Residential satisfaction; Meaning and interpretation

Abstract

Residential Satisfaction (RS) has always been cited by different scholars, academicians, architects, urban planners and designers as a very important factor of design and planning process. However, there are various definitions and interpretations of this concept which stems from diverse views of different professionals. The failures of many housing and dwelling projects stems from lacking of knowledge on the determinants of Residential Satisfaction (RS) concept. This paper has utilized archival methodology for the past 13 years starting from 1997 until 2010 to compile existing definitions of RS in order to determine the core and principle of all of those various definitions. It was found out RS is a subjective dependent variable which depends on many physical and social parameters. However, the propriety of those parameters could differ for different people with different social cultural and professional background. The study's result indicates that, urban planners and designers and architects have similar points of consideration on the parameters of RS rubrics such as neighborhoods, social demographics, and housing and estate management. Nonetheless, some rubrics such as dwelling unit features, dwelling unit support services, housing conditions, and structure type are mostly emphasized by architects in comparison to the other disciplines. Besides, some rubrics such as environmental features of the housing and neighbor relationships are more emphasized by the urban planners and designers. The result will throw light for the people who are working on RS in multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research projects and may enable them to have consensus in defining RS.