The concept of a peaceful, individual home surrounded by greenery, built in a multistorey apartment building—a synthesis of a villa from the suburbs and an apartment in the city—is a theme very rich ...in possibilities for future urban development. By recognizing the positive characteristics of family houses and their application in apartment buildings, usual housing in apartment buildings gains an alternative. The first part of the paper is an analysis of the characteristics of house-like apartments: access to the apartment, private open space, three-dimensional spatial organization and visual identity. It continues with a questionnaire survey carried out among occupants living in apartment buildings in Niš, Serbia, regarding which characteristics of house-like apartments they recognize in their own apartments, if any, and how important they consider them to be for the general residential quality. It is interesting that occupants assess as significant only some basic forms of this type of apartment, while other, less obvious forms are considered to be irrelevant for the quality of housing. The results of this study include design recommendations and recommendations for the redefinition of standards that regulate the field of designing apartment buildings, in order to improve the quality of housing in the city.
Double-loaded affordable apartments are commonly seen in tropical developing countries to maximize total floor areas. However, the double-loaded apartments would possibly cause poor ...cross-ventilation, particularly on the leeward side of the buildings. This study aims to propose an alternative design for double-loaded affordable apartments for efficient indoor ventilation performance on the leeward side of the buildings. The alternative apartment design primarily involves the following three key building elements: a closed-vertical void, an open pilotis, and a wind fin. We conducted a detailed wind tunnel experiment, followed by CFD simulations to analyse the effects of the proposed new design on indoor ventilation performance compared to an ordinary apartment building with an open-vertical void. A systematic validation study was conducted for 3D RANS CFD models based on the results of the wind tunnel experiment in terms of grid sensitivity and turbulence models to confirm the accuracy of the CFD models used. It was found that the closed-vertical void of the proposed design distributed wind pressures to the leeward side of the building more than those by the open-vertical void of the ordinary apartment. The proposed closed void design provided better indoor ventilation for both sides of a double-loaded apartment building. This study would help understand more details about passive cooling strategies for affordable social housing, especially in the tropics, where natural ventilation is strongly needed.
•A new type of apartment with a closed-vertical void was proposed for cross-ventilation enhancement.•A detailed wind tunnel experiment was conducted for two types of apartments.•A systematic validation study was conducted for CFD models to confirm modeling accuracy.•The closed-vertical void distributed wind pressures to the leeward side.•The proposed apartment with a closed void design was able to provide better indoor ventilation.
Rooftop solar power production is particularly relevant to climate change mitigation in Australia given the country's high insolation rates. However, residential adoption rates vary across the ...country with potential for increasing uptake, particularly on apartment buildings and rental properties. This study focuses on past and future motivations for the adoption of rooftop solar panels and the barriers people perceive upon adoption. An online survey was conducted with 1126 respondents across Australia showing that 65% of those who had no solar panels were intending to adopt them. Results of best-worst scaling showed that motivations for past and future adoptions did not differ significantly and that economic motivations predominated, particularly for homeowners. Renters, a group often overlooked in the production of solar energy, strongly desired solar panels, often for environmental reasons, but were discouraged by uncertainties about the costs and benefits of installing solar. This reveals a need for policies that help renters and landlords, and those in multi-unit dwellings, to find ways in which the costs and benefits can be shared equitably. This will become more important as energy costs rise and urbanisation intensifies.
•A third (~30%) of respondents to an Australia-wide survey have rooftop solar panels.•More than half (65%) of those without solar panels intend to install them.•Economic reasons dominate, for both existing and intended installations.•Environmental reasons were more important for surveyed renters than homeowners.•Renters and apartment occupants are constrained by governance of costs and benefits.
The complexity of environmental challenges facing populations are pushing researchers to go beyond traditional study designs alone to investigate health within the urban environment using integrated ...coupled human-environment systems thinking. As high-density apartment living is increasing in Australia, it is important to understand the conceptual frameworks guiding research at this scale in Australia; therefore, this article provides a systematic search and review of residents-based studies exploring whether they conceptualised their approach to health using ecological systems thinking at the building scale. Residents-based research published in English between January 2011 and June 2021 was searched across six databases, with 1265 articles identified and six articles included for review. Findings demonstrate a lack of study designs that use systemic and integrated thinking. More specifically, complex systems thinking of health and the urban environment with coupled human-environment views are not fully grasped or reflected in current study designs. This gap is further complicated by a lack of explicit definition and conceptualisation of health and wellbeing and a diverse approach to their use. Future research should consider adopting relational and integrated thinking of health drivers along with an ecological perspective to address residents’ multiple challenges and implement the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Deco Acquisition A 7,100-SF commercial project in North Little Rock rang up a $750,000 sale. The Baird family acquired the property for $2,083 in April 1924 from Little Rock's Southern Trust Co. Club ...House I A 3,079-SF home near the Country Club of Little Rock changed hands in a $740,000 deal. Club House II A 2,511-SF home near the Country Club of Little Rock is under new ownership after a $670,000 deal.
The ubiquitous use of mosquito repellents in homes across Asia, Africa, and South America is related with human exposure to indoor volatile organic compounds (VOCs). There are three primary types of ...mosquito repellents: those in the form of coils, mats, and liquids. The repellent mechanisms of these products are distinct, resulting in the generation of varying types of VOCs during the repellent process. In this study, the emission characteristics of commercial coil-, mat-, and liquid-type mosquito repellents were observed in a laboratory chamber using real-time measurement. A previously developed personal passive sampler, ePTFE PS, was used to quantify personal exposure to indoor VOCs while 86 volunteers habitually used those three representative types for 3 h in their residence. Notable increase of indoor benzene was observed for coil- and mat-type mosquito repellents, while α-pinene concentration increased significantly following the use of liquid-type mosquito repellent. The average incremental cancer risks for benzene were 10-6 to 10-4 for adults following the use of coil- and mat-type mosquito repellents. The average non-cancer risks for all chemicals were <1 after the use of three types of mosquito repellents. Considering the potential human health risks associated with byproducts (e.g., particulate matter or carbon monoxide from incomplete combustion) emitted after mosquito coil use, further research on this topic is warranted.The ubiquitous use of mosquito repellents in homes across Asia, Africa, and South America is related with human exposure to indoor volatile organic compounds (VOCs). There are three primary types of mosquito repellents: those in the form of coils, mats, and liquids. The repellent mechanisms of these products are distinct, resulting in the generation of varying types of VOCs during the repellent process. In this study, the emission characteristics of commercial coil-, mat-, and liquid-type mosquito repellents were observed in a laboratory chamber using real-time measurement. A previously developed personal passive sampler, ePTFE PS, was used to quantify personal exposure to indoor VOCs while 86 volunteers habitually used those three representative types for 3 h in their residence. Notable increase of indoor benzene was observed for coil- and mat-type mosquito repellents, while α-pinene concentration increased significantly following the use of liquid-type mosquito repellent. The average incremental cancer risks for benzene were 10-6 to 10-4 for adults following the use of coil- and mat-type mosquito repellents. The average non-cancer risks for all chemicals were <1 after the use of three types of mosquito repellents. Considering the potential human health risks associated with byproducts (e.g., particulate matter or carbon monoxide from incomplete combustion) emitted after mosquito coil use, further research on this topic is warranted.
The German cockroach Blattella germanica (L.) (Blattodea, Ectobiidae) is one of the most common indoor pests in multifamily housing communities. Our objectives were to investigate the spatial ...distribution patterns of German cockroach infestations in a multiunit dwelling before and after building-wide integrated pest management (IPM) implementation. The study was conducted in a high-rise apartment building with 188 residential units in Paterson, New Jersey. All the identified infestations were treated by researchers using IPM implementation, and monitoring was repeated at 6 and 12 mo after the initial survey. We examined cockroach spatial distribution patterns within and between apartments. Traps placed by the stove and refrigerator caught significantly more cockroaches than traps placed in the kitchen cabinet under the sink or in the bathroom. At month 0, cockroach infestations within the building were spatially correlated. At 12 mo after implementation of IPM, only infestations cross the floors remained to be correlated. Therefore, IPM not only eliminates cockroach infestations in individual units, but also reduces cockroach dispersal between units.
Participatory and user-centered design has taken inspiration from each other, and the classical roles of users, researchers, and designers have merged in the co-designing process. Participatory ...methods consider the balance of power between the designer and residents and the needs and usefulness of the research. Community members should be involved as partners, advisors, and participants.
In Finland, participatory design is law mandated in urban planning projects, but participation that goes beyond the initial publicization of information, is genuinely interactive, and spans all stages of the project is underutilised and the methods of participatory practice are still unfamiliar to many designers. The methods commonly used are the research survey and the workshop, often mentioned as participatory design methods. From the residents’ perspective, participation only becomes participatory when the participant gains the experience of influencing the development and its outcomes. The article examines resident surveys and workshops as tools to produce information and evaluate their interactivity in two case studies. It shows that the diversification of methods is necessary to ensure genuine participatory planning in the renewal of suburban neighborhoods.
The research was done as part of the project Reshaping living: New structure and new life for old suburbs (AsuMut), funded by the Ministry of Environment.
Flexible housing resolves the fundamental conflicts between the long-standing structure and the evolving demands. We propose a computational method of optimizing the structural layout of high-rise ...residential buildings. Chinese high-rise apartment buildings have widely employed shear wall-frame structure in which one big room or multiple small rooms could occupy the same span. Fitting multiple floor plans into a fixed sparse scheme of shear walls and columns is feasible. We developed a computational framework to seek flexible structural schemes. A building scheme consists of a circulation core, shear walls, columns, and boundaries. The computer program automatically adapts floor plans to any drawn or generated scheme. Based on a large dataset of apartment layouts, the number of apartments that fit into a building scheme statistically reflects the flexibility of the scheme. If many hypothetical plans can fit into a wall-frame structure in computer simulation, this structure could probably support several generations of unknown plans. Such a data-driven computational method provides the possibility of creating a one-to-many mapping between permanent structure and evolving apartment plans.
This study uses spatial regression to assess the value of educational and cultural facilities as reflected in apartment prices in Seoul, at district and subdistrict levels. In the district-level ...analysis, regardless of the spatial unit and apartment size, private academies, museums, or art museums positively influence price, while historical sites and park areas negatively influence it. At the subdistrict level, effects differ by apartment size. The study finds that merely providing housing is insufficient for the success of housing policies. Instead, fulfilling residents' needs and preferences regarding public facilities, especially according to their life stage and thereby contributing to housing policies, will help develop desirable living environments for all.
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