Open House International

Wilkinson, Nicholas

2016 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-01-2016-B0001

The 40th year of publication of Open House International is now complete. That means one hundred and sixty manuscripts have been published since the journals inception forty years ago. To keep standards high we impose strict regulations for writing and we wish to see that there is always a clear and understandable focus to the subject at hand. In the application of this approach approximately seventy five percent of the manuscripts received are rejected each quarter whilst the remaining twenty five percent continue on to the production and final publication stage.

Koca, Duygu

2016 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-01-2016-B0002

The exterior surface of a building -façade- as a communicative ground reflects the burdened meaning of its structure. Besides communicative capacity of façade, its independency, individuality and image dominancy can define exterior surface as an autonomous architectural element in terms of both physical and moral freedom. However, in the twenty-first century, this autonomy has undermined by globalization, technology and communication tools which are among the rapidly increasing activities of the century. Location of architecture in economic transactions and financial market has caused a loss in its internal dynamics and value system. The endeavor of providing the visual appeal only through the façade formation has caused the transformation in the dependency of exterior surface being devoid of content and context. The surfaces have been treated as changeable and renewable advertisement grounds concentrating on the visual appeal of the product, whether the aim is marketing, advertising or commercializing. Thus, the link between architecture and social structures has weakened through the commodification of the end product. In this framework, aim of this paper is (a) to make the description of façade, (b) to define the autonomy of façade through its physical and moral independency by examining cases and (c) to put forward a logical argument on the aspects which make façade an element pursuing only the visual pleasure by oversimplifying its significance in the generation of architectural idea.

Zou, Yonghua

2016 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-01-2016-B0003

Over the past three decade, China has established a housing finance system that borrows from the collective experiences of advanced economies. After examining the evolution of China’s housing finance system, the paper focuses on analyzing its challenges and recent changes. The paper argues that China’s highly-centralized financial system prefers financial stability but neglects financial liberalization, and then resulted in severe financial repression, which hurts the efficiency and equality of the housing finance service. After recovering from the 2008 financial crisis via high-cost financial intervention, China took some policy innovations to promote a decentralized finance mechanism, expand finance resources, and support affordable housing financing, through which China hopes to provide a more stable, affordable, and equal housing finance service to help more households own homes.

Karsli, Umut Tuğlu

2016 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-01-2016-B0004

Design studio courses take place at the core of education disciplinary design such as architecture and interior architecture. Studios in which design studio courses are conducted can also be used for other practical courses as well. Another important feature of these studios is that they are extensively used by students for individual or group work other than during class hours. Since the students, either on their own or with the project coordinator, experience design process in these studios, their spatial characteristics are highly significant to conduct this process effectively. Within this scope, the aim of the research is to evaluate open and cell type studios commonly used in traditional architecture education through Post-occupancy evaluation (POE) approach, to discuss to what extent these studios meet the spatial requirements of today’s instructional methods and to develop a suggestion for design studio spatial use by taking the strengths and weaknesses of these studios. Accordingly, technical, physical and behavioral variables determining the performance of design studios within the context of spatial requirements have been identified through reviewing the related literature. In framework of a case study, a survey formed with the aforementioned variables was administered to architecture and interior architecture students studying in open and cell type design studios in order to measure their spatial performance. Followingly, in the final part of the study, referring to survey results and evaluation of spatial requirements of today’s instructional methods and tools, a combi design studio space organization has been suggested.

Manav, Banu

2016 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-01-2016-B0005

Interior design is a process which collaborates different approaches, strategies, methodologies and practices. This study is a social responsibility project which had been conducted under the supervision of the author and the authorities of The Educational Volunteers Foundation of Turkey (TEGV). The purpose of this project is to investigate how effective the integration of knowledge-based sessions and research-project development phases, while trying to increase students’ motivation. The project had been rejenerated twice, in 2014 and 2015 spring terms, during which the visual research method was photographing, computer modelling, interviews with authorities and children. In regard to the mission of the foundation, twenty-eight interior design students (in 2014 spring term) and seventeen students (in 2015 spring term) developed concept sheets, prepared design proposals, presented and submitted them to the authorities. This paper is a brief discussion and evaluation on the design process which may help to provide a base for similar social responsibility projects. Design proposals in the study may also help to identify new research questions such as whether/how changes in social, physical and cognitive concerns may influence the psychological reactions to educational activity centers and how such impacts may help enhance the affective quality in designs where necessary. In the project, each project team was asked to develop a concept map and to identify the most important words. It was recorded that all groups used “children” as the main keyword in their concept maps. Hence, the most frequently referred terms in the concept maps were grouped, analysed and interpreted, which can also be defined as the “concept map” of the project. Another concrete outcome of the study was the encouragement of students, they got involved in the design process equally. They were honoured by “TEGV social responsibility certificates” which supported their awareness and motivation to the design process as well.

Erdogan, Ebru

2016 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-01-2016-B0006

Konya developed as a city with a single centre in historical period, the mound (höyük) known as Alaeddin’s Hill. This is still the central feature of the urban settlement of Konya. The tomb of the great humanist, poet and philosopher, Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumii, is also here. The most prestigious section of Konya during the Seljuk and Ottoman periods was the Konya Türbeönü, the space in front of his tomb. The historical city centre maintains its liveliness in the area between Alaeddin’s Hill and the tomb of Mevlana. This historical city centre is the most accessible area in the city and functions fully as such while bearing its historical identity.The transformation of Konya from single-centred city to multi-centred city resulted in considerable changes in the city’s silhouette. The Konya Türbeönü Square was redesigned and presented for use. While defining the effect of outdoor spaces on human life, they are evaluated as places that meet basic physical, social and psychological requirements. Since the planning process of the Konya Türbeönü Square was not participative, it has remained a focal point of intense discussions and debates about its meeting users’ needs have arisen.This article studies user satisfaction with the design of the Konya Türbeönü Square and investigates the effects of changes on users. The study survey, asked for demographical information about the users, the sensorial effects of the outdoor space, the effects of its landscape and general satisfaction. The questionnaire was administered to 300 people, including 100 architects who are educated in designing, shopkeepers who are interaction with this area everyday and laypersons. Evaluating the questionnaire data revealed the physical landscape quality and the behavioural and functional qualities of the users along with the visual qualities of the historical urban square’s former/older condition. This study aims to show how participative planning can improve future projects.

Erem, Ömer; Ermiyagil, Selen Abbasoğlu

2016 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-01-2016-B0007

This paper aims to define an adapted contemporary design language for housing built next to vernacular residential buildings of Anatolian villages. The case has been selected from Balıkesir province in the North-western part of Anatolia within a corpus of 104 houses from selected 81 villages of the region. Originally, vernacular house plans consist of allocation of rooms around a hall: sofa. Each room is a core living space with everyday living needs for a family. House is formed with various spatial relations between sofa and rooms around it. This relation is the determinative feature in formation of vernacular language for each Anatolian house. The study has three phases: analysis, adaptation and generation. The first phase analyzes the elements of vernacular by decomposing its language into sub-parts. In the second phase, the inadequacies of existing vernacular structures were exposed with methods of observation and questionnaires applied on users and new demands for living have been adapted with vernacular existing language grammar rules. In the last phase within the framework of adapted language rules for Balıkesir vernacular, numerous novel design alternatives were generated. This study claims to sustain the existing socio-cultural spatial configuration by adapting newly built contemporary houses to actual vernacular architecture in the planning context.

Ozorhon, Guliz

2016 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-01-2016-B0008

This study on the knowledge/experience transfer regarding architectural space has two main objectives. The first of these is to develop an in-depth analysis on housing settlements and the second one is to provide pioneering and unique approach of a housing settlement in the 50s in Istanbul to architectural milieu. In the study, first how it is possible to propose such a method will be discussed, and will be followed by a review of the literature on the subject of housing and by which parameters it can be described. After this preliminary research, a systematic approach consisting of two steps (1. Reading, 2. Conceptualization) to analyze the housing settlements will be proposed and this approach will be exemplified by a housing settlement in Istanbul. In short, this article is primarily concentrated on tools required first to understand and then explain a housing settlement.

Kuan, Yong; Ahmad, Yahaya

2016 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-01-2016-B0009

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.

Al-Thahab, Ali; Mushatat, Sabah; Abdelmonem, Mohammed Gamal

2016 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-01-2016-B0010

The notion of privacy represents a central criterion for both indoor and outdoor social spaces in most traditional Arab settlements. This paper investigates privacy and everyday life as determinants of the physical properties and patterns of the built and urban fabric and will study their impact on traditional settlements and architecture of the home in the contemporary Iraqi city. It illustrates the relationship between socio-cultural aspects of public and private realms using the notion of the social sphere as an investigative tool of the concept of social space in Iraqi houses and local communities (Mahalla). This paper reports that in spite of the impact of other factors in articulating built forms, privacy embodies the primary role under the effects of Islamic rules, principles and culture. The crucial problem is the underestimation of traditional inherited values through opening social spaces to the outside that giving unlimited accesses to the indoor social environment creating many problems with regard to privacy and communal social integration.

De Berardinis, Pierluigi; Marchionni, Chiara; Rotilio, Marianna; Friedman, Avi

2016 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-01-2016-B0011

The dry construction techniques, widely used in past centuries have seen a renewed interest in the last few years. This is due to different reasons such as the new user’s needs for high quality at low cost, the shortage of traditional skilled labor, the need to reduce delivery times and the rising costs of initiating a fabrication plant.Dry construction methods regard the building site as the place of assembly. The quality of the finish products, are guaranteed by a factory controlled production process and reduction to a minimum of on-site work. The building, designed by “unconnected boxes” becomes an “active machine”, capable of ensuring maximum performance for the user. Finally the design of an “open building system” also consists of a set of rules to allow creation of various solutions.The complexity of this modus operandi increases progressively if the intervention is carried out in small historic centres. Therefore, this research aims at presenting a method of work that uses dry construction systems and that has been developed to intervene in the historic contexts damaged by the earthquake that struck the Abruzzo region on April 6, 2009.This method develops a process that aimes at the rehabilitation of the buildings but also at improving their energy behavior while respecting, at the same time, the vernacular values. It is based on a “case by case” approach that starts from an analysis of the context and its local construction techniques, taking into account the peculiarities of each location. The results of this method have been applied to a small village located in the province of L'Aquila called Santa Maria del Ponte.

Zheng, Rong-Yue; Yao, Jian

2016 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-01-2016-B0012

A large number of residential buildings in hot summer and cold winter zone of China are non-energy efficient with poor indoor thermal conditions. Retrofitting residential buildings with energy efficiency measures is thus important for residents. However, this work progressed slowly because practically applicable measures that not only have high energy savings but also improve indoor thermal performance have not been studied. Thus, this paper carried out a simulation study on the selection of suitable energy saving measures for residential buildings in hot summer and cold winter zone of China. Five potential energy saving options are considered and the energy, indoor thermal comfort and economic performance are compared. The results show that adding movable solar shades is the optimum option with all performance indices ranking first. Meanwhile, this measure is also the only acceptable energy saving solution for residents since its payback period is less than the lifespan of a building. As a conclusion, it is recommended to use movable solar shades as a first priority when retrofitting residential buildings.

Duman, Inanç Işil; Zengel, Rengin

2016 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-01-2016-B0013

The main axes of this study, which is differentiated from contemporary architecture studies as the first academic work in the scope of post-occupancy evaluation floating spaces, are based on evaluating the spatial satisfaction and the meeting of these expectations by its users. A post-occupancy evaluation (POE) yielded a dataset of 117 yacht-users for whom demographic information, activities, and length-of-stay were recorded. This paper reports the study conducted on 78 yachts in Turkey, focusing particularly on the physical design features. The questionnaire is based on the observation and applied as post-occupancy evaluation on the examples of yachts from Turkey. It also questions the effect of the sea on the spatial perception and evaluates the user satisfaction of the interiors and exteriors of yacht spaces. Assessment on the physical design of yacht interiors from the perspective of the staff and the owner is the method to understand their expectation, preferences and experiences. In addition, the satisfaction of different user groups and general evaluation of spaces are explained within the graphics that include the data and analysis which are obtained from the interviews. Empirical results indicate that different user categories (owner and staff) that are presented in the scope of the post-occupancy evaluations (POE) have different satisfaction levels. Findings of this study demonstrate that the difference of satisfaction levels between the users caused different space needs and expectations from their spaces. Although floating spaces have unconventional environmental specifications from the terra architecture, high level of satisfaction in yachts shows that the floating spaces should be evaluated with the scope of their spatial characteristics, in consequence of the spatial perception on the sea and the psychological concepts. In conclusion, the management implications of the study are discussed.

Kutasi, David

2016 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-01-2016-B0014

There are plenty of historic buildings bearing different stylistics in Budapest and many of them have residential function. In the city center of Pest, most of the properties are historic buildings constructed between the period of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise in 1876 and the World War II, but Buda also has some residential dwellings with historic value. Estimation of the value of the Budapest residential housing is an important issue for owners, real estate developers and investors, nevertheless not many studies have focused on the value components of those buildings in Central Eastern Europe or Hungary.In this paper the value components of Budapest residential flats were identified using the hedonic regression method. On a sample of more than 1800 residential properties of Budapest the differences between historic, panel and other buildings were compared. The conclusion can be drawn that altering aspects are relevant for each segment. Even the categories determine large differences between panel buildings and non-panel buildings regarding the value. For the historic properties, the existence of balcony, the up-to-date type of heating, the good condition of the flat, the unique panorama, the location in Pest City, the vicinity of parks and the distance from noisy facilities are the most important factors. Meanwhile for panels the allocation on lower floors, the better heating system, the good condition, the location in Buda and the vicinity of market are the factors that have the major positive effect on the value. For the non-historic and non-panel buildings the balcony, the up-to-date heating system, the good condition, the luxurious Buda district location, vicinity of parks and remoteness of noisy facilities are the most important components of value.

Bıcer, Z. Ozlem Parlak

2016 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-01-2016-B0015

Ecological architecture consciousness has started spreading out with the idea that the limited resources that remain on the world in 21st century due to the damage caused by humans should be used economically. Energy saving consciousness should be executed in all stages from the design of the building to its construction and use. The number of buildings in the world that have been built with this consciousness continues to increase. Many technological applications have been put forth in order to ensure that a building supplies its own energy. This new situation contributes to the decreasing of the energy need of the building while also making significant savings in the Gross National Income of developing countries such as Turkey which are dependent to other countries for energy. When the contribution of ecologic designs to the country economy is considered, it is expected that the government and local administrations increase incentives especially for government buildings thereby leading the way. The objective of this study is to examine the energy consumption of Kadir Has City Stadium built in the city of Kayseri and to question the contribution of the local administration in terms of ecologic approach. It is expected that the study will make a contribution so that the local administrations will support all the stages of government buildings from the design to construction.

Zainol, Rosilawati; Wang, Chen; Ali, Azlan Shah; Ahmad, Faizah; Aripin, Abdul Wafey Mohd; Salleh, Hafez

2016 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-01-2016-B0016

A walkability friendly environment is crucial in historical towns and cities built with minimal number of motor vehicles. This research aims to assess physical attributes of pedestrianization in Georgetown, Penang, a UNESCO World Heritage Site regarding walkability. A structured interview was conducted among 170 respondents at six different streets to examine citizens' satisfaction on the pedestrian facilities using six walkability features including a) pathway, b) zebra crossing, c) signage, d) personal safety, e) traffic flow and, f) aesthetics & amenities. Relative Importance Index (RII) analysis show that existing pathways do not meet acceptable standards in promoting a walkable environment. Aesthetic and amenities scores the lowest in satisfactory level and zebra crossing scores the highest in unsatisfactory level. The level of walkability in the World Heritage Site in Georgetown, Penang are found inadequate. Provision of physical walking and built heritage features without providing sufficient activities along the streets do not yield high walkability.