Desired residential apartment building?

Method for gathering user-centric data and prospects for design

Authors

• Sini Saarimaa Tampere University
• Veera Turku Tampere university.
• Jenni Kuoppa Tampere university
• Anne Tervo Aalto University
• Markku Laine Tampere university

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33357/ys.120503

Keywords:

housing preferences, focus groups, user-centric, housing design, apartment building

Abstract

The traditional questionnaire-based housing preference surveys inform how people wish to live in a generalisable way. Such information is often based on answer options set by researchers instead of residents' interpretations. Also, it remains at a general level to be utilised in the field of housing design. To get more detailed information about residents' housing preferences, we formed and tested a novel research approach that moves between revealed preferences, stated preferences and housing design. Using this approach, we answered our research question: What do residents wish for their urban apartment building? A group of dwellers representing the urban middle class from the Turku region formed the focus groups of this research. The way of implementation and insights gained deserve attention in the future development and further research of residential environments.