مجله صفه
پیاپی 89 (تابستان 1399)

Abu Hamed Mohammad al-Ghazālī was a mystic, jurist and theologian, who lived in the fifth century AH, and significantly influenced Iranian culture. His greatest work is Iḥyaʾ ʿŪlum al-Dīnʾ, written in his seclusion period to revive religious knowledges, with the subject being applied knowledge, and hence the wealth of architectural information in it. The book is partly about ornaments, materials, and their ordinances. These are referred to in various parts of the book with various kinds of materials and ornaments examined. The present article starts with introducing Al-Ḡazālī’s views and thoughts, in order to better understand subsequent parts of the research. What follows is about ornaments and its sanctity or otherwise. Next comes a discussion about luxury in buildings with regard to building height and properties. In the next part the use of materials and their durability is discussed.
The research is based on interpretative approach, mainly reading and interpreting the original text of Eḥyāʾ. Other works of Al-Ḡazālī’s and other sources are used as subsidiaries, though. What this article finds is that short-lasting materials are positively considered by Al-Ghazali in Zuhd realm. Furthermore, whilst he does not mind ornamentations subject to certain conditions, they are seen as at odds with ascetic life. Ornaments in the mosque is legitimate as it is the house of God, and materials are agents for judging the building and its founders.

It has been about 70 years since Persian literature has emerged on contemporary Iranian architecture. This research investigates the key categories of this literature, with a focus on the most recurring categories discussed between 1946 and 2016. To achieve this, 389 of the most important sources on this topic are selected, and their key categories are identified. Finally, based on the 37 most recurring categories, under nine general sets, these texts are analyzed qualitatively. The main sets are about the relationship between contemporary and past architecture, architects, concepts and contexts, normative statements, the relationship between contemporary Iranian and world architecture, the ways of discussing architectural works, periods, the ways of discussing history, and modernity. The results of this analysis indicate that the works of architecture, architects, historical narratives, and architectural pathology are the most recurring themes in the past 70 years. Categories such as works of architecture and architects have continuously attracted the attention of authors architecture and architects have; however, some other categories, such as architectural pathology and historical narratives, have recently taken centre stage.

This article aims to identify the factors affecting elderly satisfaction with outdoor spaces of residential complexes, and to explain these factors and formulate a model using the ‘Delphi Method’ and the ‘Shannon Technique’. The two main questions of this study are ‘what are the factors affecting the satisfaction of the elderly with the outdoor space of residential complexes’ and ‘how one can understand the importance of each in relation to others’. To answer these questions, the opinions of ten Delphi experts were collected using interviews and questionnaires, and analysed using the Shannon Technique. Findings show that the most important factor affecting outdoor satisfaction of the elderly is the ‘physical’ aspect of the space, with ‘spatial supply’, ‘views’, ‘spatial organisation’, and ‘aesthetics’ being most effective indicators in this respect. This is followed by "individual-social" aspects, with ‘age, ‘feelings and needs’ and ‘expectations’ as its most effective indicators. Next comes ‘performance-management’, with ‘community surveillance’, ‘safety’ and ‘access to public and private services’ as its most effective indicators. Finally, a model for residential satisfaction factors of the elderly is developed, which outlines the weight of each of these factors and indicators.

A policy to encourage building optimization and to reduce the building’s energy consumption is rating and labeling building’s energy performance which is usually based on the assessment of the building’s thermal performances. The building energy labeling method used in Iran differs from those introduced through international standards. The present paper aims to compare the two above methods. To achieve this objective, the thermal performance of 184 residential buildings are studied in the mild humid climate of Babolsar, using both modeling and “performance approach” methods. The modeling is done using Energy Plus software to predict annual energy requirements. The “performance approach” is methods prescribed by Chapter 19, National Iranian Building Regulations, to compute U-values. All buildings were labeled first based on their annual energy requirements then based on the proportion of building U value to the reference U value. The two ratings show a low correlation (0.2) between them with different labeling in 40% of cases. This renders revisions to the Iranian system inevitable. A combined labeling system is proposed in the conclusion.

The city, the metropolis, the land, the earth, and even the smaller-scale buildings, roads, squares, neighbourhoods...; convey layers of history through their backgrounds layers through which one can read through the images inscribed in them, hear vanished voices. Obviously, the older the place the richer the accumulation of layers.
One can recognise dichotomies of happiness and sadness, life and death, poverty and wealth, confidence and betrayal, innocence and guilt ... in each of these historical layers. Each layer witnesses the passage of time, and unveils real realms of the memories. When spaces are "blended, rebuilt, or re-moulded," traces of previous patterns remains, suggests Brian Ladd in The Ghosts of Berlin in a deserted city.
There is a labyrinthine vision of the historical layers through which anyone, such as Walter Benjamin’s "Flâneur", can explore and reread palimpsests so that historical layers begin to unfold. The territory is not a specific product; it is the result of various processes over time. What forms the state of the territory today is affected by the natural or man-made, cultural or technological factors of the past; they have left their traces on the figure, the image, the face and the profile of the land and place.
The purpose of this study is to introduce the Palimpsest approach in explaining and understanding historical cities. The research method in this article is qualitative and with content analysis to explain the city Palimpsest method and its properties based on several questions .The study of this article is a review of the city Palimpsest approach and explores the methods and results that can be used to identify historical cities and preserve their historical continuity.

In more developed countries significant changes have occurred in the ways in which risks are viewed, so much that the prevailing view has shifted from a mere concentration of vulnerability reduction towards increasing resilience against disasters. On this basis, risk reduction programmes should seek the creation and reinforcement of resilient communities. Due to its particular natural and geographic conditions, Tehran has been vulnerable against a series of shocks including earthquakes, floods etc., rendering the attention to the concept of resilience all the more necessary.
The present paper views the measurement of resilience in Tehran using indicators, and the offering of an investigation method, as a first step towards making the city more resilient. This is done here based on Tehran districts’ 2001 statistical data, using ‘Baseline Resilience Indicators for Communities’ (BRIC) methods, and with a focus on a series of indicators based on amended ‘Disaster Resilience of Place’ (DROP) model as presented by Cutter et al. A conceptual model is made on this basis, and used to calculate a combined resilience indicator using ‘Fuzzy Analytic Network Process’ (F’ANP), which is comprised of factor analysis and ANP network model. After accurately defining the conceptual model through affirming factor analysis according to resilience levels, Tehran’s 23 resilience indicators were determined under six categories socio-economic, public service accessibility, infrastructural-social, open space (infrastructural), activity-economic, and infrastructural. These factors and their indicators were then used to process F’ANP analytical model. This significance factor was then combined with arithmetic combination method, and eventually the resilience combined indicator was worked out, and then applied to Tehran districts. The results show higher resilience levels for the northern half of Tehran compared to its southern half.

Efforts by Iranian intellectuals in the Constitution and Reza Shah periods to elaborate the two concepts of ‘national architecture heritage’ and ‘history of Iranian architecture’ were parts of their attempts to institutionalise modernity. These two concepts were in turn based on other concepts such as ‘time’, ‘past’, ‘history’ and ‘old-age oeuvre’, and are noteworthy for exploring their foundations and history as well as their conflicting and evolutional aspects. This article tries to use an interpretive-historical method to contrast the first-hand documents and quotes from the period, with those from later takes on that period in order to answer the questions of: 1) What are the origins of the ideas of ‘national architecture heritage of Iran’ and ‘history of Iranian architecture’?; and 2) What are the areas of conflict and evolution of these concepts? Examining these concepts, this research tries to detect conflicting and evolutional modes of them. Modern concepts such as the ‘progress’ (advancement) seem to associate the two above concepts, whilst demarcations between the two indicate a contrast, which is to do with the potential of national architectural heritage in constructing a sense of fascination with, and grandeur of ancient Iran in the Constitution and Reza Shah periods on one hand, and the position of architectural history in creating a systematic methodology for dealing with history, emphasising the need for carefulness and attention to details towards understanding the history in its accurate form.