Quality of Life and the Architecture of Low-income Neighborhoods

The issue of quality of life has been discussed by many theorists and philosophers since ancient times relating it to many aspects of life, but the scientific research on quality of life started being evident from the 1970s, especially with the first publications of the social indicators research journal. Yet, there is still no concrete and agreed-upon definition of quality of life, what constitutes it, nor the parameters affecting it. More specifically, there is limited research that focuses on the relationship between quality of life and architecture and it is starker with low-income communities. Only the past couple of years witnessed an increase in the number of researches conducted in this field. Hence, this paper aimed to review and discuss the research carried out, precisely in the new millennium, investigating the relationship between quality of life and the architecture of low-income neighborhoods focusing on its main components. This review included a variety of researches addressing different issues such as measuring residential satisfaction, investigating the effects of the built environment on quality of life and conducting post-occupancy evaluations. Based on this comprehensive analytical review, the paper defined three main domains that constitute residential satisfaction, namely “housing unit, neighborhood, and social environment” and also the attributes of each domain. In addition, the paper highlights the shortcomings of the surveys technique and the missing attributes compared to studies conducted on other types of housing projects. In its conclusion, the paper discusses the implications and suggestions for future research in this field.