People

 

 

 

 

Director:                                                                                                                                                       

Dr. Amir Shakibamanesh is an Urban Designer with more than 12 years of professional experience. He currently works as an associate professor of urban design at the University of Art, Tehran, Iran. He is the author or coauthor of more than 25 scholarly articles and monographs, and author of 9 books and book chapters. He is also the director of Virtual Reality and Emerging Technologies Lab in Urban Design and Architecture. Dr. Shakibamanesh’s research interests include smart cities, urban modeling and simulation, virtual & augmented reality, and urban scene analysis.

 

 

 

Researchers:

 

    • Reza Ashouri
  • Affiliation: 
  • MA student in Urban Design at Art University, Tehran, Iran
  • Research Title:

Investigating the Relationship Between Visibility and Perception of Urban Facades; Using Eye Tracking Technique in Virtual Environment

  • Research Abstract:

Urban Facades as one of the most important elements of cities are the first layer of urban spaces that people see and perceive. Thus, the proper design of urban facades is an essential factor for the desirability of urban spaces.

Urban facades are a symbol of visual identity and are seen by space observers as an urban showcase, and for this reason, measures should be taken to organize the urban facade and landscape. Also, because Urban-design always deals with the perception of its audience, which is the citizens, The urban landscape and mostly residential facades become more important. Therefore, Urban facades are one of the most important parts of the perception of urban spaces. and since visual perception and seeing are the essential parts of the observer's perception of the urban space, it is important to study the visibility of urban facades and determine the importance of facade components. also, it's essential to know which part of the facades are visible to the observer and users of the Urban spaces.

In this study, we try to find the relationship between the visibility of urban walls and their perception, using Eye-tracking technique, which is one of the most accurate methods to find the gazing points and find the positions that attract observers, with the help of digital modeling within an urban street. This is doubly important because when we, as designers, know what observers and users of Urban spaces see most and use them to create their perception of urban space, we can create cities more purposefully and intelligently. also, the findings of this study besides helping urban designers can benefit experts in urban planning and urban management too.

  •   Research Interests:

Eye Tracking and Urban Studies, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, GIS and Urban Simulation, Startups and Entrepreneurship

  •  Email:

r.ashouri@student.art.ac.ir

 

 

 

 

    • Narges  Ahmadpour
  • Affiliation:

Graduated from  Art University in Master of Urban Design

  • Research Title:

Analysis of urban form complexity impact on the perceived legibility at the pedestrian scale, recording EEG signals in a virtual environment (VR)

  • Research Abstract:

Due to the rapid urban population growth and city development, complexity has become a major problem for contemporary architecture, urban planning, and design. Studies in the field of spatial perception have shown that human capacity to process short-term memory information is limited and user's preferences are associated with a medium level of complexity (Good visual complexity, the balance between order and disorder). The human perceptual system can only perceive complexity if it is organized in some way. There are a variety of ways to do this, including Hierarchy, symmetry, scaling, correlation, etc. These patterns of organizations are common among almost all traditional man-made artifacts from objects to buildings and cities of the past. But modern urbanism and architecture, by intentional ignorance of these laws of order, create settlements that are destructive to the human psyche. The most important quality in the urban environment, dependent on the ease of receiving and organizing environmental information is the quality of "legibility". This concept is highly dependent on the city's mental map formation in perceiver’s minds. Monotonous environments on one hand and chaotic environments on the other hand without regulative patterns are not easily understood or recalled, and overly complex designs lead to confusion. As a result, the complexity affects legibility by providing the necessary stimuli, arranged in a coherent structure. The main purpose of this study is to analyze the complexity of physical form and its effect on the perceived legibility from the pedestrian perspective. This study uses EEG Signals Analysis, applying a neurological approach to make a broader insight into brain functionality, faced with visual and structural complexity. Moreover, considering the necessity of precise control on objective factors affecting subjective complexity in this research and the multisensory nature of complexity perception, including the effect of non-visual variables such as sounds and odors, research is run in a virtual reality environment, making it possible to control variables and systematically manipulate environmental features related to physical complexity. It is hypothesized that the optimal level of complexity is positively correlated to the legibility of the urban form.

  •   Research Interests:

Complexity, Order, Legibility, Cognitive Map, Urban Form, EEG, VR

  •  Email:

n.ahmadpour@student.art.ac.ir

 

    • Nastaran  Ajidanpour
  • Affiliation:

Graduated from  Art University in Master of Urban Design

 

  • Research Title:

Using Virtual Reality to Investigate the Effect of Physical Structureand Urban Configuration on the Quality of Pedestrian's Soundscape Experience in Public Spaces

 

  • Research Abstract:

One of the main challenges in urban design is enhancing the relationship between human perception and environment as well as improving pedestrians' experience by focusing on their apprehension of surroundings. However, urban design mainly centers on the visual scape of surroundings and overlooks other human senses such as hearing. Specifically, the imbalance between the perception of visual and soundscape has hampered the capability of achieving a thorough perception of our surroundings. The physical structure is one of the main factors affecting the visual-auditory balance. This research studies the impact of different physical structures and spatial configurations on the pedestrians' soundscape perception of urban spaces.

It is impractical to change the physical structures and spatial configurations in real life or control the non-physical factors. Therefore, this study employs virtual reality to probe the research hypothesis. Moreover, the physical components are prioritized and a subset of the most important components have been taken into account in our experiments.  Hence, it is attempted to simulate the physical-spatial experiments as accurately as possible by considering several factors. The spatial configuration, height, width, and the number of public spaces in a path are taken into account along with the real-life sound effects. We used a questionnaire to evaluate the impact of the abovementioned factors on pedestrians' soundscape perception. Statistical analysis is conducted in SPSS software to study the mechanism and dependencies between different factors. Moreover, we simulated the distribution of sound in our experiments using the Arraycalc software. It is observed that there is a strong correlation between the soundscape perception factors and the physical-spatial configuration of a structure. Furthermore, our experiments show that in the spiral and convex spatial configurations, reducing structure height, width, and obstacles will improve the auditory experience of pedestrians significantly.

  •   Research Interests:

Analysis of soundscape in public spaces, Using Virtual reality in urban studies, Survey the Effect of Physical Structure and Urban Configuration on the of Pedestrian's experience, Analysis of human perception on different urban issues, Simulation and designing of public spaces

  •  Email:

n.ajidanpour@student.art.ac.ir

    •  
    • Mahdeiyeh Kokabi

 

  • Affiliation:

Graduated from  Art University in Master of Urban Design

  • Research Title:

Analyzing the Mass-Space 3D Relationship System to Achieve Optimum Visibility between Urban Buildings and Public open Spaces; using 3D Isovist Technique (Case Study: Persian Gulf lake, Tehran)

  • Research Abstract:

In recent years, the quality of view in public spaces and buildings has received a lot of attentions from urban designers with the purpose of improving the quality of human living environment in cities. This Thesis was conducted to achieve an optimal model of visibility among buildings and public spaces. To this end, three indices, i.e. "view from public space to the surrounding space", "view from the building to adjacent buildings", and "view from the building to open space”, were investigated taking into account the physical-spatial structure and Visual privacy. Therefore, in this research three-dimensional isovist - as a technique for representing physical space and analyzing view – was used to quantitatively assess the visibility of small-scale urban areas. Isovist variables effective in measuring the three research indices Included six variables of volume, area, perimeter, occlusivity, length of minimum & maximum line of sights in three sites in the north of Persian Gulf Lake in Tehran were evaluated. To analyze and evaluate isovist variables, Grasshopper plugin in Rhino was used because of features like the possibility of dynamic changes in modeling, the possibility of detailed analysis and the ability to perform analysis in the shortest time. The results showed that variables such as severe spatial enclosure, high building density and uniform skyline increased the visibility of buildings, resulting in weak Visual privacy and reduced view to open space from inside buildings and from public spaces. Finally, the integrated model of measuring optimal visibility was introduced. The present Research can be a basis for future studies. Research indicators can be evaluated in relation to residents perceptions of space and using Virtual Reality technique. Also, the integrated model presented in this dissertation has the ability to become software for measuring the optimal visibility between buildings and public spaces.

  •   Research Interests:

Visibility Analysis & 3D Isovist, Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality in Urban Design, Agent-Based Modeling in Urban Design, Smart Cities

  •  Email:

m.kokabi@student.art.ac.ir

 

 

    • Kiana Haghighat nejad
  • Affiliation:

Graduated from Art University in Master of Energy in Architecture

  • Research Title:

Use of augmented reality to guide the occupant to reduce energy consumption in the building

  • Research Abstract:

Principled design of the building by the designer, supervision in the execution phase, and the correct use of users in the operation phase can all together lead to a reduction in building energy consumption. So far, energy experts worldwide have done lots of research to help the designer improve the design process. However, after being built, users determine how much the designer's expectations have been met during operation. The idea of the present study was s tarted with the main purpose of introducing a tool to reduce energy consumption with the guidance of the user,  so in the first stage, we get through the importance of user's impact on energy saving then Augmented reality has led to the user being shown how his /her performance and his decisions affect energy consumption, carbon dioxide emissions and related monthly costs, and suggests the best performance. This study examines the shutters explicitly as a case study so that after opening the augmented reality application and holding the phone camera (Vuforia camera) to the window, the best shutter angle is displayed to the user real-timely. The main challenge was how to communicate two software at the moment.  Honeybee in Grosshapper environment and Unity(game engine), along with that next challenge, was the connection between Unity and the AR application. The proposed solution was to use UDP (User Datagram Protocol) and network with the same Ips.

  •   Research Interests:

Developing energy analysis software, Produce Augmented-reality based educational applications, Produce Energy saving applications, Zero energy building design (planning, strategies, analysing)

  •  Email:

k.hagheghat@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

    • Safoora Sadra
  • Affiliation:

Graduated from  Art University in Master of Urban Design

  • Research Title:

Studying and analyzing the effect of some visual qualities on meditation and attention of users; using electroencephalography (EEG) technique. (Case study: the the section between the Vali Asr Square and the City Theater, Tehran)

  • Research Abstract:

The Mutual relationship between man and environment was the key to this research. Considering this relationship, this study was surveyed the effect of some visual qualities such as scale, transparency, and continuity on meditation and attention. The impact on the environment is physical and the impact on man is perceptual and emotional. Physical changes have always been considered in urban studies But always unknown and untestable part was emotional and perceptual changes in the brains and minds of users before any behavior occurs.

Using scientific tools and methods to study brain waves that have been translated into meditation and attention is the difference between this study and others. So environments were designed according to visual qualities to move users in these environments using virtual reality tools and methods for recording brainwaves and translation of them to meditation and attention by EEG as a technique and Neurosky mindwave as a tool.

  •   Research Interests:

Smart City, Neuroscience and Urbanism, Gamification, Urban Tourism

  •  Email:

saforasadra@gmail.com

 

 

 

    • AmirEhsan Pouyan
  • Affiliation:

 Ph.D. candidate in architecture at Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training Universit, Tehran, Iran.

  • Research Title:

Principles of Wayfinding process improvement in Therapeutic Spaces and Facilitating Behavioral Dynamics- With the use of Neuroscience approach

  • Research Abstract:

My work promotes the healthcare environment and the adoption of new design technologies to improve the relationship between people and they’re within the environment. The rapid growth of the baby boomer generation illustrates the need for more efficient healthcare design. A major contributing factor in successful design lies with the efficiency of the wayfinding system. Wayfinding systems provide the aid individuals need in order to find their way from one location to another. Furthermore, by investigating wayfinding, in general, will yield in not solving micro-scale issues of hospital wards. At first people by comprehending the outer form of a hospital, would get the gist of an idea whereby that healthcare building will operate, however, without and in-patients encountering indoors layout, first-time users may usually feel that they’ve disoriented, stressed or even confused; due to the vast scale of a functional structure of a hospital. There are many factors involved in designing more efficient hospitals. Built-in treatment-care environments with appropriate internal configuration, access, and spatial circulation can create an inviting, relaxing, inclusive, and healthier health environment for staff, patients, and sick companions. But the first and foremost sight in care-therapeutic indoors is Circulation, comprised of multiple complex circulating patterns; such as deep corridor, clustered, duplex ward, racetrack, and radial. Quantifying these effects using physiological factors instead of just looking at the situation qualitatively or by filling out long and unproductive surveys is an attractive concept in “Subjective Healthy Environments”. I believe that combining, “Plan Organization”, “Graph Theory”, “Shape Grammar”, “virtual reality”, and “Biometric sensory data” (EEG sensors, Eye-Tracking Goggles, heart-rate monitors, motion-capture technology, etc.) will enable us to decipher the mystery behind the environmental psychology in architecture more and more accurately. Plus, hospital circulation studies whether infield or with VR takes an interdisciplinary approach to develop innovative AI-aided design tools with two main focus areas: (1) developing cyber–human systems to improve the application of designers’ ingenuity, skills, and competencies in the creation of a unique product; and (2) using biometric sensory data (EEG sensors, heart-rate monitors, motion-capture technology, etc.) and novel computational techniques to more effectively understand human responses to architectural intervention during the design process. In this regard, through my Ph.D. thesis, we are thriving in “Virtual reality and new technologies laboratory” under the supervision of Mr. Prof. Amir Shakibamanesh.

  •   Research Interests:

Evidence-based Design, Pedestrian Movement, Plan Organization, Spatial Cognition, Biometric Sensors, Space Syntax

  •  Email:

pouyanehsan@srttu.edu

 

 

    • Soheil Manzouri
  • Affiliation:

MA student in Urban Design at Art University, Tehran, Iran

  • Research Title:

Behavioral Study on Pedestrian Movement Patterns in Urban Spaces According to Their Attention to Build Environment with the Use of Eye Tracking in Virtual Environment

  • Research Abstract:

There are a variety of parameters like personal traits, movements (collective or singular), car traffic, land use positioning and so on that affect pedestrian movements. According to this matter that one of the main tools for an urban designer is built environment form, this research tries to study this matter from the pedestrian’s viewpoint to evaluate and analyze their visual attention points (focal points) in different spatial situations. Additional to studying the relation between visibility of built environment and its effects on shaping pedestrian movement patterns, this research tries to get to the point that the urban designer is going to be able to determine the main behavior in space which can contain pedestrian pause or flow.

This research has an exploratory spirit and attends to proof its hypothesis by doing different examinations. In the next level, the main purpose will be to gain the ability to predict pedestrian behaviors with a reassuring chance, which will give a clear image of the consequences of intentional manipulations in a built environment.

The case study has chosen for this research is Sadeghieh’s second roundabout in Tehran’s city. The reason for choosing this particular space is its high car traffic, high pedestrian flow, variation in built form and having different spaces with special characters that include different types of pedestrian behaviors and according to these features, it can be a suitable case for examining this research’s hypothesis.

  •   Research Interests:

Urbanism, Vr And Ar Technology, Behavior Study, 3d Modeling, Post Production

  •  Email:

soheylmanzouri@gmail.com

 

 

 

    • Ali Khaleghy nia
  • Affiliation:

Graduated from  Art University in Bachelor of Urban studies; MA student in Urban Planning at Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

  • Research Title:

Facilitate Public Participation Using the Virtual Reality Tool (Case Study:  Central Context of Tehran (Islamic Republic of Iran)

  • Research Abstract:

Due to the importance of public participation, many types of research have been done in the field of increasing participation, all of which try to encourage citizens to participate in social arenas and participate in urban projects. This research tries to take a step towards facilitating citizen participation by using new tools and up-to-date technologies.

Virtual Reality is a human endeavor to blur the line between real and virtual space. Researchers have been looking for a way to integrate cyberspace and real space for years, and a great deal of research has been done to make human life easier and more attractive amidst the busy workloads of today's all-inclusive communities.

This research tries to use the facilities of virtual reality technology to allow citizens as well as city managers to attend and interact in urban plans before implementation and thus find problems that remain hidden from view before the implementation of the plan, as well as the possibility of expressing different opinions of citizens in order to change or modify part of the plans.

  •   Research Interests:

Smart growth, Urban land use, Improving Participation by using AR & VR, Dissemination of power among citizens

  •  Email:

ali.khaleghy1987@gmail.com

 

 

Supporting Team:

 

        • Seyed Vahid Mostafavi
        • Alaa Davoodi
        • Erfan Pirbabyi
        • Armin Shayanpour

 

 

Apprentices:

 

    • Pegah Ebadi
  • Affiliation:

MA student in Urban Design at Art University, Tehran, Iran

  • Research Title:

Investigating the Effect of variables designing Urban GreenSpaces on Stress And Relaxation of Pedestrians; Using Electroencephalography Technique (Case Study: Park- e Shahr, Tehran)

  • Research Abstract:

Nowadays, with the expansion of urban life and the rapid growth of technology, the amount of stress and nervous pressure in urban people have increased. Humans are creatures with physical-quantitative and psychological-qualitative dimensions. According to the published studies, the physical environment as well as how it is designed, affect the humans’ nervous systems. Although there are different studies regarding each of the mentioned components, unfortunately (as a gap in the literature), addressing both urban design and neuroscience factors simultaneously has been rarely investigated. It should be noted that urban design has the potential to reduce the stress level of humans. This stress in urban design can have different aspects, from facade design to network design. However, it seems that urban green spaces, as a tool in urban design, can be effective in decreasing the stress level of people. Methodological limitations in measuring the impact of urban green spaces on the stress levels have affected the low number of such studies as well as low focus on investigating greenspaces’ design on people's mental health. In this research, a methodological protocol is introduced/proposed that allows us to simultaneously use 1) the Electroencephalogram (EEG) method as a practical measurement of the stress level and 2) Virtual Reality (VR) environments to measure the design features of green spaces, and thus the potential effects on the stress level in people. By analyzing the captured brainwaves of the users during a Quasi-Experimental Design, this research focuses on exploring the effect of each design element in the greenspaces environments on the high-stress situations. Therefore, we would like to answer how green space factors can affect the stress level and mental health of the users.

  •   Research Interests:

Urban Design, EEG, Virtual Reality

  •  Email:

P_ebadi1393@yahoo.com

 

 

 

    • Sayed Yousof Mousavi

 

  • Affiliation:

Graduated from  Art University in Master of Urban Planning, Tehran, Iran

  • Research Title:

3D dimensional sound presentation in urban space for placement to optimize industrial workshops with using of GIS( case study: region 12, area3, Tehran city) 

  • Research Abstract:

There are a variety of parameters like personal traits, movements (collective or singular), car traffic, land use positioning and so on that affect pedestrian movements. According to this matter that one of the main tools for an urban designer is built environment form, this research tries to study this matter from the pedestrian’s viewpoint to evaluate and analyze their visual attention points (focal points) in different spatial situations. Additional to studying the relation between visibility of built environment and its effects on shaping pedestrian movement patterns, this research tries to get to the point that the urban designer is going to be able to determine the main behavior in space which can contain pedestrian pause or flow.

This research has an exploratory spirit and attends to proof its hypothesis by doing different examinations. In the next level, the main purpose will be to gain the ability to predict pedestrian behaviors with a reassuring chance, which will give a clear image of the consequences of intentional manipulations in a built environment. The case study has chosen for this research is Sadeghieh’s second roundabout in Tehran’s city. The reason for choosing this particular space is its high car traffic, high pedestrian flow, variation in built form and having different spaces with special characters that include different types of pedestrian behaviors and according to these features, it can be a suitable case for examining this research’s hypothesis.

  •   Research Interests:

Soundscape and Noise Pollution in the City, Immersive Technologies in Smart Cities,

Virtual Reality, Passive Defense and Crisis Management

  •  Email:

yoosof.moosavi@yahoo.com

 

 

 

    • Bita Ebrahimi
  • Affiliation:

 Graduated from  Art University in Master of Urban Design

  • Research Title:

Achieving the Maximum Semi-reality of the Environment by using virtual reality

  •   Research Interests:

Participation of People in the Design Process, Parametric Design, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality

  •  Email:

b.ebrahimi@student.art.ac.ir

 

    • Omid Veisi
  • Affiliation:

MA student in Urban Design at Art University, Tehran, Iran

  •  Research Interests:

Big Data, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, City Information Modeling, Energy Analysis & Model Optimization, Web GIS & Mobile GIS, Energy Tracking &Virtual Reality

  •  Email:

o.veisi@student.art.ac.ir

 

 

    • Mohamad Jalali
  • Affiliation:

Graduated from Art University in Bachelor of Urban studies; MA student in Architecture at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

  •  Research Interests:

BIM Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality for Project Management

  •  Email:

mohammad.jalali@modares.ac.ir

 

 

 

    • Sima Bastehoseini
  • Affiliation:

Bachelor of Urban Studies, Art University, Tehran, Iran

  •  Research Interests:

Smart Cities, Virtual Reality, Urban Simulation, Big Data

  •  Email:

simahoseini1999@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

    • Nazanin Ramezani
  • Affiliation:

Bachelor of Urban Studies, Art University, Tehran, Iran

  •  Research Interests:

3d GIS, Smart Cities, Virtual Reality, Urban Simulation, Big Data

  •  Email:

n2771377@yahoo.com

 

 

  • Request for Collaboration

Should you like to cooperate with the laboratory, please do not hesitate to send your request to the laboratory director at A.Shakibamanesh@art.ac.ir.