Investigating Architectural Techniques for Designing and Creating Sustainable Spaces

The impact of architecture on the environment has turned out to be an important issue for which much research has already been conducted. Although the earth (soil) constitutes a major part of the environment, its use in creating sustainable architecture has not yet been precisely studied. The article focuses on earth (soil), as one of the oldest ecological building materials, and presents new ideas and technologies regarding its use. As a result, the use of earth in creating sustainable architecture will be discussed

Review of Different Architectural Strategies for Creating Sustainable Universities

Nowadays Universities are considered as one source of environmental pollution due to their population and different activities occur in universities’ campuses. A lot of energy and materials are consumed during teaching activities and research process in universities. Although some environmental protection strategies can be seen in some universities, but more sustainable approaches to reduce the negative impacts of those activities are neglected. Therefore, this paper reviews some strategies for achieving sustainable universities through economical, environmental and social aspects based on previous studies in terms of Planning, transportation, energy efficiency and indoor environment. Finding of this research can be used for designing future higher education spaces with sustainable approach. Keywords: Sustainable University, Planning, Transportation, Energy efficiency, Indoor environmen

Investigating The Effect of Different Building’s Orientation on Amount of Cooling Load in Kerman City Located in Hot and Arid Region of Iran

In hot and arid climate regions  such as Kerman , overheating spaces in a building is crucial, especially in hot seasons, which causes enhancing  cooling load consequently causes increasing energy consumption for creating comfort condition in buildings. Lack of consideration to this problem, causes energy crisis in the first step and in the next step excessive environmental pollution is provided. Prior researches show that form and window area and window orientation in buildings have considerable effect on energy consumption  in buildings. The purpose of this research is the effectiveness of different window’s orientations on cooling load in Kerman city with using simulation program IES<VE>.  Ten rooms with the same characteristics with different Window areas (from 10% WWR to 100%WWR) in different orientations were modeled in simulation program. Then, the amount of cooling load was calculated for each model with different window area and orientations in 22nd of June. The results were compared for different models. The findings of this research indicated that the most cooling load related to the West, East and South orientation respectively

Evaluation of Conceptual Properties by Layperson in Residential Façade Designs

When it comes to aesthetic evaluation of a design, architects and non-architects differ from each other. This study demonstrates how aesthetic evaluation of buildings could be predicted. These predictions are important for architects as they can be used to find the users preferences and expectations of the design. Preference is considered to involve conceptual evaluation about whether the design is liked or disliked. In environmental preference, this type of conceptual evaluation might be conscious or unconscious. The aim of this study is to identify the essential conceptual properties that are related to aesthetic evaluation of façade designs using qualitative methodology. As a result it can be concluded that not all the conceptual properties are related to aesthetic evaluation of the design. Some conceptual properties are not important from the eye of non-architects and some are highly important. Findings of this research could help architects to understand the perception of non-architects. Keywords: Aesthetic evaluation, Conceptual properties, Environmental Perception, Façade design, User preferenc

The Strategies of Passive Defense in Architecture of Old Districts in Kerman City

Passive defence is a strategy to increase life quality, when Internal or external enemy is trying to torment people and break the people stability. Old Iranian scientists of urban planning have planned some strategies to decrease such torments that nowadays are called passive defences. Nowadays passive defences is not considered in most houses and its importance is decreased. The most important factor in people welfare is their feeling of security in their private places that would be obtained by passive defence principles. Ignoring this case destroy feeling of sequrity. In Iranian traditional architecture some strategies were considered that are in accordance whit todays passive defence principles. This research is conducted to recognize these traditional strategies, by literature reviewing and field observation. Recognizing such strategies would result in knowledge that could be used in planning and improving of nowadays urban spaces by modern architects

The Relationship between Physical Characteristics of the Architectural Education and Creativity

The main purpose of Designing Architecture School is to foster the creativity of its users and physical features prominently play an important role in development of creativity. Since Rafsanjan city has no college specifically for the architecture, this research  investigated the impact of the physical components on creativity by using a questionnaire and by using the study results has tried to take an important step towards the creation of the Architecture School in this city. The population of study consists of a number of experts in the field of architecture were chosen to complete the questionnaire. The study has evaluated the correlational relationship between physical features and operating environment of creativity. The results indicate the high impact of physical features on the creativity

Identifying the different aesthetic quality of building attributes from architects perspectives

It seems that many designers do not know, from a non-designer viewpoint, what a pleasant building looks like. If designers are ever to have more pleasant buildings in the eyes of the majority of the residents who are not designers, this problem desires study and explanations which in this study the researcher tries to answer. Part of the solution lies in discovering the physical and cognitive property of the differences in aesthetic criteria in designers. The aim of the present study is to identify objective physical building cues that are connected to aesthetic quality in Architects and the designers of the buildings. The researcher used a quantitative questionnaire to find the values of each building attribute among architects. The results found that building attribute have different values among architects. Some physical cues are very important for architects and some are not so much important

Investigating daylight quality using self-shading strategy in energy commission building in Malaysia

There are a lot of office buildings without strategies for daylight utilization. Different strategies are suggested for better use of daylight. Self-shading strategy has been suggested to eliminate direct solar radiation to minimise energy use for cooling in offices but, the amount of daylight penetrating into the building can be reduced. In this research, the effectiveness of self-shading strategy on daylight is investigated through experimental method. Daylight parameters are measured in two individual office rooms in Energy Commission Building as a model of self-shading buildings. The objective is to investigate daylight quality in individual office room based on different criteria such as work plane illuminance, relative daylight ratio, surface luminance have been compared with recommended values. Finding of this research demonstrates that by employing self-shading strategy, the amount of daylight that enters the space could reduce but by applying other strategies like light shelves and venetian blinds, with self-shading strategy, acceptable performance in terms of daylight quality can be achieved. These strategies can be employed for future design of office buildings to reduce energy consumption for lighting as well as to comply with the goal of sustainable architecture. © The Author(s) 2012 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/ journalsPermissions.nav

Evaluation of conceptual properties by layperson in residential façade design

When it comes to aesthetic evaluation of a design, architects and non-architects differ from each other. This study demonstrates how aesthetic evaluation of buildings could be predicted. These predictions are important for architects as they can be used to find the users preferences and expectations of the design. Preference is considered to involve conceptual evaluation about whether the design is liked or disliked. In environmental preference, this type of conceptual evaluation might be conscious or unconscious. The aim of this study is to identify the essential conceptual properties that are related to aesthetic evaluation of façade designs using qualitative methodology. As a result it can be concluded that not all the conceptual properties are related to aesthetic evaluation of the design. Some conceptual properties are not important from the eye of non-architects and some are highly important. Findings of this research could help architects to understand the perception of non-architects