Residents’ and Architects’ Perceptions of Apartments’ Spatial Characteristics—Identifying Differences in Opinion on a Case Study of Osijek, Croatia

Abstract

People spend up to 45% of their time in their living space, which has a major impact on their physical and mental health, behaviour, happiness and overall life satisfaction. In these times of rapid change and new, modern demands on living, it is necessary to understand the needs of residents and current design trends in order to incorporate both into the design of new living spaces. The aim of this study is to use the views of residents and architects collected through surveys to rank apartments and identify differences in the definition of what a high-quality apartment would be based on their spatial characteristics. The previously developed Housing Quality Assessment Model was used to assess the 126 most represented apartment layouts in the city of Osijek, Croatia, built since 1930. Apartment layouts were further divided according to the time of their construction, location, and size for comparison purposes. The research shows that residents rated apartments with higher ratings than architects in all categories and that residents and architects gave different ratings on certain characteristics of the apartment, e.g., the existence of additional storage space, the existence of a bathroom window, the size and orientation of living rooms, the type of spatial organisation, etc.