Document Type : Original Research Paper
Author
Assistant Professor, School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Art University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran.
Abstract
Extended Abstract
Background and Objectives: Residential environments are subject to a variety of factors, most notably the “lifestyle” that depends on the culture. The main purpose of dwelling is to create an environment that fits the people’s lifestyle. The lifestyle structure can be studied through its explicit components such as activities and its environmental aspects such as the temporality and spatiality of activities, the temporal and spatial sequence of activities, and other obvious aspects. Activities also have hidden and meaningful aspects in addition to their explicit aspects, which can reveal the mental aspects of the lifestyle.
Methods: In this study, due to the nature of the problem and the theoretical framework of the research, the “qualitative research” method has been used based on “basic theory” and “logical reasoning”. This study focuses on a case study in rural housing (Qazmzari village in the west Fars Province). The reason for selecting the case study of rural housing was cultural integration and the possibility of necessary answers in a relatively small and accessible environment. However, this research methodology can be generalized to other research in different residential environments. The process of obtaining the hidden components of lifestyle as well as meaning factors is time-consuming. It has been made possible by recording the spatial planning maps, providing behavioral arrangement diagrams, conducting semi-structured interviews, and coding the categories using grounded theory. The study in different residential environments gives different meanings; therefore, the titles expressed as the levels of meaning factors, the research findings, and summaries are based on the researcher’s study, and most of the research is based on logical reasoning.
Findings: The “mental components of lifestyle” include the “levels of meaning factors” that influence the “explicit components of the lifestyle” and the “features of the dwelling environment”. The “levels of meaning factors” affecting the spatial and temporal organization of behavioral events and the physical features of dwellings, such as elements, distances, and spatial directions, harmonize the dwelling environment with hidden and obvious lifestyle components. The study of mental components affecting living environments shows that according to the importance of mental components, “two levels of meaning factors” can be identified in proportion to the lower and middle levels of Rapoport’s classification. The “Middle level of meaning factors” are hidden components of the collective lifestyle that affect the features of the residential environment as well as obvious behavioral events. The “low level of meaning factors” are less collective than the middle level and are more observed in family lifestyle. They directly affect the obvious components of lifestyle and physical features of the dwelling environment. The middle level of meaning factors that create living environments stems from the mental components of collective living methods such as ”social status, privacy, identity, kinship, security, and livelihood”.
They are considered as hidden aspects of lifestyle. The second category of mental factors that make up living environments is the “low level of meaning factors”. These meaning factors directly affect the obvious components of lifestyle and physical features of the dwelling environment. They shape the dwelling environment together with the middle level of meaning factors.
Conclusion: The concept of “lifestyle” leads to quality of life, activities, and the ways of doing activities related to environmental qualities in housing. Therefore, the lifestyle structure can be studied through its obvious components such as activities and environmental aspects such as the temporal and spatial sequence of activities and other obvious aspects. These obvious aspects can include “ activity type, temporality and spatiality of activity, the temporal sequence of activities, and spatial sequence of activities.” According to the study’s theoretical framework studying the components of lifestyle structure, activities can have hidden and meaningful aspects in addition to the obvious aspects, which can reveal the mental aspects of lifestyle. The mental components in lifestyle and the “levels of meaning factors” create the dwelling environment by “determining the spatial and temporal features of behavioral events”, through the consequences such as the segregation and integration of behavioral settings, the temporal and spatial sequences of behavioral settings, and determining the quantitative and qualitative features of spatial elements. Although the middle and lower level of semantic factors is simultaneously referred to, responding to the “middle level of meaning factors” is prioritized. Considering the effect of hidden and obvious lifestyle components on the dwelling environment features, the mechanism of the effect of mental lifestyle components on the organization of the dwelling environment in this study has been investigated and presented. The “levels of meaning factors” create the dwelling environment by “determining the spatial and temporal features of behavioral events”, through the consequences such as the segregation and integration of behavioral settings, the temporal and spatial sequences of behavioral settings, and determining the quantitative and qualitative features of spatial elements.
Graphical Abstract
)
Highlights
- Providing a theoretical framework for studying the components of lifestyle structure based on overt and covert components of lifestyle structure and mental factors (meanings) of the temporality and spatiality of activities.
- Study of “mental components of lifestyle” including “levels of semantic factors” by the method of “qualitative research” based on “grounded theory” in a rural housing case.
- Investigating the effect of “levels of meaningful factors of lifestyle” on the spatial and temporal order of behavioral events and physical features of housing such as; Elements, distances and spatial directions of the housing environment.
Keywords
- Ashori, Darius. (2010). Definitions and concepts of culture. Tehran: Ad Publications.
- Ashori, Darius. And others (2002). Issues and perspectives of culture (collection of articles). Tehran: Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance Publications, Printing and Publishing Organization.
- Bazargan, Abbas. (2010). Introduction to Qualitative and Mixed Research Methods, Common Approaches in Behavioral Sciences. Tehran: Didar Publishing.
- Charmaz, Kity. (2006). Constructing Grounded Theory, a Practical Guide Through Qualitative Analysis. London: Sage Publications
- Chemero, Anthony. (2003). an Outline of a Theory of Affordances. Journal of Ecological Psychology, 15(2), 181-195.
- Coolen, H. (2008). The meaning of dwelling features, Conceptual and methodological issues. Amsterdam: IOS Press.
- Coser, Louis. (1994). Life and Thought of Sociological Elders. (M. Thalasi, translator) Tehran: Scientific Publications.
- Gibson, James. (1979). The Ecological Approch to visual Perception. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
- Gifford, Robert. (2014). Environmental Psychology Principles and Practice. Massachusett: Allyn and Bacon, Inc.
- Heijs, W., Carton, M., Smeets, J., & Gemert, A. (2009). The labyrinth of life-styles. House and the Built Environment, 24(3), 347-356.
- Hendry, Liu. and others. (2002). Leisure and lifestyles of young people. (F. Kakoli Dezfuli, & M. Malanzar, Translator) Tehran: Third Generation.
- Hershberger, Robert. (1970). Architecture and meaning. Journal of Aesthectic Education, 4(4), 37 - 55.
- Jansen, Sylvia. (2011). Lifestyle Method. In S. Jansen, C. Coolen, & R. Goetgeluk, The measurement and Analysis of Housing Preference and Choice (pp. 177-202). Dordrecht: Springer.
- Jansen, Sylvia. Henny Coolen, C., & Ronald Goetgeluk. (Eds.). (2011). The Measurement and Analysis of Housing Preference and Choice. Dordrecht: Springer.
- Lang, John. (2002). Creation of architectural theory, the role of behavioral sciences in environmental design. (A. Einifar, translator) Tehran: University of Tehran Press.
- Lefebvre, Henry. (1991). The Production of Space. (D. Nicholson-Smith, Trans.) Oxford: Blackwell.
- Mahdavikni, Mohammad Saeed. (2008). Religion and lifestyle (case study of participants in religious meetings). Tehran: Imam Sadegh University Press.
- Mirjani, Hamid. (2010). Rational reasoning as a research method. Soffe Journal, 50, 35-50.
- Norberg-Schulz, Christian. (1980) Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture. New York. Rizzoli.
- Pahlavan, changiz. (2009). culture and civilization. Tehran: Ney Publishing.
- Pahlavan, changiz. (2011). Cultural studies, speeches on culture and civilization, cultural acceptability, politics and cultural development. Tehran: Qatreh Publishing.
- Polanyi, Michle. (1964). The Structure of Tacit Knowing. Duke University.
- Pourdihimi, Shahram. (2011). Culture and housing. Housing and Rural Environment, 134, 3-18.
- Pourdihimi, Shahram. (2015). Human landscape in a residential environment. Tehran: Armanshahr Publications.
- Ranjbar, Hadi. Haghdoost, Ali Akbar. Salsali, Mahvash. Khoshdel, Alireza. Soleimani, Mohammad Ali, Bahrami Nasim. (2012). Sampling in Qualitative Research: A Guide to Getting Started. Journal of the Army University of Medical Sciences of Iran, 3, 250-238.
- Rafipoor, Faramarz. (2010). Anatomy of Society. Tehran: Anteshar Co.
- Rapaport, Amos. (2009). Anthropology of housing. (Kh. Afzalian, translator) Tehran: Profession Publications: Artist.
- Rapoport, Amos. (1980). Cross-Cultural Aspects of Environmental Design. In I. Altman, A. Rapoport, & J. F. Wohlwill, Human Behavior and Environment (pp. 7-46). New York: Plenum Press.
- Rapoport, Amos. (1990). The Meaning of the Built Environment, a Nonverbal Communication Approach. United States of America: The University of Arizona Press.
- Rapoport, Amos. (1993). System of activities and system of settings. In S. kent, Domestic Architecture and the use of space, an interdisciplinary cross-cultural study (pp. 9-20). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Rapoport, Amos. (2005). Culture, Architecture, and Design. Chicago, Illinois: Locke Science Publishing Company, Inc.
- Rocher, Guy. (2012). Sociology of Talcott Parsons. (A. Nik Gohar, translator) Tehran: Ney Publishing.
- Schultz, Christensen Nurberg. (2003). Architecture: meaning and place. (Nowruz Borazjani, translator) Tehran: Jan Jahan Publishing.
- Seif, Ali Akbar. (2010). Modern Educational Psychology, Psychology of Learning and Teaching (Sixth Edition). Tehran: Doran Publishing.
- Sills, David. & Robrt Merton. (1991). International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (E.S.S). New York: Macmillan.
- Simmel, George. (1922). Soziologie (2nd ed.). Munchen und Leipzig, Duncker und Hambolt.
- Strauss, Anselm. And Corbin, Juliet. (2008). Principles of qualitative research method, theory of procedures and methods. (Buick Mohammadi, Translator) Tehran: Publications of the Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies.
- Timmermans, H., Molin, E., & Noortwijk, L. (1994). Housing choice processes, stated versus revealed modeling approaches. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 9(3), 215-227.
- Veblen, Thorstein. (1919). The Vested Interests and the State of the Industrial Arts ("the Modern Point of View and the New Order). New York: B. W. Huebsch Mcmxix.
', './data/isau/coversheet/801663660270.jpg'))