The Reflection of Lifestyle Changes in Housing Architecture of Different Occupational Classes of Iranian Oil-Based Company Towns before the 1970s(Case Study: Abadan Company Town)

Problem Statement:

Following the cultural affectability of Iranians from Europe during the Qajar dynasty, the gradual penetration of new architecture and urbanism also happened. The advent of the oil industry in the southern territory of Iran, besides the presence of foreigners who were the conveyers of the changes, turned that gradual penetration into a hasty movement, which led to the creation of a phenomenon called company towns. In these towns, the new lifestyle was based on occupational and social classifications and individuals’ positions in the production system, which demanded a new living receptacle and architectural body.

Research objecive :

The study was carried out to demonstrate the lifestyle changes in these town companies, their influence on architecture, and the identification of the resulting modern life pattern that subsequently infiltrated into the heart of our culture.

Software-assisted scrutiny and qualitative analyses were used in descriptive-historical research. Utilizing AGRAPH software, explanatory graphs obtained from the software were analyzed for the physical identification of sample houses chosen from three different occupational classifications in Abadan company town. Afterward, magazines and bulletins published from 1940 to 1970 were investigated for recognition of lifestyle changes. The lifestyle changes were identified by qualitative analysis, and ultimately, the results were obtained by content-descriptive and comparative analysis methods.

It can be cited that changes in factors of consumption, leisure, culture, and identity have had the highest impact on the lifestyle of residents of Abadan oil company town. The creation of different structures in the plan of houses of various occupational classes, elimination of compounds, spatial changes of a kitchen, and ultimately extroversion, and entirely different structures of bungalows at the managers’ level are examples of the reflection of those changes.