engleski

Comparison of architects’ and users’ attitudes toward spatial characteristics of apartments

An apartment is a form of space in which person carries out most of his life and which needs to be tailored to his needs. Architectural design practice, on the other hand, is under the influence of the market economy which requires apartments to be designed for an unknown user. Through analysis of existing studies on housing design, it was noticed that a great deal of attention is being paid to the apartment design guidelines based only on architects’ opinion and experience, ignoring the apartment users’ viewpoint. The aforementioned facts prompted a research whose purpose was to establish and present the attitudes of architects, the designers of apartment buildings as well as their users toward spatial characteristics of the apartment to examine whether differences of opinionexist, and if so, where they are most pronounced. The main objective of the research was to determine the apartment characteristics that are desirable to apartment users.The paper was written as part of the preliminary research conducted in the framework of the doctoral dissertation research on the topic of user evaluation of the apartment’s spatial characteristics. The data were collected through interviews with architects who design apartment buildings and apartment users in Osijek, Croatia viasurvey. The research participants expressed their attitude toward communication between the apartment rooms, their size, orientation and the principle of ventilation. The research results indicated fewdifferencesin architects’ and apartment users’ opinions. Additionally, the research results were used as input data for designing two two-bedroom apartments: one according to desirable apartment spatial characteristic from the perspective of a designer and the other one from apartment user’s point of view.

architectural design, apartment layout, apartment’s spatial characteristics, tenants preferences, housing

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