The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the change in users' housing preferences

The residences only aimed to provide security and to meet the need for housing before, the factors that affect users remain more limited compared to today. However, with the transition to settled life and the beginning of the communities to live together, new housing types have started to be produced in line with the preferences of individuals. People prefer to live in residences that best suited to their family structures, their perspective on life, education levels and status; at the same time, they aim to live in houses that have an organization that will make their daily routine life more practical. In this direction, many physical, sociocultural and ecological criteria affect housing preferences. These criteria are directly affected by the changing and renewed lives of individuals. The COVID-19 pandemic has also significantly affected the lives of individuals and communities. Pandemics and architectural design may seem like two unrelated issues, but the relationship between these issues has been going on for centuries. Although the idea of communities living together while settlements are being formed has been attractive to humanity due to security and social concerns, dense settlement poses a silent threat to humanity. In the historical process, successive pandemics destroyed societies, played an active role in the results of wars, and also played a major role in the development of social sciences and medicine, contributing to the development of cities and the change of the built environment. In this study, it was aimed to examine how the criteria affecting the preferences of residential users changed before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. For this purpose, a survey was conducted with the participation of 262 users in the cities of Konya, Ankara, Kocaeli, Kahramanmaraş and Afyonkarahisar. The demographic characteristics and lifestyles of the participants were examined in the survey, and then the importance of the criteria affecting the housing preferences of the participants was evaluated before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analyzes of the determined criteria were compared with the values before and during the pandemic; It was examined how the data changed according to the age range of the participants. The study showed that the type of residence preferred by the participants during the COVID-19 pandemic process was detached houses, and it was stated that the majority of users residing in apartments and considering changing houses would prefer the detached type in their new residences. The COVID-19 pandemic has allowed the users to experience the interior of the residences more, and has ensured that the evaluations regarding the comfort of the interior space are prioritized in the preference criteria. The analysis results are intended to provide data on user preferences for future housing designs and planning.