The place and evaluation of housing architecture projects in the architectural competitions since 1930

Residential buildings are perhaps among the most important architectural products, especially as regard to their effect on the family, which is the smallest cornerstone of social structure, and also its formation and development. Residential units are small-scale structures which have a comprehensive content. It is the smallest unit which protects the privacy and freedom of the family life from the outside world. Housing units are important spaces for families because of the content of family experiences and its practical aspects, and they should be designed accordingly. However, distinguished architects have indicated that architectural problems of family residences have not been resolved as yet, in a lot of articles published in periodical and non-periodical journals. The aim of this thesis is to determine how architectural competitions, which are not a common method of acquiring housing projects, have affected housing design, and whether they have been able to create different solutions out of the specific techniques of each period. In this study some hypotheses have been presented in the introduction. In order to substantiate the accuracy of these hypotheses, first, the problems of housing architecture of each period are investigated, and then the problems in the design and production of competition projects are analyzed. And in the field study, residential architectural competitions were investigated using the studies in the preceding chapters. During this examination, the timeline was divided into ten year periods, and for each period from 1 to 4 competitions are chosen, starting from 1930 up to the present day. Each of the competitions is analyzed under seven titles. The analysis charts are designed to compare the competition projects by means of the specified topics. In the conclusion section, all designs and introductory hypotheses are evaluated together.