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This paper aims to investigate the ways that could enhance residents’ social interaction in low-rise residential building neighbourhoods of Basra city in Iraq. The lack of social interaction among residents of Basra city prompted the authors to frame a strategy for this case study.

The spatial design characteristics of low-rise residential building neighbourhoods implicated to support the residents in terms of social interactions in comparison to those exhibited by a single home and traditional neighbourhoods. The statistical data demonstrated that by using this strategy, several unique features of secured, collective, responsive and supportive spaces could enhance the residents’ social interaction.

This study found that all collective space factors have a significant influence on social interaction. “Fostering proper proximity and accessibility” factor was ranked first and the most significant factor with an influence on social interaction. Secured spaces (hierarchical spatial structure, physical security supports and construct) have a significant influence on social interaction. The most interesting finding in this study is that all factors of the supportive spaces construct have a significant influence on social interaction. Finally, this study showed that two factors of the responsive spaces construct, increasing variety and increasing legibility, have an insignificant influence on social interaction.

The design of low-rise residential building neighbourhoods in Basra city may be used to develop social interaction as the contributing factor for maintaining values of traditional neighbourhood communities. This study highlights certain recommendations for architects, especially urban designers, to reinforce residents’ social interaction in low-rise residential building neighbourhoods in Basra city.

The overall purpose of the study is to identify the gender differences in color preferences for different types of interior space in the residential built environment in Prishtina, Kosovo. Additionally, the purpose of the study is also to identify the gender differences in the emotions that various colors trigger in occupants of the mainly residential built environment.

The present study uses a quantitative study and χ² test to analyze whether the variables formulated by study hypotheses are dependent on gender. The data are gathered by a questionnaire to measure the color preferences of the respondents. The study uses a questionnaire with eight questions that were distributed to 303 respondents using the stratified probability sampling, using gender as the main stratum for probability sampling.

The study finds that there are no gender differences in color preferences for home lighting, living room, bedroom, study room and children’s rooms in the residential built environment. The study also finds that there is a gender difference in color preferences that trigger emotions of tranquility, stability and security and warmth and pleasure in both male and female respondents.

The implications of this study are that real estate and facility management firms must conduct marketing research to identify the color preferences for both housing interior and exterior depending on the different local cultural backgrounds of clients. Firms must provide training for real estate agents on the color preferences of clients for various types of spaces and the differences that may exist based on gender but also other variables.

The present study is the first quantification of gender differences in color preferences of the residential built environment in the capital city of an understudied region such as Kosovo.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relative awareness and influence of stakeholders on sustainable residential property development in Lagos, Nigeria. This is with a view to identifying the key stakeholders pertinent to enhancing sustainable residential property development in the country.

Data on awareness and influence of stakeholders on decisions to adopt sustainable residential property were elicited from residential property users, building contractors, property investors, estate surveyors and valuers and government regulatory agencies in Lagos residential property sector. The data were collected by using a questionnaire and analysed using mean item score and analysis of variance.

The result showed that the government regulatory agencies and the building professionals were aware of sustainable buildings, as mean scores measuring their awareness were higher than 2.5 on a scale of 1–5. The level of awareness of users was, however, low (mean score of 2.39). The users and the government regulatory agencies were identified by the stakeholders as being most influential on their decisions to adopt sustainable residential property.

Findings from this study indicate that there is need to promote the users and government regulatory agencies’ activities on sustainable residential property development as the activities of these stakeholders have higher influence on sustainable residential property development decisions in the study area.

This study particularly examines the interrelationships between the activities of stakeholders in sustainable residential property development in Nigeria. This has not been adequately studied in extant literature.

The aim of this research is to investigate the impact of thermal, acoustic and HVAC upgrades on the perception of the quality of life among residential building occupants.

The present study used a quantitative research approach, utilizing a questionnaire as the research instrument. A survey was conducted with 1,119 residential apartment building occupants in Prishtina, Kosovo, using a stratified random sampling method for selection of participants.

The present study used quantitative research with a questionnaire as the research instrument. The survey was conducted with 1,119 residential apartment building occupants in Prishtina, Kosovo, using stratified random sampling. The study found that thermal retrofits, acoustic retrofits and HVAC upgrades as a whole model affect the perception of the quality of life of residential building occupants in Prishtina, Kosovo. However, the study found that not all dimensions of the constructed research model (thermal, acoustic and HVAC) affect the perception of the quality of life of residential building occupants. Specifically, thermal retrofitting seems to strongly influence the perception of quality of life, while HVAC upgrades do not seem to have an impact on the quality of life of occupants. Finally, acoustic retrofits also influence the perception of the quality of life, although not to the same degree as thermal retrofitting.

The present study contributes to understanding the role that thermal retrofits, acoustic retrofits and HVAC upgrades play in the perception of quality of life by building occupants in an understudied region with a booming real estate sector such as Kosovo. The study also highlights the need for further analysis to understand why HVAC upgrades do not seem to influence the perception of quality of life by residential building occupants in Kosovo.

The present study is the first to quantify the impact of thermal, acoustic and HVAC upgrades on the perception of the quality of life of residential building occupants in Prishtina, Kosovo.

The purpose of this paper is to ascertain how elements of the built environment may or may not influence the frequency of grocery shopping.

Using data from the 2009 Seattle Obesity Study, the research investigated the effect of the urban built environment on grocery shopping travel frequency in the Seattle-King County area. Binary and ordered logit models served to estimate the impact of individual characteristics and built environments on grocery shopping travel frequency.

The results showed that the respondents’ attitude towards food, travel mode, and the network distance between homes and stores exerted the strongest influence on the travel frequency while urban form variables only had a modest influence. The study showed that frequent shoppers were more likely to use alternative transportation modes and shopped closer to their homes and infrequent shoppers tended to drive longer distances to their stores and spent more time and money per visit.

This research has implications for urban planners and policy makers as well as grocery retailers, as the seemingly disparate groups both have an interest in food shopping frequency.

Few studies in the planning or retail literature investigate the influence of the urban built environment and the insights from the planning field. This study uses GIS and a planning framework to provide information that is relevant for grocery retailers and those invested in food distribution.

This paper aims to investigate the association of neighborhood location with place attachment and residential satisfaction.

First, the authors reviewed the literature on place attachment and residential satisfaction, and then generated a questionnaire based on the scales from the literature. The authors surveyed 135 respondents in two neighborhoods of Ankara, a metropolitan city in Turkey: one in the city center, the other in a suburb. To analyze the data, first, factor analysis, and later, multivariate analysis of variance and correlation tests were conducted.

The results indicated that place attachment and residential satisfaction were positively correlated, in congruence with the related literature; however, neighborhood location appeared to be associated only with residential satisfaction. The theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed with respect to the recent issues on housing.

The effects of neighborhood location on place attachment and residential satisfaction (by comparing two different residential areas of the city) have not been adequately examined in earlier studies. The study results provide an understanding of the effectiveness of residential location on improving place attachment and residential satisfaction and contribute to the existing literature. Although the study findings may not be generalized to other locations in Turkey, this study contributed to the previous studies on place attachment and residential satisfaction by providing data from Turkish residents, which is less often examined.

In Malaysia, a vertical residential building (VRB) is still facing challenges associated with property management. The lack of experience in property management resulted in the management, acting unprofessionally that cause a lot of problems to the homeowners and their properties. The findings demonstrated that maintenance of the facilities and common areas in a VRB is essential to ensure its optimal performance over its life cycle. This has to be carried out efficiently and professionally by the qualified property manager. Unfortunately, not every property manager can perform all the tasks efficiently and professionally. Thus, this leads to an increasing number of complaints by unsatisfied homeowners’ particularly on the maintenance and management of the buildings and facilities. To satisfy the homeowners, the issue of transparency is one of the area concerns that need to be emphasised in the property management system practiced in Malaysia. This case study area of Klang Valley poses as one of the urban areas that has the highest number of vertical buildings, especially the medium cost of VRB. The purpose of this study is to explore the satisfaction level of homeowners towards the management system, maintenance services and facilities provided by the management of the medium cost VRB in the Klang Valley.

The study adopted a quantitative approach. The survey method was used as an appropriate method for inquiry of the data. Face to face survey was conducted with respondents at a medium-cost residential building in Klang Valley, Malaysia.

The findings demonstrated that homeowners living in medium-cost VRB in Klang Valley are satisfied and faced issues with the management system, maintenance service and services provided by the management of the medium-cost VRB. The only issue confronted by the homeowners with the medium-cost VRB is the commitment of the management towards their involvement in organising the activities, problem-solving and taking action on residents’ reports or complaints.

The findings suggest that appointing qualified property managers who understand property management has increased the performance of the management team. Most importantly, qualified property managers are equipped with knowledge in managing people, especially to create awareness on a sense of responsibility and belonging.

This study has bridged the research gap on property management of the medium-cost of VRB in Malaysia. This will add value to the management of the medium cost of VRB.

Quality of care in the residential aged sector has changed over the past decade. The purpose of this paper is to examine these changes from the perspectives of staff to identify factors influencing quality of residential aged care, and the role and influence of an aged care accreditation programme.

Focus groups were held with 66 aged care staff from 11 Australian aged care facilities. Data from semi-structured interviews were analysed to capture categories representing participant views.

Participants reported two factors stimulating change: developments in the aged care regulatory and policy framework, and rising consumer expectations. Four corresponding effects on service quality were identified: increasing complexity of resident care, renewed built environments of aged care facilities, growing focus on resident-centred care and the influence of accreditation on resident quality of life. The accreditation programme was viewed as maintaining minimum standards of quality throughout regulatory and social change, yet was considered to lack capacity of itself to explicitly promote or improve resident quality of life.

For an increasingly complex aged care population, regulatory and societal change has led to a shift in service provision from institutional care models to one that is becoming more responsive to consumer expectations. The capacity of long-established and relatively static accreditation standards to better accommodate changing consumer needs comes into question.

This is the first study to examine the relationship between accreditation and residential aged care service quality from the perspectives of staff, and offers a nuanced view of “quality” in this setting.

The current direction of urban planning and development is plagued with a number of issues related to crime and safety in neighbourhood areas. Undoubtedly, the physical characteristics of the surrounding environment play a vital role in residents’ social interactions and crime rate. This study aims to examine the role of the environmental features of the built environment, in particular house maintenance, on residents’ sense of belonging and victimisation. Although past research has relied on police victimisation rates, the current research has measured the actual victimisation rate through a questionnaire survey.

The study is quantitative in nature and consists of 255 residents from an urban neighbourhood in Penang, Malaysia.

The results of structural equation modelling indicate that house maintenance has a significant and positive impact on the sense of belonging, while there is a negative impact on victimisation rate. However, the study findings do not support the mediation role of the sense of belonging in the relationship between house maintenance and victimisation rate.

The study suggests that physical characteristics of the environment play a significant role in reducing opportunities for property victimisation and a building sense of belongings amongst neighbours. This study can also be considered as a further step for obtaining insight into the understanding of the impact of physical characteristics of the neighbourhood environment on victimisation.

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.