Flexibility Solutions in Response to Housing Design Issues

Undesired quality and the existing issues in the field of housing are of the main problems in Iran. Removing such problems is one of the necessities in the development plan of architecture and urban development. Providing flexibility by the possibility of creating compatibility or by changing the frame and space for various uses shall lead to the qualitative improvement of the residence space and the satisfaction of many of the needs. By such an approach, it is possible to present solutions for optimizing the space and a suitable response to some of the issues in the field of housing; accordingly, the research was conducted with the purpose of evaluating the effect of each flexibility strategy on solving the housing problems. The current study is an applied study from the purpose viewpoint, and is a combination of documentary and survey methods, from the method viewpoint. To determine the relation between the strategies and the issues, the qualitative method of interview is used and to evaluate the effect of strategies on the issues of the housing field, a questionnaire is used based on the Likert scale. According to the analyses and the findings obtained from the interview and the survey, among the nine existing issues in the field of housing design, seven issues with different rates are solvable using the flexibility strategies. On the one hand, the results indicate that considering the obtained rates, the flexibility strategies are able to solve the issues of “monotony and variety of the residential patterns given the variety of the exploiters”, “paying less attention to the needs of the exploiter” and “paying no attention to the cultural and identity conditions”, respectively, more than other issues. On the other hand, the strategies of “service core”, “movable separating surfaces” and “movable and flexible furniture”are most effective in solving the housing problems