Research Article
Milad Heidari Soureshjani *
Abstract
Being part of their identity, housing is accounted as the core of activity of the people. With regard to lifestyle as well as the more time spent at home, the issue is of multiple importances in Iran. The quality of recent mass housing developments in Iran however is affected by market, codes and lack of urban designers, consequently disregarding socio-cultural status of inhabitants. While being at the young population peak, the needs for mass affordable housing drove 9th government toward commencing a national wide policy called Mehr Housing Project in which large number of affordable housing units is built within a short period of time. The result of the accelerated project has exposed in various forms. It seems that the issues originate in ignoring socio-cultural trends of the users, especially cultural traditions and lifestyles. The paper presents findings from observations along with study of historical background of inhabitants of newly constructed units in Manzarieh (Shahre-Kord), the main compound occupied by Bakhtiary community in west of Iran. While the Mother city inhabitants are doing rather well socio-economically, the same cannot be said of Mehr dwellers. In terms of behavioral and socio-cultural background classification, results suggest that socio-cultural factors related to social cohesion, familiar design elements along with gender and economic support, are inadequately reflected in the location and design of the units and their public spaces as well, resulting in abandonment and modification. These findings have implications for future housing policies in the country.