A Study on Activities Related to Habitation (Indwelling) and Their Meanings

The process of transformation in Poland contributed to the dynamic development of the housing market and caused a growth of aspirations among Poles related to the housing environment. The diversity of lifestyles has brought about new, different expectations of the residential environment. Meanwhile, most surveys examining housing preferences and focused on the location of housing, services and infrastructure in housing estates, and urban and architectural standards show similar expectations of residents in regards to their housing environment. The phenomenon of the homogenization of expectations regarding the residential environment appears regardless of the household lifecycle, place of residence, or level of wealth (STACHURA 2013).

Research methods testing users’ preferences allow an expected set of characteristics of the housing environment to be specified. If the respondents' aspirations regarding the housing environment are similar regardless of the segment they belong to, it may be assumed that possible differences may be revealed by a more detailed study.

People perform many activities in their homes. These activities are related to everyday living, family and social life, work or hobbies. Each of them may be in assigned to one or more rooms in a dwelling. Activities may have different meanings and hold a different degree of importance to the residents. When purchasing a new dwelling, buyers prefer homes where the activities most important to them can be carried out in the most satisfactory way. The study attempts to establish the relationships between activities and sub-settings (dwelling or residential environment features) as well as between activities and their meanings.

This paper presents an extended method of examining residential preferences: respondents declare, in a survey questionnaire, what activities are carried out in the dwelling, and how they attach meanings to these activities. The pilot study showed that some of the activities are strongly associated with one specific room, while others may be connected to any room. Rooms in Polish homes have many functions. Some of the functions are strictly connected with the type of room (bedroom, bathroom), but there is also a set of everyday activities that can be assigned to different rooms, selected by the resident. The present research revealed that activities can take on different meanings, which determines their level of importance to the dwelling user.