Analysis of factors affecting patterns of Rural Housing Developments, with an Emphasis on Identity (Case Study: East Eghbal Rural District of Qazvin Province)

From the very early stages of human history, the issue of housing has been of great importance and one of the most essential human needs that a lot of effort has been put in providing it. Presently the main function of housing, apart from its role as a shelter, is provision of a proper place for the family to have a desirable life in it. Housing is one of the most important elements in rural texture which is influenced by natural and human forces. So any kind of change in natural and human conditions demonstrates itself in housing. Therefore we can say that housing patterns are a reflection of the influential forces and elements in taking their shape. One of these important factors is identity, thus the present study focuses on the role of identity in the changes of rural housing patterns. This article is an applied study and the method used has been descriptive- analytical. The statistical population of the present article includes the villages of East Eghbal rural district in the central of Qazvin. According to the census of 2011, this district has 14 populated villages, 4424 households, and a population of 14656. Considering the expansion of the area under study and the fact that the research needed to be more precise, four villages were chosen (Erenjak, Vousough Abad, Shinghar, Najaf Abad) using the revised Cochran formula. These villages have a population of 4307 and 1256 households. A questionnaire with 27 qualifiers for the analysis of rural households’ identities, 27 indices for the analysis of the traditional components of rural housing, and 20 indices for analyzing the modern components of rural housing was formulated. The questionnaire’s level of reliability wasobtained 0.76 with Cronbach’s alpha which shows a proper trust factor. The method for analyzing and evaluating the obtained data has been descriptive (average, standard deviation) and inferential (Kendall test, one-sample t-test, Pearson correlation coefficient). According to the research done on the traditional and modern elements of rural housing, most rural houses lack a traditional texture and have followed the modern urban pattern in deleting the productive functions. Also the analysis of the modern factors in rural housing has shown that most houses have followed an urban construction, the reason for which can be the short distance between these villages and Qazvin itself. As the researcwas carried on, it was proved that the households which had a transitional identity from rural to an urban one, have experienced most changes in housing patterns; and the households who havereceived housing credit have also had more changes in their housing patterns. The research shows that since the housing credit has only had a monetary aspect and there has been no supervision on the construction methods, thus most rural households were inclined to use urban housing patterns, a process which is effective to the elimination of the productive functions in rural houses and the acceptance of urban housing patterns.