Saeid Norouzian-Maleki

Cultural landscapes are formed through the interaction between human communities and the natural environment. They include physical elements such as settlements, agricultural lands, roads, vegetation, water systems, and land-use patterns, as well as non-material dimensions such as collective memory, cultural identity, local knowledge, social practices, visual experience, and emotional attachment ...

Balcony as a border between internal and external plays a crucial role in determining the quality of the apartments. The current condition of apartment balconies in Tehran, indicates that balconies have been gradually been forgotten due to their non-functional features for users. In architecture, space quality is measured by user preferences and can serve as a guide for designers in future designs. The objective of the present study was to identify the dominant physical characteristics of balconies in Tehran and improve people’s visual preference from both outside and inside viewpoints. Photographing, Delphi technique and collecting public questionnaire were used to do the research, and quantitative data were gathered through administering questionnaires. Valid responses were gathered, then the collected data were analyzed using SPSS. According to the results, there is a significant difference between the two categories of pleasant and unpleasant. In addition, the characteristics of desirable images from the outside and inside are not always the same. From the outside view of the balcony, the area is the most effective parameter, which in pleasant images was between 50% and 75% of the façade area. Fully solid and completely fences parapet, were preferred from the outside view, while from the user’s point of view, the space from the inside of the balcony with a completely fences parapet was unpleasant and a completely solid or a combination of a solid and fences was preferred.

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to quantitatively evaluate the role of landscape values and factors in urban parks experimentally based on neuroscience.Design/methodology/approach: In the first step, ten major parks were selected out of 59 regional and trans-regional parks in Tehran for field study analysis. Next, considering the diversity and abundance of landscape elements in the selected parks, Mellat Park was chosen for the case study.Findings: The fixation duration of the factors has an average correlation coefficient of 0.5865, −0.5035 and −0.5125 for the overall sketch map, quality and accuracy, respectively. The results indicated that the “quality of people's cognitive maps” has a direct relation to fixation duration on “human-made factors” and an inverse relation to fixation duration on “natural factors” and “human activities and behavioral factors” in the park.Practical implications: The results can pave the way for further research in the interdisciplinary fields of landscape architecture and neuroscience.Originality/value: Legibility is a superior quality of urban spaces that profoundly affect how people perceive and behave.