Iran is currently subject to a number of adverse factors affecting good development in the built
environment: population explosion, oil- dependent economy, finite resources, war and natural
disasters, etc. The object of the study is to research a development model appropriate to the
Country's needs for a proactive system of building environment. This model is not specific to
Iran and, as the case studies and the discourse of the thesis indicate, is universal. However,
the author suggests that the validity of development approaches will not be determined as a result of theoretical and ideological debate but in the realm of practice. Therefore, he has
explored diverse ways in which professionals in the built environment can provide an
analytical survey of the problems that beset them. An attempt has been made to bring these
various elements into perspective and offer a model of 'endogenous development'.The process for achieving a viable, exciting and humane built environment is very complex
and calls for contributions from many individuals and small multi -disciplinary groups. Beside
professionals contributions (which is accomplished by deduction inference), there is a need
for people's participation in design process (which is accomplished either by deduction or by
abduction inferences). This participatory approach can also help shifting the process of design
towards a wider domain that of the 'production process' (which is accomplished by abduction
and induction inferences). Production process is the first paradigm of the model of
endogenous development and is a manifestation of a feedback mechanism and acts as an open - ended living system. The second is 'supply- demand' paradigm which shows the relationships
between the components of a system or between different systems in surface- structuresThis model is directed at society's development, not just its economic growth, but it does not
preclude the possibility of such growth. The reduction of the problems' effect in an
endogenous development is viewed more as a way of improving the quality of life than of
increasing the standard of living. Nowadays, people are passive recipients in the consumer
society and are totally dependent on others for their survival. This style of living is assumed
to project an image of economic development and higher productivity, but there is a confrontation of preadjusted commodities which are the products of others. That is because
the process of production is not natural (i.e. a closed loop cyclic process via feedback
control). It is artificial (i.e. an open -loop linear process via a feed -forward control) which may
not help satisfying the user's needs and wants entirely. In the built environment, the great
majority have no say in the planning and design of their homes or places of work.Accordingly, endogenous development offers a framework within which the necessity of
employing the people's creative power in building their environment is explained. It is based
on the assumption that each individual and society's knowledge and experiences play a central
and mediating role between professionals' perceptions of the environment and a series of
preferences judgements or choices they might make towards and within that environment.
Indigenous knowledge and cultural attributes of traditional societies and the organizational
capabilities of traditional polities are essential in qualification of the development plans, which
are also evaluated and assessed by this proposed framework
