A Comparison between Single- family and Multi- family Houses in Creating Satisfaction of Residents, Case Study: Zanjan, Iran

The aim of this study is to compare and explore the satisfaction of changing physical and spatial patterns of single-family houses into multi-family modern residential complexes. Recognition and comparative study of the spatial changing and its impact on the quality of life and satisfaction of residents are focused by the present study. Changing the habitat type and life style from single-family houses into multi- family residential complexes is growing in Iranian cities. Residential satisfaction is one of the main subjects of the modern housing design that has been studied recently. Numerous empirical studies have been carries out to explore the objective and subjective factors in residential satisfaction form the midst of 20 century. Residential satisfaction as the measure of housing and neighborhood quality, and, the measure of residents’ opinion are of the well-known methods in the last researches.
According to the research hypothesis:1) the housing type and quality of housing affect residential satisfaction, 2) the physical, social and personal factors -such as gender, age, socio-economic status and motivations- can affect the residential satisfaction. According to research theoretical model, the physical characteristics of community, neighborhood and house type affect residential lifestyle and ultimately quality and quantity of residential satisfaction. The form and external view of the housing as the physical elements and the quality of the community as the social element can influence motivation for changing house type and level of satisfaction in large macro scale. The relationship with the environmental landscape, as the physical element and the relationship with the neighbors and sense of security as the social elements can influence motivation for changing house type and level of satisfaction in medium scale. The rooms’ organization, spatial form, material and details of the house as the physical elements and relation with the guests and personal territoriality as the social elements can influence motivation for changing house type and satisfaction in micro scale.
At first, by method of content analysis and reviewing the literature, the study identified four individual, social, cultural and physical factors, which impact residential satisfaction of home in the theoretical model of the study. Then, in order to measure the residents’ satisfaction of different types of houses, a quantitative and qualitative field study conducted in collaboration with the residents of three neighborhoods in Zanjan. In the experimental study with random cluster sampling, 50 questionnaires were completed by people whose single families’ houses have been changed to apartment in the last years and in the qualitative section, 20 of mentioned people were interviewed to determine the factors affecting residents’ satisfaction. Analysis of factors affecting on satisfaction of residence in macro scale (community), medium scale (neighborhood) and micro scale (home) illustrated the relation between motivation of changing habitat type and satisfaction of home. Literature review and findings of the field study showed that the influence of four main elements (personal, social, cultural and physical), whereas there is a change of habitat type from single-family houses to apartment, causes a decrease of satisfaction as well as showing an increase in physical factors. The impact of social dimensions in macro and micro scale shows a decrease in satisfaction of apartment, but in the intermediate scale, the security element leads to increase the satisfaction of apartment house. The satisfaction of the apartment physical elements and facilities on the macro scale is noteworthy in comparison with single family home. But in medium scale, apartments cause reduces of satisfaction. In micro scales the satisfaction of spatial organization of single family home and satisfaction of materials and details of apartment can be seen.
The results reveal that despite the value of single family homes, offering innovative apartment design and patterns, especially in middle and micro scale is necessary. In macro scale, strengthening the relationship with nature, providing public service areas and socio-cultural applications are essential according to preferences and lifestyle. In medium scale allocation of multi-functional condominium maintain access hierarchy with emphasis on pedestrian priority and in micro scale pay attention to space diversity which is consistent with the lifestyle and provide the optimal size, especially in public spaces and housing services is recommending. The results of the study show that the personal, physical and social factors have the main influence on the residential satisfaction of single-family houses and multi-family apartments. Moreover, the findings show that changing the house type because of social needs may leads to increase residential satisfaction. It seems that, rapidly changing of housing type in Iranian cities may decrease satisfaction in modern new multi-family apartments because of the lack of social contacts in new isolated communities. Some suggestions such as providing neighborhood public open spaces and social services in community can increase social contacts between the residents of apartments after building renovations