scholarly journals The New Eastside: Re-populating East Christchurch Through Diverse, Contextualised, Medium Density Housing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Brett Wines
Keyword(s):  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Critical Mass ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Medium Density ◽  
Property Value ◽  
Site Investigations ◽  
Lifestyle Choices ◽  
Key Characteristics ◽  
The Cost

<p>At the conclusion of the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes more than 5100 homes had been deemed unsafe for habitation. The land and buildings of these were labelled “red zoned” and are too badly damaged for remediation. These homes have been demolished or are destined for demolition. To assist the red zone population to relocate, central government have offered to ‘buy out’ home owners at the Governmental Value (GV) that was last reviewed in 2007. While generous in the economic context at the time, the area affected was the lowest value land and housing in Christchurch and so there is a capital shortfall between the 2007 property value and the cost of relocating to more expensive properties. This shortfall is made worse by increasing present day values since the earthquakes. Red zone residents have had to relocate to the far North and Western extremities of Christchurch, and some chose to move even further to neighbouring towns or cities. The eastern areas and commercial centres close to the red zone are affected as well. They have lost critical mass which has negatively impacted businesses in the catchments of the Red Zone. This thesis aims to repopulate the suburbs most affected by the abandonment of the red zone houses.  Because of the relative scarcity of sound building sites in the East and to introduce affordability to these houses, an alternative method of development is required than the existing low density suburban model. Smart medium density design will be tested as an affordable and appropriate means of living. Existing knowledge in this field will be reviewed, an analysis of what East Christchurch’s key characteristics are will occur, and an examination of built works and site investigations will also be conducted.  The research finds that at housing densities of 40 units per hectare, the spatial, vehicle, aesthetic needs of East Christchurch can be accommodated. Centralising development is also found to offer better lifestyle choices than the isolated suburbs at the edges of Christchurch, to be more efficient using existing infrastructure, and to place less reliance on cars. Stronger communities are formed from the outset and for a full range of demographics.  Eastern affordable housing options are realised and Christchurch’s ever expanding suburban tendencies are addressed. East Christchurch presently displays a gaping scar of devastated houses that ‘The New Eastside’ provides a bandage and a cure for. Displaced and dispossessed Christchurch residents can be re-housed within a new heart for East Christchurch.</p>

scholarly journals The New Eastside: Re-populating East Christchurch Through Diverse, Contextualised, Medium Density Housing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Brett Wines
Keyword(s):  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Critical Mass ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Medium Density ◽  
Property Value ◽  
Site Investigations ◽  
Lifestyle Choices ◽  
Key Characteristics ◽  
The Cost

<p>At the conclusion of the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes more than 5100 homes had been deemed unsafe for habitation. The land and buildings of these were labelled “red zoned” and are too badly damaged for remediation. These homes have been demolished or are destined for demolition. To assist the red zone population to relocate, central government have offered to ‘buy out’ home owners at the Governmental Value (GV) that was last reviewed in 2007. While generous in the economic context at the time, the area affected was the lowest value land and housing in Christchurch and so there is a capital shortfall between the 2007 property value and the cost of relocating to more expensive properties. This shortfall is made worse by increasing present day values since the earthquakes. Red zone residents have had to relocate to the far North and Western extremities of Christchurch, and some chose to move even further to neighbouring towns or cities. The eastern areas and commercial centres close to the red zone are affected as well. They have lost critical mass which has negatively impacted businesses in the catchments of the Red Zone. This thesis aims to repopulate the suburbs most affected by the abandonment of the red zone houses.  Because of the relative scarcity of sound building sites in the East and to introduce affordability to these houses, an alternative method of development is required than the existing low density suburban model. Smart medium density design will be tested as an affordable and appropriate means of living. Existing knowledge in this field will be reviewed, an analysis of what East Christchurch’s key characteristics are will occur, and an examination of built works and site investigations will also be conducted.  The research finds that at housing densities of 40 units per hectare, the spatial, vehicle, aesthetic needs of East Christchurch can be accommodated. Centralising development is also found to offer better lifestyle choices than the isolated suburbs at the edges of Christchurch, to be more efficient using existing infrastructure, and to place less reliance on cars. Stronger communities are formed from the outset and for a full range of demographics.  Eastern affordable housing options are realised and Christchurch’s ever expanding suburban tendencies are addressed. East Christchurch presently displays a gaping scar of devastated houses that ‘The New Eastside’ provides a bandage and a cure for. Displaced and dispossessed Christchurch residents can be re-housed within a new heart for East Christchurch.</p>

The Evolutionary Psychology of Scientific Publishing: Cost-Benefit Optimization of Players in the Game

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milind Watve
Keyword(s):  
Peer Review ◽  
Current System ◽  
Critical Mass ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Scientific Publishing ◽  
Collective Goal ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Collective Goals ◽  
Innate Tendency

Peer reviewed scientific publishing is critical for communicating important findings, interpretations and theories in any branch of science. While the value of peer review is rarely doubted, much concern is being raised about the possible biases in the process. I argue here that most of the biases originate in the evolved innate tendency of every player to optimize one’s own cost benefits. Different players in the scientific publishing game have different cost-benefit optima. There are multiple conflicts between individual optima and collective goals. An analysis of the cost-benefit optima of every player in the scientific publishing game shows how and why biases originate. In the current system of publishing, by optimization considerations, the probability of publishing a ‘bad’ manuscript is relatively small but the probability of rejecting a ‘good’ manuscript is very high. By continuing with the current publishing structure, the global distribution of the scientific community would be increasingly clustered. Publication biases by gender, ethnicity, reputation, conformation and conformity will be increasingly common and revolutionary concepts increasingly difficult to publish. Ultimately, I explore the possibility of designing a peer review publishing system in which the conflicts between individual optimization and collective goal can be minimized. In such a system, if everyone behaves with maximum selfishness, biases would be minimized and the progress towards the collective goal would be faster and smoother. Changing towards such a system might prove difficult unless a critical mass of authors take an active role to revolutionize scientific publishing.

scholarly journals Effects of Increase in the Cost of Building Materials on the Delivery of Affordable Housing in South Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1772
Author(s):  
Bimpe Alabi ◽  
Julius Fapohunda
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Statistical Technique ◽  
Project Managers ◽  
Maintenance Cost ◽  
Cost Increase ◽  
Sequential Mixed Methods ◽  
Adequate Provision ◽  
The Cost

Adequate provision of affordable human settlements is a huge challenge in South Africa since its independence. This paper investigates the effects of the cost increase of building materials on affordable housing delivery in South Africa. With potential solutions for cost minimisation of building materials, with the aim of achieving affordable housing delivery in South Africa are provided. This study uses a sequential mixed methods approach, wherein surveys were conducted among the construction professionals (project managers, site managers architects, site engineers, quantity surveyors, contractors, building materials suppliers, and government workers) in the construction industry within Cape Town, South Africa, who were considered as the research participants. The qualitative data obtained from the survey exercise were analysed using content analysis, while the quantitative data were analysed using a descriptive statistical technique on SPSS. The findings attained show fluctuation in construction cost and a rise in maintenance cost (caused by poor workmanship) as significant effects in the cost increase of building materials for affordable housing delivery. Adequate application of the recommendations given in this study will minimise the effects of high cost of building materials and enhance affordable housing delivery. Appropriate handling of the findings given in this study will reduce the effects of the high cost of building materials and augment timely delivery of affordable housing and stakeholders’ satisfaction.

scholarly journals Inclusionary Housing: An Evaluation of a New Public Rental Housing Governance Instrument in China

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 305
Author(s):  
Juan Yan ◽  
Marietta Haffner ◽  
Marja Elsinga
Keyword(s):  
Housing Market ◽  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Rental Housing ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Inclusionary Housing ◽  
The Cost

Inclusionary housing (IH) is a regulatory instrument adopted by local governments in many countries to produce affordable housing by capturing resources created through the marketplace. In order to assess whether it is efficient, scholarly attention has been widely focused on its evaluation. However, there is a lack of studies evaluating IH from a governance perspective. Since IH is about involving private actors in affordable housing production, the governance point of view of cooperating governmental and non-governmental actors governing society to achieve societal goals is highly relevant. The two most important elements of governance—actors and interrelationships among these actors—are taken to build an analytical framework to explore and evaluate the governance of IH. Based on a research approach that combines a literature review and a case study of China, this paper concludes that the ineffective governance of Chinese IH is based on three challenges: (1) The distribution of costs and benefits across actors is unequal since private developers bear the cost, but do not enjoy the increments of land value; (2) there is no sufficient compensation for developers to offset the cost; and (3) there is no room for negotiations for flexibility in a declining market. Given that IH is favored in many Chinese cities, this paper offers the policy implications: local governments should bear more costs of IH, rethink their relations with developers, provide flexible compliance options for developers, and perform differently in a flourishing housing market and a declining housing market.

scholarly journals Comfort within Budget: Assessing the Cost-Effectiveness of Envelope Improvements in Single-Family Affordable Housing

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3054
Author(s):  
Renata Tubelo ◽  
Lucelia Rodrigues ◽  
Mark Gillott ◽  
May Zune
Keyword(s):  
Cost Effectiveness ◽  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Thermal Conditions ◽  
Building Envelope ◽  
Single Family ◽  
Design Strategies ◽  
Housing Type ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Impact

In Brazil, the delivery of homes for low-inc ome households is dictated by costs rather than performance. Issues such as the impact of climate change, affordability of operational energy use, and lack of energy security are not taken into account, even though they can severely impact the occupants. In this work, the authors evaluated the thermal performance of two affordable houses as-built and after the integration of envelope improvements. A new replicable method to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of these improvements was proposed. The case study houses comprise the most common affordable housing type delivered widely across Brazil and a proposition of a better affordable housing solution, built in Porto Alegre, southern Brazil, integrating passive design strategies to increase thermal comfort. The findings reveal a potential for improving indoor thermal conditions by up to 76% and 73%, respectively, if costs are not a concern, and 40% and 45% with a cost increase of 12% and 9% if a comfort criterion of 20–25 °C was considered. Equations to estimate costs of improvements in affordable housing were developed. The authors concluded that there is a great scope for building envelope optimisation, and that this is still possible without significant impact on budget.

We Never Built Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), but What Do We Know About Modularization in Construction?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benito Mignacca ◽  
Giorgio Locatelli ◽  
Mahmoud Alaassar ◽  
Diletta Colette Invernizzi
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Project Managers ◽  
Schedule Compression ◽  
Small Modular Reactors ◽  
Key Characteristics ◽  
Additional Costs ◽  
Structured Knowledge ◽  
The Cost

The key characteristics of small modular reactors (SMRs), as their name emphasized, are their size and modularity. Since SMRs are a family of novel reactor designs, there is a gap of empirical knowledge about the cost/benefit analysis of modularization. Conversely, in other sectors (e.g. Oil & Gas) the empirical experience on modularization is much greater. This paper provides a structured knowledge transfer from the general literature (i.e. other major infrastructure) and the Oil & Gas sector to the nuclear power plant construction world. Indeed, in the project management literature, a number of references discuss the costs and benefits determined by the transition from the stick-built construction to modularization, and the main benefits presented in the literature are the reduction of the construction cost and the schedule compression. Additional costs might arise from an increased management hurdle and higher transportation expenses. The paper firstly provides a structured literature review of the benefits and costs of modularization divided into qualitative and quantitative references. In the second part, the paper presents the results of series of interviews with Oil & Gas project managers about the value of modularization in this sector.

scholarly journals Investing in community: community land trusts and affordable housing in Calgary

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah Dow
Keyword(s):  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Trust Model ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Land Trusts ◽  
Land Trust ◽  
Viable Solution ◽  
Community Land Trust ◽  
The Cost

The cost of affordable rental units in Calgary is amongst the highest in Canada, despite a rental vacancy rate that is 3 percent higher than the national average (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, 2017). Nearly 1 in 5 Calgary households are struggling to pay for shelter costs and as of 2016, more than 42,000 households were spending more than 50 percent of their incomes on shelter, putting this population at a greater risk of becoming homeless due to job loss or from some other unexpected financial hardship (City of Calgary, 2017). Counter to popular belief, economically depressed communities with weak rental and housing markets such as Calgary following the 2015 collapse of the oil and gas sector can be subject to a critical lack of affordable housing. A soft housing market cannot make up for an insufficient range of affordable and non-market housing options. In other cities facing similar challenges, especially those in the United States, the formation of Community Land Trusts has proven to be a viable solution for providing both affordable rental and affordable ownership opportunities for residents who are struggling to afford the cost of housing in their area. This paper explores whether the Community Land Trust model is an appropriate tool to augment Calgary’s limited supply of affordable housing and will end with five recommendations to encourage the adoption of the Community Land Trust model in Calgary. Key Words: affordable housing, affordable ownership, Calgary, community land trust, small-scale affordable development.

scholarly journals Next Generation Architect

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Terian Le Compte
Keyword(s):  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Living Conditions ◽  
Next Generation ◽  
Design Quality ◽  
Building Information Modelling ◽  
Building Information ◽  
Cost Implications ◽  
The Cost

<p>The stereotype of an architect is expensive, with minimal consideration and awareness towards cost and budget. This is damaging the reputation of the profession. This thesis will look at the Next Generation Architect who combines both design and construction to understand the cost implications from the start to the completion of the project. A Next Generation Architect works with an innovative approach that is more affordable to how they currently practice. They design houses that are both economical and retain a strong design quality, through the value of the aesthetics, materials, and living conditions. An effective architect should be able to design, mindful of costs, along with the implications involved and actively manage the costs, based on design decisions made.  This research will commence by exploring tactics of affordability, housing economics, and costing and design tactics, to portray exemplars of affordable housing. Elements will be costed with data from QV costbuilder implemented through the use of Building information modelling (BIM) through Revit. The architectural value will explore the use of materials, living conditions, economics, and lifecycle to optimise the design. A series of precedents will be analysed to gain an understanding of the techniques of affordable methods used within New Zealand’s construction industry.  This thesis aims to provide architecturally designed and preliminarily costed affordable architectural products. Through a series of architecturally designed standalone houses that explore affordability, and tested through the use of architecture as a product across four sites, displaying different site conditions of the Wellington region.  This thesis will portray efficient, economic building and design techniques and cost monitoring while retaining a strong architectural quality.  The aim is to convey the contemporary role of a Next Generation Architect who works accurately with value. Who is mindful of costs and designs economically, without compromising the quality of an architecturally designed product.</p>

scholarly journals The Importance of Participation and Inclusion in African Urbanization. A focused look at Transport and Housing Projects

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constant Cap ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Bus Rapid Transit ◽  
Rapid Transit ◽  
Housing Projects ◽  
Public Projects ◽  
Water Education ◽  
Social Divisions ◽  
The World ◽  
Slum Upgrading

According to the World Bank (2015) Africa’s urbanization rate has surpassed other parts of the world. It is believed that by 2030, over 50% of Africans will reside in Urban Centres. Kenya is among the African counties that has experienced a tremendous increase in her urban population. This is most visible in the capital, the primate city of Nairobi. The growth has led to increased pressure on basic needs like housing, transport, water, education and security. Coupled with unequal economic development and social benefits, the result has been the tremendous expansion of informal sectors across fields. To respond to some of this pressure, the central government has vowed initiate large projects in housing, transport, water and others (Republic of Kenya, 2018). Newly enacted legislation also provides for the establishment of multi-sectoral urban boards to oversee the delivery of some services. Among the major projects coming up include Affordable Housing schemes and Mass Rapid Transport investments such as Bus Rapid Transit and expanded commuter rail systems. However, experience from the past both in Nairobi and other Cities has taught us the importance of inclusion, empathy and participation in such projects. Recent times have shown that public projects tend to ignore these and other key elements leading to massive failure of investment. The paper investigates case studies from similar projects in other parts of Africa, Bus Rapid Transit Projects in Lagos, Dar es Salaam and South African Cities; past Slum Upgrading and Housing Projects in Nairobi and other parts of the continent. The research methods also involve data collection on inclusion and participation from those who are affected directly by these proposed projects as well as the impacts that previous projects have had. The results from the study show that without proper communication and participation there are several misunderstandings on liveable spaces in cities. These include misinterpretations of the challenge’s citizens face, on the intentions of proposed solutions as well as the socioeconomic decision-making process of citizens. The implication of this leaves an unhealthy competition between existing informal ‘structures’ in various sectors against the new government driven proposals. The results are that those meant to benefit end up not being the primary beneficiaries. In conclusion, the role of putting people primarily as the centre objective of planning remains critical and key. For African planners, diverting from this will increase the existing inequalities and lead to further social divisions.

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