Open House International

Wilkinson, Nicholas

2009 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-04-2009-B0001

Some architects are still somewhat careful in embracing open building for two reasons. Firstly they see the design responsibility of ‘the plan’ being taken away from them and secondly they worry at having a third party who is not an architect to ‘design’ his or her own floor plan. This could occur in health, educational, residential or office environments and since the third party is likely to be a lay person and not someone from the design disciplines it is deemed as unprofessional. This is largely a misunderstanding because the role of the user is not a design role in the professional sense of the word. Rather the users are making their priorities and relationships for various functions in the form of a plan but more likely expressed with a dolls house type of model or by computer modeling. This can be applied to the work place, health care, educational buildings and many more types. It is often engrained in the mind of the professionals that they must perfect the plan, work and work on it, polish it, defend it, the plan is theirs and where the physical structure only relates to that specific plan. Any change in the plan brings about a change in the structure. This really is a negation of open building. Such a one to one correlation of structure to plan leaves no room for movement or any alternative plan. This was the horror of some nineteen fifties and sixties tower blocks for council tenants where four or even six units per floor were shaped by the vertical structural sheer walls and columns. These could be holding up to twenty five stories and at the same time these monolithic structural concrete walls formed the plan configuration of the flats on each floor. The characteristics of this approach were standardization and the complete inability of the building to respond to change. Timelessness rather than time-based would be the best description of such buildings.

Serrano, Julián Salas

2009 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-04-2009-B0002

This paper aims to ascertain that Latin America's current urban growth through large and organized ‘land squattings’ and limited invasions is a massive, plural and common phenomenon which, to a certain extent, has been, up to now, ignored by 'the academic world and by formal urban planning.On July 5, 1999, 10,000 organized individuals occupied a 23.45 ha. plot at Peñalolén, in Santiago de Chile. The event had great impact and received much attention, and the author closely followed the events that led to the consolidation of the ‘settlement‘ (1999-2006) through phases of negotiation, evacuation and relocation of its settlers, and finally to the current (2008) transformation stage which the plot is undergoing in order to become ‘Peñalolén's Communal Park’.This paper emphasizes the main paradigms that can be drawn from the different occupation stages, with special focus on peculiarities found at ‘Peñalolén Settlement’ compared to other Latin American ‘squattings’, in an attempt to systematize and draw conclusions on ‘self-development urbanism’.

Alvarado, Rodrigo García; Donath, Dirk; Böhme, Luis Felipe González

2009 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-04-2009-B0003

Over the past three decades, a small community of eighty-four Chilean low-income families has built and improved their home incrementally, without any technical assistance, showing an impressive performance. A six square meters bathroom on a serviced plot of land with individual connection to potable water, sewerage, electricity and access roads, worked as a starting point back in 1974. However particular their rationale may seem, the individual history of their housing process reveals some general regularities in occurrence and duration of self-build activities, as well as size and allocation of the domestic spaces. A small random sample of fifteen households was selected to tell the story and explain the whys, hows, and whens of an ever-evolving housing process. Semi-structured interviews and building surveys were both combined to reconstruct the sequence of states of each housing process, with the awareness of the characteristic imprecision of oral information transfer. Alternative states were explored by constraint programming methods and spatial qualitative reasoning. Considering the hard constraints over the site morphology and services allocation, the results of the exploration stress how extraordinary lucid and intuitive the surveyed families are when making their design decisions. The article exposes a reconstructive case study on spontaneous growth patterns underlying an unassisted, incremental self-build housing dynamics.

Debicka, Elizabeth; Friedman, Avi

2009 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-04-2009-B0004

Public housing delivered in the Canadian Arctic has been ill-adapted to the social and cultural realities of Inuit communities and to northern climate. Inadequate consultation has resulted in dwellings that fails to adapt to the needs of growing families, impedes the ability of residents to engage in land-based activities, and is inappropriate for local climate. This paper examines how a user-led, flexible approach can help tailor the design of new public homes to the needs of the local housing authority and future occupants. Flexibility is incorporated into the pre-occupancy, post-occupancy and refurbishment stages of the units life-cycle, ensuring that they can be easily adapted over time. A menu of interior and exterior design components has been developed for selection by all stakeholders. The redevelopment of Widow's Row, in Iqaluit, Nunavut demonstrates how appropriate design can play a pivotal role in addressing the housing crisis.

Afram, S. O.; Korboe, David

2009 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-04-2009-B0005

Since the fifteenth century when Europeans first established a credible presence in Ghana, colonial values have played a significant role in shaping lifestyles in the country. Despite these imported influences, the courtyard house remains the predominant house form in rural and urban areas alike. It is somewhat surprising, therefore, that there is relatively little appreciation within academic and policy-making circles of its versatility. In this paper, the authors focus on the built form of the urban courtyard house and examine its utilitarian qualities from a predominantly architectural viewpoint. Finally, an attempt is made at predicting the medium-term future of this house type.

Dursun, Pelin; Saglamer, Gulsun

2009 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-04-2009-B0006

The relationship between people and their home environment has always been an important research theme. Cooperative works of different disciplines and research areas, such as environmental psychology, social psychology, community psychology, home environment studies, urban planning and architecture have developed an understanding of relationships between quality and residential spaces. In this study an attempt has been made to analyze quality issues in housing environments by providing a general review related to quality housing research and by establishing a model that can be used to evaluate the concept of quality in housing. Focusing on a specific housing settlement as a case study, the goal here is to open a debate based on design concepts and their social and spatial consequences in architecture and to provide important data for future housing projects in Turkey. In the scope of the work, the Belerko Housing Settlement in the City of Trabzon has been selected as a research area. Aim of the study is to develop an understanding of the social, psychological and the physical characteristics that contribute to spatial quality in this specific housing environment.

Haas, Tigran

2009 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-04-2009-B0007

Buildings alone do not matter, it is only the ensemble of streets, squares, and buildings and the way they fit together that comprises the true principles of good urbanism and place making. One of the main rules of good urban design is the quality of the public space. This paper analyzes the importance of creating & maintaining a true public square in contemporary urban condition, as one of the built environments' pillars for sustaining social and cultural identity.Criticism has been posed towards the (neo) romanticizing the importance of European squares (as some critics would call it “Postcard Squares”) in everyday life and contemporary town planning. Movements such as New Urbanism, which promote good urban design have not put squares that high on their urban design agendas. Also the usage of the historic European city's public realm model - the square - as the important ingredient for all urban places has not been forthcoming. To investigate this phenomena, and facilitate the discourse, The Square of the St. Blaise Church (Luza Square) and the Gunduliceva Poljana Square in the Old City of Dubrovnik, are analyzed and reflected upon through various data collection, theory reflections and urban design evaluation methods, such as Garham's Sense of Place Typology-Taxonomy.If cities have livable and vibrant social spaces, do residents tend to have a stronger sense of community and sense of place? If such places are lacking, does the opposite happen?. This paper seeks out to answer these questions. Finally the paper also looks at how the phenomenon of creating good social spaces through creating ‘third places’ is achieved and confirmed in the squares of Dubrovnik.

Sonaiya, Olusola A.; Dincyurek, Ozgur

2009 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-04-2009-B0008

Vernacular and modern architecture have mostly been seen as antitheses, impossible to reconcile, especially in Africa. They appear to belong to different ages, utilize different materials and methods, and encourage or support different lifestyles. This paper aims at seeking points where a merging of principles may be attempted between the two positions.The study is based on a survey on the traditional architecture of the Yoruba people of West Africa. The decline in popular use of this building tradition and its rejection by design practitioners raises some physical and psychological issues which are examined in this paper. These include: spatial layout, use and quality, ecology and economy, concepts, meaning and perception. The fate of Yoruba traditional built culture depends on a conscious attempt to reconcile it with people's contemporary needs, lifestyles and world views.Therefore, a brief introduction on the importance of Yoruba architecture and its preservation will be followed by a general definition of its features and characteristics, advantages and disadvantages. Finally, the problems posed by the architecture's modern trends in Yoruba land will be examined. It is hoped that such works may assist in the development of a truly responsive and sustainable architecture for the Yoruba people. The proposed solutions may be applied in other parts of Africa, or in regions with similar cultural or geographical concerns.

Atun, Resmiye Alpar; Pulhan, Hifsiye

2009 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-04-2009-B0009

This study attempts to assess housing developments on the island of Cyprus by referring to the various actions taken and policies implemented during different periods as a result of changing socio-economic and political dynamics. From this perspective, the methodology of the study is based on an assessment of housing developments throughout periods which coincide with certain socio-political thresholds in the history of the island, such as the year 1974, which resulted in the division of the island into two as Northern and Southern parts, and the year 2004, in which the overall setting is changed as Southern part of the island became member of EU. The overall developments and transformations in housing developments are considered as a mirror image of the actors, actions and associations in building activity throughout the periods referred to in this paper. Nicosia as the capital city of the island, has experienced different spatial transformations, and is comprised of a diversity of housing schemes ranging from the low cost housing units of urban workers, located next to the centers of traditional employment, to the large refugee housing estates and to the institutionalized social housing settlements. In this regard, the study aims to understand, interpret and learn from past experiences in the field of housing developments in order to provide lessons which will serve to support future sustainable living environments, since the current situation is at a critical point, and is currently requiring the interest and attention of the responsible authorities.