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Finding a favorable trade-off between saving the architectural heritage, and assuring the development of modern architecture is a delicate and precise task, due to the lack of knowledge in the original criteria for the re-thinking of traditional architecture. As a tentative answer to this challenge, this paper attempts to shed light on Mashrabiya (traditional Arab oriel window) as a powerful environmental element in modern architecture, with regard to the important functions that it provides, such as light control, airflow regulation, humidity control, temperature regulation and visual privacy. Due to these functions, Mashrabiya achieved widespread popularity around the old world and it has been revived again in many contemporary projects by different modern versions. The objective of this study also is presenting a general evaluation for the modern Mashrabiya to observe the misconceptions of using the Mashrabiya and to call for stop ignoring of the proper standards of Mashrabiya design and to preserve the original name of this element "Mashrabiya". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The complex relationship between man and technology is the starting point of an interesting design process, aiming to highlight the lack of awareness in most of the behavioral choices of man. Man is distinguished by its nature of fi nding short-term solutions, with the almost complete inability to prefigure long-term eff ects resulting from his unconscious decisions. Technology, on the other hand, is developing fast, becoming day by day more potentially uncontrollable. Specific attention is given to the innovations that can cause unpredicted impacts on human life: knowing history by its sociological implications allows us to recognize some recursive patterns that can then be transformed into opportunities. The goal is not an attempt to predict future trends in technological innovation but to fi nd the right formulas in order to raise the level of responsibility in individuals' behavior. In this paper the role of the designer is analyzed within the technology of 3D printing, enhancing its potential ability of changing both technological and human environments. A fi rst answer to the problems triggered by 3D printing can be found, for example, in the positive phenomena that are activated within collaborating groups by sharing space and knowledge, in communities with a bottom-up approach, where the designer is actively involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]