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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.

Customization is a paradox in architecture, providing necessary modernization for buildings but potentially damaging their architectural integrity. In this paper, the authors introduce the Inhabitant-Driven Customization approach for avoiding this paradox; this approach lets inhabitants design the customization from options created by architects that safeguard architectural rules. As a first implementation of the Inhabitant-Driven Customization approach, the MyChanges tool is presented. The authors assess whether the approach avoids the customization paradox by a qualitative stakeholder evaluation of the MyChanges tool and by a comparison of the Inhabitant-Driven Customization approach with existing approaches to housing customization.

MyChanges is a shape grammar-based design tool developed to enable inhabitants of the Álvaro Siza Vieira Malagueira housing complex to customize their houses in accordance with the architectural language of the complex. In this study, the authors qualitatively evaluated MyChanges with architects and other professional stakeholders. MyChanges is used in this paper to assess if the Inhabitant-Driven Customization approach avoids the paradox of customization. The initial reception of MyChanges produced diverging outcomes, suggesting that Inhabitant-Driven Customization is also unable to avoid the customization paradox. For analyzing this possibility further, this paper describes the main existing approaches to housing customization, including the Inhabitant-Driven Customization approach, formulates nine conditions for these approaches, and provides a qualitative comparative assessment of the approaches.

The customization paradox is demonstrated in the outcomes of the interviews with professional stakeholders on the MyChanges customization tool for the Malagueira housing complex. An argument is given that makes plausible that the Inhabitant-Driven Customization approach avoids the customization paradox by creating a co-design process in which inhabitants and architects alternately shape customization.

The originality of this paper lies in the introduction and discussion of the paradox of customization in housing. The paper identifies the conditions advanced in architecture for assessing housing customization approaches. Additionally, the authors propose a new customization approach and a design tool that to a large extent fulfills those conditions and avoids the customization paradox.

The purpose of this paper is to present a study assessing residents’ satisfaction with the integration of natural environment in public housing designs in Enugu urban, Nigeria.

The study followed qualitative and quantitative strategies. Personal observations and one-on-one interviews were conducted where necessary. A survey of 898 households residing in two main prevalent residential building typologies, systematically selected based on quota of their existence in seven public housing estates, was conducted, with a questionnaire as the key data collection instrument. A five-point Likert scale was used in measuring residents’ level of satisfaction of three key housing environment sub-components. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Residents expressed dissatisfaction with overall housing estate environment in terms of naturalness in the estate landscaping and availability of green areas, and also with immediate dwelling unit environments in terms open spaces and naturalness in external finishes. Many of the residents, however, claimed to be indifferent about the extent of response of layout designs to natural factors, and street layout concepts to climatic influences. This reveals a high level of apathy of residents to their estates designs.

Collecting relevant data from the government agency that are the providers of the public housing studied was a herculean task, as there was no existing organized data bank. Consequently, the researcher depended more on extensive field work. In addition to the above, getting the questionnaire respondents to agree to participate in the study was another major challenge, as they were not used to participating in such studies before the current study.

Findings from the study imply that residents’ are adaptable to whatever housing environment they are provided with; therefore, therapeutic housing environment, if provided, would enhance healthy living for public housing residents in Nigeria.

This work is a pioneering effort at evaluating public housing environment in the study area in relation to residents’ perception.

In recent times, residential districts in modern cities face certain new and undesired problems related to antisocial behaviour by adolescents in its urban public spaces. In this study, we investigate the relationship between the design features of public spaces in residential areas and the problem of vandalism within the districts. This paper examines the current literature reviews on vandalism, the main reasons behind the increase of in the problem, types of vandalism, and a mathematical model for assessing visibility and accessibility in addition to proving the results of a field study conducted in a UAE city. We believe that visibility of vandalism-prone areas through dwelling windows, accessibility of such areas by residents through dwelling entrances, and recognition of ownership of such areas can definitely play a role in mitigating vandalism. Our findings indicated the following: (1) There is a strong relationship between vandalism and visibility through dwelling windows. (2) Residents' accessibility to dwelling entrances and recognition of ownership play an important role in reducing vandalism. (3) In areas where the visibility and accessibility by residents is low, the severity of the problem of vandalism increase if there is an increase in the percentage of adolescent residents. (4) The design characteristics of the housing areas, such as the height of the blocks or the limits of public spaces, do not have any influence on the occurrence of vandalism.

The first paper, entitled “Crime and the design of residential property: exploring the theoretical background” (Property Management, Vol. 19 No. 2), has argued that “perceptions” and the “image” of housing designs remain a largely untested avenue of investigation in the design‐effects‐crime debate. Presents and discusses exploratory research into the perception of crime/deviancy, fear of crime and “defensible space”, in relation to a range of characteristic UK housing designs. This investigation concerns the perceptions of planning professionals, convicted burglars and other users and provides both qualitative and quantitative analysis of results from a series of interviews which presented slide representations of terraced, semi‐detached and detached housing designs in addition to low‐rise/walk‐up flats and high‐rise flats. Where possible, two contrasting versions of the same design were presented to probe the influence of “image” in the perception of crime and “defensible space”. The results from this exploratory investigation underpin Newman’s theory of “defensible space” in that a “hierarchy of place” appears to exist with regard to housing designs. However, the “image” of each design is perceived to be a significant contributing factor in relation to the criminogenic capacity of each design presented. Wilson and Kelling’s “Broken Windows” theory is also supported by these research findings.

The Department of Architecture at the University of Pretoria is working in the South African housing context while gaining knowledge of such issues worldwide. Various innovations are being carried out in terms of housing design and delivery methods in South Africa. Through a methodical approach to design, it is believed that future architects will be able to answer to contextual needs without compromising the high standard of design expected by the Department.

This paper evaluates an exercise in open building principles, carried out in 2003, with post−graduate architecture and interior architecture students at the University. The focus was the application of open building principles from the urban design level to that of the building and the residential units. It involved the design of social housing and the upgrading of existing workers’ hostels into family units as well as the provision of social amenities. Students were to design various types of housing, showing alternative ways of ‘living’ and study housing in the area. The project involved close interaction with community representatives.

The area of study was located in Soshanguve, a township with predominantly black inhabitants, situated to the northwest of Pretoria. The previous political dispensation designated specific areas on the outskirts of the city as locations for black migrant workers, known as townships. Subsequently these townships have become cities in themselves, housing a large portion of the total population of Pretoria. It is here that there is a need for urban development and social housing.

Soshanguve offered an excellent opportunity for learning and the dissemination of good design principles in housing design. A debate on the relevance of open building to South Africa has been initiated. It is concluded that open building systems are an effective tool to achieve diversity and can accommodate for wider sectors of the population.

Nowadays, many micro‐satellites rely on three‐axis stabilization using at least three reaction wheels (RWs) for attitude control. Typically, RWs are mounted separately within the satellite and leads to long wires from each RW to the associated electronics. Placement and other constraints may also arise during integration. Furthermore, the large number of mounting holes required for mounting the RWs directly on the structural panels may weaken the integrity of the structure. This paper highlights a need for a special housing to be designed for mounting three to four RWs as a group at one location for simple and easy three‐axis stabilization of typical micro‐satellites.

Details about the development of the design methodology for such housing are discussed. The basic idea is to place the RWs onto the proposed housing, which will be then mounted on to one of the honeycomb panels used for the satellite structure. Requirements analysis, design, validation, and manufacturing process are covered.

The outcome is a dimensionally optimized housing structure for four RWs with a frequency safety factor of three.

In summary, the designed product satisfied all requirements. In addition, the exercise set out a planned procedure for designing similar housings for other satellite components.

This study aims to reframe the common concept of post-disaster reconstruction “building back better”, especially in the context of post-disaster housing design.

An Aceh post-tsunami housing reconstruction project is used as a case study with qualitative methodology through in-depth interviews of selected respondents.

The study findings have shown that the term “building back better” is not a familiar term for housing recipients. Whichever different personal background post-disaster survivors come from, whether they are housewife, civil servant, fisherman, university student, businessman or a professional, none have ever heard this phrase. All found it hard to understand the term. This study argues that the “building back better” concept is good in policy but not working in practice. As a result, housing recipients not only were dissatisfied with their new houses but also found that the new housing configurations profoundly altered their traditional way of life. In light of these findings, the paper argues that the concept of “building back better” needs to be reframed to take account of the cultural individual and communal needs and wants of post-disaster survivors.

This study discusses only one aspect of post-disaster reconstruction that is the design of housing reconstruction.

Results from this study provide a practical contribution for reconstruction actors especially designers, architects and planners. It helps them to reconsider the common concepts they have used for post-disaster reconstruction processes particularly in designing housing reconstruction projects.

This study focuses on the question of how tsunami survivors in Aceh reacted to the design of their new post-tsunami houses and what they had done themselves to make their homes a better and nicer place to live within their own cultural needs. This study also sought to understand what motivated the opinions the respondents had about the design of housing reconstruction after the tsunami in Aceh generally. In addition, the study investigated whether survivors knew the phrase and the credo of “building back better” in a post-disaster context.

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.

The current goal is to implement a description grammar that generates housing briefs based on user and site data. The ultimate goal is to customize mass housing. This paper discusses these issues. Previous research proposed a mathematical model for the automatic generation of customized designs based on description and shape grammars. This paper describes the implementation of a description grammar that codifies the Portuguese housing design guidelines, as well as the intelligence of a human designer using them inferred after experimental work. Knowledge was sequentially converted from table format into English, Mathematical notation, and then the CLIPS language. Java Experts system Shell is the rule application engine, and JAVA and XML are used for coding theinterface and information tables, respectively.It describes how to implement a description grammar and it shows the feasibility of using them for automating the generation of housing briefs that contain enough technical information for design. In a subsequent step, it permits the automatic generation of housing solutions in real time. Backtracking is limited, theinterface does not provide visual clues for improving understanding of the available options, and the brief does not record intuitive or emotional information. It can help designers identifying the specifications of their clients' houses. It can be linked to a system that automatically generates, in a given language, housing solutions that match such specifications, thereby enabling the mass customization of housing. This paper describes the first practical implementation of a description grammar found in the literature.