Developing comprehensive criteria for façade eva‎luation of residential buildings (Case study: conventional six-story buildings in Tehran, districts 1 to 5)

9/9/2025 12:00:00 AM

Facade eva‎luation necessitates a comprehensive set of criteria within a coherent framework. Novel perspectives consider the facade as a multi-functional component, presenting numerous challenges, including the multitude of effective criteria that require investigation. Despite several studies in facade eva‎luation, there remains a need for a comprehensive system of eva‎luation criteria that identifies the relative weight and importance of each criterion. Existing literature often focuses on specific areas such as sustainability and buildability; however, a holistic view of facade assessment criteria has rarely attracted scholarly attention. This gap is also evident in Iran, where a systematic and holistic set of criteria to meet current requirements is still unavailable. Therefore, this research aims to address this gap by developing a systematic set of comprehensive eva‎luation criteria. The research question guiding this study is: “What criteria and aspects should be considered to meet the design standards and functional requirements of facades in the eva‎luation and selection process?” To answer this question, a preliminary list of criteria was developed through an in-depth literature review and content analysis. Subsequently, the first round of expert interviews was conducted to complete and verify the list of criteria and eva‎luate their hierarchical structure, derived from library studies. The researcher also participated in the official sessions of the facade commission in the municipality of Tehran, where authorities decided on the qualification of designed facades. This unstructured field study involved recording keywords used by decision-makers to approve or reject facades. The findings from these observations were added to the criteria list under “Architectural appearance.” After validating the criteria structure through a second round of expert interviews and observations, the refined structure was used to design a questionnaire aimed at quantitatively analyzing and assigning weights to the criteria using the fuzzy SWARA method. As a result, 22 criteria were classified into six categories: 1) Environmental, 2) Social, 3) Economic, 4) Performance, 5) Stability, and 6) Architectural appearance, with the relative importance of each identified. The findings indicate that the top three dimensions of facade eva‎luation are “Architectural appearance,” “Stability,” and “Performance.” The criteria of “Proportions and geometric coherence,” “Composition of materials and colors,” and “Simplicity of design” received the most positive feedback, all within the “Architectural appearance” category. These results suggest that facades in Iran are often perceived as elements of exterior beauty that directly impact the urban landscape. This developmental research seeks to extend the limitations of previous studies, codify and expand criteria, introduce new dimensions, define new categories, and quantitatively analyze and assign weights to the criteria. The resulting framework of criteria is global, applicable worldwide for facade eva‎luation, although the specific weights are tailored to Tehran, particularly regions 1 to 5. However, extending the scope of field surveys in Tehran indicates that the criteria weights are generalizable to all regions.

نما، , ارزيابي نما , معيارهاي ارزيابي نما، , ارزيابي جامع‌نگر نما , تصميم‌گيري , رويكرد ارزيابي نما , فازي سوآرا

facade , facade eva‎luation , facade eva‎luation criteria , facade comprehensive assessment , decision-making , facade assessment approach , fuzzy SWARA

Amirhossein Zekri

Dr. Ahmad Ekhlassi / Abbas Tarkashvand