A Design-Oriented Model of Permanent Residents’ Perceptions of Built-Environmental Impacts of Second-Home Development in Rural Contexts

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tabriz University of Islamic Arts, Tabriz, Iran.

2 Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tabriz University of Islamic Arts, Tabriz, Iran

10.22059/jdt.2026.409456.1178

Abstract

The rapid growth of tourism-related second homes is a key driver of physical and environmental change in rural areas, reshaping settlements and the spatial experiences of permanent residents. While previous studies focus on land-use and socio-economic consequences, design-oriented implications across spatial scales have received limited attention. This gap hinders a nuanced understanding of how such developments are perceived by host communities, which is critical for mitigating visual disruption and fostering contextual design. Using a perception-based approach, this study develops a conceptual model to examine how permanent residents evaluate the physical and environmental impacts of second-home development. The model integrates four design-related components: formal aesthetics, symbolic aesthetics, landscape transformations at the macro scale, and physical changes in rural housing at the micro scale. Employing a mixed-methods approach, data were collected via a researcher-designed questionnaire in the villages of Heravi and Beyraq in Tabriz County. The proposed model was tested using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Results indicate that perceived rural landscape-scale changes most strongly shape overall evaluations, while micro-scale house alterations show no significant direct effect. Formal aesthetic qualities significantly affect perceptions, unlike symbolic aesthetics. Residents’ responses are driven less by isolated architectural features than by broader changes in visual coherence, scale, and landscape continuity. This study contributes by reframing second-home development as a design-led problem and proposing a multi-scalar model where rural landscape structure centrally shapes environmental perceptions.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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Journal of Design Thinking
Volume 6, Issue 1
June 2025
Pages 127-146

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