Evaluating the Role of Architectural Design in Creating Sustainable Behaviors in Residential Buildings

Design for Sustainable Behaviors is a new field of research that aims to reduce the social and environmental consequences of buildings in their life cycles, through changing users’ habits and forcing them to improve their behaviors in different ways. A large part of these consequences is related to energy consumption in buildings. Among the proposed theories in this area, it seems that less attention has been paid to different cultural contexts and the barriers of design methods in shaping behavior to reduce energy consumption. The purpose of this study is to investigate how architectural design affects behavior to reduce energy consumption. Accordingly, it was hypothesized that architectural design can reduce energy consumption and realize sustainable behavior through overcoming inappropriate utilization culture and behavior transforming. A survey was conducted in this mixed-method (quantitative and qualitative), Correlation type, and Structural equation modeling study. Shiraz residents in February 2017 were determined as the statistical population. 385 people were determined as the sample size based on the Cochran formula, and by the Non-Probability sampling method. The correlation of variables was assessed, and the hypotheses were proved using statistical software SPSS16 and AMOS22, after confirmation of Face validity, content validity, construct validity and reliability of the researcher-made questionnaire. The results prove the impact of culture, architecture, and behavior on energy consumption. Finally, in addition to introducing culture as a barrier to designing in shaping behavior to reduce energy consumption, the necessity of environmental modification in a way that leads users toward the desired direction, was emphasized.