Smart home design flexibility as an enabler of sustainability and the reception in Sulaiymaniah, Kurdistan Region-Iraq

Abstract

Technological progress has become a key aspect of our well-being and impacts both our daily life and everyone’s use of architectural space. The recent decade has witnessed a rapid evolution of technology which paved the way for smart interior design solutions and stimulated the environment for designers. Studying the effect of integrating smart solutions into aspects of flexible and sustainable interior design. In general, one of the most important ways to achieve Sustainability is to develop the space flexibility by the integration of home automation technology into future living spaces to ensure more efficient use of space (adaptable buildings are likely to use the same amount of space and materials more efficiently, on average, over their entire life). Smart homes have different goals and end-users. A smart home has to be a house and a home to stay, but as the way of living changes within the house, certain changes in space are needed to satisfy the new lifestyle of the occupants. This study explores how flexible space can improve the sustainability of interior design by using Smart Technology and understand the level of acceptance of smart home technology and the design preferences by the people of Sulaymaniyah. A questionnaire survey was established based on the literature review of principles of flexibility, sustainability, and smart technology in interior design, collected raw data and perform statistical analysis to understand whether or not Smart home technology is suitable for the region and what would be the design preferences of people to make it more welcomed in the housing sector as a solution to attain more flexible and sustainable buildings. Results explained that there is a market for Smart Homes in the region of Sulaymaniyah with some modifications in the concepts of smart homes design. The younger group of samples is more accepting of the concept while the older group is also accepting, however, is not entirely comfortable with the complete integration of public and private zones of the future Smart homes.