برنامه ریزی فضایی (May 2023)
The Participatory Position of the User in the Design Process of Residential Spaces
Abstract
Abstract:Statement of the Problem: Different people and strata in human societies need a shelter called housing. The design process of this type of space is done in different ways, and the possibility of using the user's opinions during this process has always been desired by the design community because users are considered influential members in this matter. In recent years, the participatory approach has played an important role as an appropriate response to this process. However, the special contemporary conditions, according to the way of house selection and the view of the designers, have made their involvement in the category of participation very diverse.Purpose: This study seeks to explain and measure the level and quality of user participation in the design process. Therefore, the study investigates, firstly, in what topics and secondly, to what extent the user can enter into this process.Methodology: The present study uses the grounded theory approach to achieve its goals.Results: The results show the extent and manner of the user's participation in the different stages of the design process during a three-stage and back-and-forth activity, where the user's contribution is more important at the ‘level of influence through the declaration of needs’ and the architect's contribution is at the ‘level of participation through applying specialized considerations’.Innovation: The innovation of the research is in obtaining the model and its components using grounded theory and presenting a three-stage model of user participation in the design process.Keywords: Design Process, Housing, Position of the User, Participatory Design, Residential Space Users. Introduction:Housing, as a platform for human life, is related and interactive with other dimensions of his life. However, it is considered an important shelter among people and different strata of any society and it can be said that it is one of the most complex buildings in design. Therefore, housing is not only a product that must be produced but is the result of a process, and its design process is more than a response to a program because it has to present a public face while the private life of its residents flows. The most important issue in this process is the person (or persons) who live in it. Today, the consequences of the separation of users of residential spaces and housing designers in the design process have been revealed in the form of issues such as identity crisis, decreased sense of belonging, failure to satisfy spiritual needs, increased rate of depression, decreased security, and other similar cases. In residential spaces, due to the inability of experts and practitioners to solve such problems, these complexes are subject to destruction and ruin. Pruitt Igoe buildings are an example of these buildings. Architectural designers, while revising the definitions and concepts, believe that they alone cannot determine the quality of spaces, because the final quality is the product of direct interaction between the user and the designer, and not paying attention to this matter is very harmful in the qualitative fate of the residential space. Nevertheless, the debatable issue in this research is the extent of user involvement and participation. First of all, what aspects of the design process will users be allowed to be involved in and comment on? Secondly, what will be the pros and cons of playing this role? Mentioning this process, the present research tries to explain how the user participates in this process. Materials and MethodsAccording to the type of subject, the current research uses a qualitative approach to explain the position of users in the process of residential housing design. In order to advance the path of explaining the subject, this research has used the grounded theory (GT) research method in which the researcher, instead of using the existing theories, develops the theory based on the data. As a result, it provides the possibility of regular recognition of meanings from the point of view of people in a specific situation. The authors first collected the data in the theoretical basics section and then classified them. Furthermore, by explaining the basic definitions and also by referring to library sources, the authors have tried to find the correct criteria for distinguishing different areas of the design process so that they can provide a correct answer to the above questions. However, due to the fact that there are many factors influencing the design process, the subject has been elaborated and explained with the help of experts in the field of design and construction during semi-structured interviews. The sampling method in this research is purposive sampling, and the analysis of the interviews was also considered using the extraction of concepts from the text of the conducted interviews, which helped to understand the studied topic. Research FindingsAt first, in response to the nature of the user’s involvement in the design process category, the architects not only expressed their satisfaction with their involvement but also considered the intervention of users in matters related to the activities of the users of the spaces in question as absolutely necessary and useful. Regarding the extent of user intervention, which was raised in the interviews, the architects pointed out that the three main factors in the design and construction process are legislation, the architect, and the user, each of which has a specific place in the formation of the design process. At the head of this process, the legislator specifies the limits that must be implemented in advance in the form of the law. The user as a beneficiary expresses his needs, and the architect as an expert in this process matches the demands of both the user and the legislator. Finally, the architects attributed three basic stages to the design process.The first stage includes expressing the quantitative needs of the design, in which the user, by defining the problem and explaining the program, expresses his quantitative needs such as the number and size of the spaces. The second stage, called carrying out the main design process, includes the architect and the user. In this stage, the architect and the user reach a general agreement about the existing challenges. The third step is to express a qualitative opinion about the design, which aims to confirm the final quality of the product by the user because, in the end, the person who will use the designed space is the user. The architectural qualities mentioned by the architects in relation to the spatial organization as well as the structure that does not conflict with the rules and principles set by the legislator mainly include issues such as the cause of creating cracks in the walls, the occupation level of the building, spatial order and how to organize, and so on. Finally, it can be pointed out that the architect completely shapes the needs of the users of the residential space regarding the architectural qualities and advancing the design process. Discussion of Results and ConclusionsThe results of the study indicate that architects consider the design process as two-way communication between the architect and the user, so during this interaction, the user first expresses his needs and then the architect tries to use his expertise to provide them with a correct and acceptable answer to gain their satisfaction and to increase the quality of the final product. In the meantime, sometimes the user's decision and the architect's discretion may be in conflict with each other. In this case, the architect acts according to the user's wishes despite his inner desire after warning about the possible consequences of doing an action. The non-contradiction of these demands with the legal requirements that are basically raised by various organizations has been declared as the most important red line for users’ involvement. Ultimately, if we think of the design process as a movie, the user will act as the producer and the architect as the director. In this process, the architect’s expertise and the user’s need complement each other. The results of this study, in addition to confirming the articles in the review of the literature, have followed the path of this issue. For this reason, in the way of advancing the issue of user participation in the design process, the level of user participation in the design process was determined. Therefore, in line with conducting future studies, the path ahead of researchers can be a deeper examination of users’ needs in the design process.
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