Evaluation of Temporary Disaster Housing from User Perspective: Van Earthquake Container Housing

The subject of this study is to examine the spatial designs of temporary housing established after disasters from the perspective of the user. The aim of the study is to examine user satisfaction in temporary disaster housing and to evaluate the design improvement possibilities of existing containers through physical features such as form, texture, material, color and light that affect visual perception and the meanings that emerge from these features. Earthquakes are the most intense disasters experienced in Turkey. Therefore, temporary housing established after earthquakes is specifically addressed in the study. After two consecutive earthquakes in Van, Turkey in 2011, thousands of people were settled in container cities established in the center of Van and its districts. One of the container cities established in the center of Van in 2012, Anatolian Container City, was selected as the research area, and the settlement area of ​​the container city and the interior spaces of the containers were examined. A randomly selected sample of 100 people (96 households) was formed in the research area, and face-to-face interviews and surveys were applied as research methods in order to obtain information about the housing conditions and the spatial characteristics of the containers. In line with the data obtained from the spatial examination and survey results, temporary shelter conditions and interior features of the containers were evaluated in terms of user satisfaction. Within the framework of user evaluations, improvement possibilities that can be made in the designs of existing containers through factors affecting visual perception were investigated and suggestions were developed in this direction. The expectation that the study results can also be taken into account in new temporary housing designs increases the importance of the study.