مجله صفه
پیاپی 92 (بهار 1400)

There is difference between criticizing architecture and speaking about architectural criticism, its terms, principles, and methodology. One is architectural criticism and the other is its theory, which refers to foundations, approaches, philosophy, and criticism of architectural criticism. Regarding the world crisis of architectural criticism, more study and research on its theory is needed; and that's while theories of criticism aren't yet studied enough. On one hand, Architectural criticism has no unique and persistent theory, and on the other hand, when we review its history, we see that different theories have been developed and refuted constantly. Changes of these theories is explicable by studying the history of architectural criticism; and in order to find its main theories and their changes, we investigate the theories of architectural criticism from its emergence in 19th century up to now. To show this history, this research is based on secondary sources of architectural criticism, and documentary research methods and conceptual history approach is applied. In this article, theory of architectural criticism in the west will be examined in five principal eras: first, from the end of the 19th century to the mid of 20th century, during which the critique of the journalist criticism commenced and the controversial nature of architectural criticism and intermediary criticisms between the professionals and a non-specialized audience were constantly debated in architectural journals. At the same time the modern movement changed the concept of architecture and caused discussions about psychology and aesthetics criteria in architectural criticism; second, the 1960s, in which architectural theories were mainly affected by research in the methodologies of design studies and linguistics theories of the sign, both attempting toward a scientific theory for architectural criticism. in the meanwhile, theory of normative criticism supported by theory of modern architecture was developed; third is 1970’s era, when Marxian analyses of urban and architectural space, linguistic, anthropological and sociological matters of architecture were transposed into theory of criticism; 4th, the 1980s and 1990s, that was influenced by ever more individualized architectural tendencies, the absence of dominant doctrines, and the disintegration of ideologies, caused debates the paradigm shift of architectural criticism and change of its role from judging to mapping; the last is 21century, when the concept of critical architecture referring to the critical potentiality of architecture gave rise to harsh debate in the USA. Finally, the most recent research, 2016, titled "Mapping Architectural criticism, 20th and 21st Centuries: A Cartography" does not establish a theory or definition, rather, it aims at comparing several concepts of architectural criticism by historiography. In this article, it is shown how the transformations of theories in the history of architectural criticism are influenced by the way theorists and critics consider the concept of architecture itself. It means whether considering architecture as an autonomous intellectual production, or an interdisciplinary production, directly affects the way of developing a theory of architectural criticism.

The transfer of any concept from the sciences to engineering needs a comprehensive understanding and an ability to connect the two. Thanks to their evolution and passing of the test of time, the use of biological features has always been of particular importance. Adaptability is one of the main characteristics of living organisms, which let them survive in changing environments and ultimately results in their evolution. It can involve a number of aspects in architecture: functional, structural, formal, cultural, and commercial. On this basis, it is essential to pay attention to scale in any concept transfer from the sciences to architecture. The present research studies the scale in the original science and tries to define corresponding scales in architecture. Determining corresponding scales facilitates the use of a given scientific concept in architecture. The research starts with a study of the concept of adaptability in biological sciences based on their characteristics and scales; and then seeks ways to transfer them into architecture using a solution-centred approach. The research method is deductive starting from macro- and then moving on to micro-levels of the sciences. Finally, adaptability is studied in various built-environment scales with its associate elements classified. The connection between the two areas is made, first through the introduction of analytic units as datum points, and then the establishment of corresponding levels. This approach prevents possible misconceptions caused by incompatible scales in the two realms.

The crucial role of housing design to inhabit people requires serious attention to qualitative desing principles. Given the dynamism, subtle, of Iranian life culture and the influential role of housing in it, a housing design tailor-made to a certain period may well be unfit for future needs. Problematically, the housing plan is considered as fixed, whilst families grow, shrink and change, and so do their needs. Taking flexibility into account, therefore, guarantees a longer stay for residents. In other words, planning for future functional and spatial changes would correspond with the future needs of residents, thereby preventing their then unnecessary moves. The present study aims to improve flexibility in contemporary residential units, with a focus on the assessment of extensions and divisions in the interiors and adjoining residential units. In order to do so, a qualitative approach is adopted, first through documents and library studies, and then by analysing examples of traditional Iranian housing and European apartments designed in recent decades as examples of flexible housing. It then moves on to identify the role of extension and division in spatial flexibility, followed by measuring them in apartment housing types in Tehran District 2. The results indicate that the extension and division are at lowest levels in one-bedrooms and highest in three-bedrooms. Also, the allocation of a ‘floating’ space between private and public spaces is proposed as a responsive approach to the extension and division needs.

Following the increase in population in cities, increasing the density of buildings is one of the solutions for population settlement. But how this increase and how it relates to the quality of life of the residents is debatable. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between housing units density in the building and the quality of the indoor environment of residential complexes. For this purpose, Sepahan-Shahr town in Isfahan was selected as a case study. In order to achieve this goal, first the residential complexes of Sepahan-Shahr town were divided into 8 categories.  Then, the required data were collected by documentary and field methods (observation and questionnaire). For this purpose, stratified random sampling method was used with equal allocation method and 136 residential units in Sepahan-Shahr were questioned. In addition, the parametricity of the data was first investigated by Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Then, the Kruskal – Wallis test and the U-Man-Whitney test were used to analysis of the significance of the difference between the building density groups. The results showed that there is a parabolic relationship between the density of the number of residential units and the quality of the indoor environment in residential complexes. Low-density or high-density models are higher in internal quality and therefore more desirable than medium-density models in complexes. It is suggested that due to the social and cultural characteristics of the residents of Sepahan-Shahr in particular and similar cities in general to have higher quality complexes of indoor environment, low or high density patterns should be used by observing criteria related to indoor quality.

All psychologists of child development believe that the main core of developmental theories is interaction of an individual with the environment. Based on the empirical studies of children’s outdoor activities, the environment affects the child behavior; so that by changing the environment, the child behavior will change. Today, the population growth of cities on the one hand, and rising land prices on the other, has created overcrowded residential environments. Living in such environments has had a negative impact on the individual and social health of residents. Children, as the most vulnerable group of society, are at greater risk of being exposed to changes in physical and social environments than other groups. In recent years, due to urbanization problems, life style and building density, the middle area in residential complex is an important space where kids can spend most of their time after school, for leisure and social interaction Since these places are dedicated to the important part of the daily lives of children, so improving their quality can be effective on their overall development. Accordingly, in the present study, designing the middle area of a residential complex as a childlike environment and responsive to the kids play needs (3-6 years old) and consequently affecting their social development has the great importance. Based on the literature review, it can be stated that children tend to physical environment in order to satisfy the play need as a factor of intrinsic motivation. So, they gradually start to make changes to it. Furthermore, the physical environmental stimuli, as a factor of extrinsic motivation, play an important role in kids’ motivation to free play. The result is creating environmental affordances which can be entitled environmental affordances to motivate kids to play, regarding to the theory of affordances. The purpose of environmental affordances to motivate kids to play as the potential affordances or the functional affordances is to make the environment usable for children’s play behavior (autotelic or free play), in a way they have freedom to act in accordance with the goals and motivational resources as well as to interact with the environment. More precisely, quality of the elements and physical components of the environment as the extrinsic motivation factor encourage kids to play. So their motivation to free play will increase in physical environment. The final result is the transformation of the physical environment into a playful environment for kids. Therefore, it is possible to determine the design principles of the middle area in residential complex in such a way that by increasing the kid’s sensory stimulations and social interaction, his or her motivation to play can be increased. In the present research, based on the combination of theories related to the research subject, a mixed method research (Qualitative & Quantitative) was used. Accordingly, the theoretical framework of the research has been developed with a qualitative method and aimed at searching for skeletal-functional and cognitive-behavioral features effective on creating and enhancing kids’ motivation to play. On the other hand, the extent and quality of the impact of each component have been resulted in the transforming of quantitative data into quantitative data. This research has been conducted in three main stages: the first stage (hypothesis formulation) by logical argumentation method, the second stage (hypothesis testing) survey based on Delphi method and the third stage (results validation) by simulation method. In this way, after the sample selection and data collection by means of open form questionnaire and closed form, important factors affecting on kids’ motivation to play were extracted by using factor analysis. These factors were: controllability, child-centered legibility, natural stimulant factors, social interactions (generational- intergenerational), vitality of environment, and also sensory stimulation. Then, based on the correlation between the factors, a linear model was designed. The model was modified by path analysis method while investigating the factors’ relationship and degree of influence on each other. In the following, based on the present model, research literature and the result of open-ended questionnaire, the research hypotheses were analyzed and interpreted. Findings showed that "vitality of environment" and "natural stimulant factors" had a positive and significant effect on "sensory stimulation". The impact of "natural stimulant factors", "vitality of environment", "child-centered legibility" and "controllability" in the middle area of the residential complex has also a positive and significant effect on children's "social interactions (generational- Intergenerational)". After guaranteeing the research hypotheses validity, the design principles of the middle area in residential complex were extracted. In the final stage, these design principles were transformed into comprehensible images for kids, and then put to the test of 3-6 years old kids living in residential complexes. Finally, the design principles confirmed by kids, will be considered as the design principles of the middle area in residential complex which consequently promote Iranian kids’ motivation to play.

According to experts, educational environments have undeniable effects on students' academic performance. Actually there is a direct relationship between the quality of educational environments, the extent of learning and student educational attainment. Although it's been twenty years since the first experience in the reuse of historic houses as architecture school in our country, however, the success rate of this action and the relationship between the quality of these spaces and students' education, has not been assessed. This article intends to evaluate the lived experience of architecture students in the reuse of historic houses as architectural schools, for example the impact of this action on the students' study in four levels, consist of physical, Perceptual- Semantic, Social and educational aspects. Structural Equation Modeling was used to finalize the research operational model of the research and to determine the relationship between the variables. The research results show that changing the function of historical houses to the architecture school at Tabriz Islamic Art University, despite there is some problems in providing of side spaces affecting education, it is a successful example of the student lived experience that, while preserving historical-cultural properties, it plays a positive role in student education.

Architectural history is a less than two-century-old discipline. A survey of its theoretical resources indicates a lack of consensus on what architectural history is and what it should be, and of course, how it should be made. This is partly to do with a lack of clarity in definitions of terms ‘history’ and ‘architecture’ themselves, and hence the attempt here for clarification of meanings of these terms and their relation. This research recognises six modes for ‘architectural history:1. The Study of architecture through a course of time 2. The more focused study of architecture through a short period 3. The study of architecture and buildings as ‘historical’ entities in relation with other historical entities 4. The study of past human actions with a focus on their ‘spatiality’ 5. The study of ‘architectural remains’ of the past in order to provide evidence for historiography 6. The study of history through acts of architecture So far, modes 1, 2, 3 and 5 have been realised, and mode 4 is developing. But the sixth mode is yet to be realised, and we can only talk about it in a theoretical level. The research is non-qualitative, and uses content analysis method, with a logical reasoning approach. There are five chapters: ‘introduction’, ‘dual meanings of “history”’, ‘architecturally themed history’, modes of architectural history, and conclusion.