Investigating the Consequences of the Proximity of Villages and Industrial Estates on the Architecture of Rural Areas

A B S T R A C T
The expansion of industries in rural areas, with the aim of promoting development and sustaining the local environment, has been a policy of interest to most governments and decision-makers in this field since the second half of the twentieth century, and it can have positive or negative consequences in the economic, social, environmental, and physical spheres. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effects of establishing industrial estates on the architecture of rural areas in Qaenat County in 2025. The general approach of this study is quantitative, and in terms of data collection, it is based on library sources, and part of the data was collected through 120 questionnaires administered using simple random sampling. The statistical population of this study consisted of two groups, including elites and specialists who participated in in-depth interviews and villagers living in villages around the industrial town in Qaenat County. The results, based on the views of experts and villagers, showed that the existence of the industrial town had an impact on the economic, social, and cultural dimensions of the village. The results also showed that elites and villagers considered the effects on the architecture of the village to be less certain, and from the experts' point of view, the existence of an impact on the components of the village’s architectural plans and infrastructure was suggested
Extended Abstract
Introduction
The expansion of industries in rural areas, with the aim of promoting development and sustaining the local environment, has been a policy of interest to most governments and decision-makers in this field since the second half of the 20th century, and it can have positive or negative consequences in the economic, social, environmental, and physical spheres. In general, numerous studies have examined the effects of industrial location in rural environments, each addressing this issue from a specific perspective and analyzing and evaluating the consequences of industrial establishment in the study area. Over the past few decades, following the introduction and implementation of social development plans and the modernization process in the social and economic spheres, rural settlements, like any other phenomenon, have undergone changes and transformations. The establishment of small and large industries in rural areas has had a significant impact on these areas, sometimes leading to their complete transformation. The developments and changes resulting from this process include physical and environmental changes, as well as changes in the socio-economic structure of the village.
 
Methodology
The present study was conducted to evaluate the effects of establishing industrial estates on the architecture of rural areas in Qaenat County in 2025. The general approach of this study is quantitative, and in terms of data collection, it is based on library sources, and part of the data was collected through 120 questionnaires administered using simple random sampling. The statistical population of this study consisted of two groups, including elites and specialists who participated in in-depth interviews and villagers living in villages around the industrial town in Qaenat County. Using the Cochran formula and the stratified random method with proportional allocation, 100 residents of two villages located adjacent to the industrial town and 20 village experts were selected as samples from the 270 households living in the aforementioned villages. The data were analyzed using SPSS software. Face validity was used to assess the validity of the research instrument in the present study.
 
Results and discussion
The results of the analysis of variance regarding the consequences of the proximity of villages to industrial towns on the economic, social, cultural, and architectural domains of rural areas were examined separately from the perspectives of experts and villagers. According to the experts, a significant level was observed for the economic, social, cultural, and architectural consequences, which was also obtained from the perspective of village residents. The highest mean square between the groups, based on the experts' and villagers' views, is related to cultural effects. The economic consequence with the highest F value is 7.510 and the mean is 1.221, according to the villagers, which indicates the strong impact of this domain due to the proximity of the village to the industrial estate. In contrast, according to the villagers, this proximity has had the least impact on the architecture of the village. According to the experts, the cultural consequence shows the highest F value of 2.252 and a mean of 0.317, and in this analysis, it does not have a significant impact on architecture. Based on these statistics, from the perspective of both groups studied, the highest frequency of architectural changes was related to the number of residential units, and changes in architectural style had the lowest frequency. In a more detailed analysis, the effects and consequences of locating an industrial estate adjacent to a village on the architecture of the village, from the experts' perspective, indicate that changes in the architectural plan, building materials, the function of architectural space, the neighborhood pattern, and village infrastructure are significant from the experts' perspective. On the other hand, experts in the areas of architectural style and building facade features assessed these effects as low or insignificant. Also, the experts' opinion indicates that the effects are greater on the components of architectural design and neighborhood pattern, space function, and village infrastructure, respectively. However, in general, the proportion of experts who believe in changes caused by the establishment of an industrial town in village architecture is less than 30 percent.
 
Conclusion
The results, from the perspectives of experts and villagers, indicate a significant relationship among economic, social, and cultural impacts in the village, but this analysis did not demonstrate a significant impact on village architecture. In the continuation of the research on affected architectural components in villages, the greatest impact was related to the number of residential buildings and village infrastructure from the perspective of villagers and experts, which is associated with increased migration to villages and improved economic conditions in villages. Also, according to experts, the greatest changes in architectural components have been related to the neighborhood pattern and the characteristics of architectural plans, which, in their view, correspond to the most substantial changes in the village in the cultural and social spheres. The small and even insignificant effects of other architectural components can perhaps be attributed to simultaneous changes in architectural styles toward the globalization of architectural patterns and the departure from traditional and indigenous architectural patterns following the establishment of industrial towns in Iran.
 
Funding
There is no funding support.
 
Authors’ Contribution
All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and analysis was performed by Elahe Ahani and Azam Noroozi. The questionnaire was prepared and data collection were performed by Maryam Ahani. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Azam Noroozi (architecture section) and Elaheh Ahani (economics section) and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
 
Conflict of Interest
Authors declared no conflict of interest.
 
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to all the scientific consultants of this paper.