Public participation is a reasonable method through which the needs of the community and the options for design in the ENVIRONMENT can be integrated. Is spite of comprising a large part of population in most countries, the children and youth have been mostly overlooked in the process of public participation in improving the ENVIRONMENTal quality. Using participatory models in the process of producing ENVIRONMENTal projects can be considered a useful tool to achieve public participation in treating their ENVIRONMENT. Many studies have been undertaken in order to build models of children's participation in the seventies, and the discussions have continued since the treaty on children's rights by many local governments.Iran also joined the Convention on Children's Rights in 1993. But henceforth there has been little effort in the areas of planning and design to facilitate the participation of children in this area. The qualitative methods chosen as the dominant approach in most studies in the field of children's participation, and the use of pre-existing participatory models have made these studies partially non-applicable. It is of utmost importance to evaluate the indicators and build local models to use in the procurement process for urban and rural projects relevant to ENVIRONMENTal, social and cultural conditions in Iran.One of the major projects that have the greatest impact on quality of life in rural areas is the Rural Guiding Plan. The findings of previous research suggest that the implementation of plans makes the inhabitants content with the living conditions in the village. At the same time, these plans have not achieved much success in terms of improving the ENVIRONMENT and increasing public participation.This paper aims to test the efficiency and localization of a model to use the adolescents' participation in the design process in rural communities of Iran. The study explores a mixed method research in which adolescents assess their lives with the help of a collaborative model. The participants then evaluate and categorize the indicators of their favorable ENVIRONMENT in their depiction of the ideal society. In spite of the deficiencies of the research tools, such as the limited indicators and measurements, the test results show that the proposed model is more realizable than previous models due the adoption of mixed method research. In conclusion, the method proves to be more efficient in the existing frameworks of planning in Iran. In addition, it has not only been successful in revealing the low level of satisfaction with the rural ENVIRONMENT among the adolescent inhabitants, but has also shown the high demand for participation in ENVIRONMENTal planning and design of their rural living context among the participants from this age group.

The issue of the relationship between space and society is one which has been ignored in the studies of both space masters (i. e. architects, urban and landscape designers, theoreticians and researchers in this filed), and society experts (i, e. sociologists, anthropologist and so on) ENVIRONMENTal sciences have largely filed to present a convincing theoretical framework for society, and similarly, in social sciences the concept of space and BUILT ENVIRONMENT has not reached a persuasive level. This failure is a missing link which is hard to deal with, but if tackled, it undoubtedly addresses many unknown problems of the BUILT ENVIRONMENT. In ENVIRONMENT sciences, there has been an effort in the past few decades to approach society in a more sensitive way. This has brought new interests in studies of BUILT ENVIRONMENT to pay more attention to understanding the views of sociologists on the subject of space, In this paper, however, there is n intention to focus on the relation between society and ENVIRONMENT form the standpoint of sociology and anthropology. This is an attempt to establish a foundation for further pursuit of the missing links between spatio- ENVIRONMENT concepts and their social counterparts by focusing of the ideas of a few prominent sociologist and anthropologists, and comparing them to contemporary thoughs on the relationship between space and society. The paper concludes that unless a new understanding of space- society is a achieved, the effort in this filed would suffer from a constant lack of an appropriate framework.

Physical activity is connected with adults’ health in many ways, and walking is the most popular form of physical activity among adults all over the world. The authors have previously studied this issue in an under-construction ENVIRONMENT in a new town in a developing country. The present study investigates the impact of BUILT ENVIRONMENTal features and qualities on walkability in developed areas in relatively well-to do neighborhoods in a city (Shiraz). The 34 effective variables of the BUILT ENVIRONMENT on walkability are extracted from the literature. BUILT ENVIRONMENTal features and residents’ transport and recreation walking were gathered through perceived manner. Factor analysis was, then, run for the measured BUILT ENVIRONMENT features, from which 8 factors were extracted. They were interpreted in terms of related variables. This study reveals that the only qualities that have significant effect on recreation walkability are comfort and attraction, safety, aesthetics whereas transport walking is only influenced by steepness of sidewalks. Contrary to the existing literature, Accessibility, public transportation, pollution, and sidewalk quality have no significant effect on walkability. These results demonstrate that lifestyle factors such as personal free time, pedestrian-related habits, car-dependence habits, sexualized habitus, inabilities, etc. are very crucial in determining the effective BUILT ENVIRONMENT features and qualities on walking behaviors.

In an urban BUILT ENVIRONMENT, on the one hand people behave based on their spatial cognition of the ENVIRONMENT; spatial behavior in interaction with the ENVIRONMENT depends on the spatial cognition. On the other hand many researches have also pointed that spatial configuration as the relational characteristics of the physical elements of ENVIRONMENT, influence on the spatial cognition. Based on the methodology proposed, this paper is an attempt to explain and understand the properties and relationships between spatial cognition and spatial configuration of the BUILT ENVIRONMENT in the three old Mohallas in Dezful. Spatial cognition by employing of cognitive maps through sketch mapping and interview associated with survey questionnaire for evaluation of the cognitive representations and the concept of legibility has been studied, and spatial configuration by space syntax method for measurement of syntactical properties including parameters of global integration, local integration, connectivity and interpretive parameters, intelligibility and synergy all in all have been studied. In order to achieve the research objectives, analytical / descriptive methods with obtained maps and methods of statistical correlation between the quality parameters of spatial cognition and spatial configuration quantitative parameters have been used. Also, The concept of legibility, as the quality interpretive of the parameter associated with the properties of spatial configuration has been investigated, and the familiarity with ENVIRONMENT is also considered as a moderating variable. Externalization Cognitive data, determination of the quantitative spatial properties Dezful’s BUILT ENVIRONMENT and to explain relations between them as important findings of this research are considered. To examine the proposed methodology with a variety of analytical capabilities, while offering recommendations for future research include investigation of other achievements.

This study deals with factors contributing to differences in experts and non-experts" perception and interpretation of architectural meaning. A review of the results of seven research projects has revealed that the most important factors leading to different perceptions among people are experience, culture, social class, and ENVIRONMENTal role: experts prefer more fashionable forms and styles and are more concerned with the aesthetic aspects of the visual stimuli; but the non-experts appreciate continuity in the design of buildings and physical components of the ENVIRONMENT. It is suggested that, in future research, other factors which seem to have critical effects on the assessment of a building be considered including: smell, color, sound and actions.