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Knowing and understanding the spatial needs of users is imperative for the design of livable and sustainable houses. However, the practical and theoretical difficulties associated with this, especially in social housing, create a shortfall in design knowledge known as user needs gap. To bridge this gap, design researchers over the years, have sought to provide feedback for design decision-making through post-occupancy evaluation studies using preferences and residential satisfaction as constructs. In view of their limitations, this study aims to explore residential adaptations as residents’ tacit means of communicating their spatial needs, and a pathway to understanding residents’ housing requirements.

The study was exploratory in nature and a case study by design using a convergent parallel design within the mixed methods tradition. Activity Theory as used as a conceptual framework. The study involved three strands of research as follows: estimation of the floor areas of the rooms and spaces of the case study designs using the International Standards Organisation intramuros method; a survey of households and their activities using questionnaires; and observation of residents’ adaptations captured photographs and drawings. In all, 43 households out of the 66 apartments in the two case designs were surveyed.

The study found that while the units were theoretically large, they were practically inadequate when average household sizes were taken into account in a space per person analysis. In response, particularly to sleeping requirements of children, residents make different forms of adaptations – normative, such as house sharing, compositional and organizational, as well as add-ins and add-ons including and illegal alterations.

The paper presents residential adaptations as an empirically grounded, contextually embedded and practically useful means of exploring and understanding users’ spatial needs in housing design. Residential adaptations provide a means through which residents communicate their housing needs, albeit tacitly – a means for self-expression, self-extension and self-determination. To theory, the study shows that residential adaptations can be useful as a construct for understanding residents’ spatial needs, though fuzzy. It also helps understand how the tensions in an activity system, may result from contradictions produced by the lurking effect of contextual factors. This makes contextual knowledge, particularly cultural knowledge, critical to the design.

It is crucial to consider the multitude of possible building adaptation design strategies for improving the existing conditions of building stock as an alternative to demolition.

Integration of physics-based simulation tools and decision-making tools such as Multi-Attribute Utility (MAU) and Interactive Multi-objective Optimization (IMO) in the design process enable optimized design decision-making for high-performing buildings. A methodology is presented for improving building adaptation design decision making, specifically in the early-stage design feasibility analysis. Ten residential building adaptation strategies are selected and applied to one primary building system for eight performance metrics using physics-based simulation tools. These measures include energy use, thermal comfort, daylighting, natural ventilation, systems performance, life cycle, cost-benefit and constructability. The results are processed using MAU and IMO analysis and are validated through sensitivity analysis by testing one design strategy on three building systems.

Quantifiable comparison of building adaptation strategies based on multiple metrics derived from physics-based simulations can assist in the evaluation of overall environmental performance and economic feasibility for building adaptation projects.

The current methodology presented is limited to the analysis of one decision-maker at a time. It can be improved to include multiple decision-makers and capture varying perspectives to reflect common practices in the industry.

The methodology presented supports affordable generation and analysis of a large number of design options for early-stage design optimization.

Given the practical implications, more space and time is created for exploration and innovation, resulting in potential for improved benefits.

This paper aims to investigate vulnerability factors that influence thermal comfort in residential buildings in the context of climate change and variability, as well as adaptive strategies that can be adopted. There is a need for research that systematically addresses factors influencing thermal comfort in the context of climate change.

Using a vulnerability framework, this paper reviews existing literature to identify factors driving impacts to comfort, as well as strategies to increase adaptive capacity in buildings. Data were collected from several sources including international organizations, scientific journals and government authorities, following an initial Web-based subject search using Boolean operators.

Significant impacts can be expected in terms of thermal comfort inside buildings depending on four vulnerability factors: location; age and form; construction fabric and occupancy and behaviour. Despite the fact that the majority of the existing studies are technically driven and spatially restricted, there is strong evidence of interdependencies of scales in managing vulnerability and adaptive capacity.

Results from this review emphasise the importance of balance mitigation with adaptation regarding new building design and when retrofitting old buildings. The factors identified here can also be used to assist in construction of simplified tools such as a vulnerability index that helps in identifying the most vulnerable buildings and dwellings and assist in retrofit decisions.

The paper offers critical insight regarding implications in building design and policy in a vulnerability framework.

The dearth of green standards (GS) in sub-Saharan Africa is alarming and the green cost premiums (GCP) in seeking certification in emerging markets are scanty. This paper studied the Building Energy-Efficiency Code of Nigeria (BEEC) and estimated the potential GCPs associated with the various energy-efficiency ratings.

The study retrofitted 150 conventional residential bungalow and maisonette buildings using BEEC's energy-efficiency interventions and performed analytical estimating of the retrofitted designs. The mean cost premium associated with each energy-efficiency intervention is presented as well as their financial benefits and payback periods. The benefits are achievable financial-savings due to a reduction in energy consumption and savings in electricity payment estimated from the average energy demands of each building. An independent t-test was further conducted to determine the cost differential between energy-efficient design (ED) and conventional design over a five-year period.

The potential GCPs and their payback periods are actually less than feared. The study showed that less than 5% and 21% extra funding would be required to achieve 1 to 4-Star and 5-Star energy-efficiency ratings involving passive design interventions and photovoltaic systems. Passive and active design interventions produced a financial savings of $8.08/m² in electricity payment and $2.84/m² per annum in energy consumption reduction. The financial-savings ($10.92/m²) was objective to pay-off the GCPs in less than four years. The independent t-test analysis showed the cost of ED is more economical after four years into the project lifecycle.

The research provides cost benchmarks for navigating cost planning and budgetary decisions during ED implementation and births a departure point for advancing energy-efficient construction in developing markets from the rational economic decision perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors influencing residents’ adaptation strategies to climate change effects in Lagos Metropolis, Nigeria.

The metropolis was stratified into low, medium and high residential densities. Across the residential densities, questionnaires were administered on 384 residents. The questionnaire addressed issues on resident’s socio-economic and demographic attributes, awareness of climate change and factors influencing residents’ adaptation to climate change. Data were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics.

Result indicated that the adaptation strategies adopted by residents in the different residential areas were similar but varied in magnitude as denoted by the resident response index RRI (RRIh = 3.32, RRIm = 3.39 and RRIl = 3.41). The multiple regression analysis computed indicated the residential characteristics such as education, average monthly income, age, house type and house ownership (p < 0.05) were significant factors influencing resident’s level of climate change adaptation strategies adopted.

The study could be strengthened by looking at specific climate change effects such as floods or drought in major cities of Nigeria. Hence, the view presented in this paper may not be considered generalizable to the impacts of climate change in the study area.

In recent years, research studies on human adaptation and coping strategies to climate change have generated considerable development interest. This study contributed to this growing area of research by examining the factors influencing residents’ adaptation strategies to climate change in Lagos Metropolis, Nigeria.

At a time, when there are world-wide calls for sustainable building design and construction focusing on building adaptation and remodeling rather than demolition and replacement, a local system of remodeling and functional adaptation has been applied in many residential and commercial buildings in Bangladesh. Focusing on case studies in Dhaka city where major urban regeneration takes place, building adaptation is an emerging practice where economy has a critical role to play in convincing client, users, designers and builders to encourage the local method of adaptation process to suit the changing need of the occupants.

A case of adaptation of a residential building has been studied to generate an understanding of the local adaptation process. This process is found in many parts of the inner city built environment, which collectively affects urban regeneration process and reshape the urban form of the city and its edge condition. Findings from the exploratory studies suggest that despite the absence of Habraken's support-infill knowledge, the local practice of adaptation can be institutionalized as a sustainable building development process that is more economic and place-responsive approach than rebuilding.

The residential buildings sector has a high priority in the climate change adaptation process due to significant CO₂ emissions, high energy consumption and negative environmental impacts. The article investigates how, conversely speaking, the residential buildings will be affected by climate change, and how to improve existing structures and support long-term decisions.

The climate dataset was created using the scenarios determined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and this was used in the study. Different building envelope and Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems scenarios have been developed and simulated. Then, the best scenario was determined with comparative results, and recommendations were developed.

The findings reveal that future temperature-increase will significantly impact buildings' cooling and heating energy use. As the outdoor air temperatures increase due to climate change, the heating loads of the buildings decrease, and the cooling loads increase significantly. While the heating energy consumption of the house was calculated at 170.85 kWh/m² in 2020, this value shall decrease significantly to 115.01 kWh/m² in 2080. On the other hand, the cooling energy doubled between 2020 and 2080 and reached 106.95 kWh/m² from 53.14 kWh/m² measured in 2020.

Single-family houses constitute a significant proportion of the building stock. An in-depth analysis of such a building type is necessary to cope with the devastating consequences of climate change. The study developed and scrutinised energy performance improvement scenarios to define the climate change adaptation process' impact and proper procedure. The study is trying to create a strategy to increase the climate resistance capabilities of buildings and fill the gaps in this regard.

This paper seeks to establish the rationale for existing office building adaptation within Melbourne, Australia, as the city strives to become carbon neutral by 2020. The problems faced by policy makers to determine which buildings have the optimum adaptation potential are to be identified and discussed.

This research adopts the approach of creating a database of all the buildings in the Melbourne CBD including details of physical, social, economic and technological attributes. This approach will determine whether relationships exist between attributes and the frequency of building adaptation or whether triggers to adaptation can be determined.

This research provided evidence that a much faster rate of office building adaptation is necessary to meet the targets already set for carbon neutrality. The findings demonstrate that a retrospective comprehensive examination of previous adaptation in the CBD is a unique and original approach to determining the building characteristics associated with adaptation and whether triggers can be identified based on previous practices. The implication is that a decision‐making tool should be developed to allow policy makers to target sectors of the office building stock to deliver carbon neutrality within the 2020 timeframe.

Drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are required to mitigate global warming and climate change and all stakeholders should be looking at ways of reducing emissions from existing stock.

This paper adds to the existing body of knowledge by raising awareness of the way in which the adaptation of large amounts of existing stock can be fast tracked to mitigate the impact of climate change and warming associated with the built environment, and in addition it establishes a framework for a decision‐making tool for policy makers.

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.

Many people living in and around Mumbai face space scarcity within homes, an issue exacerbated for families with members having differing and conflicting spatial requirements. By investigating how families live in existing residential environments, planners and designers can enable families to cope better with space scarcity.

A case study approach is used to examine four small home settings in and around Mumbai, followed by a thematic analysis of the data collected.

This study contributes a framework for studying small homes in and around Mumbai wherein they are characterized by five categories of information: internal zoning pattern, expansion pattern, spatial specialization and stratification pattern, outdoor space appropriation pattern and household adjustment pattern. Analysis through this framework gives insight into how small home settings are used by residents.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study offering in-depth comparative analysis of small home typologies in India.