Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Ali Asadi ¹
• saeed Salehi Marzijrani ¹
• Hassan sajadzadeh ²
• hosein kalantari khalil abad ³

¹ Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Arak Branch, Islamic Azad University, Arak, Iran.

² Faculty of Art and Architecture, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamadan, Iran.

³ Department of Urban Planning, Faculty of Engineering, Arak Branch, Islamic Azad University, Arak, Iran.

Abstract

Highlights
- In the residential buildings in the city of Arak, Iran, good construction quality was the first priority of the residents to achieve residential stability.
- The cultural level and social homogeneity hold the residents’ second priority to achieve residential stability.
- Causal conditions have the greatest impact on residential stability, followed by intervening and strategic conditions.
- Factors involved in the creation of residential stability are stated based on facts and needs.-
- The factor of tendency to move is stated based on wishes, ideals, and expectations.
 
Introduction
Today, the study of a residential environment is important because of its effectiveness on important planning indicators such as residential relocation rate, quality of life, and housing demand forecasting, and the quality of the environment is a factor affecting urban population movements. Residential stability leads to community cohesion, the formation of social networks, and informal social monitoring, which collectively lead to the solution of community and neighborhood problems. The purpose of this research is to discover the factors affecting residential instability and the desire to move, especially with respect to the quality of the environment of residential buildings in the city of Arak, Iran.
 Theoretical Framework
From the early 1950s, the big cities of Iran were exposed to massive migration. The immediate solution to this crisis was to build residential buildings in sparsely populated areas. The point that can be seen in the process of creating residential buildings in Iran is that they have often neglected the principles and criteria of urban planning in the planning and design of residential buildings and have failed to create desirable residential environments. They have also ignored the residents in the design of the buildings, decreasing their level of satisfaction.
Moreover, the quality of the environment is considered as a factor affecting population movements within the city and attempts to leave the neighborhoods. The residents’ assessment of their residential environment is effective on the size of population attracted to and retained in the urban area, and it is an important factor influential on population mobility within the city.
Studies have demonstrated in regard to the differences between planned and actual residential moves that 48 percent of those who have intended to move have left their homes after 5 years, while 14% of those who have planned to stay have also moved. Reducing residential mobility is a step towards building a stable neighborhood.
 Methodology
The method of information analysis adopted in this research is based on the systematic approach of Strauss’ and Corbin’s theories in the three main steps of open coding, axial coding, and selective coding, which is based on continuous comparison.
Open coding is based on general questions aimed at discovering the truth, such as why you stayed in this building, why you intend to go, and what factors make you stay or leave. Axial coding is aimed to establish a relationship between the concepts generated in the open coding step. The basis of the communication process in axial coding is to focus on and define a category as the central one and then place other categories as sub-categories below the main one.
In selective coding, the utilized categories are theoretically saturated.
The first and second steps are logically placed next to each other based on the coded concepts. Then, the researcher must choose the core category. Here, the major categories are related to each other in the form of a paradigm model (contextual model) around the core category.
Results and Discussion
The findings indicate that 23.5% of the residents tended to stay in their current homes for one to four years, while the estimated lengths of stay in their current homes included five to eight years for 17.8%, six to twelve years for 10.0%, and above sixteen years for 2.8%. The greatest impact on residential stability concerning the subject of the research is exhibited by causal conditions (such as the design and construction of a building), which are formed before its construction, and conditions other than the background ones (such as the location of the building in the city), taking shape after its construction, which include intervening and strategic conditions. Strategic conditions are exemplified by feelings of security and tranquility, congestion, and management, and intervening conditions include neighborhood relations, residents’ cultural level and social homogeneity, lack of economic capacity to move, and lack of buyers. The reasons for the poor conditions of the building (which are more personal and individual and are different for each person) include factors affecting residential stability and the desire to move.
Conclusion
Good building quality and cultural level and homogeneity were the first and second priorities of the residents to achieve residential stability. However, the respondents’ important reasons include the high level of reference to peace and security, high access level, proper management, and economic inability to move. Other items mentioned include proper location of the apartment and the building. Moreover, the results demonstrated that the factors that create residential stability are different from those that create the desire and tendency to move. The factors creating residential stability are stated based on facts and needs, but those for tendency to move are stated based on wishes, ideals, and expectations. Furthermore, the greater the distance between these two (real requests and wishes), the greater the desire to move.
Acknowledgments
 This article is from the doctorate thesis of the first author with the title "Explaining the quality of the environment on residential stability and willingness to move in residential complexes using the contextual method (case example: Arak city) " In the Islamic Azad University, Arak branch under the supervision of the second and third authors and The fourth is extracted.

Keywords

• Residential Buildings in Arak
• Environmental Quality
• Residential Stability
• Tendency to Relocate
• Grounded Theory

Main Subjects

• Urban Sustainability