The Continuity of the Extended Family Structure within Contemporary Single-Family Houses Case Study: Afghan Immigrant Households in Iran

This research is aimed at reviving the positive aspects of extended family households. The impacts of extended family living on housing design are studied in two steps. In the first step, the history and precedents of extended family housing are explored in both traditional and modern societies. Aside from courtyard houses, numerous other models of extended family housing are introduced and it is shown that there are many such architectural models within and outside the Islamic societies. With the reinterpretation of the “extension” of family, many alternative types of modern communities and housing can also be regarded as relating to this study. In the second step, research was conducted on Afghan immigrants to recognize their extended family conditions as an ideal model within the Islamic context and the feasibility of its contemporary reproduction. The selection of Afghans for the study was reasonable for their relatively long presence within Iranian society. Ultimately, thirty-six families were selected with semi-snowball sampling. The ethnographic study was done in two stages. At the first stage, data was collected through direct observation, open-ended questions, semi-open-ended questions, and interviews with families. For the second stage, in-depth interviews with three of the thirty-six families were conducted. They were those families whose life experiences covered almost all ranges of extended-family lived memories.  Data analysis was done through three conceptual frames: mental-emotional persistence, behavioral duration, and bodily (physical) continuity within new houses. The study shows that people with previous experience of extended family living inside traditional houses not only preserve their emotional relationships with those behavioral patterns but also try to regenerate those space-behavior patterns inside the not-so-compatible modern house designs.