The engagement of Polish residents with their home space in single-family houses and flats in multi-family blocks of flats

Abstract

Two of the most common types of housing in Poland are single-family houses and flats in blocks of flats. Overall, more than 80 per cent of Poles live in either individual houses or blocks of flats, almost in equal proportions across the country. Houses can be found in rural and urban areas, while flats are mainly located in towns. This study aims to explore the differences in the way residents of these two types of dwellings engage with their home spaces and to try to explain these differences in terms of architectural factors. Using the psycho-sociological lenses of preferences and the architectural tools of spatial syntax, we surveyed a sample of Polish people living in single-family houses (n = 209) and flats in blocks of flats (n = 215). Our participants drew their floor plans and indicated their favourite and most frequented places at home, they also expressed their emotional attitude towards home and its surroundings and explained their feelings and choices. Drawing on space syntax theory, the home plans were analysed in terms of the structural depth of (1) the home as a whole, (2) the respondent's favourite place at home, and (3) the respondent's private room at home. We found that emotional engagement with the home was higher among house dwellers than among flat dwellers, and that there were also differences in the patterns of use of specific home spaces, mostly related to the division of the home into shared and private areas and the impact of the overall spatial depth of the home layout. Gender and occupational differences were particularly pronounced among participants living in houses, whereas they largely disappeared among participants living in blocks of flats. The study contributes to a better understanding of the way home space is psychologically constructed in these two types of housing in the Polish context, but also beyond, not least by inviting scholars to mobilise the tools of spatial syntax analysis to understand residents' engagement with their home space.