Influence of rural socio-cultural changes on rural housing Case: Neka County

Introduction In the past half century, major changes have occurred in the appearance of villages of the country. Most of these changes were related to residential architecture. New cultural plan aims at providing a new look at cultural issues in rural communities, fighting against social deprivation, fighting against nihilism in geographical perspectives, providing the opportunity to develop local identity, supporting native culture, making rural empowerment through the participation of rural people, democratic supporting of cultural policies and better understanding of people. In some cases, cultural transformation, has led to differences in the formation of architectural elements and components. Hence, such changes will be usually followed by other changes in construction manner and its pattern. This effect is such that, in many cases, urban architecture patterns, especially patterns of marginalization in towns with no architectural value, are replaced instead of rural traditional buildings which seems to have lost their former functions.  In recent decades, the process of changes in the face of villages in Mazandaran have accelerated so that it has drastically changed the overall appearance of villages and rural housing. In this article, we have tried to reflect the relationship between social environment and rural architecture. We have also examined the impact of cultural and social changes on the body of the village, especially on rural housing in the study area, the County of Neka. In addition, we have determined spatial distribution of this communication in the villages under study. Methodology The research method of this study is descriptive-correlational. The present study was conducted using survey method and questionnaires. Neka County, with a population of 58601 people, consists of 105 inhabited villages (Statistical Center of Iran, 1390). Statistical Society of the research includes 91 village with the total population of 57769 people. This number includes all villages of more than 20 households in the County of Neka. Cochran sampling method, with 95% confidence level and error probability of 5/5% based on the proportion of the population of each village, was used for calculating sample size among rural households. Finally, 10 villages, consisting of 1653 households, have been investigated. To assess the effects of socio-cultural changes on the pattern of housing in the village a number of 256 of the villagers (householders) were investigated by the use of simple random sampling method. Discussion and conclusion Housing is a cultural concept. To examine rural housing, besides studies done on physical and structural space, new studies are needed to examine social and cultural characteristics of villages and changes in social and cultural indicators of villages. Results from surveys done among villagers and measuring of the relations using Pearson's correlation coefficient suggest a relatively significant correlation, with the coefficient of 0.658, between socio-cultural changes and patterns of rural housing. After examining the impact of socio-cultural changes of rural life on rural housing model, it was discovered that 58.6 percentage of changes in housing patterns is determined by an independent variable. On the other hand, most changes in dependent variable are explained by the index of cultural acceptance with the positive impact of 8/66 percent: In rural communities, fear from social anomalies as an indicator has a negative impact on rural housing pattern. Analysis showed that the index of tendency to consumerism has affected four indicators of rural housing and its greatest effects was reported to be of the coefficients of 0.34 and 0.29, respectively for satisfaction and architectural plan of rural housing. So, sociocultural changes have had a fairly significant impact on the pattern of rural housing that can confirm the hypothesis of the research. The best proposed strategies to make positive cultural and social changes in rural life and the influence of such changes on rural housing pattern and getting more success in the area of housing include: - Giving attention to cultural needs and social structure of villages in the design of rural housing - Identifying the function of each component of rural housing and its proper conformity with villagers' current needs - Paying attention to the welfare of the villagers in rural settlements and using urban housing patterns in accordance with rural culture and environment; - Paying attention to geographical and climatic characteristics of villages, in addition to updating and creating prosperity of rural housing, to help us prevent natural disasters.