Low Income Housing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - Dissertation Example

? Post-occupancy evaluating of low income housing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Introduction The housing demand is one of the most important issues and challenges which are facing developing and developed countries and both of them have tried to solve and face their housing demands by different policies. Some of the policies and proposals have met the needs of the different levels of society. One of these classes is called the low income, which has begun as a new challenge in different countries. Saudi Arabia is now suffering from that issue. So it needs to establish a form of residential complexes for low income people. This concept is a new policy as well as a new trial. For that it has been chosen as the issue to discuss housing policy for this category in society which will be assessed by post occupancy evaluation method. However, what does POE mean? There are a number of definitions of POE, all generally in accord with, and built around the central theme of the simple statement (Preiser et al., 1988) that “post-occupancy evaluation (POE) is the process of evaluating buildings in a systematic and rigorous manner after they have been built and occupied for some time” Vischer (2001, p.23). defines POE as “any and all activities that originate out of an interest in learning how a building performs once it is built, including if and how well it has met expectations”. The RIBA Research Steering Group (RIBA, 1991, p.191) defined POE as “a systematic study of building in use to provide architects with information about the performance of their designs and building owners and users with guidelines to achieve the best out of what they already have”. Preiser (1995, p.19; 1997) stressing another perspective i.e. that of the facility manager, defined POE as “a diagnostic tool and system which allows facility managers to identify and evaluate critical aspects of building performance systematically”. Clearly a POE may be carried out by a range of different building industry professionals, or as quite often occurs by the client or building owner. Aim Investigate the success of the low-income housing strategy, which was introduced by Millennium Charity and Development Foundation (MCDF). This is done through investigating the satisfaction of the users with in one of their projects. Objectives 1- To study the theory of post-occupancy evaluation, its emergence, and its importance. 2- Understanding the importance of POE for creating better houses for low income people. 3- To critically evaluate literature about international housing policies and compare them to housing policies in Saudi Arabia. 4- To assess a case study by using the post-occupancy evaluation of the: a- Functional aspect b- Social views c- Technical factors 5- Evaluate building performance taking account the feed back from the residents. Research Questions: To which extend are the users satisfied with current housing design? What is post-occupancy evaluation? Why is it important? How to apply it? How did it emerge? What are the international housing policies, and Saudi housing policies? What are the differences? How to assess a case study by using POE for Functional aspect, Social views and Technical factors? How to evaluate building performance taking account resident's feedback from? Research methodology Review literature: Define both the area and the nature of POE that enhances the understanding of the concept, the scope and the process of POE. Setting Aims and objectives. Develop questions. Select research respondents. Implementing the survey. Analyzing the data collected. Structure of the research Chapter 2: Introduction Aims Research question Objectives Methodology Chapter 2: what does POE mean? What is POE ? History and background of POE Uses of POE Process of POE Benefits of POE Chapter 3: International housing policies Housing policies in Saudi Arabia Housing policies in Saudi Arabia for low-income Chapter 4: General information of Saudi Arabia. General information of case study. Analyze Case study Chapter 5: Data analysis. Chapter 6: Discussion. Chapter 6: Conclusion. Case study Low income housing is a main requirement of many developed and developing countries, conducting necessary studies about it and implementing policies in order to provide economical solutions to provide appropriate housing to millions of poor around the world Different organizations world wide have played an active role in the development of housing models for low income housing some of them which have succeeded in providing appropriate housing to low income people. In recent years the government of Saudi Arabia has started providing houses to needing families so a number of housing projects were built in different parts of the country. And Algazala is one of these projects provided for low income people and in this research Algazala project will be the case study which will be evaluated using POE (Post-occupancy evaluation), by implementing a questionnaire on the residents of Algazala project to identify the advantages and disadvantages of these houses. Algazala which is located in the region of Hael is one of the of many low income housing projects that the government of Saudi Arabia has built for needing people it was built in 2007 and it contains 254 housing units and two schools, two mosqes, a health centre and a community centre . History and Background of Post Occupancy Evaluation From the past few years, the area that gained more attention of business industry experts and researchers is about identifying the ways in which the building attributes affect its users. Additionally, people are more inclined by making a better use of this knowledge and information so that they will develop the design of the building accordingly. Intelligence gaining is the term which is used for research conducted on building performance as stated by Vischer (2009). The procedures used for evaluating building performance comprise of users’ experience regarding environmental satisfaction and comfort along with individual measurements and date concerning to various building systems. However, this information is not considered valid until there is any evidence about how the users are influenced (Vischer, 2009). The main constituent of the POE model is how the level of satisfaction is measured among the users by using the characteristics of physical surroundings. In 1960s and 1970s, this concept was initiated in which the surveys were usually done to know the housing satisfaction of residents within their surroundings (Vischer, 1985). The assessment was completed from the information gathered from the thoughts and feelings of occupants by using interviews, field observation, questionnaires and site visits and became well-known in other amenities like hospitals, courthouses, army barracks and prisons (Khalil and Husin, 2009). The practice of POE is very old that is reviewed in National Academy Report Learning from our Buildings: a State of the Practice Summary of Post Occupancy by Preizer (2001). He also wrote a book on Assessing Building Performance that explains the fundamentals in knowing various processes of evaluating building performance comprising of POE; besides this, he also gave the required understanding and information about questionnaires that are essential when conducting POE. Generally, POE is elucidated in British Council for Offices Guide to Post Occupancy Evaluation (2007) and from here, everyone can acquire the awareness of POE practices. The two mentioned books are known for its great assistance in conducting such difficult researches. Process of Post Occupancy Evaluation There are three main stages that contribute in POE. The stages are (1) planning, (2) conducting (3) applying. (FFC, 2002, p.11) 1) Planning In the planning stage of conducting POE, all the beginning constraints are developed and after that a plan has to be developed for gathering information, time management and doing the sampling of contestants. The purpose of making this plan is to ensure that the process of POE is well organized. The strengths and weaknesses are defined at this stage - the people who are influenced from POE have to be classified as well. 2) Conducting The important facet in conducting POE is gathering of data. In the conducting stage, the method of the data gathering is instituted, managed and observed on the basis of questionnaire and interviews. This is to ensure that the collected data should be in accordance with the goals and objectives of POE. Once the evaluation is done, the collected data is to be examined, which comprises of the elucidation of questions that have been asked at the start of the research. 3) Applying The applying stage of POE entails recording the findings, suggesting actions and checking the final outcomes. This stage is considered to be the most important one as the solutions have to be recognized by making suggestions for the prospective actions. Finally, the results of actions have to be crucially observed as the POE’s values and benefits are determined at this stage. Benefits in adopting Post Occupancy Evaluations Many benefits are there for building designers, owners and users, when companies plan, conduct and develop POE`s. Some of the benefits are: Recognizing dysfunctional building traits and their eradication which is helpful in the future designing (Watson, 2003). Recognizing the lucrative layouts that are to be repeated (Watson, 2003). Better awareness among occupants regarding the layouts which is helpful in making the POE practices favorable - it also contributes in the overall improvement (Watson, 2003). A superior decision making power and the ability to manage things properly (Baird, 2001). Decline in the total expenses (British Council for Offices, 2007) and the ratio of the return on investment is high in people and buildings (Baird, 2001). Upgrading the set standards and targets British Council for Offices, 2007). The liberty that is given to the building users for giving their feedback on their built surroundings (Watson, 2003). References: Baird, G. (2001). Post-occupancy evaluation and Probe: a New Zealand perspective, Building Research & Information 29(6), pp. 469-472. British Council for Offices (2007).Guide to Post Occupancy Evaluation, document available at http://www.bco.org.uk/research/researchreports/detail.cfm?rid=99 Federal Facilities Council (2002). Learning from our Buildings: A State-of-the-Practice Summary of Post-Occupancy Evaluation, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., Technical Report No. 145. Khalil, N. and Husin, H.N. (2009).Post Occupancy Evaluation towards Indoor Environment Improvement in Malaysia’s Office Buildings, Journal of sustainable development 2 (1), pp. 186-191. Preiser, W. F. E., Rabinowitz, H. Z., and White, E. T. (1988).Post-occupancy evaluation, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York. Preiser, W. F. E. (1995). “Post-Occupancy Evaluation: How To Make Buildings Work Better”, Facilities, 13 (11) , 19 Preiser, W. F.E. (2001). Feedback, feedforward and control: post-occupancy evaluation to the rescue, Building Research & Information 29(6), 456–459 RIBA, R. S. G. (1991). “A Research Report for the Architectural Profession”. In: Duffy, F. w. L. H. (ed.) Architectural knowledge: the idea of a profession, E & FN Spon, London, Vischer, J.C. (1985). The adaptation and control model of user needs: A new direction for housing research, Journal of Environmental Psychology 5 (4), pp 287-298 Vischer, J. (2001). “Post-Occupancy Evaluation: A Multifaceted Tool for Building Improvement”, Learning from our buildings: a state-of-the-practice summary of post-occupancy evaluation, Washington DC, National Academy Press, 23-34. Vischer, J.C. (2009). Applying knowledge on building performance: From evidence to intelligence, Intelligent Buildings International 1, pp. 239-248. Watson, C. (2003). Review of building quality using post occupancy evaluation,Journal of Programme Education Building. Vol. 35, pp. 1-5. Read More