AU - shahabzadeh, marjan TI - Using the Adolescents' Participation in the Design Process of the Built Environment PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE TA - JHRE JN - JHRE VO - 34 VI - 151 IP - 151 4099 - http://jhre.ir/article-1-834-en.html 4100 - http://jhre.ir/article-1-834-en.pdf SO - JHRE 151 AB  - 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. CP - IRAN IN - Shiraz. edalat bol . poebirak . no 8 . p 33 LG - eng PB - JHRE PG - 19 PT - Research YR - 2015