صبا خراساني مقدم

The quantity dimensions of housing have long been considered by low-income housing designers and policymakers for a long time. While the qualitative dimensions and the role of residents in determining these dimensions have been neglected in many studies. The uniformity of housing in different locations, minimum housing construction without considering the cultural differences of the resident group, and the replacement of economic issues instead of the quality of life, show the least attention to the quality of housing in these cultural groups, and preferring economic issues to the quality of life, shows the least attention to the housing quality in these cultural groups. The housing meaning from the perspective of residents and identifying its defining variables in environment-behavior studies is among the most important qualitative concepts that have recently been considered by housing researchers. The meaning is a basic human need and its connector to the residential environment. The purpose of the design and build a house is its meaning and other problems including the content of human settlements, lifestyles, and human interactions with the artificial environment are influenced by the meaning. The housing includes the psychological and emotional processes of residents from the semantic perspectives, and the concepts and meanings associated with it must be identified to understand housing. Considering the role of meaning in housing general arrangement and its importance as the ultimate goal of housing, the study, and eva‎luation of meaning has a special priority in housing research. Therefore, the present study identifies the semantic system of housing. Considering the need to study the quality of low-income housing, researchers emphasize meaning as the most important quality of housing, the effective role of meaning in giving the environment quality, and neglect this concept in qualitative research. In the present study, the research proposal emphasizes discovering the semantic system of low-income housing, determining the variables of meaning and the relationships between the variables. The research approach to the meaning of housing is formulated from an ecological perspective. It has been introduced as a complementary approach to studying the meaning of the Man-made environment. According to this view, meaning establishes in the functional relationships between individuals and environmental characteristics. The conceptual framework of the research is based on four theories in the ecological approach to meaning, including the concept of and camp system, Gibson's theory of affordance, Rapaport's concept of levels of meanings, and Cullen's theory of meaning structures. Housing elements as a settlement system can be defined in three categories activities, characteristics, and meanings. By analyzing the content of these theories, housing elements as a housing system in three categories of activities, properties, and meanings can be defined as content analysis of these theories. These concepts are the variables for measuring the semantic order that creates the housing meaning in an interconnected network. It is presented in the form of a coherent framework as a comprehensive structure for assessing the housing meaning. In the conceptual research framework, on the one hand, the resident’s activity system includes individual, group, family, and social activities and their dominant meanings, and on the other hand, housing element characters include fixed, semi-fixed and other elements' dominant meanings. In this framework, the two variables residents' activity system and housing element characteristics are considered independent variables, and the variables housing semantics as dependent variables. In the present study, the semantic structure methodology is used as an approach to the qualitative research method with purposive sampling according to the cultural and social dimensions of the meaning and exploratory nature of the research proposal, which is the identification of the semantic system of housing in low-income groups who live in informal settlements. In this study, data collection techniques include field observation, environment, and activities photography, Croquis sketch and spatial order maps, and ladder semi-structured interviews. First, a collection of semantic structure chains is formed for the respondents using the content analysis method to process the collected information. Then, the components of the semantic structure chains are encoded in three stages open, axial, and selective coding. They are divided into chains based on their subject and level. In this stage, the data is coded into four categories: resident’s activity data, semantic levels of resident’s activity data, housing characteristics data, and semantic level data of housing elements. The analytical findings of this section are presented through the model of semantic structure in the form of the propositions of space-activity and explicit meninges-characteristics and hidden meanings. Then, the semantic systems were described in two parts: the meanings related to the resident activities and the meanings related to the housing elements' characteristics and were summarized in comparative research through the analytical diagram of the semantic network map. The results show that affordable housing, as a sample of a cultural subsystem, has a semantic order, and these meanings determine the housing layout. The semantic order of housing is influenced by the mental semantics of the inhabitants. These semantics, in which behaviors and activities of individuals are formed, are not presented independently of each other, but through a process and in an interconnected relationship as a network with consequences and components of housing, including activities and characteristics. They are in touch. Residents' activities concerning the characteristics of the housing elements within this semantic system are coordinated and adapted, and housing is understood as a housing system in this process. According to the analytical results, the semantic factors affecting the housing layout of the low-income group from the residents' perspective can be identified in three categories of meanings: individual, family, and social, and two hidden and obvious levels. The process of achieving results and research methodology can be used by housing designers and policymakers in the Goal-setting and Design Idea Generation and Organization of Project Goals. Finally, recommendations and limitations are presented.

Saba Khorasani

Dr. Farhang Mozaffar