Volume 28, Issue 2 (2022)

PROF. IBTIHAL Y. EL-BASTAWISSI, Dean, Faculty of Architecture - Design & Built Environment

The Architectural and Planning Journal (APJ) celebrates publishing Issue No.2 Vol.28. This issue encourages the improvement of quality of life and suggests new stimuli for enhancing the built environment through effective action plans. The issue collects seven papers exploring new visions in the fields of architecture, city planning, and urban design. The first paper is entitled: Developing an agent-based model of pedestrian wayfinding to conduct the best touristic path in historic districts. It adopts a comprehensive model of pedestrian wayfinding as a guide to help urban designers and individuals who are concerned with tourism.

The second paper is: The relationship between School Architecture and Self-Efficacy of students with special needs in some schools in Lebanon - The Reciprocal Architectural Design Method. It proposes applying a reciprocal method in the architecture of special needs’ schools, while the third paper entitled ‘Calculating vandalism risk assessment for archaeological findings within heritage buildings: The case of Al-Attar Historical Mosque in Tripoli, Lebanon’ predicates dangers that may affect the archaeological sites and heritage buildings, and then calculates their risk assessment. ‘Investigating commercial urban corridors, A pilot study in Beirut, Lebanon’ is the fourth paper. It proposes applying a set of guidelines for enhancing liveability in commercial urban corridors, with a focused pilot study in Beirut. The fifth one ‘Exploring the attributes of open public spaces in the Developing Cities’ produces a series of dimensions and attributes that should be implemented in the design of open public spaces, while the sixth one ‘Toward sustainable smart cities: Concepts & Challenges’ envisions new concepts to build sustainable smart cities. The seventh paper ‘Adaptive reuse of abandoned buildings as a means of improving liveability’ concludes that community participation in taking decision regarding adaptive reuse has strengthened social networks and maintained a unique lifestyle of abandoned old cities.

Hopefully, this issue may find a fruitful echo among readers worldwide through open-access papers.