condominiums in Rasht. The correlation coefficient indicated that there were significant relationships between all the physical variables confirmed by the experts and the social and psychological indicators. On that basis, 61.2% of the psychological indicator variance was predicted by the variables space quality, flexibility, and light, and 59% of the social indicator variance was predicted by the variables confidentiality, dwelling type, flexibility, public services and facilities, repetition time and period, light, space geography, convenience, and functional distance. The research results indicated the determining role of physical characteristics in the promotion of the social- and psychosocial indicators, which suggests that individuals acquire the coherent ability to interact efficiently with others both in private and public life in accordance with their own nature while controlling their own lives. In Rasht, the residents enjoy natural, lush, clean, and temperate environments, generally interacting with natural phenomena, which increases hope, and reduces stress in life. Finally, the present study sought to obtain solutions for improvement of neighborhood relations, enhancement of social interactions, and reduction of psychological damage among the residents through investigation and identification of the psychosocial factors affecting the design of residential condominiums on a neighborhood scale.

Man’s unsustainable use of environmental resources needs to be tackled from different perspectives and at multiple levels of land use. Ecological Footprint (EF) is a renewable resource accounting tool that assesses the environmental impacts of urban land uses, and measures the impact of human activities on the environment with respect to the underlying issue of sustainable consumption. EF compares the level of consumption with the available amount of biocapacity to demonstrate how human beings are using natural resources faster than they can regenerate them. It was developed originally as an indicator of the environmental impacts of nations, individuals, or human populations or of organizational and corporate environmental performance and even product sustainability. Given this capability, the environmental impact of the University of Kurdistan campus as a major urban land use in the city of Sanandaj, Iran was evaluated in this study using the component-based footprinting method. Actual data on the five environmental indicators of natural gas, electricity, water, food, and waste were collected during the 2014-2015 academic year. The results indicate that the University of Kurdistan ecological footprint index in the above academic year is -0.56. On that basis, the function and performance of the university has been unsustainable with respect to the examined indicators. In addition, the results indicated that the University of Kurdistan ecological footprint is about 16,675 global hectares, which means that an area of land 165 times larger than the university is needed to compensate for the amount of natural resources consumed and the resulting waste. It can therefore be stated that the University of Kurdistan campus exhibits unsustainable performance in the 2014-2015 academic year. Furthermore, the energy (natural gas and electricity) and water indicators show the highest and lowest levels of environmental impacts with 72.03 and 0.97 percent of total ecological footprint, respectively. Therefore, the environmental impact of energy consumption is about 2.5 times that of the other indicators investigated here (water, food, and waste). As suggested in the literature, the most important indicators used in the ecological footprint model at various universities around the world include energy, fuel consumption in transportation, materials, food, water, waste, and paper consumption, among which energy exhibits the highest level of environmental impacts, as suggested by the results obtained for the University of Kurdistan. On that basis, the University of Kurdistan campus ranks second after the University of Algarve campus (Portuguese) in terms of impact on the environment. Therefore, it is necessary to prioritize energy consumption in the university policies and plans for reduction of natural resource consumption. For that purpose, a comprehensive plan should be developed firstly to monitor the environmental impacts of natural resource useand secondly to modify the consumption pattern and thus reduce the impact of the university on the environmental resources.

The urban space is the setting for embodiment of public life and social discourse in a context involving the components of responsibility for place quality. Consideration of place quality as perceived by the users of an urban space at the same level as place components as assumed by the urban designers demonstrates the concern for the social aspect of the space, facilitating the realization of the perceptional urban design scheme. The application of the scheme in the organization and revitalization of any urban environment makes it possible to simultaneously consider three basic factors in the acquisition of the perceived quality of place: urban environment or space, space users, and space designers. This suggests the necessity of citizens’ active participation in intervention in urban areas. Design of public places with desirable physical and visual quality in accordance with citizen’s perceptional characteristics and capabilities is what urban designers are responsible for. The aim of participation for professionals as social advisors is to provide the required technical assistance to help realize the aspirations of the community with appropriate solutions. The present study attempts to organize the components of the quality of urban environment from the viewpoint of experts and practical urban design projects after encoding them from functional (use, convenience, and activity), physical, perceptual, semantic, and environmental aspects. According to studies conducted in the area of environment quality and the relevant theoretical approaches, assessment of perceived place quality in the investigated environment from the space users’ and designers’ perspectives was considered in this applied research as the approach of choice within the conceptual model framework for provision of an area where the citizens have a peace of mind. The study sought to obtain the components associated with each of the aspects of urban environment quality, norms and measures of the aspects of urban design, and sub-measures and policies of the perceptual and semantic aspects of urban design as the research framework of the paper. For that purpose, the Imamzadeh Saleh (PBUH) urban complex in Tajrish, Tehran (including the space in front of the Imamzadeh and the marketplace and the area between the stream bed and Tajrish Square) was investigated in a case study. In the evaluation of the perceptual measures of the place under investigation, the quantitative and qualitative data obtained from the questionnaire in the extraction of the respondents’ subjective information on the quality of place were assessed as maps and diagrams in a descriptive-analytical survey. Assessment of urban space perception obtains the factors involved in spatial perception using the measure arrangement method under a classification of perceptual qualitative norms as visual perception, conceptual interaction with the environment, discipline, or quality of view and landscape in the perceptual aspect of the urban space or as interpretation, meaningful communication, or identity in the semantic aspect. The results applied in the revitalization of the urban complex and its future conception in accordance with the perceptual-semantic norms of place led the authors to statement of a series of purposes in line with the qualitative norm measures of the perceptual-semantic aspects of environmental responsibility and formulation of the design principles, purposes, and administrative policies. Another finding of the study was that the length of the citizens’ confrontation and interaction with the citizens and the environment under investigation is also effective on perception of the space and its depth and nature. The research demonstrated that there are still controversies between the public and experts both on issues such as vitality and on the expectations of the two groups about the area of investigation, although they are agreed in general. Therefore, the paper sought to answer the following questions. What qualitative measures and norms are relevant in evaluation of the perceptual-semantic aspects of place? What design policies make it possible to achieve the perceptual-semantic measures and norms of place in general? How are the perceptual-semantic measures considered in the future conception of the studied area statement of its macro-purposes and, therefore, formulation of the design principles, design micro-purposes, and administrative policies of the design product?

An investigation of the documents on regional development in Fars Province, Iran shows that there is such a wide gap between the ideals mentioned in the plans and their potentials for realization that it has turned into a big challenge how to realize the spatial prospects of the development plans in the province. By reviewing the development documents from 1997 to 2013, the authors found that the province suffered from a range of uncertainties in all the regional scenarios. Therefore, the prospects and objectives of the plan have not been realized throughout the period. In this research, futurology was adopted as a method for foresight and specification of the uncertainties based on the available information. Employment of this method along with scenario-based strategic planning enables the local administrators to imagine the various images of future development and prepare themselves for different conditions to take place. On that basis, the driving forces and uncertainties were first defined using the Delphi method and structural analysis. The results of the models demonstrated that the key uncertainties for the province included freeway and highway network access, information technology speed, air freight terminals, access to the sea, and railway technology and network. Although not included on the list, water resources and regional administration were both added as suggested by the expert experience. Furthermore, the prospects of the province were divided into nine driving forces, including high-tech industries (electronics, aerospace, information technology, and pharmacy), agricultural industries (agriculture, animal husbandry, and the food industry), other industries (oil, gas, the petrochemical industry, mining, energy-intensives industries, and the automotive industry), healthcare service (medicine, ophthalmology, and organ transplantation), tourism (tourism and handicrafts), transportation (airport services, railways, and road transport), other services (higher education, financial services, technical and engineering services, and trade), knowledge economy (knowledge-based activities, bio- and nanotechnology), and defense. 21 strong scenarios were then found using the cross-impact balance method, classified into three major scenarios: Scenario 1, strong local performance and weak national performance, Scenario 2, strong national performance and weak international performance, and Scenario 3, strong international performance and a single national performance. In the first scenario, the spatial framework of the province moves toward the monocentric pattern, with the national functions administered by the government, due to the severe shortage of water resources, fragmented management, and undeveloped infrastructure. In the second scenario, the province can play a substantial role at the national level and a weak role at the international level, with cluster networks functioning as the spatial pattern, due to the integrated management, particularly with respect to the water resources, . In the last scenario, the province exhibits great international performance in all its prospects, functioning at the national level only in the defense sector, thanks to the regional governance, developed infrastructure, and influence on international processes. Furthermore, weighted strategies along with control indicators were presented for all the above scenarios.

Environmental pollution has attracted greater attention than ever before in the past three decades. On the other hand, noise pollution in cities is a global issue in most countries, considered today as one of the most important environmental problems. Noise pollution level is rising for various reasons such as the increase in population density, the increase in the number of motor vehicles in cities, establishment of industries adjacent to cities, and expansion of construction. The harmful effects of noise pollution on humans do not occur directly in the short run, but the short-term persistence has a significant long-term impact on man. Consequently, the physiological and psychological effects of noise on humans often emerge gradually, affecting the human nervous system in the long run, with negative consequences. In most of the world’s developed and developing countries, the issue of noise pollution has been attended to, and anti-pollution laws have been formulated and enforced. Given the role of noise pollution in the well-being of people in the community, it is of great importance to model and simulate sound transmission, partition noise pollution, and identify areas with excessive noise levels. The purpose of this study was to specify the level of noise pollution in the city of Sanandaj, Iran and its relationship with anxiety level. Therefore, fifty stations with residential, commercial, residential-commercial, and green space land uses were selected, and equivalent sound level was measured using an acoustic device and compared to the standard noise pollution level. In the next step, the obtained data were interpolated using the IDW geostatistical method in the ARCGIS10.4 software due to the lower error rate. The Hamilton questionnaire was then used for investigation of the effect of noise pollution on the citizens’ level of anxiety. The number of distributed questionnaires was 400, of which 351 could be referred to. The results indicated that mean equivalent sound level at all the examined stations was 71,621 dB. On average, the highest noise pollution concerned the commercial sector, followed by the residential-commercial sector, with equivalent sound levels of 73.70 and 71.32 dB, respectively, 60 dB higher than the allowed maximum according to the standard set by Iranian Department of Environment. The results of partitioning demonstrated that the central parts of the city had high levels of pollution. According to the statistical results, there were significant differences in equivalent sound level between all the land uses. The results obtained from the distributed questionnaires showed that there were significant relationships between the demographic variables and level of anxiety. People exposed to noise pollution were the most vulnerable group in terms of increased anxiety level. 54.42% of the respondents reported a high mean level of citizen anxiety, 21.46% reported a moderate level, and 26.82% reported a low level. The results demonstrated that there were significant relationships between the variables. Thus, the higher the noise pollution resulting from congestion, the higher the level of anxiety. The study showed that mean equivalent sound level was higher than the allowed maximum in the area under investigation. Therefore, it was suggested that there should be planning to reduce the noise pollution level and, consequently, the citizens’ level of anxiety along with an enhancement of well-being.