Abstract:

The present study focuses on the five principles of ecological architecture defined by Ryn and Cowan (2007) to analyze the contemporary architecture of Iranian plateau.  In the present study, a parametric mechanism based on mathematical algorithms and the graph theory are applied to implement these principles to evaluate and design architectural projects.  This study begins with the design of a decision tree search system as the agent of searching the concepts, then complements this system with the graph theory to implement the principles. The graph theory allows numerous iteration of the algorithm. Two vertices of the graph theory, extracted from the decision tree search system, are attributed to the concepts of architectural and ecological system. The five edges of the graph connect the vertices together bilaterally, each reflecting one of the five principles. Overall, using the algorithm and its derived graphs, the desired outputs can be cast into different independent diagrams. Gephi application is recommended and applied to analyze the graph in this study.

To test our algorithms on Iran’s contemporary architecture, the data are gathered based on the survey of the portfolios of leading architectural designers who currently work under Architectural Engineering System (AES) with license No. 352 in Pars Province in Iran. The expertise and the practical experience of the AES members are highly respected and often noted.

These data enable us to employ a ‘bipartite’ approach whereby the desired, ideal, or optimum outcomes are set in contrast with the existing Iranian apartment buildings that are currently in use.  We employ several social factors (structures) as selective concepts. First, the organization of this study is discussed and then, the data are applied to analyze the results.

Keywords:

parametric system; ecological architecture; graph theory; social structure.