Developing an Architectural Design Evaluation System in Iranian Architectural Education (Case Study: Architectural Education After the Cultural Revolution)

Higher education curricula and consequently architecture education in Iranian architecture schools are the product of the major activities of the Supreme Planning Council. Architecture education and design methods have been less comprehensive and have less functional feedback. In Iran, education in all disciplines, especially architecture, is more educational than research-based, and therefore understanding and deducing functional concepts and inventing methods that are consistent with cultural values do not have a proper place. Therefore, the present study aimed to develop an architectural design evaluation system in Iranian architectural education after the Cultural Revolution. In this study, a mixed method combining qualitative and quantitative methods was used. In the qualitative section, the data and information required for this study were first extracted through in-depth interviews with 20 experts using the snowball sampling method and analyzed in three stages using thematic analysis (open coding, axial coding, and selective coding) using Max Quda software (2018). Finally, according to the interviews, the development of an architectural design evaluation system in Iranian architectural education was extracted and a researcher-made questionnaire was designed. Then, based on the interview process, coding and tests were conducted, and the final research model was presented. In the quantitative part, this research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-survey and correlational in terms of data collection method. The sample size is 384 undergraduate students of architectural engineering in the architectural design class at Islamic Azad Universities, Bandar Abbas and Yazd branches. In this research, the level of relationship between the components was determined using the structural equation modeling method and Smart PLS software. The findings indicate that the variable path coefficient between the architectural design evaluation system in Iranian architectural education after the Cultural Revolution and architectural education is 0.920 and the t-statistic is 16.848, and therefore improving the evaluation of architectural design education increases the level of coordination of educational goals with the presented educational strategies, as well as improving the level of professional ability and efficiency in the successes achieved in the educational field.