Open House International

Wilkinson, Nicholas

2012 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-01-2012-B0001

The composition and subject balance of manuscripts in this Open Issue of OPEN HOUSE INTERNATIONAL range from experimental housing, through to mass customisation to Post-Disaster housing procurement methods and community oriented high rise building and Open Building. Starting with the Validity of PREVI, Lima, Peru, (p.6, Salas and Lucas, 2011) the focus is on an evaluation some forty years later after initial construction. Then on to Mass Customization of Housing, Malaysia, (p.16, 2011) for promoting customer satisfaction and contributing in the long run to sustainability of the housing industry. The overall conclusion was that there is a promosing future for customised housing coming directly from prospective buyers. In both cases large scale industrialised operations are the key words BUT rather than huge three dimensional elements, the proposals opted for precast small elements on an industrial basis deployed in a rationalised construction philosphy thus allowing users to participate in the design and building process.

Salas, Julián; Lucas, Patricia

2012 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-01-2012-B0002

PREVI, Spanish initials for “experimental housing project”, was conceived in Lima in 1967. Among other initiatives, it launched an international architectural competition that led to the construction of a 500-unit compound based on proposals put forward by teams such as Atelier 5, Aldo van Eyck, and Íñiguez de Ozoño and Vázquez de Castro. The forty years that have lapsed in the interim and the ongoing transformation of the homes by their dwellers afford an opportunity to reflect on the suitability of the construction technologies proposed in the competition.Ongoing growth and the rationalisation of construction methods were two of the basic premises underlying the competition. The remodelling that has taken place in the interim stands as proof of the success of the first premise, but the use of traditional techniques to build the additions calls some of the most sophisticated proposals for industrialisation into question.At the time, the tendency was to rely on large-scale industrialisation, as can be seen in the German and Polish architects' proposals. Nonetheless, many of the PREVI proposals opted for rationalising construction and precasting short series of small elements, rather than huge three-dimensional members. In the situation presently prevailing in Latin America, the viability of some of the technological proposals deployed in the PREVI might be profitably revisited.

Daud, Nasir; Hamzah, Hasniyati; Adnan, Yasmin Mohd

2012 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-01-2012-B0003

In housing, mass customisation is increasingly seen as a useful innovation for promoting customer satisfaction and thus for contributing to the long-run sustainability of the housing industry. A major stimulus has been the escalation in competition among housing developers in response to the increase in housing consumers' want for individuality in their purchased properties. However, in the absence of confirmatory evidence, the presumed consumers' want for individuality has remained only as a perception until now. In quest for the evidence, an empirical investigation was conducted recently through a questionnaire survey that involved housing consumers, both existing owners and prospective purchasers, in four centres of population across Peninsular Malaysia. This paper presents the findings from the survey. The evidence that was found supports the conclusion that mass customised housing is very much a way forward in Malaysia. The findings show that while buyers' dissatisfaction with current developer-delivered housing has led to a desire or preference towards customised house, buyers' satisfaction with existing situation has not weakened the desire. In the context of Malaysia, this study is important to the development of mass customised housing since it has examined market readiness on the demand side, one of the critical criteria for the concept to be successful in the country.

Dikmen, Nese; Elias-Ozkan, Soofia Tahira; Davidson, Colin

2012 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-01-2012-B0004

Earthquakes strike without warning, even though they are known to recur. It is nonetheless difficult to mobilize resources to plan for them in advance, despite the high social and economic costs that can be anticipated, and despite the humanitarian obligation to provide quality and safe housing.This research examines two post-earthquake housing reconstruction projects in rural areas of Turkey, where different procurement strategies were used. A top-down strategy was adopted in Dinar after the October 1995 earthquake; and a bottom-up strategy, was adopted in the Orta district in Cankiri after the June 2000 earthquake in the region.Based on information obtained from government agencies, building contractors and the projects beneficiaries, a comparison has been made between the two procurement methods. While no generalized conclusions can be drawn – as the projects were conducted in the particular circumstances that prevail in rural areas of Turkey – it is possible to highlight key factors that can properly influence future housing procurement processes.

Yun, Jieheerah

2012 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-01-2012-B0005

Regenerated hanoks, Korean-style vernacular houses in Bukchon (North Village) of Seoul, have been celebrated as the successful examples of a hybrid dwelling integrating modern facilities in a traditional house form. While the modernization project during the postwar era encouraged South Koreans to live in high rise apartments, hanoks became one of the alternative residential options as urban forest of concrete high rises were perceived to be aesthetically unappealing as well as ecologically unsustainable. Hopes are high that remodeled hanoks can ameliorate not only dreary urban landscape but over-competitive and harsh everyday life conditions.While preservation guidelines for regenerated hanoks provide residents with a possible stylistic model, it becomes questionable whether they are viable solutions given the proliferation of structures which seemingly adhere to the guidelines without considering local urban context. By pointing out the difference between the preservation guideline and its real life manifestations, this paper illustrates how imagined aspect of the vernacular architecture takes precedence over the experiential aspect. In this process of selective appropriation, various vernacular housing types are flattened into a standardized representation of upper class dwellings. This article concludes that it is possible to bring diversity by encouraging flexible interpretations of vernacular architecture and incorporation of residents' memories in the design process.

Ahmed, Khaled Galal

2012 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-01-2012-B0006

Most of the native citizens in the UAE live in public or private single-family houses. Given the tremendous cost of developing this type of housing and the inability of providing single-family houses to cover all the current and future needs for public housing, high-rise residential buildings seem to offer an alternative. But the question is; does this type of housing suit the local communities in the UAE, especially in light of the failure of the previous western experiences?. Through addressing this question, the research proposes an approach towards a community-oriented design for high-rise residential buildings in the UAE.The research first investigated the reasons behind the community-relevant shortcomings of the traditional high-rise residential developments in the West. Afterwards, it briefly reviewed the status quo of the community-relevant considerations in the design of the recently built high-rise residential buildings in the UAE, where it has been found that little concern has been devoted to the community needs. In an effort to find an answer to this problem, the research examined four recent design experiences as examples for the current universal efforts to design community-responsive high-rise residential developments. Some conceptual approaches were derived from these experiences that are envisaged to help reach an approach for the case of the UAE. Nonetheless, because of the unique social and cultural traits of the UAE native society one cannot rely on these global conceptual approaches alone. Instead, the research proposes an approach that, while benefiting from the relevant global experiences, is chiefly pivoted on the vertical reconfiguration of the idea of the ‘fareej’ as the smallest unit in the residential urban context both traditionally and in the future official urban plans in the UAE.

Gottsmann, Donovan; Osman, Amira

2012 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-01-2012-B0007

Poor living conditions in informal settlements may be attributed mostly, though not exclusively, to the lack of basic services. Informal settlements, which also go by the name of squatter camps, are volatile by nature. Even within relatively fixed settlement boundaries, change in urban fabric continually manifests through altering dwelling configurations. Deemed unstable and unsafe by formal criteria, these environments disclose schizophrenic characteristics: beyond the dirt, grime and smog, exist relatively functional societies capable of survival and self-regulation.Public and private sector investment within informal settlements is restricted as a result of their illegal status. Inhabitants have no incentive to invest their own resources where they have no formal tenure over the land. Due to a rather backward approach to informality in South Africa, innovation in dealing with these settlements has been limited. Despite the fact that the rhetoric has sometimes changed from eradication to upgrading, little has been done with regards to alternative forms of settlement development that has relevance in terms of improving the lives of informal settlement dwellers.With rising anger in poverty-stricken areas and on the peripheries of cities, what is needed is improved service delivery through immediate solutions. This article suggests a service delivery core, an architectural catalyst, rooted to the ‘energy’ of the public realm, stimulating growth of infrastructure networks. This catalyst core aims to instigate the amelioration of the surrounding environment.The concept presented is that of a dynamic service core – universal in principle – while also being contextually-driven by responding to a specific environment and needs of a specific community. A generic architectural solution is thus presented to providing basic services and infrastructure within informal settlements, with focussed consideration for the unique situation of an informal settlement in Mamelodi, Tshwane (Pretoria), South Africa. It is important to realise that there is no final product, but rather an organic architecture that adapts in a process of continuous and progressive change.

Abu Al Haija, Ahmed

2012 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-01-2012-B0008

Hundreds of Jordanian traditional villages are facing the serious risk of being demolished due to the shortage of basic public services and their resulting abandoned state. Important occurrences of vernacular architecture in these villages necessitate a national strategy to conserve the tangible and intangible heritage they offer, despite the economic difficulties that impede the local community in their efforts to protect or rehabilitate their long-established habitat and traditions. The case of Dana is a relevant example of these villages that are abandoned in spite of their considerable human and material potentialities. Therefore, analyses of place-oriented conceptual meaning, which affect man's belonging to the place, and building typologies are developed in order to comprehend the traditional spatial composition and the interrogatives of conserving the original habitat for tourism purposes. Appropriate scenarios of administrative and technical approaches could better offer the local communities the conservation of memories, place identity and sustainable economic development, hopefully extendible to other situations in traditional villages.

Aycı, Hilal; Boyacıoğlu, Esin

2012 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-01-2012-B0009

If regionalism is defined as designing responsibly in reaction to a local context, then critical regionalism can be defined as doing so without denying the universally enlightening content of the modernist project. Armed with this definition, this article attempts to analyze two houses by architect Han Tümertekin that are set in a rural context in a very small Aegean village in Turkey. The aim of the paper is to explore the extent to which these two buildings embrace the tenets of critical regionalism and to understand the local relevance as well as international esteem of the buildings.