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As an important indicator of the quality of life of individuals, residential environments are continuing to evolve, due to the rapidly changing production–consumption relations. However, in this evolving process, the effect of the differentiated residential environments on the individuals' residential satisfaction remains unclear. This paper aims to measure the effects of the varying residential environments on the overall quality of urban life (QoUL) in Kayseri, one of the most developed cities in Central Anatolia.

It is based on empirical data on the quality of life in the different residential environments of Kayseri. The research method used stratified purposeful sampling, and the household survey data were analyzed using factor analysis, multiple regression and ANOVA statistical methods.

The most influential factors on the overall QoUL of individuals living in different Kayseri residential neighborhoods were satisfaction with neighborhood and city-level urban services, neighborhood relations and belonging factor groups. The critical finding obtained in this study is that residential satisfaction in low-rise and compact form housing areas in Kayseri is higher compared to residential satisfaction in high-rise neighborhoods. This result reveals that the high-rise building typology that is dominant in Turkey's big cities should be seriously questioned, and urban development policies should be re-evaluated.

The study was designed to produce baseline data so that future changes in residential conditions as perceived by the residents of Kayseri could be monitored to support decisions for residential areas.

Comparative case studies, particularly on low-rise versus high-rise environments, are scarce. As a result, this research contributes to the field of comparative studies on residential environments.

It is often necessary to assess the satisfaction of the house users with the house environment, in other words the compliance of the environment with their expectations, needs and goals.

The quality of residence and environment affects the general life satisfaction of the human. If the residents are satisfied with their residences and residence environments, this influences their psychological and physical health and these all together have an impact on the structure of the society. Therefore if the variables influencing the satisfaction of the people with their housing environment are known, this will aid us to set the criteria for the design of the housing and its environment. The aim of this study is to define the expectations of mass housing users from the houses and their environment and to assess the satisfaction of Bahcesehir Mass Housing users with the area they live in. The needs and expectations of families with different ages, cultures, educational backgrounds and income levels have been analyzed and the kinds of conditions necessary for satisfaction have been defined.

The factors necessary for the satisfaction of the users with the houses and their environment have been determined on the basis of the collected information about the features of the household, the houses and the house environment.

The survey within the scope of this study was carried out through 400 questionnaires. 327 of them were filled out in multi-family houses and 73 in single-family houses.

The findings of this study show that, not only the quality of the residence but also the environment of the residence is important. Residential environment constitutes not only the physical components of the residential area but also social and economic factors.

The assessments within this study will serve as a guide for future studies aiming to increase the quality of mass housing by taking the wants and needs of the mass housing users into consideration.

The purpose of this paper is to present a study assessing residents’ satisfaction with the integration of natural environment in public housing designs in Enugu urban, Nigeria.

The study followed qualitative and quantitative strategies. Personal observations and one-on-one interviews were conducted where necessary. A survey of 898 households residing in two main prevalent residential building typologies, systematically selected based on quota of their existence in seven public housing estates, was conducted, with a questionnaire as the key data collection instrument. A five-point Likert scale was used in measuring residents’ level of satisfaction of three key housing environment sub-components. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Residents expressed dissatisfaction with overall housing estate environment in terms of naturalness in the estate landscaping and availability of green areas, and also with immediate dwelling unit environments in terms open spaces and naturalness in external finishes. Many of the residents, however, claimed to be indifferent about the extent of response of layout designs to natural factors, and street layout concepts to climatic influences. This reveals a high level of apathy of residents to their estates designs.

Collecting relevant data from the government agency that are the providers of the public housing studied was a herculean task, as there was no existing organized data bank. Consequently, the researcher depended more on extensive field work. In addition to the above, getting the questionnaire respondents to agree to participate in the study was another major challenge, as they were not used to participating in such studies before the current study.

Findings from the study imply that residents’ are adaptable to whatever housing environment they are provided with; therefore, therapeutic housing environment, if provided, would enhance healthy living for public housing residents in Nigeria.

This work is a pioneering effort at evaluating public housing environment in the study area in relation to residents’ perception.

In 2001 each primary care trust in England was required to undertake a needs assessment in preparation for the development of a mental health promotion strategy. In Greenwich, it was decided to include the physical environment as one of the themes. This paper describes the findings of a literature review undertaken of health, social sciences and architectural research and the preliminary conceptual model subsequently developed to pull together all aspects of the interface between the urban and physical environment and mental well‐being. The literature review identified five key domains that impacted on this relationship: control over the internal housing environment, quality of housing design and maintenance, presence of valued ‘escape facilities’, crime and fear of crime, and social participation. That these domains can be confounded by socio‐economic and demographic factors and also interact with cultural factors and housing type suggests the importance of a public health approach, which focuses on causal systems rather than simply on individual causal factors.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the demand pattern and housing preference of young consumers in Guangzhou, China. This study seeks to offer more information for urban planners and housing developers about housing demand from social and cultural perspective.

Assisted by a questionnaire survey, a housing environment preference pattern is generated by ranking quality attributes with respect to their relative importance to young consumers. The outcome is analysed by pair‐wise comparison of attributes based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP).

It is found that “public traffic network” (11.72 per cent), “proximity to workplace” (10.22 per cent), “sense of safety” (9.74 per cent), “medical and health facility” (8.54 per cent) and “education facility” (8.50 per cent) are the top five determinants in housing consumption of young consumers in Guangzhou.

The database used is relatively small.

The housing environment has been well‐researched in developed countries, but not in Guangzhou, China. This is one of the few papers that looks at the housing physical and social environment preference for young consumers using an AHP framework.

This study examines the effect of housing environment on residents’ satisfaction and happiness using the data collected from selected residents of Gurugram, an urban locality in India.

Using the convenience-cum-judgmental sampling technique, data was collected from 321 residents of 17 gated private housing estates and tested by performing factor analysis and partial least squares – structural equation modeling.

The results revealed that maintenance service at housing estates significantly influences residents’ satisfaction followed by social infrastructure, dwelling attributes and residential amenities, whereas the accessibility aspect has no significant impact on residents’ satisfaction and happiness. Results also show a significant impact of social infrastructure on residents’ happiness, and most notably, residents’ satisfaction has a significant influence on their happiness.

The findings of this study are likely to provide valuable insight into housing stakeholders (government officials; real estate developers; property and construction professionals, i.e. planners, architects and maintenance managers) to improve the attributes in urban housing setting and neighborhood facilities to upsurge the residents’ satisfaction and happiness level toward the housing estates and townships, which leads to quality and happiness in residents’ life.

According to the authors’ knowledge, the present study is the first to provide an inclusive way toward showcasing the key antecedents of residents’ satisfaction and happiness in the Indian urban housing context. Authors anticipate that future researchers will find present research as a valuable contribution to the residents’ satisfaction and happiness in urban housing planning and revitalization of urban locations.

This study¹ seeks to identify and propose a model for measuring and assessing the level of sustainability in housing environments based on a range of indicators. With this intention, the article is composed of four main parts. In the first part, the relationship between sustainability and housing is presented based on previous research; in the second part, a theoretical framework is put forward for sustainable housing. Then in the third part, sustainability indicators are discussed thoroughly within the context of indicator frameworks. In this section, the development, selection and measuring processes of indicators are also introduced. Finally in the fourth part, the model for measuring and assessing the level of sustainability in housing environments is presented. It is believed that this model will be used as a tool in the decision-making processes for the future development of existing housing settlements and their environments.

The relationship between people and their home environment has always been an important research theme. Cooperative works of different disciplines and research areas, such as environmental psychology, social psychology, community psychology, home environment studies, urban planning and architecture have developed an understanding of relationships between quality and residential spaces. In this study an attempt has been made to analyze quality issues in housing environments by providing a general review related to quality housing research and by establishing a model that can be used to evaluate the concept of quality in housing. Focusing on a specific housing settlement as a case study, the goal here is to open a debate based on design concepts and their social and spatial consequences in architecture and to provide important data for future housing projects in Turkey. In the scope of the work, the Belerko Housing Settlement in the City of Trabzon has been selected as a research area. Aim of the study is to develop an understanding of the social, psychological and the physical characteristics that contribute to spatial quality in this specific housing environment.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss residents' views of social and physical environments in a co‐housing and in a senior housing setting in Finland. Also, the study aims to point out important connections between well‐being and built environment.

The data include interviews and survey responses gathered in the cases. The results and analysis are presented at different case study levels, with the discussion and conclusions following this.

The findings show that the physical environment and common areas have an important role to activate residents. When well‐designed common areas exist, a higher level of engagement can be achieved by getting residents involved in the planning and running of activities.

This paper discusses residents' experiences in two Finnish housing settings and it focuses on the housing market in Finland.

The findings encourage investors and housing operators to design and invest common areas which could activate residents and create social contacts. Also, investors have to pay attention to the way these developments are managed.

This study is the first to investigate the Finnish co‐housing setting and compare social and physical environments in a co‐housing and a senior house.

The aim of this study was to investigate the dimensions of housing adequacy evaluation by residents in public housing with a view to identifying how government and construction professionals can deliver adequate housing facilities.

The research is based on household surveys involving 517 respondents selected from nine public housing estates constructed between 2003 and 2010 in Ogun State Southwest Nigeria. The data were collected using structured questionnaire administered to the residents by the researchers through visits to the housing estates. A total of 33 variables derived from the review of the literature were used in measuring housing adequacy. Descriptive statistics and factor analyses were used in analysis of the data.

The study reveals that residents perceived their housing situation as inadequate. They evaluated housing adequacy based on four key dimensions: ambient condition of interiors spaces, security, utilities and neighbourhood facilities; social infrastructure; level of privacy and size of sleeping; and living and dining areas in the residences. These dimensions of housing adequacy evaluation were found not to be exactly the same way experts conceived housing adequacy in the literature.

The concept of housing adequacy can be used to examine occupants’ housing preferences and their standard of living, the quality of housing and the performance of mass housing projects.

The paper makes practical suggestions to government and construction professionals on how to improve adequacy levels of public housing. Specifically, in the areas of giving more attention to ambient condition of interiors, security, utilities and neighbourhood facilities as well as privacy and sizes of main activities areas in dwelling units in the design, construction and management of public housing projects.

The study identifies dimensions of housing adequacy evaluation by residents in public housing and compares these with experts’ conception of housing adequacy.