Effects of Cultural Changes on Rural Housing Case study: Central District of Qazvin Province

Culture, defined also as the method of life includes economy, living method, food and clothes, housing, policy, government, political systems, customs and traditions, ceremonies, marriage and kinship system, religious and metaphysical beliefs, social classes beliefs, military armament, and all other possible human or nonhuman affairs and it faces constant changes. Change is known as the integrated part of the social life. Anthropological and cultural studies revealed that various factors such as innovation and invention, propagation and adoption of culture, originating outside or inside a society influence the cultural changes so that the degree of cultural changes depends on the intensity of the said factors. In fact, the weaker these factors, the slower will be the trend of such cultural changes. This article studies the effects of cultural changes on rural housing patterns and since housing is a cultural phenomenon, the researcher has attempted to clarify the effect of cultural elements and their changes on housing. To identify the effects of cultural changes on rural housing on rural housing, the architectural style and structure of traditional and modern houses are explained in detail and the effects of the changes resulted from modern technology and innovations following to Land Reforms and Islamic Revolution, on rural housing are investigated. Some of these changes include development of communication devices and technological tools, establishment of new schools, road construction, establishment of public offices, and transfer of power to the government. For this study, 10 villages of the central district of Ghazvin were selected as the sample. Results of field studies as well as using statistical analysis found significant correlation between cultural changes and housing satisfaction, architecture plan, housing resistance, the place of animals out of house, the housing main materials, number of rooms, kind of residential units, kitchen architecture plan, home heating and cooling equipment, residential units areas, the number of classes and feeling comfort and peace at home. An also results indicated that is significant linear correlation there between cultural change and rural housing pattern.