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Affordable
Affordable housing design housing design
with application of vernacular
architecture in Kish Island, Iran
89
Ali Afshar
Architecture Department, Faculty of Design and Architecture,
University Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia
Wa’el Alaghbari
Architecture Department, Faculty of Engineering, Sana’a University,
Sana’a, Yemen, and
Elias Salleh and Azizah Salim
Architecture Department, Faculty of Design and Architecture,
University Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia
Abstract
Purpose – Kish Island is one of the most attractive tourism destinations in Iran and it is becoming an
increasingly popular destination for tourism investment. Many people have recently migrated to the
island. Thus, one of the housing policies for the island is to maximize the efficiency of residential lands,
particularly in providing affordable housing for low-income people. The purpose of this study is to
develop social, economical and architectural solutions for affordable housing design and overcome
related problems using adapted vernacular solutions.
Design/methodology/approach – The methodology of this study involved identifying the
research problem, followed by formatting the research framework, reviewing the comprehensive
literature and documenting the concepts of affordable housing and vernacular architecture. Therefore,
an affordable house design methodology was used to develop vernacular architecture to minimize cost
and environmental impacts, while maximizing the social acceptability in housing projects for
low-income earners in Kish Island. Section A in Mir Mohanna, which is the most important residential
centre for the low-income people, was used as the study area in this research.
Findings – The results of this study clarified that the houses in Section A in Mir Mohanna did not
meet the criteria of affordable housing and people’s needs. Hence, some suggestions for affordable
housing would certainly contribute towards formulating all these, including housing policy to be
implemented on Kish Island.
Originality/value – The current paper was an attempt to find strategies for guiding the appropriate
process of developing affordable housing on the basis of vernacular architecture for the country and
other similar places. It is hoped that the recommendations might increase more regulated housing
development and housing policies on Kish Island.
Keywords Iran, Housing, Design, Architecture, Government policy, Affordable housing, Housing policy,
Low-income, Vernacular architecture
Paper type Research paper
Methodology
The methodology of this research was employed to improve the affordable housing
design in order to develop the vernacular architecture to be affordable by the low-income
people in Kish Island. As indicated earlier, Section A in Mir Mohanna (Figure 1), which is
the most important residential centre for the low-income people, was used as the study
area in this research.
Based on Alaghbari (2010a, b) who developed affordable housing design for
low-income in Yemen by using the affordable housing design methodology. In this study,
the background was divided into two parts; the first part overviews the background of
housing policy in Kish Island and its development process by using related documents
and four different proposed master plans for the island. This part also overviews the
vernacular architecture in Iran and examines the quality of the architecture on the island.
Affordable
housing design
93
Figure 1.
Section A of Mir Mohanna
Figure 2.
Coverage areas,
1/16 of Section A
Affordable
housing design
95
Figure 3.
Physical standards
for residential parcels
of lands in Section A
96
Plate 1.
Central courtyards
in Saffein Village,
an inward-looking
architecture
This vernacular architecture, through its adaptation over a long-term period to local
context has the potential to provide an appropriate response to currently undermining
Kish Island’s architectural cohesion. There are some criteria that should be considered
in the design of affordable housing, which will be used to simulate the vernacular
architecture to be affordable for low-income earners (Bordignon, 1998; Friedman, 2005;
Salama, 2006; Sidawi, 2008; Alaghbari, 2010a, b; Alaghbari et al., 2011). These criteria
are as follows.
Privacy
Privacy shall be taken into consideration in designing the housing. Alaghabri
divided privacy into three sections, namely; privacy for the residents with neighbours,
privacy for the residents with visitors and guests, and privacy for the residents between
themselves following the Islamic rules Alaghbari et al. (2011) and Alaghbari (2010a, b).
The Islamic rules impose the prohibition of mixing between insiders and outsiders of a
house. This is a principle idea in the vernacular architecture of Kish Island, whereby
visitors should never view directly into the house. As a result, the vernacular architecture
of the island is generally designed in inward-looking. Thus, a vernacular house normally
consists of a series of spaces grounded around a courtyard (Mokhtarpour, 1999).
In Section A, the yards are visually and physically accessible for every outsider due
to short external walls. As a result, the families, who are mostly Muslims, use the yard
rarely. Moreover, the distance between neighbouring lands and organization of the
town allow the residents to have a direct view to each others’ homes (Plate 2).
Functional distribution
The residents’ lifestyle should have some dimensions, for instance, the social
dimension that is the need for space for individuals to socialize with family members,
relatives, guests and neighbours (Sidawi, 2008). The vernacular houses in the island
are created with summer and winter sections. The summer spaces are facing towards
the Persian Gulf, while the winter spaces are on the opposite side. The orientation of the
houses is mostly on the north-south direction but the expansion of the rooms is in the
east-west direction (Afshar et al., 2010).
In Section A, the ground floors are used for parking and in some cases used as
stores. The residential areas are settled in the first and second floors. The interior of the
house is divided into two sections according to the day and night activities. In the
day-activity section, the guest and family living areas are mixed together and mostly
located in the side closer to the street. On the other hand, the night-activity section area
includes the bedroom(s), and located in the other side of the house, distant, isolated,
Affordable
housing design
99
Plate 2.
A view of home
units in Section A
quiet and calm. There are typically two different types of units based on some factors
namely the size of the parcel of land, the size of the family and the average income of
the family. In addition, the kitchen and bathrooms are mostly located between these
two parts.
The bathroom is usually attached with the bedroom to be more separated from
other house areas. The living area includes a gathering place for family activities, such
watching TV or talking. This area also comprises the kitchen (Figures 4 and 5).
Economic analysis
The economic criteria include many factors influencing the design of affordable
housing for the low-income people in Kish Island. These factors comprise the house
size, the construction cost of housing and the physical characteristics.
IJHMA
5,1
100
Figure 4.
Typical plans of the
living areas
House size
The different spaces that carry out their full functions without wasting space were also
investigated in this study. There are two alternatives for families from low-income
people in Section A; one-bedroom houses or two-bedroom houses. These alternatives
are designed based on building restriction and local regulations. The total area in
majority of the house units is between 50 and 80 m2. The size of the houses follows the
size of the pieces of lands. There are also very limited number of flats with single
bedrooms and three bedrooms for big family size. Table I shows the limitations based
on the Standards of Architectural and Urbanism Design in Kish Island (2007).
101
Figure 5.
Typical plan of the
living areas
Plate 3.
Direct view into the Yards
of home units in Section A
IJHMA market expensive. Thus, most of the people who are living in the island have difficulty to
afford a parcel of land or apartment ownership.
5,1
Physical characteristics
Because of their valuable shading properties, trees play an important role in vernacular
architecture of all housing areas. Considering that the wind is blowing all year round, the
102 vegetation can mitigate high temperature and make the surrounding spaces more
comfortable. Furthermore, the use of local materials and natural resources has provided
fundamental characteristics for the Iranian architecture in the country. Vernacular
construction using local materials is one of the most important factors for creating
identity of vernacular architecture.
In Section A, all the residential buildings are made of three-storey attached houses.
The external windows are mainly wide and do not have any shading device in contrast
to vernacular architecture. The orientation of all the houses is very similar to that of
vernacular houses, which enables natural ventilation inside the houses. There are a
variety of elevation materials, which include travertine, granite, cement mortar covered
by plastic colours, white cement mixture, and recently, aluminium clad. Due to the
limitations of the local materials and based on the environmental-friendly regulations,
all of the materials are brought from outside the island. As a result, the price of the
materials in comparison with those from the mainland is a lot higher.
Conclusion
This article presents the study of the vernacular architecture in Kish Island, which has the
potential to be used as the base for the design of affordable houses in the island. From the
findings, there are different characteristic features in the vernacular architecture, which
can maximize social acceptability, as well as minimize costs and environmental impact
while maximizing the social acceptability. These criteria should be considered in
affordable housing design. This research explored the criteria that could affect affordable
housing in Kish Island based on the case of Section A in Mir Mohanna.
As for the social need analysis of the houses in Section A, the yards are found to be
visually and physically accessible for every outsider due to the short external walls. As
a result, the families who are mostly Muslims, rarely use the yard, and there is also a
problem related to privacy resulting from the residents’ direct view of each others’
homes. The vernacular houses in the island are built to have summer and winter
sections. The summer spaces are facing the Persian Gulf, while the winter spaces are
on the opposite side. In Section A, the ground floors are used for parking and in some
cases, they are used as stores. The first and second floors are used as residential areas
Number of car
Total area of the Max. park units
parcels of land Max. number of house units residential (in ground Max. height of
(m2) (typical units per area) density floor) building (m)
Table I.
Limitations based on the 200 4 (4 £ 53.0 m2) 100% þ 15 m2 4 11.5 (three-storey)
physical standards of 250 4 (4 £ 62.5 m2) 100% 4 11.5 (three-storey)
architectural design in 320 4 (4 £ 80.0 m2) 100% 4 11.5 (three-storey)
Section A (2007) 400 6 (4 £ 75.0 m2 þ 2 £ 50.0 m2) 100% 6 11.5 (three-storey)
and divided into two areas, and these are for day and night activities. The guest and Affordable
family living areas are mixed and these are mostly located on the side close to the housing design
street. There are two unit types based on the three factors namely the parcel size of
land, family size and family income. In most of the vernacular houses on Kish Island, a
short divider called estar is erected in front of the main entrance. Majority of the houses
in Section A enable the outsiders to have a direct view into the houses.
The results obtained from the economic analysis have clarified that there are two 103
alternatives to the three-storey attached houses for low-income families in Section A;
these include one-bedroom units and two-bedroom units. The sizes of the units are
according to the land pieces and the total area of the units is between 50 and 80 m2.
There are several three-bedroom units for big families.
These alternatives were designed based on building restriction, local regulations
and architectural features, as follows:
.
Vernacular construction using local materials is one of the most important
factors for creating the identity of the vernacular architecture.
.
External windows are mainly wide and do not have any shading device as
compared to those in the vernacular architecture.
. The orientation of all the houses is very similar to that of the vernacular houses.
.
The elevation materials, which include travertine, granite and cement mortar, are
covered by plastic colours, white cement mixture and recently aluminium clad.
The study has also recommended valuable housing policies to be used by the
authorities in developing or building affordable houses for low-income earners on Kish
Island.
Recommendations
The affordable housing inadaptability with local architecture and its shortage have been
mentioned by many previous studies and the local experts. The effective factors behind
them were also identified in this study. Housing policies and strategies in Kish Island
have clearly caused increasing affordable housing demands and unsuitable housing
areas in the island. Therefore, this study would recommend KFZO to prepare a housing
policy for low-cost housing that caters for the low-income people in the island based on
Kish Destination Master Plan. Apart from updating the information of the low-income
people’s requirements, the results of this study also provide suggestions from the local
experts in the housing industry. Besides, this study significantly contributes towards
formulating this all encompassing housing policy to be implemented in the island by
incorporating the sub-policies. This study also recommends amalgamation of small
pieces of lands, so that they become bigger pieces of lands. Based on the compatibility
with the needs of people (Mardom-vari ) and inward-looking (Daroon-geraei ), as two
fundamental characteristics of the vernacular architecture, central courtyard can
answer to different social and economic needs of affordable houses in Kish Island. Due to
this, the existing building regulation about building coverage needs to be updated
to match with the ideas. Figures 6 and 7 shows the existing and proposal coverage of the
lands undertaken in this study.
Based on this proposal, the following are some recommendations for future
improvement in the island:
IJHMA
5,1
104
Figure 6.
The existing and proposal
coverage of lands and
their cross sections
Figure 7.
The existing and proposal
coverage of lands and
their cross sections
.
providing more green areas to create more adaptability with the Affordable
environment; housing design
.
decreasing high temperature by planting more trees in the house yards, which
will make suitable natural ventilation for the house interior, especially during
autumn and winter seasons;
.
using more central yard when it is more facilitated and more spaces for facilities;
105
.
increasing the distance between opposite neighbours in order to provide more
privacy for activities inside the houses as a basic belief for the Muslim
community;
.
planting appropriate local vegetation to prevent the house interior from being
viewed by the outsiders;
.
organizing the inside of the house based on the functions of rooms, for instance,
the bedrooms are located in the yard side, while the living rooms are located
towards the street;
.
raising the safety and security in the houses by making them more private when
the residents use the central court yard as the access to their houses;
.
creating more varieties in size and type of houses by amalgamating the
residential areas;
.
reducing the total area of common spaces, such as parking and staircase, in order
to decrease the cost of construction; and
.
providing less payment for keeping the common spaces, such as green areas,
with more number of residential units in a parcel of land.
This study also proposes the use of vernacular architectural characters in the elevation
and formation of the houses. For covering the facades, a material with similar specification
to local one should be used. Moreover, the size and place of openings are required to follow
the vernacular architecture, whereas the following of fashion and unknown forms must be
forbidden. These are based on two fundamental characters of Iranian vernacular
architecture, namely; avoiding unnecessary necessities (Parhiz az bihoodegi ) and
self-efficiency (Khod-basandegi ). Thus, the following are several strategies suggested in
order to develop the affordable housing industry in the island:
. decreasing the cost of construction by using simple forms and cheap local
technologies and materials;
.
creating harmony with the nature as well as using very specific colour of coral,
which is the primary feature of Kish Island and its vernacular architecture;
.
providing a good solar reflection due to the bright colour on the facade;
.
making the windows oriented towards the central yard wider for better view and
the windows facing the street narrower to prevent the inside of the house from
the outsider’s view and bad solar radiation; subsequently, the building should be
seen as solid from the street view; and
.
saving very expensive and valuable energy in the island by making
cross-natural ventilation to avoid terrible effects of direct solar radiation in the
houses.
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