Environmental design evaluation of multi-family housing in Baghdad : users satisfaction with the external areas.

The ultimate test of the success of a housing development is the level of satisfaction that it engenders for its residents. It has been found, in much research carried out in the developed countries that the lack of detailed knowledge about users' needs and the failure to predict user behaviour were mainly unsatisfactory housing environments. Housing the external open spaces around dwellings were shown to be crucial satisfaction to blame for in multi-family and between the overall user. This study based In Iraq investigates users' satisfaction with the environment of recently constructed multi-family housing. It aims to identify the elements of the external environment associated with the residents' overall satisfaction in relation to these new environments. This study uses a range of factors which have been identified in many studies elsewhere in the world as having a bearing on users' satisfaction with their housing environment to examine people's reaction to their housing environment. It considers how such factors influence users' satisfaction in Iraq, and also identifies the Iraqi housing designers' intentions in relation to the external environment and examines their success in meeting user requirements. Various were used to systematic obtain information-gathering the information needed techniques for the evaluation. These included structured interviews of 183 households in three new housing projects, general observations as well as unstructured interviews with the designers and planners. The results of this study has shown to a large extent that the application of Western research in Iraq is valid. It is suggested that if Iraq used the knowledge available 1n the Western studies, it could avoid repeating the mistakes made in Western Europe and the U.S.A., during its transition from a rural to a more urban society. In particular this study has highlighted some essential social and cultural differences which indicate that Iraq must develop its own special approach to housing. It is hoped that this study may be used both to influence the drawing up of future housing policies in Iraq and the planning of new housing estates. In addition to providing the basis for rearranging the external environment of existing housing estates to meet more closely the needs of the residents.