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This research has been conducted to determine the design quality indicators and parameters for affordable housing in Karachi Pakistan. The absence of quality in Karachi housing resulted from various factors ranging from policy failure, violation of bylaws, population, housing scarcity and non availability of quality parameters etc. The amalgamation of these factors eventually lowers the quality of housing and ultimately results deficient housing design and construction. Because of this trend the end users experience the nuisance of unplanned maintenance and bear the tax of heavy repair and reworks. Significance of research has been accomplished through developing design quality models for both professional and users. This research has eventually evaluated forty eight (48) quality indicators for housing design (QIHD) from listed 65 design quality variables farmed in seven sections. This research concludes that existing design quality of affordable housing in Karachi could be enhanced through improving the design, construction, services, site development and neighborhood and sustainability. The QIHD model will provide the opportunity for design and construction professionals of city to rethink their housing design intellect in context of the housing quality.

Housing quality is determined by both objective and subjective dynamics. This research was conducted to explore the importance of users’ memory as a tool for assessing housing quality. While objective features of the surroundings generally require physical measurements, subjective features can be supported by residents’ memories. Memory studies can therefore be used as a research tool to understand the housing environment as they provide important references to the past, present, and future. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between users’ (residents) memory and housing quality.

The methodology comprised a literature review of spatial quality studies and a field study of a modern housing estate in Istanbul. For the field study, housing quality was examined through the memories of residents in the neighbourhood, buildings, and units. With the research, site observations were made, a questionnaire was issued to residents, and in-depth interviews were conducted with residents who had lived there the longest. New dimensions of housing quality problems were then discussed in the conclusion with reference to residents’ memories.

Memory studies can be used as a research tool to understand the housing environment, as they provide important references to the past, present and future. In the conclusion, new dimensions of the housing quality problems were discussed with the help of the residents’ memories. It was seen that different dimensions of housing quality can be revealed with the help of user memory.

In all, 40 of the total residents (101) accepted to make questionnaires. In-depth interviews were conducted with three long-term residents that are the only ones still alive and had lived the area since the beginning of the life after construction.

With the aim of developing new tools and methods to analyse housing quality, this research presents a new perspective by utilising users’ memories to evaluate spatial quality.

Quality function deployment (QFD) is a design management tool to enhance the quality aspect of products and services as well as to increase customer satisfaction. This paper describes the concept and technique of QFD as applied to the construction industry with special focus on a low‐cost housing scheme. The benefits of QFD on the aspects of reliability in quality, cost and time for low‐cost housing from the customers’ viewpoint are also presented.

The purpose of this paper is to identify, confirm and validate a model appropriate to capture the interrelationships between different variables to develop and improve social housing quality, adequacy, provision and residents’ quality of life (RQOL).

This research adopted a quantitative approach to examine the research objectives of this study. The proposed conceptual framework was tested using primary data collected from a survey of 418 residents of the new urban center of Hamla. The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis and exploratory factor analysis through SPSS. In addition, confirmatory factor analysis was performed using AMOS before validating the measurement model and testing the hypotheses through structural equation modeling (SEM).

The results of SEM indicated acceptable high goodness-of-fit indices. The results revealed that three out of six hypotheses were supported. Consequently, residential quality and housing adequacy appeared to have a vital role in the conceptual framework, as it influenced social housing provision and RQOL and was influenced by socio-economic characteristics.

The present study illustrates the interrelationships between the proposed variables using SEM analysis. In addition, by understanding the direct relationships between the selected variables, the findings would be useful for the concerned authorities to ameliorate and upgrade the social housing quality and adequacy along with surpassing the current shortage, which would enhance and contribute to the amelioration of the RQOL and throughout Algeria.

This paper aims to establish, examine, validate the relationships and develop a conceptual framework in the context of Algerian social housing that contributes to the assessment and amelioration of social housing.

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 purpose of this study is to develop a measurement model and measure the dimensions of Residential Quality and Housing Adequacy (RQHA), Social Housing Provision (SHP) and Residents’ Quality of Life (RQOL) by social housing residents in Batna city, Algeria.

This study used a quantitative approach through the distribution of a self-administered questionnaire. A total of 373 useable questionnaires were collected from social housing residents in Batna city and used for the analysis. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis with principal component analysis through SPSS and confirmatory factor analysis using AMOS.

The measurement model revealed good fit of indices indicating that RQHA is presented by three sub-constructs, namely satisfaction with housing adequacy, satisfaction with current neighbourhood and satisfaction with housing design. In addition, the constructs of SHP and RQOL were measured by seven items each. The measurement model provides empirical evidence of the correlation between RQHA, SHP and RQOL constructs.

The findings of this study contribute significantly to government, housing stakeholders, architects, project managers and urban planners in the context of social housing policymakers, design, planning and construction. The finding would be helpful to ameliorate housing quality, adequacy, provision and RQOL in terms of social housing scheme.

This study identifies the correlation between constructs (RQHA, SHP and RQOL) and their dimensions in the context of social housing in Batna city by validating a measurement model using CFA.

Architecture influences people and the environment from the past, present and the future. Nevertheless architecture and design quality is viewed as subjective, and benchmarks to achieve consensus are necessary for design or evaluation of buildings. This paper establishes architectural design criteria for design quality of multi-storey housing buildings. A set of the criteria was established with literature review, an operational definition and survey on qualified persons or architects in the professional practice of architecture. The literature reviews identified seven concepts for architecture and design quality, and the operational definition translated this architectural design quality to measurable and observable cases and variables. The survey collected these variable data from a purposive sample of 95 respondents, and these data were examined by statistical analysis. The results of the descriptive statistics, inferential t-tests (p ≤ 0.05) and positive hypothesis testing verified that respondents in general agreed to these seven design concepts as architectural design criteria for design quality. These results established the first ever set of seven architectural design criteria which were ranked in descending order of significance as function, socio-culture, site context, cost, aesthetic of art, sustainability, and Feng Shui. These architectural design criteria can be applied to the design or evaluation of multi-storey housing buildings for the good of people and the environment.

The establishment of design criteria is an important activity in the initial phase of housing development. A lack of adequate information regarding design criteria will result in poor satisfaction of homebuyers, pre-occupancy obsolescence, high maintenance costs, property overhang and the abandonment of houses. In Malaysia, many of these consequences are prevalent. However, while information on homeowners’ requirements is inconclusive, paper aims to investigate the criteria upon which design teams/developers base their decisions in the design of affordable housing.

The present research conducted a cross-sectional survey questionnaire comprising 25 design criteria administered to 200 stakeholders in the housing industry. The design criteria were determined through a weighted mean. The associations between the criteria were analysed through a principal component analysis.

The results found that safety and security of home occupants and property, maintenance costs, noise and nuisance minimisation, extent of future modifications and waste disposal were the five major design criteria. Factor analysis narrowed down the 25 criteria to six factors, which explained 77 per cent of the total variance. The six underlying factors named of significance were operating costs, sustainability, comfort, neighbourhood, transportation and spatial. The findings also indicated that the design teams/developers paid little attention to a few critical design criteria.

Future studies should involve a large sample size and increase the design criteria.

The study is important for improving homebuyers’ satisfactions because it provides information design team and developers decision-making factors.

This study is the first to address design criteria of affordable housing in Malaysia and elsewhere. This research provides fresh information on design management of affordable housing. The findings will be useful to policymakers, urban planners, place managers, design consultants and developers.

In 2001 each primary care trust in England was required to undertake a needs assessment in preparation for the development of a mental health promotion strategy. In Greenwich, it was decided to include the physical environment as one of the themes. This paper describes the findings of a literature review undertaken of health, social sciences and architectural research and the preliminary conceptual model subsequently developed to pull together all aspects of the interface between the urban and physical environment and mental well‐being. The literature review identified five key domains that impacted on this relationship: control over the internal housing environment, quality of housing design and maintenance, presence of valued ‘escape facilities’, crime and fear of crime, and social participation. That these domains can be confounded by socio‐economic and demographic factors and also interact with cultural factors and housing type suggests the importance of a public health approach, which focuses on causal systems rather than simply on individual causal factors.

The growth rate of the aging population raises the demand for and challenges of public and subsidized (P&S) housing for the elderly. The decline in elderly ability increases their dependence on the quality of facilities provided by their residential apartment. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated indoor built environment–quality of life model for the elderly in P&S housing estates.

A questionnaire survey, including scales for 4 quality of life (QoL) domains (physical health, psychological health, social relationships and overall QoL), and 13 indoor built environment (BE) components were identified. In total, 365 survey data were collected from the elderly in 18 political districts of Hong Kong, while reliability analysis, multiple regression analysis and structural equation modeling were adopted in the data analysis.

Based on the congruence of results of these statistical analyses, it was revealed that: furniture and fixtures predict all the four QoL domains of the elderly; lighting and color induce social relationships; and overall QoL is predicted by distance and handrails.

Several recommendations were made in accordance with the research results, such as review minimum spacing requirements to provide walking distance for elderly physical activity, investigate the micro-climate for appropriate building orientation, consider the changing body size of the elderly for supply of furniture, use warm colors with high levels of illumination, and so on.