Home Belonging – Between House and neighborhood

Abstract

Residential stability leads to a stronger affiliation with an individual's community, which leads to more pro-social behaviors. Without adequate housing, people cannot be productive members of the community and family. At the local level, Iraqi residents in general, and Al-Baghdadi in particular, have witnessed multiple changes due to various social, economic, and political factors. Many problems have emerged, such as uncomfortable housing. General research questions have arisen: Is the current place of residence of the Iraqi individual, as a case study, his place of belonging? Is it his home?

The research paper aims to investigate the sense of belonging to the house and the neighborhood as a home. The research assumes that belonging to a place of residence, such as a house, a neighborhood, or both, is home for the resident, and that the decline in the sense of belonging towards one of them makes the person feel alienated. The research path begins by explaining the concepts related to the research, such as house, neighborhood, and belonging, developing the research hypothesis, and testing it with residents of houses of different types and styles in a neighborhood. (Palestine Street) as a model of a modernly planned residential neighborhood in Iraq.

The research concluded that the sense of belonging to the neighborhood is the catalyst in the formation of an individual who is proactive, productive, and interactive with society. The Baghdadi house with a modern layout enhances the sense of belonging between the house and its spatial neighborhood, and the modern planning style of the residential neighborhood is an indicator of belonging to the neighborhood physically, but due to lack of social belonging to the neighborhood, the research indicated a decline in the social sustainability of modern residential neighborhoods in Baghdad after 2003.