Code for sustainable homes: opportunities or threats for offsite manufacturing and mass-customization?

This study intends to, firstly, discuss current status of zero carbon homes in the UK, and secondly, to investigate the feasibility of using offsite construction methods to deliver mass customised zero carbon homes. The study concludes that mass customised offsite housing could be an answer to overcome the current barriers to achieve zero carbon homes in the UK; however, more work is required to increase the confidence of stakeholders including clients, designers, and housebuilders in offsite manufacturing in order to increase the share of such methods in the construction industry

A critical analysis of urban regeneration programmes in Europe

Urban regeneration is informed and driven by the causes and effects of globalization, climate change, the global economic crisis, and lifestyle changes. In Europe, there is currently a pressing demand to redevelop brownfields areas, inner-city heritage sites, post-conflict and post-disaster areas, and large-housing estates. Housing regeneration strategies range from large-scale to micro-scale interventions that lead to a complete change to the physical features of neighbourhoods and the life of their residents. This paper presents activities and cases studied in the OIKONET Erasmus Lifelong Learning Project, by highlighting that regeneration is an important issue driving the production of contemporary housing in Europe. The presented review is part of wider research and pedagogical work aimed at identifying significant conceptual, contextual and policy changes affecting housing regeneration demand. Examples of urban regeneration programmes on different urban areas in selected European countries, i.e. the UK, Hungary, Serbia, Slovakia and Russia are examined. As a result of the comparison between the cases analysed, some conclusions can be drawn to inform future research and set up pedagogical programmes to be carried out within the OIKONET project

Healing the liminal space: a student project on the Nicosia buffer zone

On 17th October 2008 twelve sixth year architecture students from the School of Planning, Architecture and Civil Engineering at the Queen’s University Belfast were granted unprecedented access by the United Nations to enter the buffer zone of Nicosia’s walled city. This was a unique opportunity to experience and survey the selected sites for their senior theses design proposals which targeted the liminal space contained in the buffer zone since its complete physical division in 1974 and aimed at reuniting the walled city through urban design and architecture. This paper firstly explains the context of the study and the role of the Nicosia Master Plan in reshaping Nicosia’s urban growth. It then summarizes students’ experience conducting the two the field trips to Nicosia. And finally it presents the design contributions from the 12 students, the design challenges they faced and the important topics that emerged

Design drivers for affordable and sustainable housing in developing countries

Current demand for housing worldwide has reached unprecedented levels due to factors such as human population growth, natural disasters and conflict. This is felt no more so than in developing countries which have experienced disproportionate levels of demand due to their innate vulnerability. Many current approaches to housing delivery in developing countries continue to utilize inappropriate construction methods and implementation procedures that are often problematic and unsustainable. As such affordability and sustainability are now vital considerations in the international development debate for housing the poor in developing countries in order to meet the long term sustainable development goals and needs of housing inhabitants. This paper utilized an extensive scoping study to examine the various facets impacting on design decision making relative to sustainable and affordable housing delivery in developing country contexts. Aspects of affordability, sustainability, design decision making, appropriate technology use, cultural awareness, as well as current barriers to affordable and sustainable construction in developing countries are examined in detail. Results highlighted the capability of indigenous knowledge, skills and materials as well as selected appropriate technology transfer and cultural awareness by foreign bodies can be utilized in innovative ways in addressing current housing needs in many developing country contexts

The Role of Co-housing in Building Sustainable Communities: Case studies from the UK

This paper explored the role of cohousing model in the UK and discussed the benefits and limitations of cohousing model by exploring cohousing residents’ motivation and daily living. Through case studies in the UK, semi-structured interviews were carried out to establish the environmental and social sustainability in cohousing and understand residents thinking and behaviour. This study found that cohousing can benefit various age groups, and promote residents’ thinking and behaviour change towards sustainable living. The study also found that the financial limitation and new members recruitment are the top two difficulties in cohousing development. The findings of this research will establish a better understanding of UK cohousing and highlight the potentials and possibilities of cohousing communities

Creative Housing Design: Promoting sustainable living in cohousing community in the UK

A cohousing community is created and managed by its residents. It is a new collaborative housing concept designed to foster meaningful relationships, closer social bonding and energy efficiency concepts. This paper aims to discuss the key principles, priorities and challenges of cohousing design process through interviews with four cohousing project architects and four members of the design group. Semi-structured interviews were carried out i) to understand residents’ thinking and behaviour change through living in the cohousing community, and ii) to establish the environmental and social sustainability in a cohousing setting. The study found that the development procedure of cohousing highly differs from the mainstream housing design. The quality of the design can potentially influence the residents’ daily life. The findings will benefit a range of groups. It will be an important reference for cohousing design standards. Also, it could potentially become the legitimate toolkit for cohousing groups.eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2018. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/e-bpj.v3i8.135