Effect of household size on housing type case study: city of Al-Dujail

Abstract

One of the most important reasons for the incompatibility of housing plans with spatial development is the presence of shortcomings in the methods of calculating the housing need, as planning studies often tend to set a time ceiling that includes predicting the number of households and housing without clarifying other population characteristics that affect the determination of housing need, such as household size and their life cycle. This research aims to determine the housing needs based on the number of households according to their sizes, to determine the features of the housing development in urban areas, the needs of the household for housing, and then calculate the net residential area. The city of Dujail was chosen to achieve the goal of the research under the premise: that estimating the housing types required based on the housing need according to the size of the household contributes to fulfilling the need of those households for the appropriate housing type and helps in calculating the housing spaces to meet the required need. The population of the city of Dujail was determined according to Cowhart’s method for predicting the population until 2030, estimating the number of households according to their sizes, calculating the housing need, and distributing the need for housing among households based on urban and rural housing standards in Iraq. And to reach a set of conclusions and recommendations related to the topic of the research. The research reached an analysis of the housing need of the city of Dujail at a detailed level of household sizes to identify the subjective need for housing and to identify the factors and variables associated with it depending on the updated housing standards. The research recommended the necessity of compatibility of housing plans with spatial development, due to the presence of shortcomings in methods of calculating the housing need and developing housing models that fit the sizes of different households and the spaces of the minimum standard.