Space Ontology International Journal
Volume:8 Issue: 3, Summer 2019

The development of modern housing has been accompanied by less attention paid to the versatility and the variation of the living spaces. The quality of residential spaces has declined to a degree that the home has merely become a place to meet physical needs and many psychological problems have been neglected. Recognizing the factors affecting the environmental capabilities of today’s housing and design for improving the quality of life can create a desirable effect on the residents’ satisfaction. The present study was conducted to achieve the satisfaction of residents with creating a diversified and versatile (adaptable) space and investigate the effect of flexibility components on their satisfaction level. For this purpose, a residential complex in Isfahan (an Iranian city) was selected as the case study. This qualitative research was performed using library studies, field survey, and questionnaire. By examining the concepts of flexibility, the theoretical framework of the research was extracted. Then, according to the research’s background, the valuation of housing units was done in 7 plan types and three plan types with the highest average score were sampled. Finally, 38 residents of these units were questioned. The results showed that among 9 components effective on the concept flexibility, three factors of visual diversity, air moderation, and spatial hierarchy in all studied units are most important in terms of listener’s questions and play a significant role in the satisfaction of the residents of the flexible atmosphere.

Functional quality of the student residence halls has a great deal of importance due to their collective nature and the fact that they are considered as housing units, identifying and defining the role of intermediary spaces on the spatial organization and and spatial consociation of student residence halls which is a compound system of masses and spatial borderlines can bring order to its system. This structure is defined through a hierarchy of transition spaces, between numerous external and internal factors and the interaction between the arenas and explains the thresholds in multiple orders, in the macro, meso and micro scales. With an emphasis on the factors of spatial threshold in the student residence halls, the following study aims to refer to the impact of their presence on defining the subjective and physical borderlines in order to define local territories. In order to do so and in order to evaluate this concept with a qualitative method, after explaining the concepts of spatial threshold, at first it analyses the impactful physical factors on the spatial system of student residence halls and then there will be an analysis on two instances of residence halls in the residential complex of Imam Khomeini International University which includes linear arrangement and the other which possess courtyards using the opposition of space syntax and architectural concepts in some of the factors of spatial systems. Another tools of the research is field research and researching the environment, interviews and objective observations. Results of the study indicates an emphasis on the position of intermediary thresholds, especially the role of central courtyard on increasing the efficiency of student residence halls in respect to the prevalent linear instances

This work reviews the effect of parametric programming on visual performance, daylighting and shading in office buildings in Tehran-Iran and studies their influences that help not only to reduce the glare but also to promote useful daylight illuminance through promoting visual comfort. It starts by establishing a review of the effective parameters on visual comfort indices, glare indices, and daylight metrics. The aim of the study was to characterize the impact of innovative, dynamic envelope design strategy to control shading pattern. The method used in this research is computer configuration and simulation. To parametric modeling and analysis used Rhinoceros, Grasshopper and its plug-in ladybug, honeybee, honeybee plus and daylight performance on visual comfort, as well as the impact on the best dynamic envelope option for a three-occupant office. The results show that the dynamic responsive to sun envelope often very efficiently effect on the occupants' visual comfort indices than the static envelope. They further show that this efficient envelope minimizes the percentage of upper useful daylight illuminance (UDI) and minimize the discomfort glare probability (DGP) for keeping an indoor glare-free environment.

Complex situations of today's life have led to the complexity of urban life issues and not pay attention to the quality of life. Studies in this field are increasingly gaining the attention of urban planners and policymakers due to its usefulness in assessing and monitoring public policies, also they can use as effective tools in urban management and planning. This study investigated the QOL in a different social setting, using subjective and objective indicators. In this research Tabriz City, Iran has been chosen as the sample for this study. Three different social setting were selected by stratified random sampling method. 42 indicators which cover different dimensions of quality of life have been selected through literature review. Multi-stage sampling technique for sampling has been applied. In the first stage by application of Cochran sampling method, the required sample size has been determined. Then by use of systematic sampling method, questionnaires have been distributed among the residents of the neighborhood. The required data has been collected and are analyzed via SPSS software. Results indicate that: In all three case studies, unemployment is the main problem of residents in this city, which causes many problems in the society; In three districts, 4 dimensions of subjective and 3 dimensions of objective QOL are identified. Also, the results show that the respondents' different levels of education, income, occupation status, etc. are important factors that influence people's attitudes toward the quality of life.

District 1 of Tehran had experienced many changes during past few decades and much of these changes, had included few tangible matters, and never considered public’s concept of urban system pattern. The present study, tried to explain pattern language system of district 1 of Tehran, based Christopher Alexander’s theory of pattern language and adapt this theory to public’s concepts. This purpose was done by examining different theories belonging to prominent theoreticians, interviews and maps obtained from public and adapting them to the data of district 1 urban geographic system, live patterns were obtained according to pattern language theory. According to the findings of the research, among five major indexes of space organization (node, edge, landmark, path and district) from Kevin Lynch’s view, nodes had more importance to the people of district 1, and other indexes stood at lower levels of importance. Based on a 4-page format which was used for the first time by Miss Neda Nafeh in her thesis at Waterloo university, in field study format, these nodes were surveyed and analyzed by interviewing team on the pages, and consequently 37 graduals and reticulated live patterns were obtained. Since these 37 patterns were based on public’s concepts, they had the characteristics of being live and natural as well.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the ability to redefine the components and indicators of popular architecture facades in contemporary architecture. The research method is content analysis and descriptive-analytic and survey with semiotic and Delphi technique. At first, popular architecture is analyzed using the descriptive and analytical method. Next, 14 components of the popular architecture façades assessment are identified and prioritized in three rounds through survey and Delphi technique. In the third stage, case studies are selected by experts on the basis of the components of the popular architecture facades assessment that are identified in the previous step. In the fourth stage, selected samples are investigated in terms of semiotics and 28 signs are extracted as indicators. In the last step, the ability to redefine these signs as indicators of popular architecture facades in contemporary architecture is examined with Delphi technique in two rounds. Indicators and components that are not redefinable or are weakly redefined are excluded. Finally, redefinable components and indicators in contemporary architecture facades are prioritized. The results of the research show that some of the components cannot be redefined in the contemporary architecture facades due to their imitative and eclectic indexes. Some components can be redefined through one index, and others have the ability to be redefined through both indicators. From experts' point of view, the components of understandable for the general public, variety, new techniques, and old patterns are the most important redefinable component in contemporary architecture facades. Eventually it turned out that popular architecture has common points with experts, and according to the views of experts and people, there can be some kind of architecture with complex aesthetics that spreads both to the elite and to the general public.