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A dense urban structure cuts down traffic emissions. It also promotes waste heat use and storage possibilities as a form of district heating. However, quality elements associated with detached houses, such as tranquillity and self-expression possibilities, may be lost. Better building quality and alternatives to private car use can enable these elements in smaller spaces, which is assessed here. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A technology set for an imaginary high-quality (HQ) apartment house is discussed by assessing increased embedded energy of the building structure, due to the HQ measures. HQ solutions include visual barriers, increased sound insulation, roof terraces, large windows, apartment adaptability, bike sheds, electrical cargo bikes and advanced energy solutions.

The increased construction and heating energy use in HQ buildings can be offset if car use is reduced by 10-15 per cent. There is a greater possibility of achieving this reduction if HQ housing can make urban densification more readily acceptable by demonstrating, that good quality housing can exist both in smaller building lots as well as in smaller apartments.

The quality issue brings a novel perspective to estimating the environmental impacts of built environment solutions. The approach here is quite simple, but the issue can be discussed more. That is, how much total resource input can be decreased, if the target is not to produce square metres but rather the necessary elements to have a good quality of life.

Ageing populations induce needs to adapt existing housing. With ageing, the number of frail old people, who require assistance in daily life, is also increased. Converting existing housing into assisted living enables them to remain in their community while receiving necessary support and care. The purpose is to investigate whether post-war mass housing is spatially appropriate for adaptation into group homes for older people.

The research material is attained from Finland. Spatial requirements for group homes are drawn from 130 units built or renovated during 2000–2015. Spatial characteristics of mass housing are mapped from 105 apartment buildings built in the 1970s. The latter are matched with the former by comparing the connectivity of layouts, sizes of units and the numbers and sizes of individual spaces.

Group homes typically utilize a linear layout, which can easily be created in apartment buildings. Individual spaces of a group home fit apartment buildings effortlessly. Whole group home units mostly prove to be spatially feasible but result in looser dimensioning than is typical in existing units. The mass housing stock can be considered a spatial reserve for adaptation into group homes.

This is the first study to employ a large-scale, multi-case spatial mapping approach to analyse the adaptability properties of mass housing into assisted living. The findings pertain primarily to the Finnish context, but a methodology is presented which can be applied to other countries and also to other spatial functions.

Traditional Iranian houses, were built of heavy, voluminous building materials resulting in massive bearing wall structures. Such buildings had fixed architectural spaces, with defined boundaries and dimensions. However, the need for adaptability was fulfilled through creating multifunctional spaces, seasonal or even daily movements in the horizontal and vertical directions of house areas, and subdivision or expansion of the primary spaces. Urbanization in Iran is leading to gradual replacement of individual houses by residential complexes and apartments in which, the use of traditional design principles was lost, while solutions to enhance adaptability in the internal layouts have not yet developed.

The paper concludes that open building may provide practical tools to enhance spatial variations in the new conditions. However, to take the first step towards this approach in Iran, some major issues such as "legal framework", "changing needs of Iranian families", "Iranian life styles" and "situation of industrial building production in Iran" have to be analyzed. Considering the mentioned factors, some recommendations for architectural design are proposed.

Investigation of housing adaptability is related to understanding factors that influence project transformation. Factors may be associated with the design and project stage as also alternative uses to existing buildings. To structure methodology for criteria analysis of adaptability, the research aims to verify the importance level of factors related to adaptability and flexibility context in architecture.

Employing a multicriteria analysis and a diagnosis performed with architecture professionals, criteria importance identified in a bibliographic survey is contacted.

With harmonious results, key elements highlighted in the diagnosis are discussed. Adaptability and flexibility are mainly related to balance in the design of spaces and their connections, so the user can have control administrating the organization of their habitat.

As a complex subject, involving legal, social and cultural issues, the multicriteria method supports the scientific analysis of data. The results can be used in a practical case study as assessment of housing adaptability and flexibility, as a useful tool to decision support in architectural project.

The purpose of this paper is to examine and show why post-occupancy evaluation (POE) of public apartment buildings in Ghana as a product of design is important.

By design the paper is descriptive. It uses a literature review as a method to summarize, synthesize and show the gaps in the existing knowledge on public apartment buildings in general and Ghana in particular. These arguments are brought together in a conceptual framework for approaching POE studies.

This paper finds that gaps exist in the existing POE research knowledge regarding public apartment buildings in Ghana not only as residential settings but also as designed artifacts intended for use.

There is a need for scientific research which focus on the design and use of public apartment buildings in Ghana to provide empirical basis for design, policy and research decision-making.

This paper shows that occupants’ feedback information is important, as it can benefits government, designers and builders, building regulators and managers, as well as end users.

The paper contributes a conceptual framework based on which POE studies can be designed.

When dwellings fail to respond to residents’ needs, housing will suffer from segregation and buildings will possibly be demolished ahead of their time. This paper focuses on the lack of variation in the sizes of dwellings as a factor in residential segregation. It examines this issue in the context of Finnish mass housing built in the 1960s and 1970s. The purpose of the paper is to review how mass housing layouts can be adapted to produce the currently absent flat sizes.

The paper operates at the intersection of human geography, building stock research and adaptability research. First, statistical data are utilized to investigate how dwellings and households of different sizes are distributed over the Finnish housing stock. Second, the building layouts of mass housing are examined in detail. Third, the potential that flats in mass housing have for size modification is reviewed.

There is a disparity of available dwelling sizes between different housing types, and statistics show that the proportion of large households has decreased significantly in blocks of flats over the last decades. The lack of large dwellings in mass housing may contribute as one factor to the segregation of the neighborhoods built in the 1960s and 1970s. The findings show how the variation of apartment sizes can be increased in mass housing.

The housing stock is rarely examined in detail in segregation research, even though it is a major determinant for a city’s social structure. This paper argues that to address segregation sustainably, it is necessary to understand the housing stock better and to view it as an adaptable asset.

The aim of this paper is to reconsider the conventional approaches in architectural design for social housing that lead to low adaptability of architecture regarding spatial needs of its inhabitants. This research explores the potential of nonlinear model in architectural design of sustainable social housing. Sustainability is commonly interpreted through categories of socio-economic availability, notwithstanding the fact that demands of contemporary living greatly exceed the scope of this definition.

One of the methods to integrate sustainability into social housing design is to incorporate specific users’ needs into the design process itself. The aim is to specify the common ground for negotiation between all actors in the process. Such a platform could enable multiple options allowing flexibility and a higher level of quality, as well as the comfort of sustainable living.

This design approach is developed in the case study project for Ovča social housing community in Belgrade. This project is conceived as an infrastructural system that precedes the building as a finite architecture, therefore anticipating inhabitants’ involvement in the design process. The non-linear model of architectural design is enabled trough a drawing as a tool of communication. Since it is carried out according to previously defined values, this iterative procedure establishes a specific set of outputs that can later be evaluated and modified in accordance to users’ spatial needs. Therefore, the drawing becomes a tool that allows a variety of designing processes while the most important role still belongs to the architect and the user. Such iterative design process creates preconditions that enable the inhabitants to appropriate the space of living, which legitimizes the aim to transfer the design process from conventional towards the non-linear model of architectural design.

Across use adaptation is a possible way of dealing with long term vacant office buildings, albeit previous research shows that there are many obstacles to be thrived. In The Netherlands several successful transformations of offices into housing were completed. Nevertheless, transformations do not take place on a large scale. High building costs are the main reason. Hence, new office developments should anticipate future programmatic transformation. This paper seeks answers to the questions: Is it possible to anticipate future programmatic change? To what extent will anticipation on future possibilities influence building costs?

The authors reviewed existing studies to gather information about transformation building costs and the critical success factors of transformations. The building design and costs for new office buildings were then studied, designed with enhanced transformation potential, focussing on two standard office building types, the central core tower and the single corridor slab, using the cost model PARAP.

The outcome of this research proposes an approach to office development that deals with adaptability as a means of realising enhanced future value.

To limit the research, only two standard office building types were studied.

Next to changes in the construction method of standard office buildings, the research suggests consciousness in the design phase of office developments to improve adaptability.

Based on studies of completed across use adaptations, the paper gives recommendations on how to improve the adaptability of new office buildings.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the compulsory quarantine of many of the world's inhabitants, and by staying at home, several functional developments emerged in residential spaces in Jeddah that affected the role of the house as a contributor to individuals' quality of life under the pressures of quarantine. Given the necessity of the apartments to adapt to these emerging developments, this study explores the determinants associated with the flexibility of residential apartments by looking at the extent to which they meet the new psychological, social and cultural roles required by their users post-COVID-19.

The qualitative approach (1) extracted concepts related to the flexibility of housing from the available literature and (2) extrapolated the flexibility of the residential apartments from the participants' study (12 families) in different areas of Jeddah by analyzing the results of targeted interviews.

There is a gap in the participant's understanding of the quality of housing and the level of satisfaction with a housing design that differs before and after their quarantine experience. The participant's adaptation to self-quarantine was mainly through furniture distribution, and housing flexibility was less reliant on the physical transformation of the place than on the change in the inhabitants' perceptions. There was an indication that the deficiencies of flexibility in design relates to the functional, cultural and structural aspects of residential buildings.

This study generated suggestions to develop the foundations for flexible housing design and activate its role under the post-quarantine context according to social and cultural variables. Some proposals should become future requirements for residential apartments to benefit officials and stakeholders to develop housing flexibility.

This study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of various approaches to the residential property market evolution modelling and to examine the macroeconomic fundamentals that have shaped this market development in Ukraine in recent years.

The study uses a comprehensive data set encompassing relevant macroeconomic indicators and historical apartment prices. Multifactor linear regression (MLR) and ridge regression (RR) models are constructed to identify the impact of multiple predictors on apartment prices. Additionally, the ARIMAX model integrates time series analysis and external factors to enhance modelling and forecasting accuracy.

The investigation reveals that MLR and RR yield accurate predictions by considering a range of influential variables. The hybrid ARIMAX model further enhances predictive performance by fusing external indicators with time series analysis. These findings underscore the effectiveness of a multidimensional approach in capturing the complexity of housing price dynamics.

This research contributes to the real estate modelling and forecasting literature by providing an analysis of multiple linear regression, RR and ARIMAX models within the specific context of property price prediction in the turbulent Ukrainian real estate market. This comprehensive analysis not only offers insights into the performance of these methodologies but also explores their adaptability and robustness in a market characterized by evolving dynamics, including the significant influence of external geopolitical factors.