International Journal of Architecture and Urban Development
Volume:5 Issue: 3, Summer 2015

The aim of this paper is to explore conventional methods of teaching the arch-design studio withideas of sustainability and creativity as agents of change. If this is realised, it means the students of architecture canbe grounded in designing with sustainability and creativity ideas and can be professionals that design and build withideas of creativity and sustainability. So, there are real buildings and places that satisfy our clients, the society and inharmony with the environment. The objectives are to know those and what it takes to participate and to explain andrecommend the methods in teaching the arch-design studio. Stakeholders of architectural education have observedthat the architectural design studio teaching is failing to meet the yearnings and needs of the users, societies, cultures,environments and technological developments and for solution have strongly argued for sustainability and creativityas a combined force of teaching the arch-design studio. Although there are similarities in the curricula of trainingarchitects all over the world, but educators go about it in their own convenient and suitable ways and styles and theideas of sustainability and creativity are not taken seriously and also not formally incorporated in the curricula oftraining. These stakeholders say that something has to be done to improve the ways and methods of training architects,especially the teaching of the arch-design studio. The study finds collaboration of the academics and practicingarchitects, integrated team work of inter/multi-disciplinary and selection criteria in teaching the methods of ideasrelating to sustainability and creativity in the arch-design studio.

Due to the poor social and economic conditions of vulnerable children's families, vulnerable children experience urbanspaces for work and play more than other children. Although these children gain a solid understanding of urban spaces,which can be used in the process of designing desirable urban spaces in their neighborhoods, they are less considered insuch projects. Thus, the methodology for the participation of vulnerable children is not developed well to be suited fortheir involvement in urban rehabilitation. This study examined the application of various qualitative methods to find thesuitability of each method for vulnerable children participation in the urban rehabilitation, such as drawing, interview,visiting site and writing essays complemented with drawings, if desired. The results of the study in Tehran’s southernneighborhoods reveal that certain group interviews and site visiting with these children could be more beneficial ascompared to other participation methods. This is due to a number of factors including better verbal skills as comparedto writing and drawing capabilities. Further, studies show that the participation of vulnerable children requires suitablemeasures to obtain their trust and encourage participation. None-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) can play asignificant role in this.

Migration of people to urban areas from the rural areas usually comes with its challenges interms of infrastructural requirement and housing to cater for growing population. One of the challenge for the urbandwellers in Nigeria is that of adequate housing. The inability of the government to meet this demand has seen thepeople concerned seeking alternative solutions to housing need. The resulting settlements are usually unplanned hencebecoming a challenge for government to manage in terms of providing infrastructure facilities. With the growingincidence of global warming and the attendant increase in flooding in most urban areas of Nigeria, especially betweenyear 2000 and 2013, the safety of the people who live in slums have become a concern to the state governments due toissues of flooding and collapsed buildings. Government usually evicts such people and clear the settlement; howeverthe people simply relocate to another area. The aim of this paper is to examine how community participation can beused to provide housing for the urban poor based on their living requirement, drawing from the experience of selectedcase studies from Kenya. The research method adopted for the study is a qualitative research method using case studiesof selected communities in Kenya and selected communities in Nigeria. A comparative analysis is drawn with thesecommunities. The research concludes by proposing how community participation process should be incorporated intoprovision of housing for the urban poor.

Without the surrounding environment of a site, architecture loses its full meaning. In the evolutionof the design process, a site's environment should be understood as the integral factor within which a designed productor artifact is expected to perform. The environment is not of secondary priority. Every building is intertwined with itscontext; context being its physical, visual and ecological potentials. Modern day practice encourages the considerationof ecological factors in any plan to create/alter sites even for those who are not landscape architects. In the pedagogy ofTehran architecture schools today, the architectural design process barely touches upon landscape environment; this is aflawed presentation of architecture which should be remedied. In common practice of Iranian education, buildings riseto represent only themselves. The graduates of this lacking method owe their mal-education to the problematic studioeducation system. This paper presents both qualitative and quantitative evidence to support the notion that Tehranschools should change their teaching methodology to accommodate the importance of environment in the architecturaldesign process. All research participants are students of architecture. The data, which includes content analysis exportsand log-linear analysis, presents the difference between the students' point of view regarding a designed building andits relationship with the surrounding landscape.

Ego identity defined as a fundamental element of a person and as self-continuum, mental andinward image that an individual has about him or herself. This subject investigated in contemporary world, amply.For actualizing and testing this concept, four bases including achievement, moratorium, foreclosure and diffusionintroduced and based on this framework, and the effect of different factors on ego identity of individuals assessed andevaluated. In the study, the effect of school architecture on students’ ego identity formation in high school investigated.For this purpose that AISS1 questionnaire has been used, in which, in schools of Iran is used for evaluation of egoidentity, moreover its reliability and validity for Iran’s schools has been verified. In addition, for evaluation the effect ofarchitecture on identity formation, intervention factors decreased to their minimum level in order to one could evaluatejust the effect of architectural environment. It is important to note that results of filling 600 questionnaires from sevenschools in two types of architectures, i.e., traditional and modern, have been compared. According to mentioned states,in this article the effect of environmental architecture on identity formation of high school students in Yazd and Tehranprovinces is determined. This subject has evaluated and compared in two types of architecture environments: modernand traditional. For completion of this work, effective architecture components on ego identity formation in traditionaland modern schools will introduce.

Urban space has been formed in historical texture of cities under the influence of meaning and shape on the onehand and qualities related to human behaviors on the other hand. Among these points, neighborhood centers as themost important areas of social life in urban open space play a critical role in attracting people and improving qualityand vitality of environment. This study presents the related literature in an analytical approach and expresses therelationship between neighborhood centers and human presence by structure analysis; it focuses on rules governingpresence quality and formed behaviors in this places. In this survey, human and his presence in neighborhood centersare evaluated and urban spaces concept is formed by composing space location characteristics and human behavior.At least, it is sated that people`spresence in urban space of neighborhood centers expresses their thoughts and culturalinteractions whose form shows its function and meaning. Therefore, humans would appear in urban space in a way thatneighborhood centers quality depends on activity kind and their user's behavioral patterns.

The present article is intended to analyze the status of architectural education during two periodsbefore and after Cultural Revolution in Iran and in order to interpret approaches and paradigms, methods, and way of itsdevelopment thereby, it deals with criticism of current situation in the field of architectural education. For this purpose,it has been tried to separate different fields of quantitative and qualitative development of the discussed subject withhistorical review on formation of architectural academic schools during recent period. The methodology of currentresearch is based on using the relevant information about structure of architectural education in Iran during two majorperiods, which have been subjected to data- mining by taking an interpretative- historical approach. In addition, thepresent condition has been criticized with review on the existing theories in this field and afterwards in order to achievethe given result and for conclusion of the contemporary attitudes in Iranian architectural education. Findings havebeen analyzed according to strategic analysis to disambiguate the process of planning for the future based on internalstrong and weak point as well as external opportunities and threats (SWOT) in educational structure of architecture andeventually following to evaluation of today status and position becomes available for access in the future.

Defining space by dividing it to inside and outside is one of human’s ways to recognize his positionin environment. Architecture is created to response to this need for inside/outside spaces. Design of inside and outsideSpaces and relation between them always has been one of necessities for definition and limitation of human livingspaces, but little attention to relation of this two spatial realms and poor design of transitional spaces between themhas caused to lack of quality in current Iranian architecture. This study aims to explore relation of inside and outside inarchitecture and focus on condition of transition, boundary and connection of those. For achieving this purpose conceptof inside, outside and in-between has been investigated and by exploring cases of this kind of connection (especially inpast and recent Iranian architecture), the aims, approaches, functions and physical forms of in-between spaces has beenpresented. This results and findings can enhance design considerations of in-between spaces especially in architectureof Iran’s big cities. Literature reviewed has shown importance of in-between space design as another kind of space:either inside and outside, neither one of them.