The concept of privacy and its effects on residential layout and design: Amman as a case study

Abstract

The continued increase of housing costs related to construction and land property in Jordan has greatly impacted the housing market. As a result, smaller sizes of residential units have been planned and developed with an eye to the meager financial means of the average Jordanian. In this research work, an assessment of the internal layouts of residential units in the capital city of Amman was undertaken to discover how these new design trends affect the privacy of individuals occupying the units. Several different types of layouts were analyzed in terms of privacy and functional zones (number and types of zones) along with the relationship between these zones. As a result of this study, two design layouts have emerged. We will refer to these as the Dual Zone and the Triple Zone layouts. It was observed that as the number of zones increased within a housing unit, the amount of privacy also increased substantially. For this reason, the Triple Zone, which exhibits a higher level of privacy, does so because it provides a semi-private buffer zone (or transitional zone) between the private zone and the public zone. This effectively reduces the social interaction between unit occupants which results in increased privacy. Given the above, there exists a real need to propose various space layouts with the goal of achieving multiple levels of privacy; the aim being to improve the quality of life within residential units themselves.