open house 4 Vol.39 No.4.pdf · 2015-03-16 · Eastern Mediterranean University, Mersin 10, Turkey...

Eastern Mediterranean University, Mersin 10, Turkey and at Development Planning Unit, University College London, 34 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9EZ, Great Britain

openhouseinternational

houseopeninternational

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A f f o r d a b l e H o u s i n g S c h e m e s

S u s t a i n a b l e B u i l d i n g s

G e n t r i f i c a t i o n P r o c e s s

V e r t i c a l G r e e n e r y S y s t e m s

P l a c e I d e n t i t y

C a r o b W a r e h o u s e s

I n c r e m e n t a l H o u s i n g i n E g y p t

D i g i t a l A r c h i t e c t u r a l E d u c a t i o n

In this issue:Aziz. Zyed, Hanif, Tedong. Ebrahimi, Abdul-Rahman, Rahim, Wang-Broglie, Loo, Miswan, Azmi, Ahmad, Ali, Yuceer, Shalaby. Salcamcioglu, Juvancic, Hocever, Zupancic Resuloglu, and Ergut.

open house internationalVol 39 No.4 2015 ISSN 0168-2601

a C I B e n c o u r a g e d j o u r n a l

T h o m s o n I S I A r t s & H u m a n i t i e s

E B S C O p u b l i s h i n g

w w w . o p e n h o u s e - i n t . c o m

w w w . o p e n h o u s e - i n t . c o m E l s e v i e r S c o p u s

BOARD OF EDITORS

The journal of an association of institutes concerned with the quality of built environment.The publishing framework is shaped around the forces which act on built environment,which maintain, change and transform it. The content consists of articles which deal withthese issues and in particular with responsive, self-sustaining and re-usable environ-ments which have the capacity to respond to change, provide user choice and value formoney.

w w w . o p e n h o u s e - i n t . c o m openhouse

openhouse

Dr.Iftekhar Ahmed, RMIT University, Australia.

Dr. Zainab F. Ali, University of Damman, SaudiArabia.

Dr. Robert Brown, University of Westminster,London, Great Britain.

Prof.Marta Calzolaretti, Housing Lab, SapienzaUniversita di Roma, Italy.

Dr. German T. Cruz, Ball State UniversityMuncie, USA.

Carla Corbin, Department of LandscapeArchitecture, Ball State University, USA.

Ype Cuperus, Delft University of TechnologyDelft, The Netherlands.

Dr. Ayona Datta, University of Leeds, UK.

Dr.Md Nasir Daud, University of Malaya,Malaysia.

Forbes Davidson, Institute of Housing & UrbanDevelopment Studies, Rotterdam, TheNetherlands.

Diane Diacon, Building and Social HousingFoundation, Coalville, Great Britain.

Prof. Yurdanur Dulgeroglu-Yuksel,Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey.

Prof. Jin-Ho Park, Inha University, Korea

Prof. Bruce Frankel, Ball State University, USA.

Prof. Avi Friedman, McGill University, Montreal,Canada.

Dr. Ahmed Abu Al Haija, PhiladelphiaUniversity, Eng. & Arch. Dep.t, Jordan.

Prof. Keith Hilton, Mansle, France.

Dr. Karim Hadjri, University of Central lan-cashire, UK.

Prof. Nabeel Hamdi, Professor Emeritus,Oxford Brookes University, UK.

Dr. Sebnem Önal Hoskara, EasternMediterranean University, Northern Cyprus.

Prof Anthony D C Hyland, Consultant inArchitectural Conservation and HeritageManagement, Durham, UK

Dr. Mahmud Mohd Jusan, Faculty of BuiltEnvironment, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia(UTM).

Ripin Kalra, University of Westminster, and .(WSPimc), London.

Dr. Stephen Kendall, Emeritus Prof. ofArchitecture, 220 West Durand StreetPhiladelphia, PA., 19119

Prof. Bob Koester, Ball State University Muncie,USA.

Prof. Roderick J. Lawrence, University ofGeneva, Geneva, Switzerland.

Dr. Fuad Mallick, BRAC University, Bangladesh.

Prof. Andrea Martin-Chavez, UniversidadAutonoma Metropolitana, Mexico.

Dr. Magda Mostafa, Associate Professor, TheAmerican University in Cairo, Egypt

Babar Mumtaz, DPU, University CollegeLondon, London, UK.

Geoffery Payne, GPA Associates London, UK

Dr. Sule Tasli Pektas, Bilkent University, Turkey.

Prof. Gulsun Saglamer, Istanbul TechnicalUniversity, Istanbul, Turkey.

Dr. Mark Napier, Urban LandMark, Pretoria,South Africa.

Dr. Masa Noguchi, University of Melbourne,Australia

Prof. Ibrahim Numan, Fatih Sultan Mehmet

University, Turkey.

Dr. Yara Saifi, Al Quds University, Jerusalem,

Palestine.

Prof. Paola Somma, University of Venice, Italy.

Prof. Jia Beisi, University of Hong Kong.

Dr. Peter Kellett, University of Newcastle upon

Tyne, Great Britain.

Dr. Omar Khattab, University of Kuwait.

Dr. Levente Mályusz, Budapest University of

Technology and Economics (BME), Hungary.

Prof. Amos Rapoport, University of Wisconsin

at Milwaukee, USA.

Prof. Seiji Sawada, Meiji University, Tokyo,

Japan.

Dr. Florian Steinberg, Asian Development

Bank, The Philippines.

Dr. Quazi M Mahtab uz Zaman,

Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK

Prof. H. J Visscher, OTB, Delft Univertsity of

Technology, Delft, The Netherlands.

Patrick Wakely, Professor Emeritus, University

College London, UK.

Dr. Christine Wamsler, University of

Manchester, UK and University of Lund,

Sweden.

: Yonca Hurol, Eastern Mediterranean University, Mersin 10, Turkey.: Esra Can, Emre Akbil, Eastern Mediterranean University Mersin 10 - Turkey. [email protected]: C. Punton, P.O Box 74, Gateshead,Tyne & Wear, NE9 5UZ, Great Britain. [email protected]: The Urban International Press, P.O Box 74, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear NE9 5UZ, Great Britain.: Printed by Eastern Mediterranean University Print House, Gazimagusa, Mersin 10, Turkey

: Emmanuel Tibung Chenyi, Eastern Mediteranian University, Mersin 10, Turkey. [email protected]

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Aims

Open House International

The Open House International Association (OHIA) aims

to communicate, disseminate and exchange housing and

planning information. The focus of this exchange is on

tools, methods and processes which enable the various

professional disciplines to understand the dynamics of

housing and so contribute more effectively to it.

To achieve its aims, the OHIA organizes and co-ordi-

nates a number of activities which include the publication

of a quarterly journal, and, in the near future, an interna-

tional seminar and an annual competition. The

Association has the more general aim of seeking to

improve the quality of built environment through encour-

aging a greater sharing of decision-making by ordinary

people and to help develop the necessary institutional

frameworks which will support the local initiatives of peo-

ple in the building process.

The journal of an association of institutes and individuals

concerned with housing, design and development in the

built environment. Theories, tools and practice with spe-

cial emphasis on the local scale.

Delft University of TechnologyDepartment of Housing Quality and Process Innovation OTB

Research Institute of Housing, Urban and Mobility Studies

Jaffalaan 9, 2628 BX Delft, The Netherlands

(Henk Visscher) [email protected] www.otb.tudelft.nl

McGill UniversitySchool of Architecture, Macdonald Harrington Building

Centre for Minimum Cost Housing Studies, 815, Sherbrook

Street West. Montreal, PQ. Canada H3A 2K6.

(Avi Friedman)[email protected]

www.homes.mcgill.ca

Ball State UniversityCollege of Architecture & Planning, Muncie, Indiana, 47306,

USA. (Stephen Kendall) [email protected]

www.bsu.edu/cap

The Development Planning UnitUniversity College London. 34, Tavistock Square London

WC1H 9EZ. (Caren Levy) [email protected]

www.ucl.ac.uk/dpu

HousingLabDipartimento di Architettura, Ateneo Federato delle Scienze

Umane delle Arti e dell'Ambiente, SAPIENZA Università di

Roma, Roma, Italy. (Marta Calzolaretti)

[email protected] http:w3.uniroma1.it/housinglab

The Glasgow School of ArtMackintosh School of Archirecture MEARU, 176 Renfrew

Street Glasgow G3 6RQ. Great Britain

(Masa Noguchi) [email protected]

www.gsa.ac.uk

Budapest University of Technology & Econ. (BME)Faculty of Architecture Budapest, Muegyetem rkp. 3.

1111 Hungary. (Levente Malyusz) [email protected]

www.bme.hu

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM)Resource Development Division, Perpustakaan Sultanah

Zanariah, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) 81310 Skudai

Johor, Malaysia. (Anuar Talib) [email protected]

http://portal.psz.utm.my/psz/

Philadelphia University,Engineering & Architecture Department, Faculty of

Engineering, P.O Box 1, Jordan. (Ahmed Abu Al-Haija)

[email protected]

www.philadelphia.edu.jo/content/view/448/590/

University of Malaya,Faculty of Built Environment, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

(Md Nasir Daud) [email protected]

http://www.fbe.um.edu.my

Ajman University of Science & TechnologyAjman, P. O. Box 346, UAE. United Arab Emirates

(Jihad Awad) [email protected]

www.ajman.ac.ae/austweb/index87ec.html?catid=46&langid=2

Qatar UniversityQatar University Library, Aquisitons Department,Bldg# B13 /

Office Room # B154

P.O Box 2713, Doha, Qatar. (Farook Ghori)

[email protected]

BRAC University,Department of Architecture, Dhaka, Bangladesh,

(Fuad H Mallick) [email protected] www.bracu.ac.bd

Universidad Del Rosario, Calle 14 No. 6-25, Bogotá, Colombia. (Janneth Espitia)

[email protected] www.urosario.edu.co

Birzeit University Main LibraryRamallah, West Bank, P.O.Box: "14", Birzeit,

Palestine(Taghgreed Shihadeh) [email protected]

www.birzeit.edu

Inha University, Department of Architecture, Inha University,

Incheon, Korea. (Jin-Ho Park) [email protected]

www.d-lab.k

Director & Editor-in-Chief

Nicholas Wilkinson, RIBA, Eastern Mediterranean University,

Northern Cyprus.DPU Associate,

University College London, UK.

[email protected]

Collaborating Editor

Dr. Ashraf M. Salama,PhD. FRSA - FHEA

Head of Architecture

University of Strathclyde

Email: [email protected]

Web Editor

Emmanuel Tibung ChenyiEastern Mediterranean Univ.

Dept of Arch. Via mersin 10. TR

Email:[email protected]

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Contents

EDITORIAL: Nicholas Wilkinson

AFFORDABLE HOUSING SCHEMES: OVERCOMING HOMEOWNERSHIP PROBLEMS

Zafirah Al Sadat Zyed, Wan Nor Azriyati Wan Abd Aziz, Noor Rosly Hanif , Peter Aning Tedong

LIFECYCLE FRAMEWORK FOR SUSTAINABLE RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS IN MALAYSIA

Mahdokht Ebrahimi, Hamzah Abdul Rahman, Faizul Azli Mohd-Rahim, Wang Chen

A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON CIHANGIR AND TARLABASI GENTRIFICATION PROCESSES

Mehmet Emin Şalgamcıoğlu, Alper Ünlü

VERTICAL GREENERY SYSTEM (VGS) IN URBAN TROPICSAbdul-Rahman, Chen Wang, Azli Mohd Rahim,

Siaw Chuing Loo, Nadzmi Miswan

PLACE IDENTITY: A THEORETICAL REFLECTION Nur Farhana Azmi, Faizah Ahmad, Azlan Shah Ali

ADAPTIVE REUSE OF CAROB WAREHOUSES IN NORTHERN CYPRUS Hulya Yuceer, Beser Oktay Vehbi

IMPLICATIONS FROM RECENT EXPERIENCE OF AN INCREMENTAL HOUSING PROJECT IN EGYPT

Ahmed M. Shalaby

IMPROVING COMMUNICATION AND CHANGING ATTITUDES IN ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICES:Digital architectural education tools for non-experts

Matevz Juvancic, Marjan Hocevar, Tadeja Zupancic

Open House International has been selected for coverage by EBSCO Publishing, the ELSEVIER Bibliographic DatabaseScopus and all products of THOMSON ISI index bases, SSCI, A&HCI,CC/S&BS and CC/A&H The journal is also list-ed on the following Architectural index lists: RIBA, ARCLIB, AVERY and EKISTICS. Open House International is onlinefor subscribers and gives limited access for non-subscribers at www.openhouse-int.com

NEXT ISSUE: VOL. 40.NO.1 2015: OPEN ISSUEEditor: Nicholas Wilkinson, RIBA, AADipl.Eastern Mediterranean University, Faculty of Architecture, Gazimagusa, Mersin 10,Turkey. E-mail: [email protected]

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open house in te rna t ional december 2014 vo l .39 no.4OPEN ISSUE covering Affordable Housing Schemes, Sustainable Buildings, Gentrification, Vertical Greenery System, PlaceIdentity, Carob Warehouses, Incremental Housing Egypt, Digital Architecture Education.

Editors: Nicholas Wilkinson,RIBA,AA Dipl. Eastern Mediterranean University, Faculty of Architecture, Gazimagusa, Mersin 10, Turkey. E-Mail: [email protected]

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Previous Issues

Guest Editor: Dr.Ifte Ahmed, Research FellowHumanitarian Arcitecture Research Bureau, RMITUniversity, Australia., Dr. Esther Charlesworth,Associate Professor RMIT University Australia,E-Mails: [email protected] [email protected]

Guest Editor: Dr. Henk Visscher, OTB Research forthe Built Environment, Faculty of Architecture and theBuilt Envornment, Delft University of Technology,Jaffalaan 9, 2628 BX Delft, The Netherlands.E-Mail: H.J. [email protected]

Editorial: Ifte Ahmed and Esther CharlesworthLinking Organisational Competency to Project Success in Post-DisasterReconstruction. Jason von Meding, Lukumon Oyedele and John BruenResponsible Reconstruction: The Architect’s Role. Madeleine Jane Swete Kelly andGlenda Amayo CaldwellPermanent Housing in Community Socio-Ecological Recovery: The Case of T.Vilufushi, Maldives. Peter M. LawtherGlobal and Regional Paradigms of Reconstruction Housing in Banda AcehDavid O’Brien and Iftekhar AhmedGetting the Message Across for Safer Self-Recovery in Post-Disaster Shelter.Charles Parrack, Bill Flinn and Megan PasseyTime-Efficient Post-Disaster Housing Reconstruction with PrefabricatedModular Structures.Tharaka Gunawardena, Tuan Ngo, Priyan Mendis, Lu Aye and Robert CrawfordReflections on Residential Rebuilding After the Victorian Black Saturday Bushfires.Greg Ireton, Iftekhar Ahmed and Esther CharlesworthCordaid’s Post-Disaster Shelter Strategy in Haiti: Linking Relief and Development.Harmen Janse and Kees van der FlierPrivate Sector Investments and Associated Risk Implications for Post-Disaster HousingDevelopment in Dhaka.Huraera Jabeen

Vol. 39 No. 3 2014

open house international

THEME ISSUE covering Temporary Villages, NGOs, DisasterReconstruction, Socio-Ecological Systems, Building for Safety,Prefabricated Modular Structures and more.

Vol. 39 No. 2 2014


THEME ISSUE covering Danish Urban Renewal, Design-Buildand Maintain, Energy Costs, Energy Policy, Individual HeatMetering and Charging, Social Housing Renovations andSustainable Development.

Editorial:Henk VisscherNegotiating Green Retrofitting Standards in Danish Urban Renewal - The CaseOf Copenhagen. Lars A. EngbergEnergy Costs, Residential Mobility, and Segregation in a Shrinking City.Großmann Katrin, Buchholz Johan, Buchmann Carsten, Hedtke Christoph,Höhnke Carolin, Schwarz Nina‘Deal or No Deal?’ Assessing The Uk’s New Green Deal. Louise ReidUpgrading Energy Efficient Housing and Creating Jobs: It Works Both Ways.Frits Meijer, Henk VisscherEnergy Policy Developments in the Dutch Non-Profit Housing Sectors.Nico Nieboer, Ad Straub, Henk VisscherEnergy Efficiency in French Social Housing Renovations via Design-Build-Maintain.Tadeo Baldiri Salcedo Rahola, Ad Straub, Angela Ruiz Lázaro,YvesGaliegueAnalysis of Energy-Efficiency Improvements in Single-Family Dwellings inConcepcion, Chile. Rodrigo Garcia Alvarado, Jaime Soto, Cristian Munoz, ArielBobadilla, Rodrigo Herrera, Waldo BustamanteAnalysis of The Accuracy Of Individual Heat Metering and Charging.Simon Siggelsten, Birgitta Nordquist, Stefan OlanderEnergy Saving Policies for Housing Based on Wrong Assumptions? Henk Visscher,Dasa Majcen and Laure ItardBook Review: khan Gunce

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Previous Issues

Vol. 39 No. 1 2014open house international

OPEN ISSUE

Edited by Nicholas Wilkinson RIBA, Eastern Mediterranean University, North Cyprus.DPU Associate, University College London, UK.

[email protected]

Guest Editors::Prof. Ashraf M. Salama & Dr. Florian Wiedmann Department of Architecture and Urban Planning,College of Engineering, Qatar University, Doha,

Qatar E-mail: [email protected]

Vol. 38 No. 4 2013


Theme Issue: ‘Unveiling Contemporary Urban Transformationsin the Arabian PeninsulaDynamics of Global Flows, Multiple

Modernities, and People-Environment Interactions.

Editorial: Ashraf M. Salama and Florian WiedmannManufacturing The Image Of Doha: From the Public Face of Architecture to the

Printed Media. Ashraf M. Salama The Spatial Development Potentials of Business Districts In Doha: The Case of

the West Bay. Velina Mirincheva, Florian Wiedmann and Ashraf M. SalamaUrban Reconfiguration and Revitalisation: Public Mega Projects in Doha's

Historic Centre. Florian Wiedmann, Velina Mirincheva and Ashraf M. SalamaUnderstanding Inhabitants' Spatial Experience of the City Of Doha through

Cognitive Mapping. Ashraf M. Salama, Ahood Al-Maimani, and Fatma KhalfaniExperiential Assessment of Urban Open Spaces in Doha.

Ashraf M. Salama, Fatma Khalfani, and Ahood Al-MaimaniFrom Souqs to Emporiums: The Urban Transformation of Abu Dhabi.

Yasser Elsheshtawy Urban Transformation in the City Of Riyadh: A Study of Plural Urban Identity.

Mashary A. Al NaimTracing the Evolution of Urbanism in Kuwait. Yasser Mahgoub

The Verticalization of Manama's Urban Periphery. Florian WiedmannImporting Exceptional Buildings:Transforming Urban Arabian Peninsula into

Skyscraper Cities. Kheir Al-Kodmany and Mir M. Ali

Editorial: Nicholas WilkinsonSustainable Urbanism: Moving Past Neo-Modernist & Neo-Traditionalist

Housing Strategies. Alazar G Ejigu & Tigran Haas* Sustainable Architecture in Rural Yayla Settlements.

Sıdıka Çetin, Ayse Betul Gokarslan The Layered Dependency Structure Matrix for Managing Collaborative Design

Processes. Şule Taşlı PektaşComparative Study of Courtyard Housing using Feng Shui

Afet Çeliker, Banu Tevfikler Çavuşoğlu, Zehra ÖngülDemolition versus Deconstruction: Impacts of Fenestration Disposal in Building

Renovation Projects. Soofia Tahira Elias-OzkanA Review of Lofts as Housing in Istanbul. Serpil Özker

Housing Cooperatives in the Palestinian Territories: Development and CurrentPractice. Shadi Sami Ghadban

Attitudes towards Urban Open Spaces: Equating Human Needs on OpenSpace Planning. Melasutra Md Dali, Safiah Muhammad Yusoff, Puteri Haryati

IbrahimLandscape and Sustainability: Three Residential College Buildings in the TropicsAdi Ainurzaman Jamaludin, Nila Keumala, Ati Rosemary Mohd Ariffi , Hazreena

Hussein

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This issue has many manuscripts dealing withPLACE , GENTRIFICATION PROCESSES, HOMEOWNERSHIP, VERTICAL GREENERY SYSTEMS,SUSTAINABLE PERFORMANCE OF BUILDINGSAND COMMUNICATION IN PRACTICES.

The general content runs accordingly fromAffordable Housing Schemes, SustainableBuildings, Housing Poverty, Housing Preferences,Place Identity, Carob Warehouses, IncrementalHousing Egypt, and Digital Architectual Education.

The order of the articles are as follows:Affordable Housing Schemes, SustainableBuildings, Gentrification Process, Vertical GreenerySystems,Place Identity, Carob Warehouses,Incremental Housing in Egypt, Digital ArchitecturalEducation and Kavalklidere - The formation of aresidential district during the 1950’s.

Some twenty authors make up the numberof writers for these nine manuscripts. It shows thediversity of authors for all Open House papers andin particular the focus and research components ofthe same.

Next year in 2015, the first issue will be thefortieth volume of the journal. It has generally beena smooth process till now with two theme issueseach year and two open issues. At the moment wehave a large influx of papers making the planninga little difficult and authors are somewhat troubledby the wait time for their publication date.However they should rest assured that everythingwill be resolved in due course. The issues are fullthrough 2015 and 2016.

Finally I have pleasure to announce theforth coming CIB W 104 Open BuildingImplementation to be held in September 2015 atETH Zurich, Switzerland. There will be a strongfocus on Open Building implementation and othercurrent issues surrounding the subject. Those whowish to participate should contact Stephen Kendallat his home address, 220 West Durand Street,Philadelphia PA 19119, USA

The Editor and collaborating editor Dr.Ashraf Salama and Web Site manager EmmanuelTibung Chenyi wish our readers a very Happy NewYear for 2015.

Nicholas Wilkinson AADipl RIBAEastern Mediterranean University,Faculty of ArchitectureVia Mersin 10Turkey

Editorial

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1 . i n t roduc t ion

owning a house is every household dream. withincreasing house prices especially in urban areas,younger working households (Ywh) find it difficultto enter homeownership. with qualifications andemployment, Ywh today are a subset of middleincome group and are facing difficulties in pur-chasing their first house (wan et al. 2010).

in malaysia, the state holds a responsibilityin providing houses for low income householdswhile other income households depend on the pri-vate sector for housing (Tan 2012). Tan (2012) alsoadded the private sector has concentrated on highend homes because of the substantial increase inhouse and land prices. because of this, there isshortage in supply of affordable houses in urbanareas (nApic 2012). even so, the houses that areaffordable are located far from the city centre andincur additional transportation cost.

moreover, the trend of migration rate fromrural to urban areas has increased from 11% in1957 to 72% in 2010 (pr1mA 2012). due to this,demand in urban areas has increased substantial-ly. with demand increase and insufficient supply,the house prices are perceived to be unaffordable

among Ywh. The need for state intervention is cru-cial to rebalance the housing situation.

new housing schemes which are, my firsthome scheme (mfhs) and 1malaysia people’shousing scheme (pr1mA) were recently intro-duced. it shows that the state recognised the prob-lem and is taking steps to address the homeowner-ship problems. however, the schemes are relativelynew and rises a question on how will the new hous-ing schemes help Ywh effectively. This paper aimsto determine what the homeownership problemsamong Ywh are in order to assess the new hous-ing schemes. The objectives are to ascertainhomeownership problems among Ywh and toexplore the perceptions of Ywh on the new hous-ing schemes introduced.

2 . l i TerATure rev iew

2.1 Homeowner sh ip

According to boehm and schlottmann (1999),homeownership has four types of benefits. The ben-efits are in monetary value, positive impact onsocial being and improve neighbourhood quality

Zafirah Al Sadat Zyed, Wan Nor Azriyati Wan Abd Aziz,Noor Rosly Hanif, Peter Aning Tedong

Abstract

Homeownership is a problem among younger working households (YWH). This is a more serious problem with YWH

working in urban areas. New housing schemes introduced by the government show that measures are being taken.

This paper aims to determine homeownership problems among YWH in order to assess the new housing schemes

towards helping YWH. The questions arise are what are the homeownership problems among YWH and to what extent

does YWH perceive the new housing schemes to help them. The objectives are to ascertain homeownership problems

among YWH and to explore the perceptions of YWH on the new housing schemes introduced. The study was conducted

qualitatively through in-depth interviews with YWH. The findings showed that the main homeownership problem high-

lighted by the YWH is housing prices are high in urban area which resulted to the location of affordable houses incon-

venient. From the assessment, majority of the YWH agree with the new housing schemes. However there are weak-

nesses such as high land prices and absence of financial literacy. In conclusion, housing schemes should also consid-

er financial education as part of their aims. Nevertheless, the introduction of housing schemes is beneficial to address

homeownership problems among YWH.

Keywords: Young Household, Homeownership problems, Housing schemes, Affordable housing, Housing affordability

AffordAble housing schemes: overcominghomeownership problems

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and stability. Apart from that, homeownership isalso beneficial towards employment and income.munch et al. (2008) investigated the impact ofhomeownership on individual job mobility andwages in denmark. They discovered that home-ownership has a negative impact on job-to-jobmobility both in terms of transition into new localjobs and new jobs outside the local labour marketand there is a clear negative effect of homeowner-ship on the unemployment risk and positive impacton wages.

The promotion of homeownership has ledto the perception that it is available to all workingages (wan et al. 2010). due to this, there is a sig-nificant increase in homeownership rates. This ismade possible through mass privatisation of thehousing sector (phang 2009). however, the restric-tion to access the private housing market led toindication s of homeownership problems (wilcox2003; mak et al. 2007).

based on a case study in malaysia, wan etal. (2010) discovered that middle income house-holds find it difficult to enter homeownership in theprivate housing market that is accessible to theirwork place. The major concern is when houseprices have risen twice as fast as earnings in 20years (case of uK) (wilcox 2007). This problem iseven more acute among Ywh. homeownershipproblems involves largely on financial capacity,which are on house price, household income andhousing choice.

2 . 2 u nder s t and i ng ho meow ne r s h i pprob lems

2.2 .1 House pr i ce

According to phang (2009), housing regulation hasa housing market implication that includes expan-sion of the targeted housing sector over time, therelative constancy of actual housing expenditure toincome ratios for targeted household groups,income inelastic housing demand and price inelas-tic housing supply. he argued that these forces arewhat drives the house price changes and are notrelatively due to population growth rates and con-struction costs.

in this paper, when Ywh has the tendencyto ‘leave the nest’, it means there is greaterdemand of housing (stutz and Kartman, 1982).Apart from that, the availability of mortgage financealso increases demand in housing (bredenoordand verkoren, 2010). As house price is what deter-mined the affordability of houses, housing supply isrelatively house price inelastic (phang, 2009).supply side and demand side explanations for the

decline of housing affordability are not mutuallyexclusive and does not lead to increase in houseprices if housing demand is stable or declining(matlack and vigdor, 2008). however, mak et al.(2007) disagreed and argued that demand andsupply are interactive and tend to reinforce eachother and while there is an increase in housingdemand, the supply lags behind housing demand.

rapid economic growth, increase in popu-lation, liberalisation of the housing market andinadequate supply of affordable housing are themain reason behind the increase in house prices(mak et al., 2007). house prices have increasedmarkedly in many industrialised countries in recentyears, apparently backing the strength of house-holds’ consumption in a context of otherwise weak-ening activity (Ayuso and restoy, 2006). it is alsothe problem of inadequate cash flow in the shortrun that present an issue for in relation to houseprices (stutz and Kartman, 1982). in general, thereis a relationship between house prices and income.The theoretical model by davidoff (2006) revealedthat consumers with mean-variance preferencesoptimally purchase less housing as the covariancebetween labour income and increasing houseprice.

Apart from that, Ayuso and restoy (2006)viewed that overvaluation is attributable to the slug-gishness of housing supply in the presence of largedemand shocks. The root cause of overvaluation isthat a house value is towards its location (Kiel andZabel, 2008). As stutz and Kartman (1982) arguedthat housing is not homogenous, Kiel and Zabel(2008) agreed and claimed housing as an unusu-al good in three dimensions which are heterogene-ity, durability and immobility. The immobility deter-mines the value of the house because of location.They further concluded that there are other charac-teristics that influence house value which is the gen-eral upkeep of the neighbourhood, neighbourhoodcharacteristics and amenities.

Apart from that, lee (2009) discovered thatthe volatility of house price is subjected to rise inresponse to bad news and inflation is a determinantin housing price volatility. The housing price volatil-ity also led to price discrimination in housing.ihlanfeldt and mayock (2009) showed evidencethat housing price discrimination exists in the hous-ing market.

There has been evidence of households inthe lower tail of the income distribution is now lessable to afford a house than they were a decadeago (bajari et al., 2005; matlack and vigdor,2008). with Ywh considerably to be at the lowertail of the income distribution, it questions if timewould eventually decrease the housing affordabilityfor the younger cohorts or otherwise. This is

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gbecause when income growth is not in tandem withhousing affordability (increase inflation), it increas-es in house price is good for homeowners who areselling their house but bad for households who arein the market to purchase a house (stutz andKartman, 1982; bajari et al., 2005).

As discussed, there are factors that enactedhouse price as a homeownership problem.similarly, the common influence of changes inhouse price is rapid economic growth, increase inpopulation and cost (case and shiller, 1989; maket al., 2007) but, phang (2009) rejected these influ-ences and argued that house price changes areless dependent on population growth rates andconstruction costs because a house is a need.

2.2.2 Househo ld income

in general, the affordability to purchase a house isconcerned with the relationship between housingcosts and household income (henman and Jones,2012). The perception of income is not enough tocover housing costs and non-housing expendituresare major homeownership problems. maclennanand williams (1990) suggested that affordabilityimplies where the price of the house does notimpose ‘an unreasonable burden’ on householdincome. in similar view, stone (2006) argued thataffordability is a challenge each household faced inbalancing the housing costs and non-housingexpenditures within the constraints of their income.The perception of imbalance of housing cost andnon-housing expenditures clearly pose a problemthat is related to households’ income.

Apart from that, inequality in the distribu-tion of income is a common problem in enteringhomeownership. matlack and vigdor (2008) sug-gested that income increases at the high end of thedistribution and can raise house prices paid bythose at the low end of the income distribution.They further explained as income inequality growsthe residual income of households’ declines andcrowding increases significantly. Ywh are consid-ered to be between the low and middle end of theincome distribution. This is because there are rela-tively young in the labour force market and earns asmaller scale in salary before gaining more work-ing experiences. bramley (2012) agreed with theproblems to be more common with Ywh due tolower incomes earlier in their work careers and lim-ited asset accumulation and also their greaterreliance on the private rented sector.

when the real required payments associat-ed with homeownership increased rapidly overtime, the financial challenge of purchasing housingis perceived to be more difficult (rappaport, 2008).The uncertain income future posed a major limita-

tion towards the ability to become home owners aswell the subjectivity of economic success. evenmore, what draws attention is whether housing costor household income is the problem to enter home-ownership (burke, 2007). Apart from that, housingchoice is also a probability in homeownershipproblems.

2.2 .3 Hous ing cho ice

public houses are perceived for low income house-holds and Ywh are more likely to participate in pri-vate housing market (fu et al., 2000). The qualityof local public goods influence house price and thisindicate that households care for the generalupkeep of the neighbourhood as well as the distantof schools and town centres (Kiel and Zabel,2008). This influence the housing choice as wellwhere Ywh are looking for a similar neighbour-hood setting that is similar to where they grew up.

Apart from that, Addae-dapaah (1999)claimed that a house is more than a shelter with allthe requisite amenities and represents an importantstatus symbol and personal investment (cited in Tuet al., 2005). Additionally, when Ywh desire toown a beautiful house that is larger in size and atprime location, they may choose to infringe resid-ual income where they will risk material hardship(bramley, 2012). moreover, if housing choice doesnot met with the desire, the household may live withothers such as family and a large group of friends(Andrew et al. 2006).

According to Alexiu et al. (2010), there is anegative relationship between employment choiceand housing preferences or affordability. This result-ed to time consuming to travel to work place (seealso munch et al. 2008). This relationship showsthat housing choice does not depend on workplace and employment choice, rather due to otherfactors such as neighbourhood characteristics asKiel and Zabel (2008) claimed.

2 .3 Af fo rdab le housi ng schemes

one of the mechanisms of state’s intervention inovercoming homeownership problem is throughaffordable housing schemes. in malaysia, the statehas introduced two affordable housing schemesthat will help households to enter homeownership.These schemes are considered new as the imple-mentation of the schemes is less than three years(as of 2013). however, the housing schemes arehighly important in overcoming homeownershipproblems, especially, among Ywh. This section willelaborate on the eligibility and key benefits of thehousing schemes, which are, my first home

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scheme (mfhs) and pr1mA (1malaysia people’shousing scheme).

2.3 .1 My F i rs t Home Scheme

my first home scheme is a new scheme introducedby the government in 2011. it targets to help younghouseholds who have just started working to own ahouse. The younger generation are able to get a100 per cent loan from associated banks to pur-chase their first house. The purchaser has to meetthe qualifying criteria (see Table 1) in order to applythis scheme.

2 .3 .2 1 Ma lay s i a P eop l e ’ s Hou s i ngScheme

The prime minister introduced the 1malaysiapeople’s housing project (pr1mA) to focus onaffordable housing. To date pr1mA has launchedaffordable housing in two locations which areputrajaya and seremban. The eligibility criteriaare as of Table 2.

3 . meThodologY

Qualitative methodology is adopted in this paper.Qualitative research involves empirical materialssuch as case study, personal experience, life story,interview, observational, historical, interactional

and visual texts which will describe the research sit-uation and the meaning in an individual’s life(Taylor, 2005). Qualitative research also involvescareful planning, respectful engagement, conscien-tious analysis and deliberate presentation (luton,2010). in this paper, the empirical materials arefrom in-depth interviews. The main concern ofqualitative approach in this paper is to gain a deep-er insight on the homeownership problems. Theperspective of the problems is from Ywh and staterepresentatives that are the promoters of the hous-ing schemes. The in-depth interview was conductedon the month of february 2013. The limited num-ber of Ywh interviewed might be bias with person-al views and might not represent the population ofYwh. This applies to state representatives as well.but, the innate perceptions of Ywh and state rep-resentatives qualitatively are reckoned to be suit-able to achieve the paper’s aim.

3 .1 responden t s o f the s tudy

A total of fifteen (n=15) respondents are inter-viewed. eight (n=8) of the respondents are Ywh.The respondents are selected through purposivesampling. According to wilcox (2007), Ywh areperceived as those age between 20 till 39 yearsold. The respondents have to work in greater Kualalumpur (gKl) and are not homeowners. To ensureYwh are represented appropriately, the age groupwas divided into four (4) subgroups, which are, 20to 24 years old, 25 to 29 years old, 30 to 34 yearsold and 35 to 39 years old. each subgroup is rep-resented by two respondents, one (1) female andone (1) male.

The in-depth interview also involves seven (n=7)respondents which are state representatives whoare the promoters of the housing schemes. Thestate representatives were selected based on theirinfluence in promoting the housing schemes inmalaysia. As for the selection of representatives, therespondents chosen are based on who the statedecided is best to represent them in this case. itshould be noted that, the respondents for this in-depth interview are from the state and its affiliationsinvolve in promoting the housing schemes.Therefore, the in-depth interviews are considered tobe fitting and eliminate the element of bias.

3 .2 in te rv iew ques t ions

in line with the aim to obtain detailed informationon homeownership problems and perceptionstowards the housing scheme, open-ended ques-

Table 1. Qualifying criteria for MFHS

Table 2. Eligibility criteria for PR1MA.

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gtions were formed in a set of interview questions. itcomprises of 6 questions to gain viewpoints on thehomeownership problems. There are additionalquestions for Ywh to assess the housing schemesif it is agreeable to them or otherwise. The ques-tions are on what are their views on current home-ownership problems, what are the causes of thehomeownership problems, what are their views onaffordability for housing among Ywh, how can themechanism (housing schemes) help Ywh, what aretheir views on the housing schemes and recom-mendations to address homeownership problems.To simplify the transcribing process, respondentswere coded as Ywh for younger working house-holds (Ywh1 till Ywh8) and rs for state represen-tatives (rs1 till rs7). The statements are quoted andreported in a narrative way according to themes.The field notes of text are grouped into similaritiesof answers and later coded as the most frequentanswers. The data from the in-depth interview wasanalysed qualitatively by transcribing, assessingand categorising relevant transcript.

4. resu l t s and d i scuss ion

4.1 homeownersh ip p rob lem

majority of the respondents generally perceivedhouses in the private housing market are notaffordable. Those interviewed explained thatincome of a university graduate who works in anurban area is not enough to afford a house in theprivate housing market. This shows that Ywh hasdifficulty in terms of income for housing becausethey are considered to be at the lower tail of theincome distribution as argued by bajari et al.(2005) and matlack and vigdor (2008).furthermore, this supports bramley’s (2011) claimthat the homeownership problems are more com-mon among Ywh due to lower incomes and limit-ed asset accumulation. Those interviewedexplained that there are difficulties to access homefinancing. comments from Ywh and state repre-sentatives included the following,

“The only problem for me would be the required10% down-payment to purchase a house.”code: YWH2

”i have a problem with access to housing mortgageas getting the logical loan tenure and rate offinancing seems impossible. The challenge i facedis coming up with the 10% down payment whenpurchasing a sub sale unit and financing options” code: YWH8

“The major issue for younger working household isthe housing deposit... for those working in the pri-vate sector their bonus might cover their housingdeposit unlike those working in the public sector.but, for those who are working in the public sectorthey are entitled to government housing loan whichis okay. but they have to cover other costs as wellsuch as legal fees, stamp duty, moving costs andothers. so either or, they still face this problem ofhousing costs which is a lot” code: RS2

Apart from that, another concern raised is on theinflation rate between house price and householdincome. it was argued that household income ofYwh is lower and there is a challenge to balancehousing costs and non-housing expenditures (stone2006). one of the respondents highlighted that,

“inflation rate between current household incomeand property prices is a major problem. A workingfamily do not make enough to afford a decentlanded property in urban areas. living expenses arealso getting higher and causes more percentage ofthe household income is used for it.” Code: YWH5

however, there is evidence of affordable housingsupply in the private housing market (wan et al.2010). but, due to increasing land prices, afford-able houses are located outside of urban areas thatwill require Ywh to purchase own transportation tocommute. one of the respondents disagreed andexplained,

“i disagree with the problems of houses being notaffordable. based from the data collected bynApic, since 5 years ago, the average house pricein malaysia increases about 25.5% that is in theyear 2007 the average house price is rm 182, 127wherea as in the year 2011 the average houseprice has risen to rm 228,091... [...] housingaffordability is where a household has the financialcapacity to pay all the costs involved in purchasinga house and at the same time has enough residualincome to sustain living cost.. [...] the housing mar-ket has various types of houses to choose from andit depends on the type of house and location.” code: RS1

based on the quotation, the state seems to consid-er affordable housing only on house price and typeof house. The location factor is important for ahouse as argued by Kiel and Zabel (2008) and thisis not considered by the state in the average houseprice as respondent rs1 reflected. due to this,

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those interviewed especially Ywh, stressed thateven though there are affordable houses in the pri-vate housing market, the location of the houses hasrestricted access to transportation options. Therespondents made the following comment,

“location is a problem as most affordable housesare in suburban areas and not accessible by publictransport”code: YWH5

“housing that is affordable are poorly locatedwhich is far or no public transportation and has acrime perception as well. buying a house is alreadyconsuming a large sum of money and with thelocation far away from my work place, it willincrease my living cost due to the petrol and main-tenance to my car and it will take me a long time totravel too” code: YWH8

furthermore, the subject of income escalated in theinterviews that led to the discussion of financial lit-eracy. Those interviewed explained Ywh are notable to manage their finance well and this affectstheir perceptions on affordability of houses in themarket.

having established the homeownership problems,it can be argued that the main concern in home-ownership problems is housing affordability. Apartfrom that, lack of financial literacy is also a prob-lem among Ywh that alters their perception onaffordable house prices.

4.2 Cause o f homeowner ship p rob lems

phang (2009) argued that house price is the decid-ing factor for housing affordability. majority agreedthat exuberant house price1 in urban area is thecause of homeownership problems. This is attribut-able towards expensive land prices. from the per-spective of state, land prices are expensive and arereflected in the house prices. Those interviewedexplained,

“in a survey that we did, 60% of the demography isyoung people… […] finding a strategic land tobuild houses for the young population is whatneeds to be emphasised”code: RS7

“To us, Ywh has no opportunity to purchase ahouse in urban areas … […] this is due to expen-sive land prices and there is a problem to provide

affordable houses when the land is own privatelyhence it is difficult to build according to what isneeded”code: RS3

“we have plans to supply affordable houses but theproblem that we have is we have no land” code: RS4

however, two of the respondents disagreed andexplained house prices are seen expensive because“we use quite a big percentage of our salarytowards logistical issues like owning cars becauseof unreliable public transports” (code: YWH7) and“the reason why Ywh perceived it [house price] tobe expensive because of unnecessary fear createdcollectively by property speculators and depressedhousing supply” (code: YWH8). The insufficientincome to acquire both a house and a car willcaused unreasonable burden on householdincome (maclennan and williams 1990; stone2006).

As discussed previously in section 4.1, lackof financial literacy is what caused the houses to beperceived as unaffordable. one of the respondents(code: YWH2) agreed that everyone is not fullyaware of appropriate financial management andmostly it is due to the styles of upbringing and edu-cation that one has experienced. Those interviewedhave similar views with this and explained,

“The issue in Ywh is basic needs are already pro-vided... [...] but today’s young household are dif-ferent.. they have no problem if they quit their joband then look for another after quitting becausethey have their parents especially for those parentswho lives in urban areas...[...] it is a social impacttoday where the young generation is not worry ifthey do not have enough money due to the supportfrom the family... this is why other needs come firstsuch as purchasing their first car”code: RS2

”it is difficult when your lifestyle drove you to a pointthat you cultural needs have overcome your basicneeds..[..] young households spends more thanthey earn ... [...] they have to realise their basicneeds are much more important than their culturalneeds.. [...] but understanding this has come fromthemselves and cannot be taught”code: RS7

“There is still much more to learn…. this is possiblydue to lack of exposure and lack of interest in theindividuals itself” code: YWH3

1 According to nApic (2012) house prices have increase in from Q3 in 2011 to Q3 in 2012

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gmoreover, one of the respondents has a uniqueanswer to what caused the homeownership prob-lems among Ywh,

“we have to look into financial institutions aswell… […] they offer housing loan until you are 60years old with high interest rate… […] this will bur-den Ywh the most” code: RS6

The perception of expensive house price becauseof land prices contributes to the cause of the home-ownership problems. Apart from that, insufficientincome is also one of the causes due to two factors.firstly, it is due to lack of financial managementskills and second, on the high interest rate of hous-ing loan.

4.3 Hous ing schemes

mfhs and pr1mA are both relatively new.generally, Ywh agreed with the housing schemes.however, there are a few disagreements. one ofthe disagreements is the age restriction, which con-tradicts with their own benefits of having the exclu-sive rights to the housing schemes. Those dis-agreed explained that,

“even though the age restriction is a good imple-mentation, some cannot afford to buy a house untillater and it is not fair if this is not available forthem.”code: YWH3

Apart from that, one of the respondents argued,

“gross income of rm 5,000 per month is insuffi-cient to buy a property in larger cities… if ownersare forced to buy properties in suburbs or theirhometown, then they should not be forced to stayin their property… […] cost of travel to work wouldbe high” code: YWH7

similarly, those interviewed disagreed with the eligi-ble range of property value and the owner-occu-pied policy,

“i do not think it is fair for the applicant to reside inthe property because the house may not be thatconvenient to live in terms of location…in the caseof changing work place this will pose a problem forthe applicant.” code: YWH1

“unlike pr1mA, which is subsidized, this mfhs

program does not offer any more than a 100%financing. Thus i do not agree on forcing the ownerto reside in the property.” code: YWH7

As financing was a problem for Ywh as previouslydiscussed (section 4.1), the criterion on financingtenure not exceeding 40 years or until the applicantis 65 years old was not unanimously agreed. Thoseinterviewed explained that with a longer financingterm, the loan amount quantum could be greater.

Those interviewed also explain that additionalguidelines will produce imbalance of policy imple-mentation across the country. one of the respon-dents further explained,

“if state is given jurisdiction and authority to addadditional guidelines… it can be used as a politicaltool”code: YWH7

furthermore, the selection of house units by the bal-loting sequence was disputed. The respondentsshared the same view that some of the ballotingsequence might end up with bad units and there-fore has no choice and is unfair. even though, thisis a fair process, this prevents Ywh to choose thehouse of their choice. housing choice is consideredas one of the problem as discussed by Alexiu et al.(2010) and Kiel and Zabel (2008).

As of september 2012, 431 successfulapplicants and a total of rm65.5 million of hous-ing loans had been given out through mfhs(code: RS1). however, there are problems identi-fied as the weakness of the housing schemes.Among the problems are the schemes has no landbanks to build affordable houses, increasing build-ing cost and lack awareness on financial literacyamong Ywh. one of the respondents (code: RS6)explained that the state should provide land for freeto build affordable houses. it is unfair for privatedevelopers to borne the responsibility to buildaffordable houses while the state only implementand impose regulations on building affordablehouses. conversely, those interviewed made thefollowing comments,

“because land prices are expensive and large landbanks are owned by private developers, we have tooffer developers a joint partnership… […] privatedevelopers should find our proposal a win-win sit-uation”code: RS7

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“with increasing price of building materials it is dif-ficult to build affordable houses because of thesmall profit margin”code: RS6

underpinning the issue of insufficient income, mostof the respondents agreed that Ywh should priori-tise spending on their basic needs such as food,housing, transport, healthcare, childcare and recre-ational (primA 2012). however, one of the causesof homeownership problems is lack of financial lit-eracy. lack of financial literacy led to poor man-agement of household’s income. Those interviewedexplained that the state has to propose a budget fortheir income. They added Ywh should beequipped with enough knowledge when they wantto purchase a house.

nevertheless, those interviewed agreedthat Ywh has the final decision on purchasing ahouse. They explained that Ywh has to arrangetheir priorities with their income because “the statecan only do so much for them but it will eventuallybe their own decision when it comes to housing”(code: RS1). The identified weaknesses of thehousing schemes are useful in improving the pre-sent housing schemes and also future housingschemes.

5 . conc l us ion

The main concern of the homeownership problemsis affordability. The issue of unaffordable houseprices and inadequate income are the challengesamong Ywh to enter homeownership. with theintroduction of housing schemes, the problems thatwere identified are addressed. however, there are anumber of weaknesses of the housing schemes.

These weaknesses such as expensive landprices that the state does not control and lands areprivately owned will make it difficult to provide afford-able houses. The role of state should enhancebeyond regulatory board to develop affordablehouses. Additionally, Ywh also plays a role in thisproblem. The problem of not prioritising their basicneeds has resulted into homeownership problems.The role of housing schemes should also undertakefinancial education before Ywh purchase a house.

in conclusion, housing schemes should alsoconsider financial education as part of their aims. Asthe availability of mortgage finance increasesdemand in housing (bredenoord and verkoren2010), financial literacy has significant effect inaddressing homeownership problems (Alexiu et al.2010). nevertheless, the introduction of housingschemes is beneficial to address homeownershipproblems among Ywh.

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ownership, job duration, and wages, Journal of urbaneconomics, 63:1, 130-145.

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Young households and the housing price cycle, europeaneconomic review, 43:4-6, 755-766.

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cations for housing markets and housing elasticities, paper pre-sented at the european real estate society conference,stockholm.

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able homes in Malaysian cities, sepang, selangor

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Middle-Income Amercians, economic review, 4.

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Melaka, Malaysia, Advances in Applied science research,3:5, 3387-3389.

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the residual income approach, housing policy debate, 17:1,151-184.

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and Spatial Price Variations in the United States, economicgeography, 58:3, 221-235.

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preferences in greater Kuala Lumpur, cities, 29:6, 389-396.

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methods in research: university press of America.

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of Singapore households' upgrading mobility behaviour: from

public homeownership to private homeownership, habitatinternational, 29:3, 511-525.

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ability of working households to become home owners, uK:Joseph rowntree foundation.

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vate housing in Great Britain - summary report. uK.

Author(s):

Zafirah Al sadat Zyed department of estate management, faculty of builtenvironment, university of malaya,50603 Kualalumpur, malaysia.email : [email protected]

wan nor Azriyati wan Abd Aziz department of estate management, faculty of builtenvironment, university of malaya,50603 Kualalumpur, malaysia.

noor rosly hanif department of estate management, faculty of builtenvironment, university of malaya,50603 Kualalumpur, malaysia.

peter Aning Tedongdepartment of estate management, faculty of builtenvironment, university of malaya,50603 Kualalumpur, malaysia.email : [email protected]

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i n t roduc t ion

in the brundtland commission, sustainable devel-opment is described as “development that meetsthe needs of the present without compromising theability of future generations to meet their ownneeds” (wced, 1987). Sustainable developmentcomprises a couple of substantial elements: first,fine-tuning the quality of life. Second, looking at fel-low citizens and future generation needs(Lützkendorf and Lorenz, 2005). the conception ofsustainability in the construction industry has mostlyconcentrated on the restricted resources, primarilyenergy and the minimization of impact on the nat-ural surroundings with the reflection of technicalconcerns; for instance, materials and constructiontechnologies. additionally, the recognition of non-technical concerns (soft issues) has become well-known in terms of social and also economic sus-tainability (abidin, 2009).

in developing countries which are mostly atthe beginning of their way towards sustainabledevelopment, comprehension of non-technical ele-ments such as social, economic and cultural sus-tainability needs to be persuaded and practiceddue to the fact that the contradictions betweenthese elements are the main causes of their envi-ronmental issues (du Plessis, 2002)

although the malaysian developers, as the

policy makers of a developing country, are con-scious about the importance of sustainability and itsimpact on the construction industry, little effort hasbeen made in order to increase the applicability ofsustainability practices. in malaysia, sustainableprojects are at early stages and policy makersshould try to improve sustainable practices andcatch up with the present achievements that havebeen occurring in more advanced countries(abidin, 2009, idris and ismail, 2011).

Promoting sustainability needs a great dealof alteration in mindset, innovation, ingenuity andresearch along with assistance of involved stake-holders (Hamid and kamar, 2012). apart fromtechnologies and tools for supporting sustainability,complete commitment by governmental and publicstakeholders towards sustainability is needed (ismailet al., 2012).

based on abidin’s (2009) survey, majorityof the construction developers in malaysia appreci-ate sustainability concept as the preservation of theenvironment and minority of them have adequateknowledge about social and economic pillars ofsustainability. Sustainable buildings mainly addressenvironmental issues and that not enough attentionis given to social sustainability (Zuo et al., 2012).for example, prospective residents have rarely beeninvolved in the designing of buildings and also for-mulating sustainable measures. moreover, there is

Mahdokht Ebrahimi, Hamzah Abdul Rahman, FaizulAzli Mohd-Rahim, Wang Chen

Abstract

In Malaysia, there are a few numbers of frameworks and checklists in order to evaluate the sustainable performance

of buildings. In addition, most of these assessment frameworks or checklists focus on environmental sustainability dis-

regarding social and economic pillars. The research in social and economic sustainability in the construction industry is

pushing forward, albeit at a slow pace. In addition, the growing number of sustainable criteria in the literature high-

lights the importance of a systematic framework for construction initiatives. This research aims to propose a compre-

hensive framework based on three pillars of sustainability, and, additionally, to categorize them in a manner that is

applicable for all relevant stakeholders based on their level of involvement and needs. Finally, it identifies the relation

between each criterion and stage of the construction lifecycle with the assistance of an expert panel. This research pro-

duces a framework that is useful for Malaysian construction stakeholders to reinforce their approach towards sustain-

ability through social and economic aspects that are currently underestimated in the construction industry.

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability, Social Sustainability, Economic Sustainability, Building Lifecycle, Construction

Industry.

LifecycLe framework for SuStainabLereSidentiaL buiLdingS in maLaySia.

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na lack of transferring knowledge from experts tooccupants in order to utilize the low energy housesmore efficiently (Jensen et al., 2012). in malaysia,the economic aspects of sustainability have alsoreceived less attention compared to the environ-mental aspects of sustainability (abidin, 2009).traditional building design has mainly concentratedon technical feasibility along with the financial via-bility of the capital investment. However, the con-version to sustainable structures and also urbancommunities ought to satisfy the complicationsposed by a variety of further environmental as wellas socio-economic concerns (georgiadou et al.,2012).

green building index (gbi) was developedas a rating system for sustainable buildings inmalaysia. However, this rating system mostly high-lights environmental criteria. to improve the sus-tainability in the construction industry, it is necessaryto develop a comprehensive framework as a guide-line for relevant stakeholders in order to practicesustainability in a way that all three pillars of sus-tainability - environmental, social and economic -will be satisfied (Shen et al., 2007). moreover, abuilding’s effects on the environment, society andeconomy are not limited to a certain stage of its life-cycle such as the construction stage. its impacttends to continue even after the demolition stage.in order to improve sustainable performance, a life-cycle approach is necessary. based on Sev (2009),to be able to achieve a high-performance togetherwith a low environmental impact structure, it isessential to integrate sustainability principles at thecommencement of a project. a design approach isassumed to be logical and acceptable in the eventthat it complies with the performance requirementsin its lifecycle (trinius and Sjöström, 2005). Lifecycleconsiderations represent the broader philosophy ofthinking about solutions over a building’s wholelifecycle and also cover a range of feasible designmethods and assessment methods (georgiadou etal., 2012). the majority of the existing environ-mental performance assessment methods for build-ings have been developed upon diverse principlesand evaluation items. nevertheless, a minority ofthem have pointed out lifetime parameters (mariaand Stella, 2006).

in malaysia, housing had a rise of 3.2% inthe second quarter of 2010 in comparison with theearlier quarter. moreover, the take-up rate of latelylaunched residential buildings increased to 19.5%(January-June 2009: 12.3%). the malaysia mySecond Home (mm2H) programme also resultedin the growth of residential building construction(mgcc, 2012). However, in the current literature,the lack of a comprehensive evaluation system inall three aspects of sustainability for the lifecycle of

residential buildings in malaysia is clear. in addi-tion, there is a lack of methodology to help all theproject participants to work in a consistent andcooperative environment towards the same goal toachieve better project sustainability performance(Zhang et al., 2006). this study aims to improve thesustainable performance of malaysian residentialbuildings in their lifecycle by proposing a compre-hensive framework that includes all the relevantsustainable criteria. the main objectives of thisresearch are: first, to propose a comprehensiveframework based on three pillars of sustainability.this framework can be applied as an evaluationframework or as a guideline for stakeholders.Second, to categorize sustainable criteria in a man-ner that is applicable for all relevant stakeholdersbased on their level of involvement and needs.Some stakeholders just need general criteria, whilesome of them need more detailed criteria based ontheir level of involvement and responsibility, third, toidentify the relation between each criterion andstage of the construction lifecycle in order toincrease the applicability of the proposed criteria.

research methodology

a comprehensive literature review was conductedto identify the sustainability performance indicators.in the next step, this pool of criteria was structuredby the typology method. the indicators were cate-gorized based on their similarities regarding theiraim and nature. the output of this process was ahierarchical structure of indicators. then an expertpanel, which included six members with recognizedresearch and practice in the construction wasformed, of whom three were academicians andthree were practitioners. in the next stage, the hier-archy of sustainable criteria was discussed with thepanel members and its adequacy and consistencyimproved based on their comments. finally, the lastlevel of the hierarchy, the detail level, was mappedon the building lifecycle stages through interviewswith the aforementioned expert panel to identify therelation between each criterion and the stage of theconstruction lifecycle.

re levan t su s tai nab l e c r i t e r ia

this section of the paper outlines sustainable crite-ria in three different categories: environmental,social and economic. each of them is further clas-sified towards more detailed levels by the use of thetypology method. these hierarchical models can beused as guidelines or assessment tools to improvethe sustainability practices in the construction indus-

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try. the proposed hierarchical models are depictedin figures 1 to 3.

3.1. environmental criteria

the proposed environmental criteria framework iscomposed of six major groups (fig.1). each criteri-on is classified into more detailed sub-criteria,which will be discussed in the following paragraphs.

3.1.1. Sustainable Site considerations

the first sub-criterion of sustainable site considera-tions is land sensitivity considerations, which are allabout preventing, wherever possible, the unrecov-erable impacts on the natural environment fromexecuting a project (gbi, 2010, Leed, 2002). thesecond sub-criterion is pollution reduction consid-erations, which relates to using land efficientlyalong with the actions taken to preventing land pol-lution (kim et al., 2005, Leed, 2002). the thirdsub-criterion is developing damaged areas, which

deals with re-establishment of damaged and affect-ed areas to produce habitats and also increase bio-diversity (gbi, 2010, Lützkendorf and Lorenz,2005). the fourth sub-criterion of this category isecosystem preservation, within which possible eco-logical risks as well as positive aspects connectedwith the suggested project should be investigated(igbc green Homes, 2009, kim et al., 2005,Leed, 2002).

3 .1 .2 . wate r e f f i c iency cons idera t ions

the first sub-criterion of this group is the reductionof potable water consumption, which deals withminimizing or even eradicating the utilization ofpotable water for the landscaping and irrigationpurposes, and also the reduction of water con-sumption by maximizing water efficient fittings,water recycling and water metering (igbc greenHomes, 2009, Leed, 2002). the second sub-crite-rion is the reduction of the loss and waste, which isall about trying to minimise the amount of waterloss and waste by implementing treated grey water

Figure 1. Environmental criteria.

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nfor flushing requirements, irrigation, and landscap-ing and also innovative wastewater technologies(gbi, 2010). the third sub-criterion of this catego-ry is implementation of alternative resources, whichfocuses on making available rainwater harvestingsystems in order to trap roof water produced fromthe roof area to take advantage of it in landscapeirrigation or even indoor water utilization (Leed,2002).

3 . 1 .3 . ene rg y and a tmo sphe r econs idera t ions

the first sub-criterion of energy and atmosphereconsiderations is the commissioning of building sys-tems. this concentrates on checking and makingsure that the essential building elements and alsosystems are designed, set up and calibrated tofunction as expected (Leed, 2002). the secondsub-criterion of this group is energy performanceconsiderations, which relates to developing thelowest possible level of energy efficiency for thebase building and systems, and, afterwards, tryingto attain increasing levels of energy performanceabove the required standard to be able to reducethe environmental effects related to significant ener-gy use (igbc green Homes, 2009, Leed, 2002).within the third sub-criterion, the reduction of non-renewable energy, dwindling environmental effectslinked to fossil fuel energy utilization by promotingon-site renewable energy self-supply developmentis supported (gbi, 2010, Shen et al., 2007). thefourth sub-category is ozone protection, withinwhich preventing the use of such type of refrigerantsas well as ozone layer depleting gases that have anunfavourable effect on the environment should betaken into consideration (Leed, 2002).

3 . 1 .4 . ma t e r i a l s and r eso u r ce scons idera t ions

the first sub-criterion is waste management, whichfocuses on the waste decrease programme evalua-tion. in order to escalate the amount of waste recy-cled, materials ought to be accumulated separate-ly as a way to prevent the blending of diverse wastematerials. in addition, reducing on-site waste by uti-lizing off-site fabrication is crucial (gbi, 2010,igbc green Homes, 2009). the next sub-criterionis resource depletion considerations. the mainconcern in this category is reusing building materi-als and also products as a way to restrict the call forvirgin materials (ding, 2005, Leed, 2002). thethird sub-criterion is properties of materials in whichthe attributes of the materials, such as degree ofprocessing required, maintainability, resistance topotential damage or decay, technical performance

of material and so forth should be considered(Pearce et al., 1995). the fourth sub-criterion isimplementation of regional materials, which focus-es on increasing the desire for building materials aswell as products that are extracted and manufac-tured within the region. by doing so, it contributesto the regional economy and reduces the harmfulenvironmental effects derived from transportation(igbc green Homes, 2009, Leed, 2002).

3 .1.5. indoor env i ronmenta l Qua l i t y

thermal comfort is the first sub-criterion of this cat-egory. thermal comfort standards need to beestablished and utilized in order to assist construc-tion designers to provide an indoor climate in whichbuilding occupants feel thermally comfortable(Leed, 2002, nicol and Humphreys, 2002). theconsideration of thermal comfort principles indesign leads to energy saving. the second sub-cri-terion is indoor air quality, within which effectiveventilation, construction iaQ management plan,environmental tobacco Smoke (etS) control, mon-itoring and reduction of co2 emissions and otherpollutants, indoor chemical and pollutant sourcecontrol, controllability of systems (thermal, ventila-tion and lighting systems) by occupants, and day-light and views should all be in place to ensure highquality indoor air for occupants (gbi, 2010, Lai etal., 2009). the third sub-criterion is visual comfort,which focuses on optimizing and balancing bothvisual comfort and low energy consumption(ochoa et al., 2012). aural comfort is the fourthsub-criterion of indoor environmental quality.making sure that the building walls as well as thefloor systems are designed with sufficient soundabsorption attributes to sustain suitable acousticquality for occupants and neighbours is the mainconcern of this sub-criterion (gbi, 2010, kim et al.,2005, Lai et al., 2009).

3 .1.6. innova t ion and des ign p rocesscons idera t ions

the first sub-criterion is innovation in design, whichoffers design teams as well as project participantsthe chance to be awarded for outstanding perfor-mance above the requirements (Leed, 2002).georgiadou (2012) claims “eco-innovation doesnot necessarily mean expensive solutions, butrather ones that are technically robust, sociallyresponsible and financially viable”. the secondsub-criterion is environmental design, which will besatisfied if knowledgeable designers regardingenvironmental design are selected. the otherimportant criteria that are helpful to reach highquality environmental design are as follows: lifecy-

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cle design, environmentally conscious design, mod-ular and standardized designs (Shen et al., 2007).

3 .2. Soc i a l c r i t e r ia

in this section, relevant social sustainability criteriafrom the literature review were found and classifiedinto six major sub-criteria (fig.2). they will be dis-cussed in the following paragraphs.

3 .2.1. S i te and equ ipmentcons i dera t ions

the first sub-criterion is quality of infrastructure,which includes access to public transportation,quality of leisure and recreation infrastructure,improvement of infrastructure, and finally infrastruc-ture burden, which means “demand for water,road, energy, services and space for implementingthe project” (moro, 2011, Shen et al., 2007). thesecond sub-criterion is the security of the site.Protection of entry points, monitoring devices, andnatural access control can be extremely helpful inorder to provide security for residents, which leadsto their well-being (buys et al., 2005, maria andStella, 2006, moro, 2011). the third sub-criterionis quality of facilities, which is defined as “Provisionof community amenities for the harmonization ofnew settlements and local communities” (Shen et

al., 2007). the fourth sub-criterion is barrier-freebuilt environment considerations. the main con-cern in this category relates to considerations overaccess for physically handicapped persons andprotection against slipping and stumbling (mariaand Stella, 2006, moro, 2011). the final sub-cri-terion is land use considerations. the main focus isthe land choice for the project site in a way that pre-serves cropland and also natural resources. theprovision of property upon the end of projectdemolition to allow developing new projects inaccordance with the requirements of local commu-nity is another concern of this sub-criterion (Shen etal., 2005, Shen et al., 2007).

3 .2 .2 . Hea l th and comfor t consi dera-t ions

the first sub-criterion is thermal quality. in order toassess thermal comfort, several items, such asoperative temperature, asymmetry of radiation tem-perature and flooring temperature, humidity andvertical thermal gradient should be considered(dgnb, 2009, moro, 2011). the second sub-cri-terion is visual comfort. Visual ease and comfortcan be attained by well-balanced illumination with-out remarkable interference, such as direct andalso reflected glare, an adequate lighting level aswell as the possibility to alter illumination personal-

Figure 2. Social criteria.

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nly to the specific requirements (dgnb, 2009). thethird sub-criterion is acoustic comfort. the purposeof acoustic comfort is to attain a low level distur-bance and also background noise to preventaffecting the use, health as well as the ability of theoccupants (dgnb, 2009, mötzl and fellner,2011). the fourth sub-criterion is indoor air quali-ty, which is all about the prevention of an increasein large particulate concentrations within a home,such as indoor tobacco smoking and operation ofgas stoves for cooking, Voc pollutants and soforth (Lee et al., 2002, Sahely et al., 2005, ŠijanecZavrl et al., 2009). the fifth sub-criterion of healthand comfort considerations is daylight and expo-sure to sunlight. the appropriate day lighting of abuilding will definitely improve productivity andreduce sick time. daylight offers huge psychologi-cal advantages to the building users, which couldbe a primary purpose of daylighting instead of thesimple cutback of electrical lighting demands(maria and Stella, 2006, moro, 2011, robertson,2005). the sixth and final sub-criterion of thisgroup is indoor hygiene in order to eliminate theadverse effects on the user’s health condition.indoor hygiene also includes several sub-criteria,such as refuse disposal, water supply, pest controland cleaning (dgnb, 2009).

3.2 .3 . Job oppor tun i t ie s

the first sub-criterion of job opportunities is directemployment, the main object of which is thearrangements for the working possibilities of thelocal labour market for performing the project(Shen et al., 2007). the second sub-criterion of jobopportunities is indirect employment, which isdefined by Shen et al. (2007) as “employment gen-erated by the up-and-down stream industries andservices to construction”.

3.2 .4 . Sa fe t y is sues

the first sub-criterion is design considerationstowards safety, which entails architectural features(height and disposition, means of escape, meansof access and amenities), building services (fire ser-vice installations, electrical installations and fuelsupply), and, finally, external environment (proximi-ty to special hazards and proximity to fire station)(Ho et al., 2008). the second sub-criterion is man-agement considerations towards safety, whichincludes operations and maintenance issues (struc-tural condition, building services condition, exitroutes condition and fire compartmentation) andmanagement approaches (owners’ duties, docu-mentation, emergency preparedness, and, finally,financial arrangement) (Ho et al., 2008).

3 .2.5. S takeho lder s’ re l a t i onsh ip

the first sub-criterion of stakeholders’ relationshipis communication to the public. this criterionemphasises increasing public awareness towardsproject construction as well as project demolitionand their possible effects on the public (Shen et al.,2007). the second sub-criterion is public participa-tion. communicate specialists’ expertise to the pub-lic to generate more intelligent decisions on com-plicated challenges regarding risks to well-being,health, as well as the environment (kasemir, 2003,Sahely et al., 2005).

3 .2.6. arch i tec tura l i s sues

the first sub-criterion is architectural heritage con-siderations - focuses on the prevention of theimpact of project development on any kind of cul-tural heritage (ding, 2005, Shen et al., 2007). thesecond sub-criterion is architectural functionalityand flexibility considerations (Šijanec Zavrl et al.,2009). buildings should provide proper functional-ity to their residents and have the potential to bealtered based on the residents’ needs.

economic c r i t e r ia

in this part, proper economic sustainable criteriahave been classified into four major sub-criteria(fig.3). they will be discussed in the following para-graphs.

3 .3.1. e xpend i ture

the first sub-criterion of the expenditure criteria iscapital costs. capital costs are the expenses to theconstruction client. capital costs include the con-struction costs along with associated legal anddesign fees. in addition, property acquiring andalso site preparation expenditure, Vat (Valueadded tax), as well as financing costs should beconsidered as capital costs (mohamed et al.,2002). the second sub-criterion is lifecycle costs,which are costs to the owners and building usersafter the completion of the building. Lifecycle costsinclude maintenance or facilities managementcosts along with operational costs and the replace-ment and disposal costs (mohamed et al., 2002,Quigley et al., 2007). the third sub-criterion isenvironmental costs. environmental costs are thosecosts which are imposed on the community in theform of pollution, concrete production or otherharmful materials that are the consequence of con-struction (Quigley et al., 2007). in a sustainableapproach, all three types of cost should receiveappropriate attention.

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3 .3.2. revenue

the first sub-criterion of revenue is value stability. abuilding intended for sustainability should be ableto be effortlessly modified to altering needs. anexcellent level of flexibility and adaptability of build-ings under the aim of sustainability occurs in theevent that the changes could be achieved with afew resources (dgnb, 2009). the second sub-cri-terion is lifecycle profit. Profit assessment should notbe emphasized on stage or even sectional earningsand profits, but should include total revenue andprofit from operating a building project across itswhole lifecycle (Shen et al., 2007). the final sub-criterion is distribution of project income, which isdefined by Shen et al. (2007) as “reinvestment, div-idends, and paybacks”.

3 . 3 . 3 . i n v e s tmen t i n i nnova t i o n ,research and deve lopment

the first sub-criterion is expenditure on researchand development (Sahely et al., 2005). this criteri-on indicates the amount of investment allocated tor&d activities towards sustainability. the next crite-

rion is reserved funds (Sahely et al., 2005). the sus-tainable construction companies need to make sureof accessible reserve funds in order to be able tosurvive for the purpose of sustainable development.

3 .3 .4 . improvement o f loca l economicenv i ronment

the first sub-criterion is local material choice (Shenet al., 2005, Shen et al., 2007). choosing the localmaterial for construction projects, as much as pos-sible, is the main concern of this sub-criterion. thesecond sub-criterion is utilization of the local infra-structure. a project needs to assist the local econo-my by taking advantage of the infrastructure inorder to produce economic profits (Shen et al.,2005, Shen et al., 2007). the third sub-criterion isthe improvement of local labour market. this crite-rion highlights the importance of recruiting locallabourers in different stages of the building lifecycle.according to Pulselli et al. (2006) the local author-ity ought to look for the involvement of citizens,local institutions and also private companies to beable to put into action the notion of the conferenceof rio “thinking globally , acting locally” (Pulselli et

Figure 3. Economic criteria.

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nal., 2006). the fourth sub-criterion is improvementof local business. in this item, consideration shouldbe given to business opportunities for local suppli-ers, contractors and consultants. this trend willimprove the economic development locally.

4. L i fecyc le c r i t e r ia

considering a building in its lifecycle is a key pointin order to promote its sustainable performance(trinius and Sjöström, 2005). in this section, theproposed sub-criteria are classified under fivestages of a building’s lifecycle. the lifecycle stagesare adopted from Shen et al. (2007) because thisclassification is very precise and each criterion canbe simply put under at least one special category.the construction lifecycle stages are inceptionstage, design stage, construction stage, operationstage, and, finally demolition stage. the main con-cern in the inception stage of a construction projectis feasibility studies over implementing projects. inthis stage, the project clients decide whether theyshould proceed forward or not. the feasibility studyis a primary factor before starting project designand then construction. the efficacy of the feasibilityanalysis will certainly influence the success of theproject (Shen et al., 2010).

the design stage has a considerableimpact on sustainability performance. this stageprovides the opportunity to take into considerationthe sustainability principles in choosing the designlayout, suitable materials and the building structure.the next stage is the construction stage. actionsthroughout the construction period have substantialenvironmental effects, such as waste generationand also pollution. in addition, excellent operationof the construction product has a considerableimpact on the sustainability performance of theproject. for instance, the sustainable performanceof buildings flourishes remarkably by enhancing theoperational efficacy, improving the services,enhancing the social as well as economic merits,and also reducing the eco-environmental effects.moreover, the demolition stage has a substantialeffect on the sustainable performance of buildings.more appropriate management for reducing wasteand pollution generation and also decreasingdamaging effects on the environment and societyleads to more efficient sustainable performance ofbuildings. by classifying each sub-criterion in abuilding’s lifecycle, the relevant stakeholdersbecome better acquainted with their responsibilitytowards improving sustainable performance asdepicted in table1 to table 3.

Table 1. Environmental criteria in building lifecycle.

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based on expert panel opinion, three envi-ronmental criteria, Land sensitivity considerations,pollution reduction considerations and ecosystempreservation, should be considered in all stages ofbuilding lifecycle. they asserted that land sensitivityconsiderations should be taken into account in theinception stage. the feasibility of the execution ofproject without unrecoverable effects on naturalenvironment, green fields and the habitats are theitems which should be analyzed. in addition, designlayout, construction and demolition ways shouldalso preserve natural environment and ecosystem.in the operation stage, dumping, maintenance andany kind of operational activities should not haveany adverse effects on the natural environment.

Possible air, water and noise pollutionalong with waste generation from the suggestedproject and its effect on the local climate needs tobe examined in the inception stage (Shen et al.,2007). in design stage, designers should considerpassive measures in order to offer heating, cooling,

ventilation and lighting. in addition, the applicationof materials which are durable, non-toxics, andneed low maintenance leads to less pollution gen-eration (kibert, 1994). in the construction anddemolition stage, the land should be used effec-tively and the appropriate actions should be takenin order to avoid land pollution (Shen et al., 2007).

ecosystem preservation criterion should bealso taken into the consideration in whole lifecycleof buildings. the location of site and its impact onthe ecosystems, the design and construction provi-sions in order to prevent any negative impact onecosystems, “negative impacts from project opera-tions to flora, fauna, and ecosystems” (Shen et al.,2007) and finally in the demolition stage the pre-vention of adversarial effects of demolition on localecosystems.

according to the expert panel opinion, thequality of infrastructure should be scrutinized in theinception stage and design stage. the site locationnear the recreation infrastructure, transportation

Table 2. Social criteria in building lifecycle.

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ninfrastructure and so forth can fulfil the occupants’well-being. in the design stage, architects anddesigners should consider the most appropriateaccess to infrastructures.

expert panel highlights the importance ofproviding security of the site in the design, con-struction, operation and demolition stages.designers should take appropriate measures inorder to fulfil security of occupants; for example,the natural access control is an important measurewhich should be considered. the security of neigh-bouring properties is essential both in the construc-tion and demolition stages. in addition, in these twostages, the provision of security is crucial for pre-serving site equipments. in the operation stage,maintenance of security devices, fences and pro-tection of entry points provide security for residents.

the consideration of quality of facilities isessential in the inception, design and operationstages. in the inception stage, the site access tonearby activities, schools, shopping centers and soforth should be analyzed in order to assure theappropriate location of site. in the design stage,designers should provide sport facilities, healthclubs, green spaces and the other amenities for wellbeing of occupants. in the operation stage, themaintenance and development of facilities are cru-cial.

the barrier-free built environment shouldbe considered in the design and operation stages.architects should provide easy access for handi-capped people. in the operation stage, the mea-sures should be taken into place in order to preventslipping. the panel also make it clear that land useconsiderations, as a social criterion, have to behighlighted in the inception stage. the choice ofproject site should preserve croplands and also nat-ural resources for both present and future genera-tions.

the four criteria; thermal comfort, visualcomfort, acoustic comfort and indoor qualityshould receive attention in the design and opera-tion stages. in the design stage, designers andarchitects should offer a design, within which theappropriate level of temperature, humidity, well-balanced illumination, low level disturbance andbackground noise and prevention of an increase inlarge particulate concentration are highlighted. inthe operation stage, the aforementioned criteriashould regularly be assessed. in addition, daylightand exposure to sunlight should be considered inthe design stage by offering a building layout whichprovides appropriate day lighting.

indoor hygiene can be improved in twostages; design stage and operation stage.designers should consider appropriate measuresfor pest control, refuse disposal systems and so

forth. in the operation stage, the cleanness ofspaces is very important.direct employment criterion has to be consideredfrom the design stage to the end of the constructionlife cycle. in the design stage, local architects andengineers should receive privileges. in the con-struction, operation and demolition stages, thelocal labours and contractors should be given apreference.

majority of experts claimed that designconsiderations towards safety and managementconsiderations towards safety are among the mostimportant social criteria in order to improve thesocial sustainability in malaysian constructionindustry. their claim is in accordance with the otherstudies in developing countries such as a studywhich was conducted in South africa (ugwu andHaupt, 2007). design considerations towards safe-ty should be regarded in the inception stage anddesign stage. in the conception stage, externalenvironment of the project should be scrutinized tomake sure that the site is not adjacent to specialhazards. in the design stage, architectural featuresfor improvement of safety should be considered.management considerations towards safety areimportant in the construction, operation and demo-lition stages.

expert panel claimed that communicationto the public is important in the inception, con-struction and demolition stages. they asserted thatpublic should be aware of the impacts of a build-ing construction and demolition and they shouldhave the opportunity to express their objections andtheir reasons for executing the project. Public par-ticipation criterion can be fulfilled in the design andoperation stages. Public can produce positivedesign solutions based on their requirements. inaddition, they can play important role in the oper-ation stage of a building to improve the sustain-ability of a building by their actions, which are incompliance with the sustainability requirements.for instance, a 118-storey building named thewarisan merdeka (independence Heritage), whichworth’s uSd 1.62 billion has been the subject ofcontroversy. this project includes a mall, residentialunits, office spaces, retail units, conference roomsand parking spaces. “owners of properties next tothe proposed 118-storey warisan merdeka projectare concerned about the likely impact of the projecton their properties, many of which are heritagesites” the sun daily (a local newspaper) reports(Joon, 2013). many people have been sent in theirobjections against the initiation of the project andclaim that planning application for warisanmerdeka would change the status of the project site- wherein a couple of historical locations areplaced as land for commercial use . the govern-

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ment asserts warisan merdeka will increase theawareness of merdeka Stadium and Stadiumnegara instead of destroy the heritage value ofboth of these landmarks (nan, 2013). if the com-munication to the public criterion received appro-priate attention in the inception stage, this issuewould not happen in the construction stage.

architectural heritage considerations crite-rion should be regarded in the conception, designand demolition stages. in the conception stage, thisquestion should be asked that whether the projecthas any negative impacts on the architectural her-itage, which is near the project. if so, the projectshould not proceed. in some cases, that the termi-nation of the project is impossible, the architectsand designers should take a design approach,which protects the architectural heritage. in thedemolition stage, all measures should be in placein order to protect the architectural heritage. theaforementioned example shows that social criteriamust be included in decision making processesregarding the initiation of construction projects.

the last social criterion, architectural func-tionality and flexibility considerations, should beconsidered by architects and designers in thedesign stage.

next criterion, construction costs (capital,lifecycle and environmental costs), should be esti-mated in the inception stage in order to investigatethe project feasibility and funding requirements.capital costs should be assessed in the designstage. in this stage, capital costs are in the form ofdesign fees. it also should be included in the con-struction and demolition stages in the form of con-struction and demolition costs and associated legalfees. the lifecycle costs are incurred in the opera-tion stage. Lifecycle costs include maintenance orfacilities management costs. expert panel asserted

that environmental costs criterion should be consid-ered in all stages of a sustainable building. it is dueto the fact that environmental costs can occur ineach stage of the lifecycle of a building in the formof pollution and damage to the environment.

Value stability criterion should be consid-ered in two stages; conception and design stages.the project committee should consider the alter-ation possibility for building usage. in the designstage, designers should regard design considera-tions to enhance adaptability and flexibility of thebuildings by tenants or users.

to improve productivity and competitive-ness for the sustainable construction industry,research and development is essential. r&d sup-ports the development of novel knowledge and ini-tiatives, suggests more suitable materials, lessexpensive design and construction techniques, andlabor-saving equipment (wong, 2010). most of theexperts declared that one of the most significanteconomic criteria in order to promote sustainabilityin malaysia is expenditure on the research anddevelopment criterion.

Local material choice can improve thelocal economic environment and designers shouldtry to propose local material for buildings as muchas possible. the experts asserted that utilization oflocal infrastructure should be considered in theinception, construction and demolition stages. inthe conception stage, the availability of infrastruc-tures to the project site should be analysed. in theconstruction and demolition stages, utilization oflocal infrastructure can assist the improvement oflocal economic environment. in addition, byrecruiting local labours in the design, construction,operation and demolition stages, the economicenvironment will be improved locally. in the con-ception stage, it should be asked whether the exe-

Table 3. Economic criteria in building lifecycle.

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ncution of the project has any positive effects on theimprovement of local business, if so, the projectcan proceed.

5. conc l us ion

in most of the previous research, environmental cri-teria have received more attention than the othercriteria, especially, in malaysia. Very few social andeconomic criteria are found in the relevant sustain-able assessment tools and guidelines. althoughthere are different checklists, guidelines and assess-ment tools for sustainable criteria, none of themclassify these criteria in detail. in this research, themost appropriate environmental, social and eco-nomic sustainable criteria were selected and classi-fied in a manner that is applicable for all relevantstakeholders. these criteria have been classified inthree levels, which is useful for the relevant partiesaccording to their level of involvement and respon-sibility. the question is whether all the outlined cri-teria in a sustainable trend can receive equal con-siderations in order to optimize sustainabilityachievement or not. the answer is straightforward:considering all the sustainability criteria is not onlyimpossible but also impractical. the best way forimplementing sustainability principles and criteriacan be achieved through the agreement of theinvolved parties and affected stakeholders. theyshould make decisions concerning the importanceof the sustainability principles.

with the assistance of the expert panel, therelevant stage or stages of each criterion in the res-idential building lifecycle have been identified. thistrend can facilitate the application of the sustain-able criteria for construction practitioners. forinstance, as mentioned earlier, one of the impedi-ments to achieving sustainability is related to thelack of occupants’ involvement in the designing ofbuildings and also formulating sustainable mea-sures. experts can use table 2 in order to determinethe stages of a building’s lifecycle in which the pub-lic participation has the most effect on the sustain-ability improvement. further research to prioritizethe proposed criteria can make a meaningful con-tribution to the construction industry due to thefacilitation of decision making towards allocatingappropriate resources, budget, time and otherknowledge areas of construction projects.

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acknowledgemen tSome part of this work was supported by the grant,function of Life cycle costing in enhancing value of pro-jects, rg133/11SuS.

au thor ( s ) :

mahdokht ebrahimi ,faculty of built environment university of malaya, 50603 kuala Lumpur

Hamzah abdul -rahman,faculty of built environment university of malaya, 50603 kuala Lumpur

fa i zul a z l i mohd rah im, faculty of built environment university of malaya, 50603 kuala Lumpur

chen wang-brogl i e, faculty of built environment university of malaya, 50603 kuala Lumpur

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“Politics is the ability to foretell what is going to hap-pen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year.And to have the ability afterwards to explain why itdidn’t happen” (petrie, 2012). this quotation fromthe well-known english statesman Sir Winstonleonard Spencer Churchill (1874-1965) is a salientexplanation of the nature of politics. the politics ofgentrification has remained unchanged fordecades. that is, urban land authorities continue toresemble the leading actors in a play and residentsof the gentrified urban areas continue to resemblethe supporting actors in a play. However, severalexceptions to urban gentrification exist, in whichlocal residents have participated as leading stake-holders. Gentrification can substantially contributeto the resolution of numerous social or economicurban problems. However, the politics of gentrifica-tion may disregard the rights and the daily socio-economic realities of residents.

this study describes the gentrificationprocess in two urban settings: the neighborhoods ofCihangir and tarlabasi in istanbul. Although theprimary focus is Cihangir, the gentrification dynam-

ics of tarlabasi over the last decade, which differfrom the gentrification dynamics of Cihangir, arealso examined. Although tarlabasi possesses ageographic, social and economic history thatresembles the history of Cihangir, it has undergonea completely different gentrification process.

the spontaneous gentrification process inCihangir at the local level is compared with theplanned process of tarlabasi. previous studies andgentrification theories about other urban areas,which relate to this discussion, are reviewed.

Cihangir is located in the city center andclosely linked with the downtown area of taksimand the Bosphorus seaside area of istanbul (figure1); it possesses a population of approximately5000 inhabitants. Cihangir is located in close prox-imity to tarlabasi (figure 1). the pera (Beyoglu) dis-trict serves as a bridge that reflects characteristicscommon to both neighborhoods. Although theneighborhoods are currently characterized by dif-ferent demographic and cultural structures, bothwere historically designed by european and Greekarchitects in the late ottoman era, when the con-struction activity and population expanded duringthe second half of the 19th century in tarlabasi and

Mehmet Emin Şalgamcıoğlu, Alper Ünlü

AbstractThis study compared the gentrification processes in Cihangir and Tarlabasi. The dynamics of the gentrification processin Cihangir is compared with the vastly different gentrification process in Tarlabasi. Interpretations of gentrification arealso included in this paper.

The study analyzed the dynamics of the gentrification process in Cihangir, Istanbul (Turkey) to determine the extentof change during the process. Characterization of the Cihangir neighborhood, which distinguishes Cihangir from othergentrified urban areas, is another aspect of this study. The transformation of Cihangir is currently underway; it involvesthe revolution and renovation of land and buildings, which is known as gentrification. The gentrification process inCihangir is affected by socio-economic and socio-cultural transformations. This paper examines gentrification in theCihangir neighborhood, which has occurred spontaneously and supports the perpetuation of social diversity, whichoccurs in many urban areas. Although Istanbul’s Tarlabasi region exhibits geophysical characteristics that resemble thegeophysical characteristics of Cihangir, Tarlabasi is affected by a completely different gentrification process, which isknown as planned gentrification.

In the context of this study, scholars question whether gentrification is “erasing the social geography of urban landand unique architectural pattern,” or if gentrification represents “the upgrading and renaissance of the urban land.”(Smith, 1996)

Keywords: Gentrification, Urban Transformation, Urban Development, Rent Gap, Socioeconomic Upgrading.

A CompArAtive Study of plAnned AndSpontAneouS GentrifiCAtion proCeSSeS

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during the second half of the 18th century inCihangir. the european population increasedrapidly in the pera and Beyoglu districts, includingCihangir and tarlabasi, from the 1850s to the endof World War i, due to the increasing number of

embassies and the commercial activities in thesedistricts. the increasing influx of non-ottomaneuropean minorities in istanbul stimulated con-struction activity and increased real estate prices inthe area and the nearby pera district. this influx

Figure 1. Location of the Cihangir and Tarlabasi neighborhoods in Istanbul.

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decreased due to the effect of the political structurein the 1930s after the foundation of the republicof turkey in 1923. minorities, including Greeks, leftistanbul after the riots on September 6–7, 1955.

these circumstances were caused by theslow economic growth and the nationalist politics ofturkey’s ruling party. in Cihangir, this breakdowncontinued until the 1980s and 1990s and contin-ues today in tarlabasi. the Cihangir and tarlabasineighborhoods have historically experienced fre-quent episodes of progress and decline, which iscrucial to the gentrification process. A study ofCihangir and tarlabasi demands an extensive per-spective and understanding of social, cultural, andhistorical issues. Cihangir reflects the east-west dia-log in istanbul during the period of stability betweenthe ottoman empire and europe, which remains agateway to the east. the loss of this unique mixtureof cultures requires remediation. the gentrificationof these areas will benefit not only the historical andcultural continuity of istanbul but also the historicaland cultural continuity of europe.

this paper also addresses the following pri-mary discussion: “How does gentrification occurwith respect to the similarities and differences in thedynamics of the two urban neighborhoods ofCihangir and tarlabasi?” it also examines “primarytheories, previous research and a discussion ofgentrification that applies to this study”.

Gentrification theories, two gentrifiedneighborhoods, various global gentrification strate-gies, and the Cihangir case study are discussed inthis paper. the Cihangir case study encompassesthe Cihangir development process and the resultsof a survey of Cihangir residents. the conclusionscomprise a comparison of the final interpretationsof this study with existing gentrification theories.

2 Gent r i f i c at i on theor ies

Gentrification, i.e., the transformation, revolution,and renovation of urban areas, can be consideredfrom different perspectives. the definition of “gen-trify” is to restore and improve a house or an areato make it suitable for middle-class residents(Cowie, 1989). the term originates in urban trans-formations of the middle class in england.Gentrification is the migration of middle-class resi-dents into a run-down or recently renewed area ofa city (Anon, 1989; ley, 1996). this study examinesgentrification from a basic understanding of theo-ries such as the “filtering theory”, the “rent gap the-ory”, and the “logic of urban development” (Smith,1996).

the “filtering theory” proposes that realestate prices and the physical conditions of inhabit-

ed buildings will decrease over time (Smith, 1996).When a neighborhood deteriorates, property val-ues decrease and individuals from a lower socio-economic class begin to settle in the area andreplace the deep-rooted families who have depart-ed; the neighborhood’s structure is gradually trans-formed. Although this process is frequently regard-ed as inevitable in urban areas, the filtering theoryunderscores that this process can also involve thesubsequent development, regeneration, and revi-talization of these areas and a correspondingincrease in property values (dent, 1989). that is,the filtering theory considers individuals from high-er socio-economic classes who move downwardrather than upward by renovating and restoring oldand run-down properties (dent, 1989).

the rent gap theory (Smith, 1996) exam-ines gentrification from an economic perspectivethat addresses the gap between past or current rentfor a property and the potential future rent if theproperty were to be improved. As the gap betweenprevious and current real estate or rent pricesexpands, urban transformation increases and gen-trification begins as individuals from higher socio-economic classes relocate to the area and makeimprovements. this upward transformation beginsas land attains low physical and economic valuesand attracts affluent individuals who value theland’s history or location or perceive a potentialfinancial profit. if the reduction in the costs of hous-ing and land in an urban environment is significant,research on the dynamics of gentrification canbegin because the gentrification process is immi-nent.

Gentrification is a long-term process thatinvolves potential obstacles and setbacks. “thelogic of urban land development” (Smith, 1987;1996) indicates that gentrification moves graduallyfrom the outskirts of an area to the center of anarea and from higher-valued urban areas to lower-valued urban areas. thus, differentiating the geo-graphical areas of a city from an economic per-spective may be an approach for predicting pathsfor urban improvements (Smith, 1979, 1996;Hamnett, 1984, 2000, 2003).

Hamnett (1984) stated that “gentrificationis a physical, economic, social and cultural phe-nomenon, commonly involves the invasion by mid-dle-class or higher-income groups of previouslyworking-class neighborhoods or multi-occupiedtwilight areas and the replacement or displacementof many of the original occupants.” ley (1986;1992; 1996), filion (1991), van Kempen and vanWeesep (1994) and Bondi (1999) suggested“modifications in the socio-cultural structure andresidential policies” as significant factors that maylead to the process of gentrification. ergun (2004)

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structure mean displacement of the original occu-pants that are low-income workers, immigrants andthose generally marginalized of a rehabilitated set-tlement. members of the middle-class, working inthe city center, want to live in the inner city in orderto be closer to their offices and socio-cultural activ-ities and also want to be closer to those similar tothemselves”. establishing and maintaining alifestyle at a certain standard are important factors.

lees, Slater and Wyly (lees et al, 2008,2010) performed current research on gentrifica-tion. “Gentrification” (lees et al, 2008) and “TheGentrification Reader” (lees et al, 2010) presentcomprehensive accounts that include a range ofissues from gentrification theories to state-led poli-cies and community resistance to state-led policies.“the gentrification of urban areas has acceleratedacross the globe to become a central force inurban development” (lees et al., 2008).“Gentrification” (lees et al., 2008) is also the firstextensive interdisciplinary study on gentrificationand is particularly interesting for researchers ofhousing and urban studies. “it demonstrates howgentrification has grown from a small scale urbanprocess, pioneered by a liberal new middle class, tobecome a mass-produced gentrification blueprintaround the world” (lees et al., 2008). various typesof gentrification from their initial development totheir current implementation (Hill, 1994, dorling,1995 and lees, 1996) have been scrutinized incertain studies. thompson’s “Gentrification and the

enterprise Culture: Britain, 1780-1980”(thompson, 2001) discusses the history of gentrifi-cation through entrepreneurship and developingmiddle-class relations. the role of developers andinvestors in the “politics of gentrification” can beaddressed using the theory of thompson (2001),which is crucial for understanding the comparisonpresented in this paper. the speculative dynamicsof gentrification, which are linked with rent gap andfiltering theories that are also influenced by free-market dynamics, should also be considered.

Current articles that address the nature of“new-build gentrification” with direct and indirectdisplacement discuss the current debate on gentri-fication and analyze patterns of gentrificationthrough physical and socio-economic dimensions(davidson and lees, 2010) (Haase et al, 2010)(inzulza-Contardo, 2012).

3 Gent r i f ied ne ighborhoods : C ihang i rand tar labas i .

A Spontaneous Gent r i f i ca t ion p rocess :C ihang i r

the name Cihangir can be traced to 1561, espe-cially during the westernization period from the18th century to the 19th century, when immigrantsof various nations and religions moved to theBeyoglu district, including Cihangir. At the end ofthe 19th century, italian and Greek architects con-structed art nouveau buildings in pera and Cihangir(figure 2). Stone and brick houses that were con-structed at the end of the 19th century and thebeginning of the 20th century increased the area’shousing density and population, which was primar-ily occupied by non-muslims. Cihangir is locatedon a hill that slopes south to Bosphorus (figure 3)on the european side of istanbul. in the 1920s,Cihangir began to be affected by the cultural, art,and entertainment facilities located in its north andwest regions. the southern part of the neighbor-hood features an impressive Bosphorus panorama;the area’s uneven topography has prevented elab-orate construction (Anon, 1993; Anon, 2003).

the recession in istanbul in the 1930s and1940s and immigration from the Anatolian sectionof turkey beginning in the 1950s negatively affect-ed the social and physical circumstances ofCihangir’s. due to a wealth tax law, which wasimposed on non-muslims in 1943, and the eventsof September 6–7, 1955, many non-muslims wereforced to sell or rent their properties for low pricesand leave the country. Cihangir’s relationship withthe upper-middle classes and intellectuals becameimportant in the late 1960s and early 1970s,

Figure 2. A view of Siraselviler Street.

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whereas Cihangir’s physical and social conditionsdeteriorated until the early 1990s.

Since the late 1990s, Cihangir has experi-enced a “liberalized gentrification” that did notresult from government policy but was affected bythe influx of economic investments. the discussionin this section concerns whether gentrification eras-es the social geography of urban environments anddistorts their unique architectural patterns or consti-tutes an extreme upgrading. regional fluctuationsin real estate prices due to political change inturkey and changes in the economic conditions ofthe residents have affected the physical and socialconditions in Cihangir. Since the 1980s, inhabitantshave improved the physical appearance ofCihangir. However, over the past decade, thechange has been particularly substantial. despitethe sharp downturns in istanbul’s real estate marketduring the past two decades, residents have contin-ued to rehabilitate the neighborhood. A substantialamount of literature is availaable on the gentrifica-tion of Cihangir, such as uzun’s research (2000).Cihangir is unique with respect to the gentrifieddowntown urban areas throughout the world. thegentrification of Cihangir is one of the few sponta-neous processes that is led by locally accommodat-ing stakeholders in a downtown location. local orglobal policy makers did not force the gentrificationof Cihangir. no attempt was made by any authori-ty to effect change or relocate the residents of theneighborhood. it comprises a freely developing

process that occurred over thirty years ago begin-ning in the 1980s, after Cihangir experienced asocio-economic trough.

the dynamics of Cihangir’s gentrificationoriginate in the neighborhood’s self-sustaining andself-developing urban life cycles, which are relatedto the daily activities and behaviors of the neigh-borhood’s residents. trade and cultural and enter-tainment activities, which are key factors in theimprovement of the socio-economic conditions ofthe area and life cycles, are supported by local res-idents and nongovernmental organizations; theyare the outcome of local dynamics. residents suchas intellectuals and academics are the “gentrifiers”,including the new middle class and non-muslimminorities.

the heterogeneous social characteristics ofCihangir, which date to the early history of istanbul,currently exist and continue to demonstrate thepotential for urban transformation and revitaliza-tion.

A brief discussion on other strategies andprocesses of gentrification in turkey and throughoutthe world is proposed to grasp the uniqueness ofCihangir. ley (1992; 1996) discussed socialchange in six Canadian inner-cities; filion (1991)described social change in toronto; Blomley(2004) addressed the interrelation of city, politicsand property; van Kempen and van Weesep(1994) discussed social change in utrecht; ergunaddressed social change in Balat in istanbul (2004)

Figure 3. GA view of the Bosphorus from Cihangir.

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(2004). they all suggested “modifications in thesocio-cultural structure and residential policies”,which differ from the gentrification process inCihangir. Cihangir is unique due to its process with-in the core of istanbul, which sustained its socio-cultural structure through support by nGos andlocal residents without government influence. thedefined “unique” position of Cihangir, which pre-dominantly derives from the combination of twoimportant parameters, the “liberalized process”and the “location of the neighborhood in the coreof the city”, is striking. other gentrification process-es that are not directly influenced by the govern-ment policy, such as Kuzguncuk (uzun 2000;2001; 2002) and ortakoy (Aklan, 2003) (Karduz,2002) (isozen, 1992), have been implemented inistanbul. Bosphorus villages are another example;however, they are located far from downtown.

An analysis of the investments that supportgentrification in city centers indicates that the pri-vate sector and land developers are usuallyinvolved in processes in the uSA, whereas individ-ual entrepreneurs are more effective in england(ergun, 2004). private and public sectors in franceutilized the participation of nGos (White andWinchester, 1991) (Gelb and lyons, 1993) (lees,

1994) (Carpenter and lees, 1995). research hasbeen conducted on gentrification processes ineastern european countries (Sykora,1996 and Sykora, 1999) and other regions of theworld, such as mexico (Jones and varley, 1999),latin America (Ward, 1993), turkey (uzun, 2000;uzun, 2001; uzun, 2002; merey-enlil, 2000) andisrael (Gonen, 2002). porter and Shaw (2013)explore 21 cities, including melbourne, toronto,Johannesburg and istanbul, which are shaped bygovernment policies to attract investment and themiddle-class to their city centers. Gentrification hasbeen understood as both “destroyer and savior”(ergun, 2004) in these processes. Although positiveand negative approaches to gentrification havebeen presented (Atkinson, 2000), the gentrificationprocess in Cihangir demonstrates that a predomi-nantly “positive process” “in the core of the city”can be achieved.

A planned Gentrification process: tarlabasi

despite the success and benefits of the rehabilita-tion of Cihangir, specific gentrification strategieshave not been developed for tarlabasi. theCihangir neighborhood has been substantially

Figure 4. Aerial photo of the nine city blocks of the Tarlabasi project.

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upgraded and is physically superior to the nearbydilapidated tarlabasi neighborhood. the municipal government has established a spe-cific policy for improving tarlabasi and is attempt-ing to displace occupants by forcing their move-ment to the newly built houses on the outskirts ofistanbul. the tarlabasi gentrification projectreceived substantial scholarly attention due toaggressive “state-led gentrification”, which causedthe displacement of the majority of the marginal-ized groups in the city, such as gypsies, ethnic Kurdsand travesties, and collective mobilized resistance(unsal and Kuyucu, 2010). physical and social sus-tainability is likely to fail in tarlabasi, as in manysimilar examples of forced gentrification.

unlu et al (2004, 2005) identified the“dilapidation of historical areas”, “increased crime”and “difficulties in preserving the architectural andcultural heritage” in previous studies abouttarlabasi. unlu et al (2004) presented an approachto tarlabasi’s urban rehabilitation that emphasizestarlabasi’s historical importance and explores theneighborhood’s recent physical and socialchanges. the research (unlu et al., 2004)addressed the social structure of the rehabilitation,including socio-demographic, socio-cultural andsocio-economic perspectives, and performed acrime analysis. unlu et al (2004, 2005) investigat-ed infrastructure and superstructures, including theirfunction, size, age, structural and facade character-

istics, and historical registration, risk-managementsystems, and strategies for continuity of ownershipwithout excluding or evicting tenants.

previous studies (unlu et al, 2000, 2004)that integrate the physical and social conditions intarlabasi through social planning and on-sitedesign surveys should be conducted. Current topicsconcerning the improvement of tarlabasi, whichare crucial for social analysis, include gentrification,migration, urban assimilation, urban adaptation,and mobility. the inhabitants of this central and his-torical area include recent migrants and squatters,who reside in the outskirts of the city. theirapproaches to adaptation to the urban environ-ment and the circumstances with which they can bemobilized are important. this information will helpidentify the needs of these individuals and strategiesfor social rehabilitation of the area, which shouldbe addressed in any proposed plan. under theseconditions, the 2008 Beyoglu municipal project fortarlabasi focused on nine randomly selected cityblocks of different sizes (figures 4 and 5); all arelocated near tarlabasi Boulevard, which is the mainthoroughfare in the area.

this urban transformation project is theresult of a gradual process that began after theturkish parliament passed law 5366 (Anon, 2005),which was designed to protect and renew irre-placeable historical and cultural resources (Anon,2005). the law also contained a directive for the

Figure 5. Hybrid map of nine city blocks (existing).

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transformation of cultural sites located in the citycenter, which facilitated the implementation of theproject. the municipal authority opened planningand design bidding for tarlabasi. Small lots, park-ing problems, the need for a unified renovationeffort, high costs, difficulties in negotiations withowners and tenants, and legal problems pertainingto the site substantiate the support of the project bythe municipality.

the new tarlabasi project illustrates how gentrifica-tion can be manipulated depending on how “reha-bilitation” is defined and whether gentrification ispursued altruistically or for political or monetarygain. Although tarlabasi remains vibrant, it is per-ceived as a dilapidated area. the rehabilitationshould not be based on a law or on arbitrary deci-sion-making by the municipality. the problems ofthis area can be addressed by local administrativestrategies with collaborative efforts and the partici-pation of all stakeholders, as occurred in Cihangir.Although unlu (2010) mentioned the importanceof participation in a neighborhood such astarlabasi to perform a sustainable rehabilitationprocess, the new law discriminates against urbanpopulations and the new project places a high

degree of pressure on the neighborhood’s inhabi-tants, who may participate reluctantly or choose toleave the area. this proposed project will negative-ly influence tarlabasi’s future by destroying theregion’s valuable cultural and historical elementsand existing social structure (figures 4 and 5).under the banner of urban rehabilitation, the sus-tainability of the land and community is at risk andthe existing urban pattern is not being protected(figures 5 and 6; figures 7 and 8). Solutions thataccommodate the rights of owners and tenants areproblematic. Strategies for maintaining a sustain-able environment in tarlabasi should be examined,and the law, which awards excessive power to localauthorities for transformation of an area and thedestruction of their uniqueness, should be revised.As discussed previously with regard to the theoriesof gentrification, “modifications in the socio-cultur-al structure” and “displacement of the originaloccupants” will continue in tarlabasi.

4 the Cihangir Case Study

A survey was administered to 47 nondistinguishedCihangir residents to define the gentrification

Figure 6. Hybrid map of nine city blocks (proposed).

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process in Cihangir. the methods unique toCihangir or different from the tarlabasi processwere examined. the purpose of the survey was togeneralize a sample of 47 Cihangir residents to apopulation of approximately 5000 residents withrespect to the characteristics, attitude, and behaviorof the neighborhood’s residents. the survey wascross-sectional, and the data were collected usingself-administered questionnaires. the sampling of47 Cihangir residents was multistage, which istermed clustering (Babbie, 1990; Creswell, 2003).

Because it was impossible to compile a list of allCihangir’s residents, the names and addresses ofresidents registered with the non-governmentalorganizations (nGos) in Cihangir were collected.one or 2 residents from each street in Cihangir wasrandomly selected according to the list collectedfrom the nGos. A total of 47 residents were select-ed as a result of the multistage sampling. the pre-pared questionnaire comprised 39 questions, themajority of which consisted of closed-ended ques-tions. Any additional comments to closed-ended

Figure 7. Typical example of current (above) and proposed (below) facades in the proposed Tarlabasi project.

Figure 8. Typical example of current (left) and proposed (right) facades in the proposed Tarlabasi project.

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questions were elicited using open-ended ques-tions. However, few additional comments werereceived. therefore, the final interpretations werebased on the answers to the closed-ended ques-tions.

of the 47 sample residents, 20 werefemale and 27 were male; 20 were renters and 27were homeowners. All sample residents wereturkish citizens; 27 possessed university degreesand the remaining residents were high-schoolgraduates. With respect to age, 25 residents werebetween 36 and 52 years old, 12 residents werebetween 53 and 70 years old, 7 residents werebetween 18 and 35 years old and 3 residents wereover the age of 70. A total of 24 residents weremarried and 26 residents had children. none of therespondents shared a house with a family memberother than his or her spouse and children.

“As the number of middle and upper-mid-dle class residents in the neighborhood hasincreased over the past decade, social solidarityhas also improved” is a result of the survey. Here,the increasing number of middle- and upper-mid-dle class residents was determined by questionsregarding, for example, “the income levels, theeducation levels and the level of expenditures onentertainment and travel during different periods(table 2); when they moved to their current housein Cihangir; and where they were living prior tomoving to their current house”. improvement insocial solidarity was evaluated by questions regard-ing the interactions among individuals, the numberof individuals registered with neighborhood-basednGos, such as the Beautification of Cihangirorganization (BCo), and donations to neighbor-hood-based charities (table 1). the findings ondeveloping relations and the increasing number oforganizations among residents were critical to theassessment of the topic of “improving social soli-darity” in Cihangir. nongovernmental organiza-tions, such as the BCo, play active roles in the gen-trification process.

Cihangir’s unique position on “social soli-darity” is also salient because the neighborhood islocated in the city center. Current middle- andupper-middle class residents and residents that

arrived within the last decade are included in thisgroup; thus, the phenomenon of “social solidarity”emerges. no one is excluded and the mechanismsfor the formation of solidarity originated in nGosand meetings in local cafes. the displacement ofresidents has occurred slowly compared with thephysical upgrading (table 3), which did not harmthe socio-cultural patterns.

the socio-economic level of Cihangir’sresidents has improved as real estate ownershipand the physical conditions of the buildings havechanged (table 3). the high number of legally con-structed and licensed buildings, its central location,and the protection of historical buildings havemade Cihangir a desirable residential location. inaddition to these qualities, the high transformationrate of Cihangir’s socio-economic class over thepast decade (table 4) demonstrates that the urbanregeneration process parallels the influx of mem-bers of a higher socio-economic class.

upgrades to shopping and entertainmentfacilities paralleled the gentrification process (table3). Shopping centers and entertainment facilitieshave been substantially upgraded during the lastten to fifteen years. the development of localshops, affordable local restaurants and entertain-ment facilities has supported enhanced life cycles.

the renovations of buildings and facadeshave also increased (table 3), which is evidence ofphysical upgrading and a major element in gentri-

Table 1. Survey results showing improvement in “social sol-idarity” regarding the interactions among the individuals inCihangir.

Table 2. Survey results showing the increasing number ofmiddle- and upper-middle class residents in Cihangir dur-ing the displacement of residents.

Table 4. Survey results showing the high transformationrate of Cihangir’s residents.

Table 3. Survey results showing the high transformationrate for Cihangir

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fication. during these renovations, certain investorshave altered the unique characteristics of certainbuildings. Although few buildings have beenaltered significantly, this alteration may negativelyaffect sustainability. this scenario is an illustration ofhow gentrification can occur inappropriately.

the increase in the presence of young res-idents, immigrants and intellectuals, who moved toCihangir, had a positive effect on gentrification(table 4). in this context, authorities only developedprojects for new residents of the middle or upper-middle classes in tarlabasi. However, the processthat was developed locally and spontaneously sup-ports the social diversity in Cihangir.

the goal of the survey was to understandthe dynamics of the gentrification of Cihangir; itprovided valuable information for interpretation.

5 Conc lu si on

Cihangir’s historical and geographical significancehas influenced its primarily independent gentrifica-tion process, in which the real estate market haschanged spontaneously or naturally without gov-ernment policy, because turkey’s economy andpolitics have changed. Cihangir’s historical socialcosmopolitanism, physical characteristics,Bosphorus panorama, and close relationships withthe historical peninsula and the city center havepositively affected its urban transformation after dif-ficult historical periods. Although tarlabasi pos-sessed the majority of these features, urban andtransportation projects developed by the authoritiesmade a striking difference between the gentrifica-tion processes in Cihangir and tarlabasi.

Both Cihangir and tarlabasi are uniqueproducts of european and Greek architects of thelate ottoman era. the gentrification of these areaswill benefit not only the historical and cultural con-tinuity of istanbul but also the historical and cultur-al continuity of europe. Cihangir has been pre-dominantly renovated and sustained, whereas newprojects are erasing traces of the past in tarlabasi(figure 6, 7 and 8).

in terms of “the logic of urban develop-ment” theory, renovations began along the bordersof the neighborhood, which are integrated with thecity and the Bosphorus panorama, and subse-quently expanded to a central location in Cihangir.the new urban project of tarlabasi may be a start-ing point based on this approach.

Both the “rent gap” and “filtering” theoriesare valid for Cihangir’s gentrification. the increasein the income levels of residents is a strong indica-tion that gentrification is underway (table 2).Similarly, the increase in real estate prices, which

has predominantly resulted from current renova-tions, is another example of the process.

the gap between current and previous rentprices increased in Cihangir in the last decade; thisfinding supports the “rent gap” theory. the upwardurban transformation began 15 years ago, and therent prices increased 150% to 200% during the lastdecade.

According to the filtering theory, whensocial and physical conditions attain low levels,development restarts. the events of 1955, whenGreek and Armenian minorities were forced out ofthe area, combined with the decrease in neighbor-hood relations over the last 25 years, have helpedprepare Cihangir for gentrification by lowering cur-rent social and physical conditions. these eventswere considered turning points because a negativeeffect in one area typically causes problems in otherareas (Capra, 1983, 1996). the filtering theory,which considers individuals from higher socio-eco-nomic classes who move downward rather thanupward by renovating and restoring old and run-down properties, is supported by this study. thehigh transformation rate of Cihangir’s socio-eco-nomic class and the increased renovation of build-ings are effective in the process.

forcing lower-income residents from theirneighborhoods is not a viable approach forimproving an urban environment. this approach,which is underway in tarlabasi, demonstrates howgentrification can be manipulated and employedfor political or financial gain. renovation of physi-cal structures or building facades does not neces-sarily involve the alteration of the unique historicalfeatures of buildings. Although the process of gen-trification inevitably involves changes to an area’sphysical and social dynamics, the goal of maximiz-ing profit is a barrier to maintaining the sustainabil-ity and social diversity of an urban environment.

the state may have intervened in the gen-trification of tarlabasi because its gentrification wasnot possible under free-market dynamics. understate intervention, large developers were broughtinto the area as the prime agents of gentrificationand rent extraction. As in Cihangir, free-marketdynamics may produce a more liberalized result fortarlabasi that does not modify its socio-cultural his-tory.

Gentrification should not involve the cre-ation of new real estate markets for specific socialgroups in urban areas. the tarlabasi project is atypical example of a real estate market that wasintentionally created in a rich and historical resi-dential area. to prevent this type of intentionallycreated mechanisms, all gentrification mechanismsshould be structured in accordance with all layers ofthe existing social system and should consider

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nlü income levels, social values, and property charac-

teristics. there is sufficient time to protect livablehistoric city centers, such as the tarlabasi neighbor-hood, and “liberalized gentrification”, which is afreely developing gentrification process withoutdirect government influence, is possible as in thecase of Cihangir.

tarlabasi’s weak nGo structure and par-ticipation negatively affected the sustainability of itssocio-cultural and physical characteristics.Conversely, Cihangir’s strong nGo structuringand high level of participation produced freelydeveloping and sustainable result through its gen-trification. the following question remains: doesgentrification obliterate urban history and architec-ture due to its planned structure, such as intarlabasi, or does it serve to upgrade and encour-age the renaissance of local and global urbanareas with its spontaneous processes, such as inCihangir?

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Kuzguncuk’ da sosyal ve mekansal yenilenme (New housingpattern in the old city: Gentrification in Cihangir andKuzguncuk). istanbul35, 54–61.

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Au thor ( s ) :

mehme t em in Şa lgamc ıoğlu, (mSc., phd.)(CorreSpondinG AutHor)[email protected], [email protected], [email protected] & teaching Assistant, faculty of Architecture,Architecture department, istanbul technical university,taşkışla taksim 34437 İstanbul, turkey. +90 212 2931300 – 2257 phone / +90 212 632 0058 faxvisiting Scholar, A.Alfred taubman College ofArchitecture and urban planning, university ofmichigan, 2000 Bonisteel BoulevardAnn Arbor, mi48109-2069 uSA. +1734 764 1300 main, +1734763 2322 fax

Alper Ünlü (mSc . , phd. )professor, faculty of Architecture, Architecturedepartment, istanbul technical university, taşkışlataksim 34437 İstanbul, turkey / phone +90 212 29313 00 – 2257 / fax +90 212 632 00 58 /

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1 . In t roduc t ion

For the past 40 years, the green building concepthas been in practice and is still on the move (Ismail,2013). The initiation of green building began muchfurther than the 1970's when world’s energy crisisbroke out (Mao et al., 2011). The green buildingconcept today revolves on a structure which is builtwith both environmental responsibility and resourceefficiency throughout a building's life-cycle from sit-ting to design, construction, operation, mainte-nance, renovation, and demolition (Na et al.,2013). McGraw-Hill Construction’s (2008) surveyreported that green building strategies reducebuilding operating costs by 8-9 percent, increasebuilding value by 7.5 percent, realise a 6.6 percentreturn on investment, increase occupancy ratio by3.5 percent, and increase rent ratios by 3 percent.Hence, 61 percent of corporate leaders surveyedindicated that sustainability and green buildingcommitment improves financial performance, com-petitive positioning and market differentiation.

In the late 80s, green space in an urbanarea was replaced with asphalt, concrete and otherstructures that absorb rather than reflect solar radi-ation heat (Oke, 1987). Sustainable or greenbuildings in the tropical climate region havebecome a major concern nowadays (Davidson,2013; Susorova et al., 2013). The zone of tropicalregion enclosed about 1/3 of the world’s land-mass. Constant growth population in this zone hasalready accounted to 1/3 of the world population.Most of the countries in the zone have become

industrialized countries and this will result in anincrease of energy consumption (Larr & Grimme,2002). To address this problem, there are manyways to reduce energy consumption in the tropicalzone countries using the green building concept,for instance, shading, day lighting, and natural ven-tilation.

With the increasing urban temperature,one of the measures to mitigate this is planting ofvegetation. Greenery has the capacities to reducethe urban heat island (UHI) effect (Wong et al.,2007). Wong et al. (2007) found that buildingsnearby or surrounded by greenery have lowerambient temperature than those away from thegreenery. This was proven back in the 1990s thatplanting of vegetation is one of the main strategiesto mitigate UHI effect with just a single tree planted,the temperature can be reduced (Jauregui, 1990).Besides, greenery is not limited to wall but also roof.Previous studies (Brad, 2002; Hien & Yu, 2006)revealed that temperature of the building roofs andsurroundings was significantly reduced with thegreen roofs installed. This study would like to lookat the end users perception of vertical greenery sys-tem (VGS), which is one of the said methods thatenhance the building performance whilst reducingenvironmental impact (Koyama et al., 2013).

However, the VGS implementation is stillnew to the tropical climate region particularly inMalaysia. VGS is not widely used by the construc-tion practitioners when attempting for the GreenBuilding Index (GBI) rating. Malaysia’s first greenrating tool- GBI was launched in 2009. For a build-

Abdul-Rahman, Chen Wang, Azli Mohd Rahim,Siaw Chuing Loo, Nadzmi Miswan

Abstract

Numerous researchers proved Vertical Greenery System VGS beneficial to buildings and surroundings. However, it is

still not widely applied in the tropics like Malaysia. This paper aims to determine the perceptions of VGS among the

end users before it can be improved. A survey was conducted among 40 respondents, the end users of VGS in select-

ed buildings within Klang Valley area. The collected data was analysed using statistical tests. From the findings, the pri-

mary benefits of VGS perceived by end users are enhancing visual quality, bringing nature harmony, reducing stress

and reducing the urban heat island effects. The perceptions contradict with the results of ANOVA test between reduc-

ing the urban heat island effects and other VGS benefits that proves the need and effort to work on VGS in Malaysia.

Keywords: Vertical Greenery System, Green Building, Green Façade, Green Building Index, Urban Tropics.

VERTICAL GREENERY SYSTEMS (VGS) IN URBAN TROPICS

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iswaning to be awarded the GBI rating, 6 key criteria

must be met: energy efficiency, indoor environmen-tal quality, sustainable site planning and manage-ment, materials and resources, water efficiency,and innovation (GBI, 2011). By developed-econo-my standards, Malaysia still lags behind many othercountries in respect of green-building practices.Most Malaysian green building projects are acco-lade-chasing designs for private dwellings.Regional peer like Singapore has involved largely inthis green building concept for years with GreenMark system as an assessment tool for green build-ings (Adis, 2010).

Although VGS is one of the options tobring nature back to the city, many people are notaware of that simply because of lack of awarenessand knowledge on the benefits and performance ofVGS. Another barrier for the widespread adoptionof VGS among building occupants is that the sys-tem involves the plant and vegetation; constantmaintenance and trimming process are inherent.Yet, the potential of VGS is worth noted by buildingowners, construction practitioners and occupants.This study is focused on the perceptions of the endusers which refer to the occupants of the building.The objectives are to identify the end users’ per-ceptions on the VGS in urban area and to deter-mine the relationship between the benefit of reduc-ing Urban Heat Island effect and other benefits ofVGS perceived by the end users.

2. Ver t i ca l Greenery Sy s tem

Vertical greenery system (VGS) is a green buildingconcept that deliberately grows vegetation on theotherwise unexploited vertical exterior walls orbuildings. This concept is not new in the industry forit can be traced back to the 7th Century B.C.,where the Hanging Gardens of Babylon was built(Dinsdale, Pearen, & Wilson, 2006). Traces of VGSwere also found since the Roman Empire (Farrar,1996). The term VGS is used interchangeably withVines on Wall (Sandifer & Givoni, 2002), Bio-Shader (Lam, Ip, & Miller, 2005), Living Walls(Dunnet & Kingsbury, 2008), Green Facades(Köhler, 2008), Green Wall (Alexandri & Jones,2008), Vertical Garden (Blanc, 2008), Bio Façade(Laopanitchakul, Sunakorn, & Srisutapan, 2008),and Vertical Greenery (Chiang & Tan, 2009).

VGS symbolized a new proportion ofgreenery related infrastructure, where plants arecombined within the vertical walls. Commonly, VGSinvolves the climbing type of plants with adventi-tious and self clings roots growing vertically on ver-tical surfaces. Recent years, many of new modernsystems have been developed for the VGS. There

are 3 basic components of VGS: 1) plants, 2) sys-tem and medium, and 3) irrigation (Cities, 2008).

Firstly, the plant selection must be based ona few characteristics for the VGS to be a success.The plants should be suitable for the planting con-ditions, concepts, budget, environmental factors,and level of expected maintenance expected(National Parks Board, 2012). For example, theplants selected for external wall should be able towithstand daytime high temperature, intense lightradiation and low moisture environment.

Next, efficiency factor, weight and suitabili-ty of the system and medium must be taken intoconsideration for the VGS to be successful. VGSconsisted of 2 systems (Rahman, Yeok, & Atikah,2011): support systems and carrier systems.Support systems are designed to guide the plant upon the vertical surface, while carrier systems act tocontain the media for planting on the vertical sur-face. The selection of the system usually is based onthe type of the plants. Support system is also knownas green façade, hosting climbing plants on a spe-cial made support structure. Meanwhile, the carriersystems are capable of hosting a greater diversity ofplants. It is also known as living walls.

Lastly, the decision on irrigation systemdepended on the local rainfall, hydroponic systemsand modular systems. The water can either be recy-cled or grey water (Stav & Lawson, 2012). However,in tropical country like Malaysia, local rainfall isabundant and recycled water or grey water is notnecessary.

2 .1 Types of Ver t i ca l Greenery Sys tem

There are 3 types of VGS: climbing support, selfclinging plant, and vertical wall panels as shown inTable 1. VGS is an excellent solution to improveurban spaces with vegetation, mainly those whereplanting trees are impossible due to the lack ofspaces (Bodart and Evrard, 2011). Vegetation isimportant for us as it provides the oxygen and func-tion as a medium for natural cooler on this earth.Furthermore, Uffelen (2011) emphasized that theintegration of nature into a building is an importantaspect in balancing the environment.

The advantages of VGS are: a) reducingthermal heat (Yeang, 2006; Barrio, 1998; Bodart &Evrard, 2011); b) reducing the effect of urban heatislands (Landsberg, 1981; Banting & Missios,2005; Dam, Walke, & Wilson, 2000), c) aestheticimprovement of a building (Blanc, 2008; Beriatos& Brebbia, 2011); d) increasing indoor air quality(Wong, 2008; Blanc, 2008; Uffelen, 2011); e)reducing energy usage (Booth et al., 2012; Wong,2008; Holewa, 2012; Booth et al., 2012); and f)

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reducing sound pollution (Dunnet & Kingsbury,2004; Durr, 1995; North American WetlandEngineering, 1998).

However, there are always pros and cons inevery system. In this research paper, a few disad-vantages of the VGS are identified: a) maintenancedifficulties (Bodart & Evrard, 2011; Calkins, 2011);b) attract undesirable animals (Bodart & Evrard,2011; Frost, 2012); c) damaging building(Valesan, Fedrizzi, & Sattler, 2011); and d) lack ofexpertise (Hopkins & Goodwin, 2011; Liu, 2004).

2 . 2 P r e v i o u s S t ud i e s on V er t i ca lGreenery Sy stem

VGS is seen to be a promising measure to improvethe urban environment quality. Wong et al. (2010a)carried out an experiment to observe the thermalbenefits of the VGS. They found the use of VGS tocool ambient temperature in building canyons intropical environment to be effective. The coolerambient temperature yields savings in the energycooling loads for the air intake of the air condition-er are of lower temperature.

Besides thermal evaluation, Wong et al.(2010b) also evaluated the acoustics of the VGSwhere the study found that not all VGS were goodnoise reduction. They concluded that even thoughsome of the VGS could be a good noise reductionmeasure, the concern is the high cost of VGS ascompared to other options.

Perini et al. (2011) further measured the airflow and temperature of VGS on building envelope.They compared the efficiencies of direct, indirectand living wall system in terms of the air flow andtemperature. When tested the air flow and temper-ature of the three types of wall system, the directgreen façade and living wall system are found to bemore effective than the indirect green wall system.

Much of the studies on VGS are concernedon the VGS’s effect on the UHI (Wong et al.,2010a; Jaafar et al., 2011; Chong &GhaffarianHossein, 2012; Perini & Rasasco, 2013;Koyama et al., 2013). Jaafar et al. (2011) reviewedthat VGS could reduce heat and increase the cool-ing effect especially the UHI effect through shad-ings, reduce heat emitted and evapo-transpirationfor a cooler temperature. Chong andGhaffarianHossein (2012) furthered that VGS is not

Table 1. Types of Vertical Greenery System.

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popular in Malaysia and it is worthy to expose thebuilding occupants to the benefits of VGS for thefuture of sustainable urban living.

Recently, Koyama et al. (2013) studied thekey plant traits suitable for the VGS, a green façadethat reduces the surface temperature of buildings.They conducted experiments on the plant traits ofseveral wall plants and discovered that the vinelength determined percentage coverage that direct-ly reduces wall surface temperature. The selectionof plants for the VGS has to be stringent to suit theclimate of the region for the growth coverage andmaintenance. Since the cost of maintaining theVGS is such a concern, Perini and Rosasco (2013)explored the cost benefit analysis for the VGS andfound that some VGS are economically sustain-able.

These are the previous studies purportedfor the building owners and construction players tounderstand the benefits of VGS mostly on reducingthe UHI effect, plant traits for VGS, and cost bene-fit analysis for VGS. To the best of the author’sknowledge, little has been done to understand theend user or occupant perception. The end userdemand would determine the supply; hence it isworthy to study the end user perception on VGS.Increasing the awareness of VGS for a quality envi-ronment and understanding the dissatisfaction ofcurrent VGS implemented in the urban tropicswould first require the perception of the end user.

3. Research Methodo logy

Quantitative research method was employed in thisstudy to achieve the objectives, which include ques-tionnaire design, data collection, and targetedgreen buildings. Prior to carrying out the question-naire survey among the end users of 3 targetedgreen buildings, the respective building manage-ment consents for the survey were sought.

Ques t ionna i re Desi gn

The survey questionnaire was designed to deter-mine the current end users’ perception on the VGSintegrated in Malaysian green buildings. Statisticalanalysis approaches were subsequently carried outthrough Statistical Package for Social Sciences(SPSS) software to obtain the results of the survey. Atotal of 100 questionnaires were posted to the endusers working or living in the targeted green build-ing. A total of 40 respondents took part in thequantitative questionnaire survey which reflects aresponse rate of 40.0%. Table 2 contains the pro-portion of the respondents’ demographic details foreach category. The details for the respondents wereclassified into five categories, namely: Gender, agegroup, education level, type of end user, and num-ber of years living/working in the green building.

Da ta Co l lec t ion

This survey was targeted on the end users of threedifferent buildings in Klang Valley, an area inMalaysia comprising its suburbs and adjoiningcities and towns in the state of Selangor. The ques-tionnaires were distributed to the targeted buildingsfor management approval to conduct the study.Having obtained the approval, face-to-face ques-tionnaire survey was conducted with the randomrespondents/end users in the targeted buildings.This ensured the validity and reliability of therespondents’ feedback- whether the respondentsare the tenants of the buildings and avoid misun-derstanding on the confused terms used in ques-tionnaire. Respondents were also encouraged toelaborate and comment on the VGS to be record-ed in this study.

Targe ted Green Bui ld ing

Since this survey was to obtain information aboutthe satisfaction degree of VGS from the end users,three different buildings that employed this systemin Klang Valley were selected. The three buildingswere:

1 ) D ig i Techno logy Opera t ion Cent re( F igure 1)

Location: Subang High Tech Park, Shah Alam,SelangorNo. of storey: 4-storeyGreen Building Index: GBI Gold ratingPlant type: Climbers speciesPlant age: 4 years

Table 2. Respondents’ demographic details.

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Plant condition: Well grown and wrapped aroundbuilding’s envelope (covering thickness +/-20 cm)Orientation: Surrounding buildingBuilding façade material: Plaster and paint withgroove line

2) Jamnah View Condominium (Figure 2)

Location: Luxury condominium at DamansaraHeightNo. of storey: 23-storey

Figure 3. Platinum Sentral. Figure 3b. A glance at Platinum Sentral.

Figure 1. Digi Technology Operation Centre . Figure 1b. A glance at DiGi Operation Center.

Figure 2. Jamnah View Condominium. Figure 2b. A glance at Jamnah View Condominium.

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Plant age: 19 yearsPlant condition: Well grown in planter boxes andnot completely covered façadeOrientation: NorthwestBuilding façade material: Plaster and paint

3) P la t inum Sen t ra l (F igure 3 )

Location: Kuala Lumpur Sentral Park @ Lot ENo. of storey: 7-storeyPlant type: Climbers speciesPlant age: 2 yearsPlant condition: Well grown and not completelycovered façade (covering thickness +/-10 cm)Orientation: Surrounding buildingBuilding façade material: Plaster and paint

4. Da ta Ana ly s i s and Resu l t s

From this survey, the outcome revealed the benefitsof VGS, the barriers to implement VGS, and theapplication of VGS in Malaysia. The face-to-facesurvey was targeted at end users at Digi TechnologyOperation Centre, Jamnah View Condominium,and Platinum Sentral. The end users surveyed com-prised of both residential and office occupants. Theresponse rate is 40% and the overall respondentfrom the three buildings are summarized in Table 3.

Pe rcep t ion of End User s on VGS

The respondents were solicited on their perceptionsof VGS. Among the 40 respondents, only 9 of themanswered that the VGS did not exist in their living orworking environment since they started to live orwork there. Most people related VGS to nature(37.5%), followed by beauty (20%), thermal com-fort (17.5%), energy saving (17.5%), and lastly psy-chological positive response (7.5%). Table 4 and 5depict the end users’ degree of satisfaction and dif-ficulties of VGS implemented. Based on the givenscale of 1 to 5, the mean of the degree of satisfac-tion and difficulties was then calculated.

As illustrated in Table 4, the respondentsperceived that VGS can improve the visual qualityof a building (4.34). However, a few respondents

emphasized that the application of VGS must notbe overdone. Bringing nature harmony is the sec-ond highest ranked benefit for the degree of satis-faction at 4.33. Some respondents claimed thatflowers and greeneries attracted birds and theywere entertained by the birds’ singing every morn-ing. Then, a medium to release stress is consideredthe third highest ranked of the VGS’s benefitsamong the end users (4.18). Respondents felt theimportance to have the vegetation in parts of thebuilding to reduce the stress of urban hectic routineand traffic jams. It is then followed by the reducingurban heat island effect (UHI) and improving thethermal comfort of the building, which shared thesame degree of satisfaction of 3.98 each.

Among all, fire preventions have the leastdegree of satisfaction among end users (2.78).Most respondents thought that VGS acts slightly ordoes not act as fire prevention. Besides fire preven-tion, the benefit of improving indoor air quality isalso among the lowest ranked. The respondents feltthat VGS did not help in improving the indoor airquality. However, plants and vegetation installed tothe wall will constantly help filtering contaminates inthe air (Chong & GhaffarianHossein, 2012). Thisindicated that the respondents were not aware ofthe benefit of VGS in improving indoor air quality.

Table 5 depicts the degree of difficulties forthe application of VGS perceived by end users.With the highest degree of difficulties at 3.45,maintenance for the VGS is the most problematic.This is followed by the problem of water infiltration(3.35). Some respondents experienced water from

Table 3. Summary of response from each targeted building.

Table 4. Degree of satisfaction of Vertical Greenery System

perceived by end users.

Table 5. Degree of difficulties of Vertical Greenery System

perceived by end users.

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the plants spilt to the corridor and pavement. Thisproblem can be countered by using the modernwatering system for the plant for example, usingcapillary system for self-watering and recycling rainwater. All respondents agreed that VGS is suitableto be applied in a climate, which is hot and humidthroughout the year, like Malaysia. Generally, in thetropical climate region like Malaysia, it is very suit-able for vegetation to grow. A few respondents sug-gested with the right type of plant selection, it willease maintenance.

The third ranked difficulty for VGS wasagain the roots problem (3.30). Respondentsaffected felt that aged plants with their strong rootscaused the hairline crack in the support system beit the wall or planter box. This further emphasizedon the plant selection. Tiny insects were attracted(3.23) but were not much of nuisance according tothe respondents. The other difficulties were at amean value of below 3.00. The difficulties of VGSlike fire hazards and attract bigger animals likesnakes, rats, etc scored a mean value of 2.85 and2.70, respectively.

Re la t ionsh ip be tween Reduc ing UrbanHeat I s land (UHI ) Ef fec t and Bene f i t so f VGS

In the tropical region, reducing UHI effect is one ofthe biggest concerns and VGS happens to be aviable and sustainable measure (Wong et al.,2010a; Jaafar et al., 2011; Chong &GhaffarianHossein, 2012). The urban heat islandeffects in Malaysia, particularly in Kuala Lumpurhave been noticed compare to the other rural areasurround the city (Tso, 1992). Hence, the applica-tion of VGS can be a means in reducing this prob-lem. Climate Protection Partnership Division (n.d.)quoted that the incorporation of vegetation inbuildings contributes not only to better air quality,but also to reduce urban heat island effects indensely built area. Therefore, it is necessary to iden-tify the relationship between reducing urban heatisland (UHI) effect and the benefits of VGS per-ceived by end users.

The relationship between the benefit ofreducing UHI effect was tested with other benefits ofVGS to check the significance between the benefits.One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was usedto test the benefits significant to the benefit of reduc-ing UHI effect. Based on the result in Table 6, 10out of 14 benefits have statistically significant rela-tionships with the reducing UHI effect with ANOVAtest result of significance level of less than 0.05.

There was a significant relationship of the benefit ofReducing UHI effect on the benefit of

• Make the area lively with activities at the p<0.05 level for thethree buildings [F(2,37) = 5.525, p = 0.008]• Reduce air pollution at the p<0.05 level for the three build-ings [F(2,37) = 3.912, p = 0.029]• Provide habitats for flora and fauna at the p<0.05 level forthe three buildings [F(2,37) = 3.409, p = 0.044]• Improves air ventilation at the p<0.05 level for the threebuildings [F(2,37) = 4.735, p = 0.015]• Increase indoor air quality at the p<0.05 level for the threebuildings [F(2,37) = 5.514, p = 0.005]• Improve thermal comfort at the p<0.05 level for the threebuildings [F(2,37) = 11.434, p = 0.000]• Reduce sound pollution at the p<0.05 level for the threebuildings [F(2,37) = 6.705, p = 0.003]• Acts as fire prevention at the p<0.05 level for the three build-ings [F(2,37) = 5.882, p = 0.005]• Acts as insulation and energy efficiency at the p<0.05 levelfor the three buildings [F(2,37) = 9.233, p = 0.001]• Increases property values at the p<0.05 level for the threebuildings [F(2,37) = 15.320, p = 0.000]]

As shaded in Table 6, 4 VGS benefits donot have statistically significant relationship with thebenefit of reducing UHI effect (significant level >0.05). They only influence the benefit of reducingUHI by very little means or maybe no influence atall. These benefits are enhance the visual quality ofan area, reduce stress by providing sense of naturein urban area, release the positive energy towardsthe user and bring nature harmony.

Re lat i onsh ip be tween the Bene f i t s ofVGS Percei ved by End User s

Table 7 displays the correlation matrix between thebenefits of VGS as rated by the respondents. Fourstrongest positive correlations, also known asstrong relationships, were found between bringnature harmony and reduce stress by providingsense of nature in urban area (r = 0.633), reduceurban heat island effect in urban area and improvethermal comfort (r = 0.645), and enhance the visu-al quality of an area correlated with make the arealively with activities (r = 0.644) and increases prop-erty value (r = 0.625), all with the p-value estimat-ed at less than 1% level of significance.

To reinforce the findings of the ANOVA teston the VGS benefits significant to the benefit ofreducing UHI effect in urban area, this correlationmatrix also shows similar results. Among the corre-lations of the benefit of reducing UHI effect in urbanarea and the remaining VGS benefits, there werefour correlations with no relationship. They were

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Table 6. ANOVA test between the benefit of reducing UHI effect with other benefits.

Table 7. Correlation matrix between the end user perceptions on VGS.

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reduce the UHI effect in urban area with enhancethe visual quality of an area, bring nature harmony,reduce stress by providing sense of nature in urbanarea, and release the positive energy towards user.

While the remaining VGS benefits’ correla-tions with benefit of reduce UHI effect in urban areawere low, there were two moderate correlations orrelationships. Those with low relationships withreduce UHI effect in urban area were reduce airpollution (r = 0.203), provide habitats for flora andfauna within urban area (r = 0.213), improve airventilation (r = 0.212), make the area lively withactivities (r = 0.218), increases property value (r =0.222), reduce sound pollution (r = 0.233), andact as fire prevention (r = 0.210), all with the p-value estimated at less than 5% level of signifi-cance.

The said two moderate relationships werebetween reduce the UHI effect in urban area andacts as insulation and energy efficiency (r = 0.411)and increases indoor air quality (r = 0.343), bothwith the p-value estimated at less than 1% level ofsignificance.

5 . Discu ssi on on F ind ings

VGS is not very new in Malaysia, for instance,Jamnah View Condominium incorporated VGSsince it began to be occupied about 23 years agowhile the applications of VGS in Digi TechnologyOperation Centre and Platinum Sentral started inthe year 2009 and 2011 respectively. Even thoughthe concept is not new, the number of Malaysianbuildings incorporating VGS is still very few.Findings showed none of the respondents noticedother buildings besides the buildings they work orlive in implemented VGS. This suggested that theapplication of VGS in Malaysia is quite insufficientdespite all the benefits towards the environmentand end users.

The top three satisfactions of VGS per-ceived by end users were enhance the visual quali-ty of an area, bring nature harmony, and reducestress by providing sense of nature in urban area.Other than visual and senses benefits, the benefitsrelated to enhanced quality environment wereunnoticeable. This suggested the awareness on thesustainable effect of VGS for a quality environmentcould be further developed.

The top ranked difficulties or problems ofVGS perceived by end users were difficult to main-tain, water infiltration, and roots problem.According to the analysis, these problems weremostly faced by end users of older buildings withoutdated watering system and poor plant selection.Little difficulties involved in newer buildings with

newer VGS techniques and careful selection ofplant species. In short, the difficulties could beresolved.

Findings from survey also showed the con-tradictory results between the top ranked benefitsperceived by end users and the actual relationshipwith reducing Urban Heat Island effect in urbanarea. The top ranked benefits perceived by the endusers were enhance the visual quality of an area,bring nature harmony, and reduce stress by provid-ing sense of nature in urban area, which were alsothose of insignificant relationships with the benefitof reducing UHI effect in urban area the ANOVAand correlation tests. This indicated the end usersperceived little benefits from the VGS other thanvisual and senses benefits.

This would mean the vast room of publici-ty on the benefits and implementation of VGS forthe benefits of the end users and a sustainable envi-ronment in Malaysia. Many ways to instill theawareness, for instance, government can support increating government policies on incorporating VGSgreen concepts for construction players, exposuresand educations of VGS and greenery to public viamass media, research and development on con-ducting cost analysis for incorporation of VGS, andproviding findings on efficient ways to maintainVGS.

5 . Conc lus ion

The survey was conducted to determine the per-ception of VGS implemented at the end users’workplace or home in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Theresearch reviewed the opinions of end users fromthe three buildings: Digi Technology OperationCentre, Jamnah View Condominium, and PlatinumSentral. It was found that the top three satisfactiondegrees of VGS are enhancement on the visualquality, bring nature harmony, and reduce stress byproviding sense of nature in urban area. This con-tradicts with the significant benefits found from theANOVA test of relationship between reducingUrban Heat Island (UHI) effect and other benefits ofVGS. Hence, the needs of instilling awareness ofVGS among the public and efforts from the gov-ernment and research and development are neces-sary. This paper gave a clear vision about the ben-efits of VGS perceived by end users in Malaysia.

This research does provide avenues forfuture researches to analyze problems of VGS intropical regions. Furthermore, this study has indi-cated and confirmed the acceptance of the endusers towards VGS and the lack of awareness onthe benefits of VGS towards sustainable and quali-ty environment. As such, future studies can be car-

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Author(s):

Abdul-Rahman University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Chen Wang, Department of Quantity Surveying , Faculty of BuiltEnvironment, University of Malaya, 50603 KualaLumpur, Malaysia.

Azli Mohd Rahim University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Siaw Chuing LooUniversity of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Nadzmi Miswan. University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

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1 .0 In t roduc t ion

Over the eight decades of its existence, the smalltown of Kuala Kubu Bharu (or KKB as it is com-monly known) has remained largely untouched bydevelopment and thus retained many of the rem-nants and traces from the second World War, suchas bombed buildings. Many Garden City designelements including the green belts and playgroundsintroduced by Malaya’s first town planner, CharlesCrompton Reade, are also still in place. As statedby Yuksel & Iclal (2005), it is the small towns wherethe original historical heritage is protected. Thepotential importance of this heritage does not lieonly in the intrinsic beauty of what is being pre-served, the immediate revenue it may bring fromtourism based in history, but above all in the iden-tity conferred. The inherent architectural, historical,and cultural significance of the buildings are whatmakes them unique and subsequently connote thevery individuality of a place from other places in theworld (Noor Suzaini 2007). Apart from these fac-tors, functional qualities of the buildings also serveas one of the critical elements in constructing acity’s image and identity (Tiesdell et al. 1996).Therefore, historic urban features are a salientsource for both local and national identity (Goad &Ngiom 2007; Mansfield 2008).

The role in identity development of historicbuildings, the physical built environment or more

generally a place has not received adequate atten-tion in built environment literature. Furthermore, ithas largely been neglected in psychology literaturethat has dominated the debate on place identity(Hauge 2007). According to Graham et al. (2009),there is a promising tie between historic buildingand the place identity. Hauge (2007) and Twigger-Ross & Uzzell (1996) argued that discussions relat-ed to identity are, generally concerned with, andaccompanied by, place reference.

Therefore, this paper attempts to identifythe unique and exceptional characteristics of placeswhich create unique environments and contributeto the overall sense of place. To achieve this aim,this paper briefly examines the theory and conceptsof place, place identity, and the fundamental ele-ments of the identity of places. Based on the theo-retical characteristics, the paper further attempts toidentify unique built heritage and other physical ele-ments; which in the researcher’s view are promi-nent in relation to a study area selected through apreliminary field survey.

2 .0 Concep tua l founda t ion of p laceand p lace iden t i t y

2 .1 P lace

A place is distinguished from the associated con-

Nur Farhana Azmi, Faizah Ahmad, Azlan Shah Ali

Abstract

Each place possesses characteristics that confer on it a sense of place and identity through the meanings and values

that they provide. The role of the physical built environment in place and identity development has not received ade-

quate attention in built environment literature. This paper attempts to identify the unique and exceptional characteris-

tics of places which create a unique environment and make a continuing contribution to the overall sense of the place.

A preliminary survey was conducted in Kuala Kubu Bharu (KKB), a small town in the northern part of the Malaysian state

of Selangor; to examine the characteristics of the place that influence and contribute to the identity of the town. The

survey results demonstrate that the cultural heritage of the physical built environment acts as an important trigger for

the town’s identity. While it is undeniable that cultural heritage is indeed greatly the product of non-visual sources; sub-

jective meanings, experiences, beliefs, ideology and past history of the place, this paper highlights the significance of

the physical built environment in influencing the very individuality of the place.

Keywords: Place identity, Place, Small town, Built heritage, Kuala Kubu Bharu.

PLACE IDENTITY: A THEORETICAL REFLECTION.

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cept of space by the former being endowed withmeaning and value (Puren et al. 2008; Relph1976; Tuan 1977). As argued by Harner (2001)and Shuhana (2011), it is human experience thatconfers meaning to places. In Relph’s (1976:29)term, place is seen as a multifaceted phenomenonof personal experiences rather than entities that canbe defined simply in terms of their location orappearance. While developed, understood andexperienced differently among different people, onesingle place may have a range of meanings andvalues at a particular time (Australia ICOMOS2000; Harner 2001; Hubbard et al. 2004).Although ‘place’ is often characterized by meaningsand intentions people associate with a particularsetting, the importance of physical characteristicswhether of buildings or natural features in describ-ing a place is undeniable.

Pearson & Sullivan (1995) for example,describe place as the area of concentration of insitu cultural material or region of land where pasthuman activity is manifested physically in the formof structures or buildings. Norberg-Schulz (1980) inhis discussion of the theory of identity and place,emphasized concrete things with material sub-stance, shape, texture and colour in defining place.Moreover, place definition also includes any fixedpart of an historic environment with a distinctiveidentity (English Heritage 2008). The extent of placein building identity can be found by considering theplace as whole entities or fusions of physical fea-tures, and activities to which people have deepemotional and psychological ties (Relph 1976). Thefollowing notion of place by Donat (1967) reflect-ed the concept of identity:

“Places occur at all levels of identity; my place,your place, street, community, town, city, coun-ty, region, country and continent, but placesnever conform to the tidy hierarchies of classifi-cation. They all overlap and interpenetrate oneanother and are wide open to a variety of inter-pretation”.

The combination of physical setting, activities andmeanings as constituent elements of place is cen-tral for identity formation, and this will be discussedin the following section.

2 .2 P lace iden t i t y

The term place identity has its roots in the associa-tion between place and the concept of identity(Hauge 2007; Twigger-Ross & Uzzell 1996).Despite the lack of attention to the influence of thephysical built environment on identity, the concept

of place identity has been discussed implicitly, if notexplicitly in various academic research. Place iden-tity has many interpretations (Lewicka 2008; Lynch1960; Marcouyeux & Fleury-Bahi 2011; Tavakoli2010; Twigger-Ross & Uzzell 1996). For example,Lewicka (2008) defined place identity as “a set ofplace features that guarantee the place’s distinc-tiveness and continuity in time”. Within the contextof urban sustainability, identity is defined byTavakoli (2010) as the physical structure of a citythat is unique and subsequently increases recogni-tion of that city. Similarly, Lynch (1960) conceptual-ized the identity of a place as that which provides itsindividuality, oneness or distinction from otherplaces, and thus is intrinsic to its recognition as aseparable entity. On the other hand, place identityalso focuses on how people see or define them-selves with reference to the physical environment(Marcouyeux & Fleury-Bahi 2011). Using theBreakwell’s identity process model, Twigger-Ross &Uzzell (1996) demonstrated the use of place ingaining positive distinctiveness over people in othersettlements as well as in providing and maintainingindividual’s continuity, self-esteem and self-efficacy.

Collectively, place identity can be defineddifferently by either the ways people expressed iden-tifications with reference to the physical environ-ment or the distinctiveness of the environment itself.However the most important part of identity accord-ing to Shuhana (2011:18), relates to ‘…distinctive-ness of the physical environment and the ability forit to be recognized and recalled vividly by theobserver’. For the purpose of this paper, placeidentity is confined to the unique or distinct charac-ter of a place.

Regardless of size, every city or town hasbeauty, unique and distinct characteristics of itsown. Nevertheless, despite having rich historicaland architectural reserves, towns of a small scale inSouth-East Asian countries including Malaysia havebeen relatively overlooked (Jackson 1973).According to Yuksel & Iclal (2005), they are nowsubject to the triple threat of dilapidation, exhaus-tion and disappearance. In Malaysia, this problemis further exacerbated by the absence of specificlegislation that deals directly with the developmentand conservation of small historic towns. However,this does not necessarily imply that the town has nosignificance (English Heritage 2008). In placeswhere the overall significance and importance isunclear and poorly understood, detailed study andanalysis involving assessment of cultural signifi-cance should be undertaken. This should lead topreparation of a statement of significance estab-lishing the particular value of the place (AustraliaICOMOS 2000). The former particularly entails thedetermination of the elements that made the places

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liidentifiable together with the values they hold(Pearson & Sullivan 1995).

These discussions of place identity raise thequestion of what are the contributing elements ofthe identity of a place. Relph (1976) and Shuhana& Norsidah (2008) identified the physical setting,the activities, and the meanings given by intentionsas three fundamental components that constitutethe very individuality of places. This notion is alsosupported by Hauge (2007) who emphasized theimportance of place in identity development bymeans of physical settings, as well as social, psy-chological and cultural meanings attached to it.

2.2 .1 El ements o f p lace iden t i t y

2.2 .1 .1Phys ica l e lement s and ac t i v i t ie s

One of the most significant elements influencingthe identity of places is the physical form of humanworks. According to Oktay (2002:261) cities, likeindividuals, should have character and distinctions;like individuals, this flavor is made up of numerouscharacteristics, or identifiable elements. As support-ed by Shuhana (2011), distinct elements present ina place are the qualities that one should considerwhen describing identity. For Stubbs (2004), thesemay include familiar landmarks and neighbour-hoods. The Ministry of Housing and LocalGovernment (2010) provides some examples ofthe former, such as natural features of outstandingbeauty, iconic buildings, activity nodes, heritageroutes with rich memories and gathering placespeople can easily identify and be proud of.

Furthermore, Izuandi (2010) highlightedten physical elements of townscapes that are criticalin constructing identity for a town. These specifical-ly refer to the enclosure, or outdoor room, gate-ways and changes of level, closed vistas, deflection,incident, punctuation, narrowing, fluctuation, pro-jection or recession, and the public and privatespace of the town. Similarly, the value of townscapeas opined by Feilden (2005) depends upon ensem-bles of buildings, the spaces they stand in, roads,public spaces, and the views from significant refer-ence points and vistas. From a historical perspec-tive, Shuhana (2011) offered some expansion ofthe concept by referring to an historic townscape asan area with historical significance, which enrichespeople’s sensory experience through many of itsheritage buildings as well as the on-going tradi-tional activities.

Relph (1976) argued that the physical envi-ronment provides the backdrop to activities of thepeople, yet the inverse is also true in which it iscomplemented and influenced by such activities.

According to Norsidah (2010), attributes of physi-cal environment in making places accessible, morereadable, unique, and comfortable including phys-ical, environmental and psychological comfort playa vital role in influencing the identity of a place.

Despite the plethora of notions on whatconstitutes place distinctiveness, many authors havereferred to these vivid or unique characters of thehistoric buildings present in heritage places(Heritage of Malaysia Trust 2011; Mansfield 2008;Kamarul Syahril et al. 2008; Noor Suzaini, 2007;Goad & Ngiom, 2007; Logan et al. 2002;Muhamad Khairuddin, 1996; Syed Zainol, 1996).Kamarul Syahril et al. (2008) and Syed Zainol(1996) for instance, argued that historic buildingswhich are of immense architectural and historicalvalue provide a sense of identity and continuity,especially in the face of globalization. Along withcollective memory and social value, historic urbanfeatures are believed to be salient sources for bothlocal and national identity (Goad & Ngiom 2007;Mansfield 2008). According to Logan (2002), cul-tural heritage has been used to create the sense ofidentity in several Asian countries such as China,Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. For a small town,Muhamad Khairuddin (1996) argued that the phys-ical elements of the old historical buildings makethe most significant contribution in conferring onsuch a town its unique image. Thus, it is evident thatbuilt heritage does not only contribute to nationalbut also local distinctiveness (Heritage of MalaysiaTrust 2011).

Therefore, the most enduring justificationfor considering historic buildings as physical indica-tors of place identity has been their conservation; initself which is largely inspired by its role in instigat-ing, preserving and promoting the identity of aplace (Arazi et al. 2010; Kamarul Syahril et al.2008; Lee & Lim 2010; Noor Amila et al. 2010;Suhana et al. 2011). While it is true that the archi-tectural distinctiveness of historic buildings height-ens the sense of place, it is the meaning or valuesembedded in places that bind people intimatelyand make ordinary places unique from elsewhere(Chang 2010; The Getty Conservation Institute2000). The latter is discussed in the following sec-tion.

2 .2.1.2 Meanings and va lues

The articulation of identity is also related to the feel-ings and perceptions developed through experi-ences people have with a place (Hauge 2007;Norsidah 2010; Relph 1976; Shuhana 2011).Arreola (1995) argued that the readiness and dis-tinctiveness of physical structures are essential pre-

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requisites for building identity but people’s percep-tions or meanings always form the very basis for thisconstruct. According to Harner (2001), identitybuilding could be achieved through the process ofhegemony, or to be more precise, creation of placeidentity when meaning of a place for the majority ofits residents matches the ideological beliefs of thosein power. However, it does not imply that those withpower necessarily determine the meanings of aplace as the process is about dominance obtainedby consent rather than coercion or counter-hege-mony.

As discussed in Section 2.2, meanings,physical form and intensity of activities constitutedistinctiveness and uniqueness of a place. This dis-tinctiveness in turn develops multiple experiences,meanings and emotions among people, whichPuren et al. (2008) referred to as a sense of place.The term which is referred to as place attachment inother studies (Lewicka 2008; Marcouyeux & Fleury-Bahi 2011; Shuhana & Norsidah 2008) is com-monly referred to as positive-affective bonds to aplace.

Similarly, in discussing the concept in thehistorical context, Graham et al. (2009) advocatedthat the senses of place developed by heritageplaces are mostly positive. The significant role increating the sense of place was noted as one of theinherent qualities of historic places (Pearson &Sullivan 1995; Rodwell 2007). For the HeritageCouncil of Western Australia (2012), local people’spositive sense of place and identity is developedwhen the place is felt significant by the inhabitantsfor social, cultural, educational or spiritual reasons.This implies that it is the cultural significance thatmakes places unique and valued by the communi-ty and society as a whole. Therefore, retaining thecultural significance of a place becomes the ulti-mate aim of conservation (Heritage of MalaysiaTrust 2007; Australia ICOMOS 1999; Pearson &Sullivan 1995; the Getty Conservation Institute2000).

The cultural heritage value of a place is notstatic, it is multi-faceted and dependent on humanperceptions (Mason 2002; Pearson & Sullivan1995). However, there is no internationally agreedtypology of values, nor any definitive method forassessing them (Mason 2002; Pearson & Sullivan

1995). Diversity in interpretation of the valuesembedded in cultural property (as illustrated inTable 1) is therefore needed to simply establishsome ground in finding agreement for these values.In most instances, there is a great overlap amongthe values devised among individuals from differentdisciplines and backgrounds. For instance, scientif-ic or technological value outlined in Feilden’s (as anarchitect) typology of value is minimized in the cat-egory suggested by Mason (as preservationist) as itis seen to be derived from historical value.

Despite the diversity of notions of value, itis noted that they are largely based on the definitionof cultural significance by the AustralianICOMOS’s Burra Charter 1999. The Charter stat-ed that the terms aesthetic, historic, scientific andsocial can encompass all other values (AustraliaICOMOS 2000). This statement can be seen fromthe real international practice for local heritageplace assessment. As demonstrated in Table 2, thefour values of the Burra Charter are essentially usedas main criteria in assessing local heritage placesacross Australia and England.

Similarly in Malaysia, the criteria outlinedunder Section 67 of the National Heritage Act 2005are also found to be consistent with the four gener-ic values given in the interpretation of cultural sig-nificance in the Charter. Nevertheless, while beingtoo broad to be used in real assessment practicesin Malaysia, the criteria are only pertinent forassessing places at the national level and thus, notreadily adapted for local use (Heritage of MalaysiaTrust 2007). The absence of provision for theiridentification and protection in some cases causesthe significance of locally significant places to beunderestimated. Nevertheless, it is argued in thispaper that the assessment of cultural significanceand preparation of the statement of significance arethe right steps to be undertaken in establishingvalue for these places. Therefore, comparing thevalue with existing criteria for assessment as hasbeen devised in Australia and England, can makethe process more efficient and hence be a bridge tovalue establishment.

Further to this, it is imperative to have someidea of what the criteria mean before the assess-ment takes place. The Burra Charter, as argued byPearson & Sullivan (1995), is widely accepted and

Table 1. Diverse categories of heritage values developed by different stakeholders.

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therefore it is ‘…helpful, where appropriate, to usethe terms and processes laid down there’. It is worthnoting that the headings of the criteria below arealso drawn from the Burra Charter 1999:

( i ) Aesthe t i c val ueA place with aesthetic value is important in demon-strating creative or design excellence, decoration orcraftsmanship, and particular taste, style or tech-nology. Therefore, it often exhibits landmark quali-ties and subsequently makes a contribution toimportant vistas and the overall quality of a setting.According to Mason (2002), this value may also bederived from the sensory experience (smell, sound,feeling, and sight) of a place.

( i i ) Hi s to r ic va lueA place may have historic value if it is associatedwith past events, developments or cultural placesthat are significant to the place’s history, epitomizestechnical or creative achievement from a particularperiod, or has strong association with the life orworks of a person, group of persons or organiza-tion in shaping that place. The existences of physi-cal evidence of such association do strengthen andcontribute to the claimed historical significance.

( i i i ) Sc ien t i f i c va lueA place of scientific value (also variously calledresearch, archaeological or informational value)should demonstrate a likelihood of providing newor further substantial information that will contributeto an understanding of people regarding their pasthistory, culture, environment, behaviour, earliertechnology or architecture.

( i v ) Soc ia l va lueA place included under this criterion must be ofimportance in its association with a community orcultural group in a particular area for social, cul-tural, educational or spiritual reasons. For this rea-son, it tends to develop local’s positive sense ofplace and identity. In contrast with other values,social value is less dependent on the survival ofphysical fabric. While being the hardest criterion to

identify, people often mistakenly believe that placesare socially valuable for amenity reasons.

Of the four organizations reviewed in Table 2above, only the Heritage Council of South Australiaconsiders economic value as one of the criteria inassessing places that are important to their locality.Mason, (2002) argued that economic value is oftentaken for granted because it differs from other cul-tural values established in the traditional modes ofthe assessment process. Notwithstanding the fact,this paper tends to address economic value as oneof the important criteria to be considered, especial-ly in the face of globalization. As modernization orglobalization brings about much strain on old his-torical reserves present in a particular place (Tung2001), there must be an economic opportunity forthese historical buildings to continue to be reveredand preserved (Tiesdell et al. 1996).

Moreover, the term ‘valuable’ which oftencorrelates to historical reserves itself holds theseresources to be meaningful in economic globaliza-tion (Rypkema 2002). This is especially true whenlinking heritage conservation with tourism (Chang2010; Henderson 2002; Rypkema 2001; 2002;Feilden 2005). This notion can be seen inHenderson’s (2002) work in which a majority of theprincipal urban heritage places found in the formercolonial cities of Malacca and Penang in Malaysiaand also Singapore are transformed into places fortourists to visit; though it might regard as a newform of imperialism. Clearly, it is wise to preservethe quality of irreplaceable historic resources whileobtaining revenue from them.

3.0 Methodology

The methodology used in identifying the uniqueand exceptional characteristics of a place involvesan extensive literature review on the concepts ofplace, place identity, and both physical and ideo-logical components of the identity of places.Different kinds of materials used include the officialdocuments published by government and private

Table 2. Criteria for assessment of local heritage places in Australia and England.

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agencies, journals, theses, newspapers, and othermass media outputs. The in-depth literature reviewattempts to highlight exceptional characteristics ofplaces which together act to create unique environ-ments and make a continuing contribution to theoverall sense of the place. This review is subse-quently complemented by the preliminary survey ofthe small town of Kuala Kubu Bharu (KKB) in theHulu Selangor district of Selangor, Malaysia. In thissurvey, a standardized survey form was used toensure consistency of the information collected. Asoutlined in Section 2.2.1.2, places need to meet atleast one of the pre-defined criteria drawn onguidelines published in Australia and England to beidentified as locally significant places in the town. Itis anticipated that questionnaire surveys of howlocal and non-local residents perceive these placesand interviews with various stakeholders regardingprotection measures and established legislationsimpacting development of small Malaysian townwill form the next stage of the study.

3 .1 Background o f case s tudy

Kuala Kubu Bharu or KKB, an old town built duringthe colonial period is still very much a sleepy hol-low. The name Kuala Kubu originated from SungaiKubu which is one of the tributaries of SungaiSelangor. The town was well known as the secondbiggest town in the State of Selangor; and wasfamous for its tin mining activities during the mid-

19th century. The old Kuala Kubu town was totallydestroyed in the late 19th century, when a heavydownpour caused the dam over Sungai Selangor toburst and flood the town. That however was not theend of the town, as it gave a noticeable impetus forthe development of the new township of KualaKubu Baru (‘baru’ means new in the Malay lan-guage). The town is located in the northeastern partof the state of Selangor in sub-district of Ampangpecah (Figure 1). Located at a very strategic loca-tion near the state border, KKB has become a keytransit point for tourists who are heading to Fraser’sHill in the state of Pahang, while also being a touristdestination in itself.

The town environment is a mixture of builtand non-built land uses including institutional, resi-dential, low-density commercial area, and greenspaces. KKB was the first town in the FederatedMalay States planned with a Garden City conceptin 1930 by Malaya’s first town planner, CharlesCrompton Reade. Through the concept, amplespace was reserved in the town for a park belt sep-arating the central shopping and trading areasfrom the main residential area. Specifically, this wasachieved by having a strict grid-iron pattern ofstreets in laying out the shophouses. Thus the lay-out of the lush park belt and government housingareas give the town a spacious feeling. The formeris found to be the unique feature of the town, as itcannot be found in either new or traditional townsof Malaya (Figure 2). Originally to cater for recre-ational purposes, the concept is also found to be

Figure 1. Location of Kuala Kubu Bharu town.

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useful in precluding increased development andurban sprawl (Noriati 2000). This is presumablyevident as the KKB town has sidestepped the main-stream of development and remained largelyuntouched by modern developments.

The built part of the town largely consists ofold institutional, commercial and residential build-ings. KKB is close not only to the hearts of local res-idents but also to the city dwellers of Kuala Lumpur,as for many years it has played host to them as arefuge from the hustle and bustle of city life. As dis-cussed in Section 2.1, a place is not only charac-terized by physical characteristics but also mean-ings and feelings people have with a particular set-ting. This small town although looking a bit rundown, still bears the vestiges of the pre-war era. Itsilently holds many untold stories of the past histo-ry, and thus needs to be studied and investigatedfurther.

To date much of Reade’s original layout isstill in place and so are the elements that make upthe original concept. These include the striking fea-tures of the park belts and playgrounds, low densi-ty housing, visually attractive tree-planting treat-

ment, separation of areas by use, and the naturallandscape view. Overall, the importance of thephysical or Garden City design elements in KKB,both natural and man-made, create a distinctiveatmosphere for the town.

4 .0 Resu l t s and d i scu ss i ons

KKB was dubbed after its Special Area Plan‘Garden City Heritage’. As the name suggests, his-torical reserves of the town can also be consideredas one of the significant components that shape theidentity and character of the town. The distributionof the 145 heritage buildings surveyed in KKB townis summarized in Table 3, based on the criteriaestablished in Section 2.2.1.2. Also, their locationis shown by red shading in Figure 4. Categorizationof the buildings in Table 3 is based on the Heritageof Malaysia Trust’s (1990) analytical framework forrecording and documenting historically importantbuildings in Malaysia.

Table 3. The values of heritage buildings in Kuala Kubu Bharu town.

Figure 2. View towards the park

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The survey revealed that more than half ofthe buildings are used for commercial purposes (99buildings). In particular, these are comprised shop-houses which are mostly 80 years old, double-storey, and rich in contrasts. Apart from the varietyof façades of different styles, the covered passage-way in front of the shophouses, commonly knownas the five-foot-way or in the Malay languagecalled kaki lima, gives the buildings their uniquecharacter and therefore can be both nostalgic andcharming (Figure 3). Historically, these old shop-houses were built from 1928 onwards and there-fore are significant by association with the begin-ning of the new KKB, after the old ones were swept

away by the massive flood. These pre-war buildingsalso continue to be valued for their economic role.Although the buildings have not been well-main-tained in recent years, they still function as venuesfor different commercial activities; supporting localretail and improving the employment opportunitiesfor the locals. While constantly drawing people intothe area, these activities also support the livelinessand attraction of the town as a whole. In line withthe criteria discussed in Section 2.2.1.2, the repre-sentation of British Neo-Classical style, associationwith early development of the town and the contin-uing traditional use of the buildings make majorcontribution to the claimed architectural, historicaland economic significance of the shophouses.

The term ‘other’ in Table 3 incorporatesbuildings that are no longer in use or are simplyabandoned, many of which are the single andsemi-detached government quarters along JalanHospital and Jalan Syed Mashor. The old fire sta-tion located within the vicinity of the historic shop-houses is also classified under this category (Figure5). The building has recently been refurbished to beconverted into a tourist visitor centre but as yet thishas not been fully accomplished.

The very notion of heritage is deeply root-ed in historical value. This is illustrated as almost all(141 buildings) surveyed buildings in KKB arefound to be significant to the locality’s history. Fineexamples of this value include the Al-Hidayah

Figure 3. Pre-war shophouses

Figure 4. Distribution of the identified built heritage in KKB.

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Mosque and the old police station. The former isbelieved to be the only surviving building from theoriginal Kuala Kubu town and has played a majorrole in the contributing towards the well-being ofthe Muslim community in the town (Figure 6). Theold police station or Balai Polis Lama, as it is com-

monly known by locals, is the first police stationconstructed in KKB town. This two storey pre-warbuilding is an important place in the political histo-ry of the town, and is significant for its associationwith the opening of the new KKB after the old onewas destroyed by the flood. Apart from its historic

Figure 6. Al-Hidayah mosque.

Figure 5. Old fire station.

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value, the eclectic elements of its architecturaldesign, such as the keystone shaped arch and thearcades on the ground floor, add to the aestheticqualities of the building. The design concept of thispolice station which reflects the influence of Malayand European architecture essentially qualified thebuilding as one of the unique and valuable land-marks in KKB town. Thus it meets the criteria i ofaesthetic value outlined in Section 2.2.1.2.

5 .0 Conc lu s ion

Symbiosis between physical forms of environmentand social meanings are central to the delineationof identity. The role of the physical form of the envi-ronment as one of the important indicators for iden-tity is evident through the accessibility, imageability,and legibility qualities it provides. Forming part ofthe place’s charm and appeal, any historic buildingor group of buildings which contribute to place dis-tinctiveness, and which embody the community’sexperience and have meaning, need to be pre-served and enhanced. Otherwise they are in dan-ger of being overlooked, as has happened in manySouth-East Asian countries (including Malaysia)today. Sensitivity toward the care of these culturalbuilt heritages should be developed, not only inlarge historical towns but also, and most impor-tantly, in small towns where the original legacy ofour great-grandparents may be protected but arebeing constantly undermined. The absence of statu-tory recognition for such places does not necessar-ily imply that they have no significance. Therefore,it is important to examine the meanings that peopleattach to them and the resources needed to pre-serve them. By bringing together best internationalpractice, this paper offers a current set of criteria forthe assessment of heritage places that would bene-fit from establishing and securing place identity.

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Author(s):

Nur Farhana AzmiPh.D Candidate, Faculty of Built Environment, Universityof Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaE-mail:[email protected]

Faizah Ahmad Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Built Environment, University ofMalaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaEmail: [email protected]

Azlan Shah AliAssociate Professor, Faculty of Built Environment,University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaEmail: [email protected]

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1 . I n t roduc t ion

The way of life and economic growth of rural areasis shaped by the production, processing and sale ofagricultural produce. The success of the industrycan be considered as a major indicator of sustain-able development in rural locations, and the build-ings serving the industry as a historical legacy.Although the continued presence of local cropsremains important, the depopulation of rural areasdue to urban industrialisation has resulted in thedegradation of not only these agricultural build-ings, but of the landscape itself (Latham, 2000;Douglas, 2002; Ball, 2002). In many Europeancountries, the sensitive adaptive re-use of industrialand agricultural buildings has been a significantcontributor to the improvement of rural economies(Ely and Worthington, 1984; Agostini andSangiorgi, 1996).

As stated by Timothy and Nyaupane(2009), cultural heritage provides much appeal fortourism in the less developed countries, where itcan contribute to sustainable development. Builtheritage is a non-renewable material and spiritualresource, and helps both local communities andvisitors to appreciate cultural diversity (ICOMOS1999a). Although in the west, heritage manage-ment programmes are focused predominantlyaround the tourism sector, in the developing world,the dynamics present additional challenges fromsocio-economic, political, and historical perspec-tives (Winter, 2007). By examining these perspec-

tives, creative local economies can be developedwhich are based upon creativity and local distinc-tiveness (Bianchini, 2009).

This article will focus on the opportunitiesfor the adaptive re-use of carob warehouses inNorthern Cyprus. Due to the region’s lack of inter-national recognition, heritage tourism presents anopportunity to preserve an important aspect of cul-tural heritage, and in so doing also aid local eco-nomic growth (Timothy and Nyaupane, 2009;Timothy and Boyd, 2006).

The study has six main parts. Following theintroduction, the second section provides a litera-ture review on both adaptive reuse and culturaltourism. The third section explains the importanceof stakeholders in adaptive reuse projects. Thefourth section underlines the importance of carobwarehouses, and focuses on the cultural signifi-cance and architectural characteristics of the ware-houses in the rural areas of Northern Cyprus. Thefifth section put forwards adaptive reuse opportuni-ties of carob warehouses together with their holisticconservation and also offers the possibility of therevitalisation of the old carob-way for tourism/ edu-cational purposes. In conclusion, the study illumi-nates the importance of the conservation of thecarob warehouses as fundamental features of therural industrial heritage of Northern Cyprus andseeks to offer solutions for their recognition and forthem to be experienced and enjoyed by local andinternational visitors.

Hulya Yuceer, Beser Oktay Vehbi

Abstract

Scattered mainly along the coast of Cyprus, a series of modest stone built carob warehouses provide a historical lega-

cy of the agricultural, social and economic life of the rural areas of Cyprus during the late 19th and early 20th centu-

ry. They were constructed of local materials and employed local building techniques, and have become a largely unrec-

ognized part of the local landscape. Most remain in a dilapidated condition through neglect and weathering through-

out the years. It is suggested that this is largely due to a lack of understanding of their cultural significance, and a lack

of vision as to how a holistic conservation approach could help to address wider strategic policy objectives in the areas

of sustainable tourism/ place marketing, and rural economic development. More specifically it is suggested that a

tourism path incorporating former carob collecting routes could support the adaptive re-use of the former warehouses

based upon contemporary cultural needs and opportunities. The development of such an approach will require a multi-

agency, cross-sectoral involvement that sees these buildings as a significant cultural resource.

Keywords: Adaptive Re-Use, Carob Warehouse, Cultural Heritage, Cultural Tourism.

ADAPTIVE REUSE OF CAROB WAREHOUSES INNORTHERN CYPRUS.

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2 . Re-u s ing bu i l t he r i tage and cu l tura ltour i sm

This literature review presents discussions related tothe adaptive reuse of historic buildings for tourismand local regeneration purposes. Since these twomain topics are grounded on different disciplinesthe literature review is carried out on both adaptivereuse and cultural tourism.

2 .1 Adap t i ve reuse o f h i s to r ic bui ld ings

The Burra Charter of 1979 has been legitimised asa conservation process specifically for the adaptionof obsolete historic buildings. Later in its revisedform, the Charter describes an “adaptable func-tion” of a building as one that respects cultural val-ues (ICOMOS, 1999b). In article 7, it states thatwhen the function has cultural importance it shouldbe preserved, and that in such cases clear policiesneed to be established to preserve this culturalvalue, and define and set limits on its area(s) of use.(ICOMOS, 1999b). Many of the discussions on there-use of historical buildings refer to the physicalcharacteristics of the spaces, the compatibility of thenew function with respect to the qualities of theexisting space, and the evaluation of the potentialof the new function (Altınoluk, 1998; Douglas2006; Gause, 1996; Latham, 2000). There arevery few studies however that contribute to thesediscussions by focusing on the importance of theintangible values of buildings and places and howthese elements come together to establish new useswhich not only respect the integrity of the building,but also contribute to local economies, communitycohesion and local distinctiveness.

In establishing effective criteria to deter-mine appropriate functions, the values of a historicbuilding, in terms of both its characteristics as anarchitectural product, and as a piece of culturalheritage should be identified (Orbaşlı, 2008).Therefore, the three interrelated objectives of adap-tive reuse; physical, spatial, and social, need to bereconciled (Orbaşlı, 2000). Physically, it aims toimprove old buildings and bring them into modernuse. Spatially, it is viewing the townscape as a holis-tic entity, with its relationships between spaces andtheir use, as well as circulation and traffic. The thirdobjective, and the one most neglected, is theinvolvement of local communities.

A building cannot therefore be perceivedas independent from the environment it exists in, oreven from changes taking place in the countrywhere it is located. Rapid developments in methodsof communication, transportation and informationtechnologies help to spread globalisation and cul-

tivate homogeneity among societies (Nasser,2003). In this context, we can say that as culturaldifferences begin to diminish or even die out, theredevelops a counter movement that aims to protectthose things which reflect and promote theseindigenous cultures. The best indicator of this is thegrowth of the tourism industry in line with theincrease in globalisation, and the large share of thisindustry that is attributed to cultural tourism (Chang,1999).

2.2 Cu l tu ra l Tou r i sm

Currently the cultural heritage of places not onlyattracts tourism as an economic resource; it canalso be characterised, on account of the informa-tion it signifies, as a cultural, social and politicalresource (Graham, 2002). The simplest instance ofhow we conceptually shape cultural heritage, inter-preting and transforming it into an economicresource, lies in the idea of representation (Hall,1997). When an object belonging to the past isidentified today as cultural heritage, the thoughtarises of communicating the information it bears tothe society concerned or other societies, and with it,the idea of representing it for this purpose (Sack,1992). A common position is that cultural heritageas a knowledge resource should be transformedinto capital through the medium of tourism (Sack,1992; Castells, 1997; Hall, 1997; Agnew, 2000;Garrod and Fyall, 2000; Mac Leod, 2000;Graham, 2002).

When tourism is administered purely interms of economics, on the basis of surplus value,not only do the results not match the expectations,but it can potentially harm the authenticity that cre-ates the spirit of historical sites (Russo, 2002;Nasser, 2003). Indeed, studies of the demand forcultural tourism and the attitudes underlying it showthat the perceived quality of cultural tourism is asso-ciated with authenticity (Chhabra, Healy & Sills,2003). Visitors who come to visit a place do not justwant to see cultural assets; they want immersethemselves in that culture (Kerstetter, Confer &Brider, 1998). In other words, visitors go and visit aplace first and foremost for its intangible qualities,for what it makes them feel.

The 12th ICOMOS (1999b) meetingorganised to discuss these perceptions succeededin identifying a set of international common princi-ples for providing a more appropriate relationshipbetween preservation and tourism. An outcome ofthis meeting was the “International Cultural TourismCharter,” which in its first article defines a healthypreservation-tourism relationship: “Because cultur-al communication is one of the most effective tools

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bifor both local and international tourism, preserva-tion should provide well-organized benefits for thehost community, and priority should be given to vis-itors’ experience and understanding of the cultureof the community in question and the heritage thatrepresents it” (ICOMOS, 1999b). What is empha-sised here is the relationship between visitors’ prop-er understanding of cultural heritage resources andcommunities’ participation in protecting theirassets. Considering the cultural difference betweenthe communities who created the heritage and thecommunities who now own it, it is stressed thattoday’s communities should understand the valuesof the heritage of the past and embrace them, whileat the same time reflecting their own contemporarycultural values as they are.

3. The Ro le o f S takeho lder s

The above discussions imply a close and interde-pendent relationship between cultural heritage,conservation and tourism - an integrated conserva-tion approach supported by Tiesdell et al (1996),Orbaşlı (2000). Integrated conservation physically,aims to improve old structures/environments andbring them into modern use. Spatially, it is viewingthe townscape as a holistic entity, with its relation-ships between spaces and their use, as well as cir-culation and traffic. Socially, it concerns the users,local community (participation), and the urbanpopulation. Also existing laws and regulations andfinancial resources in such areas should be takeninto consideration. As a result of such holisticapproach, the outcome of the conservation pro-jects will be long-life and help local communities tobe aware about benefits and outcomes of suchprojects. This approach is suggested in this studythat with the support of local communities theCarob Way project would have a better outcome.Thus, a range of stakeholders will need to beengaged to test the proposals, and a cultural roundup carried out to establish local cultural resourcesand needs. Current economic drivers should alsobe identified as this may expose opportunities. Forexample, it will be suggested later that a local uni-versity may be interested in taking one on.

Such stakeholders might be categorisedunder hard (the construction industry and all relat-ed professions), soft, (community/civic groups) andfinancial (banks, developers, accountants) infra-structures (Table 1). It would include those involvedin local production or carobs and related naturalfoods (olives, dates, grapes, honey etc) and localcultural providers and animateurs, (artists, poets,musicians, digital media, education providers,etc.), the media, political champions, school chil-

dren, government departments etc. Opportunitiesand synergies can emerge when such diversegroups are brought together. Opportunities forpublic private partnerships (PPP) may result, toenable projects to be financed and to offer goodvalue. Local schools can become involved and inso doing learn about their cultural heritage. Thethreat in not engaging stakeholders is that there willbe no sense of ownership amongst local communi-ties, and those making decisions will not benefitfrom the insights of local people. Tourism nowneeds authenticity which prohibits cultures that havebeen created purely for the tourism market. Manyvisitors are now rejecting such places in favour of amore enriching visitor experience which comesfrom the genius-loci.

4. Case S tudy: Carob warehouses inNor the rn Cyprus

Located in the eastern Mediterranean (Figure 1),the climate of Cyprus has offered a suitable envi-ronment for the natural growth of carob as a dry-land crop for centuries (Davies, 1970; Makhzoumi,1997). The presence of carob trees and the impor-tance of carob and its products are mentioned inthe writings of many travellers in the past (Kitchener,1879; Madon, 1930; Grivaud, 1990;Ohnefalsch, 1913; Pococke, 1745; Brown, 1879;Cobham, 1909).

In the past, carobs were the major agricul-

Table 1. Stakeholder typology.

Figure 1. Location of Cyprus.

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tural export of the island and for some villages thecentre of agricultural activity and the main source ofincome (Figure 2). However, diseases spread bypets and rats led to the decline in carob yields andthe rural population turned their attention to thedevelopment of citrus plantations (Davies, 1970).In time, the political changes, such as the island’sindependence from British rule in 1960 and theconflict in 1974, played a major role in the declineof carob planting and export. In respect of whatthen became Northern Cyprus, the political embar-gos brought in after the division of the island madethe export of any product impossible leading to asignificant decrease in plantations and the derelic-tion of carob warehouses.

4 .1 . C ar ob Har ves t in g , W ar ehou sesand the “Carob-Way”

The main region for carob cultivation in the north-ern part of the island stretches from Morphou in theeast, to Kyrenia and the Karpas in the west. Most ofthe warehouses are located along this route.Traditionally, the juice of the carob pod, so called"carob honey", "Black Gold"; or locally named as"betmez", is still consumed as a substitute for bee-honey or jam and is used as flavouring for culinarypurposes. It is processed in factories in Famagustaand also used for animal fodder.

Historically, the lack of roads, railways andharbours for use in the transportation of harvestedcarobs stands as a major reason for the construc-tion of carob warehouses. Donkeys, camels andmules had been used to transport carobs from oneplace to another until the early British rule. Whenthe island came under the British government in1878, there were neither harbours nor railways and

only one road connecting Larnaca and Nicosia(Orr, 1972). By 1906, the harbour was completedand the railway, which connected Famagusta,Nicosia and Morphou, was opened in 1907(Turner, 1979, Ballantyne, 2007).

However, these developments were not suf-ficient to transport of all the carobs, as many of theplantations were located on the northern coast sep-arated by the Kyrenia Five Finger Mountain rangelying parallel to the north coast. Thus, the Britishgovernment needed to construct warehouses on theshore line where carobs could be stored and trans-ferred to ships using jetties (Figure 3, 4). Althoughit is hard to establish exactly when the carob ware-houses were constructed, there are some sourcesindicating their presence in early British rule.According to the superintendent of a British policenotice dating 27 May 1898, harbours with carobwarehouses were mentioned as Gemikonağı(Karavostasi), Karşıyaka (Vasilia), Girne (Kyrenia),Esentepe (Akanthou), Larnaca, Limassol, Paphos,Gazimagusa (Famagusta) (Bağışkan, 2012). Inaddition, the dates provided on some warehousessuch as Kayalar (Orga) 1905, Kaplıca (Davlos)1909, Yenierenköy (Yialusa) 1930, can be consid-ered as evidence of the construction of the carobwarehouses during this same period (Figure 5).

Collectively, the warehouses on the coastoffer traces of the carob-way: the routes of shipswhich collected and transported the carobs to theimporting countries. In the British Admiralty Map(1936), the harbours suitable for trading shipsaround the island, the carob-way or stop pointswere marked as ‘Trading Stn.’ (Trading station) forKarşıyaka (Vasilia), Tatlısu, Mersinlik, Kaplıca,Yenierenköy in Northern Cyprus and Evdim andPisuri in Southern Cyprus (Navari, 2003).

When the island gained independence

Figure 2. A Carob tree and its fruits.

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from British rule in 1960, changes in the collectionand export of carobs affected the use of all thewarehouses and by 1974 most were abandoned.

4 . 2 . L oc a t i on , A rc h i t e c t u r a lCh ara c t e r i s t i c s and Cu l t u r a lS ign i f i cance o f Warehouses

The findings of this research are based on a twoyear study undertaken from 2010-2012. By exam-ining the records of the Department of Antiquitiesand the field study carried out as part of thisresearch, 53 carob warehouses were identified inthe whole of Cyprus.

Following the division of the island in1974, 34 of the warehouses remain in the northernpart of the island and 19 in the southern part. Inrespect of those remaining in the north, 17 carob

Figure 5. Warehouses in Kayalar (1905) .

Figure 6. Location of the carob warehouses-the villages-starting from Kayalar to Kalecik.

Figure 4. A typical warehouse in Kaplıca (Davlos).

Figure 3. A warehouse and its jetty in Yalousa in 1950s

(Yenierenkoy) (Gursoy, 1962).

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warehouses, 2 of which are totally dilapidated,were found in rural areas (Table 2). The remains ofthe dilapidated warehouses are located in Kaplıca(Davlos) and Kalecik (Gastria), and they are listedby the Department of Antiquities. The 17 carobwarehouses which have been studied in this paperare dotted around the northern coast of Cyprusstarting from the furthest western point at Kayalarand extending to the eastern tip of the island atKalecik (Figure 6). Since the warehouses are eitherlocated along the old vehicular accesses or close tothe sea shore, most of them are not visible from the

main road. They are approximately 5-10 m fromthe sea shore except in Tatlısu, where one of threewarehouses is located 1km from the sea. Harvestedcarobs were deposited in the warehouses using thesouthern facade to the rear, and were then loadedonto ships from a wooden jetty via the main northfacing facade.

Most of the warehouses are emblematicsingle storey rectangular buildings with thick stonemasonry walls and numerous aligned windows toimprove ventilation. The rural warehouses wereconstructed in various sizes as single or multiple

Table 2. Current conditions of the warehouses in Northern Cyprus.

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units and covered with pitched roofs (Figure 7).One warehouse unit is approximately 9m wide and13m long and 7-9m high. Where the warehousesare located on steeply sloping sites, the height maybe 1.5-2m on its south side and 7-9m on its northside, facing the sea. The front facade of each unit

has a square door opening –generally measuring2mx2m- with a timber lintel and two small windowsfor ventilation. Two openings are located on thesouth facade, where the carobs arrive into thebuilding. On the east and west facades, there areno window openings but small holes can be identi-

Table 2cont. Current conditions of the warehouses in Northern Cyprus.

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fied which prevent the build-up of moisture andhumidity inside the building.

All of the warehouses are constructed usingload-bearing local sandstone walls supported bybuttresses at the base of the north east and westwalls, most of which are still standing (Figure 8).Floors are either covered with cut stone or polishedcement. The roofs are generally constructed usingtimber beams covered with rush mat and earth. In

some warehouses iron beams or arches are used tosupport the roof. Since most of the sample buildingshave been abandoned, their roofs have collapsedas a result of erosion caused by wind, sun, rain andsalt conditions and the lack of maintenance. Waterpenetration and mould growth are evident, partic-ularly on the north walls. Internally the walls of thebuildings are also covered in vegetation as a resultof the collapsed roof.

Table 2cont. Current conditions of the warehouses in Northern Cyprus.

Figure 7. A carob warehouse in Mersinlik with additional units.

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Due to their isolated location and originaluse, there are no service infrastructures. Re-useproposals would therefore need to consider theprovision of electricity, water and sewage. It is sug-gested therefore that power generating deviceswould need to be incorporated into the re-use pro-posals.

Among the warehouses studied, 17 havebeen listed by the Department of Antiquities.Currently only two of them are in use. One of thechallenges posed by this proposal is the challengesfaced by the existing legislative and planningframework in Northern Cyprus.

4.3 . The conserva t i on o f cu l tu ra l he r -i tage in North Cyprus

The cultural heritage of Northern Cyprus is facingsome major challenges. The reasons for this arecomplex but are underpinned an inadequatelyresourced planning and legal framework. This hasresulted in a lack of awareness of planning issuesat community level, a lack of public participation,and an insufficient legislative basis from which tooperate. International conservation principles aresimply not adhered to.

With the exception of some of the largerEuropean Union (EU) and United States Agenciesfor International Development (USAID) fundedinfrastructural projects, the architectural, social andeconomic values are not given sufficient emphasisby the authorities which can cause conservation orrevitalisation studies to be short-term and piece-meal with a flawed methodology. The protection ofcultural heritage focuses on preservation ratherthan conservation and this creates obstacles foreffective revitalisation.

As Doratlı (2000) highlights, the planningpractices with respect to conservation areas in

Northern Cyprus do not have a long-term perspec-tive because the physical condition of the buildingis given primacy over the broader social and eco-nomic problems of the context in which the build-ing exists. At a community level, people areunaware of the importance of their built heritageand see it as ‘not their problem’.

The legislative framework provides thebasis for the identification of historical, architectur-al, and cultural heritage/ conservation areasincluding the cataloguing of buildings and sites,and the provision of some technical and financialassistance to the owners of registered buildings. Italso provides for the preparation of conservationplans and development control policies in conser-vation areas. However, as a whole, it does not pro-vide for the effective implementation of these plans.Both the Antiquities Law and the Town Planning Laware directly related to the conservation of buildingsand sites but the action plans cannot be imple-mented due to the lack of a coordinated legislativeframework (Doratlı, 2000). In addition there is noestablished local authority structure and this mayvary with each new government. The Town Planningdepartment, which should be working at a longterm strategic level can be negatively affected bysuch variations.

Some of the challenges faced by culturalheritage in North Cyprus have been identified in theNational Physical Plan (2012). Amongst these arelack of grant funding for improving culturalresources, a lack of resources to produce a registerof cultural built heritage (especially those located inrural sites such as warehouses, olive oil buildingsand industrial buildings), and the construction ofpoorly designed new buildings in these areas. Adeclining tourism sector was also highlighted aswell as a lack of awareness about the importanceof cultural heritage sites that can cause damageand obsolescence.

The Plan also promotes higher standards innew building designs, improving social and techni-cal infrastructures and encourages promotionalactivities such as festivals that present traditionallocal foods, drinks and handcrafts. Promotion oflocal micro economies such as hotels, pensions,restaurants and cafes that will be operated by localvillagers will all contribute to the economy. Withinthe area that most of the warehouses are located,the Plan aims to develop and diversify the econo-my, and focus more on the agriculture and tourismas follows:

Local micro and small enterprises that arerelated with tourism and agriculture will be sup-ported and encouraged, Natural and cultural heritages will be conserved,developed and used.

Figure 8. Buttresses on the facades- Warehouse in

Esentepe.

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Social and technical infrastructure will be devel-oped and encouraged for increasing the quality oflife in these areas.

Cultural tourism will be developed andencouraged for developing cultural and art activi-ties in cultural heritage sites (NPP, 2012).

The above provides a robust policy frame-work for the Carob Way proposals. The 2 successful examples of adaptive re-use ofthese buildings are both in the prime tourist area ofKyrenia harbour - one of them is converted to cafe-bar and other to a folk museum (Figure 9). Thereare two other warehouses - one in Mersinlik and theother in Solonez that were rented to private ownersby the Department of Antiquities but these areabandoned now. According to the laws and regu-lations, the restoration project and the new functionof the building should be approved by theDepartment of Antiquities and they can then be

rented for 49 years. In the Mersinlik case, a thera-py centre was proposed and in the Solonez case apension. The restoration proposals were approvedby the Department of Antiquities and the worksbegan. However although these were not in accor-dance with the approved drawings a lack ofresources prevented enforcement action. Thesehave now both been abandoned and are evidenceof a lack of robust policy guidance and enforce-ment.

5 . Re inven t ing the Former Carob Way

According to the National Physical Plan (2012),there is a presumption for tourism related useswhich will help regenerate local villages and com-munities. It is our contention that some of the fail-ures of past projects involving these warehouseswere due to a lack of a collective vision from pub-lic authorities to see ‘the big picture’. The ‘CarobWay’ will link these buildings both conceptually andphysically with a sea route. Since the access tosome of them is difficult by land, sea transportationis essential to successfully revitalise these buildings(Figure 10). Tourism routes promise to bring togeth-er a variety of activities and attractions under a uni-fied theme and thus stimulate entrepreneurialopportunities through the development of ancillaryproducts and services (Greffe, 1994; Gunn, 1979;Fagence, 1991; Long et al. 1990).

It is suggested that the carob way tourcould include up to 15 stops. Since the warehous-es are scattered over different parts of the northerncoast, there might be one long route (from the east)and one shorter route (from west). The long onecould take 2 days and might be for those peoplewho are interested in the conservation of thesebuildings, the carob harvesting process and itsimportance to the Island, and the shorter one is forpresenting these buildings as examples of industrialheritage during the British colonial period. As somecannot be easily reached from the land, both a sea-way and a land-way could be developed. The sil-houette of the Five Finger Mountain and carobtrees can be experienced this way. The starting pointof the main route could be from Selonez (in theeast) and end in the main tourist harbour of Kyreniawhich also houses two carob warehouses itself. Theother route could start from Kayalar (in the west)and again culminates at the main harbour inKyrenia. The proposed routes could be advertisedthrough place marketing strategies. It could also beadded to the European Route of Industrial Heritage,the tourism information network of industrial her-itage in Europe.

The involvement of Stakeholders outlined

Figure 9. The front facade of the Kyrenia museum.

Figure 10. Proposed tourist routes for warehouses.

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biabove might identify possible uses for the buildings,as well as establish community needs and financingmechanisms. In line with the strategic planningpolicies that developed in National Physical Plan(2012) and the literature review, the following ideascould be tested:

• Carob ‘living’ museum making carob produce -but this could be linked to an agricultural technol-ogy and food sciences laboratory, researchingindigenous crops (carobs, figs, olives, grapes,dates) and could be leased to a local university asa public private partnership (PPP) for a peppercornrent in exchange for the long term maintenanceand upkeep. • Restored for short term holiday lets - spectacularlocation - isolated. Would make a great retreat forwriters and artists. • Flexible conversion for mixed educational uses • Small pension • Restaurant/ bar • Music/ theatre venue

Although the above uses relate to specific ware-houses, it is important to retain a conceptual linkbetween the collective group as this reinforces arelated narrative about authenticity and local dis-tinctiveness. And yet the proposed uses reflect con-temporary culture which of course includes valuingarchitectural heritage, and having a greater envi-ronmental awareness in any case, which, in thecase of the Carob Way, will include arrangementsfor power generation.

The absence of a service infrastructure willnecessitate power generation. It is suggested thatsun, wind and sea be captured with photovoltaics,relatively small and commercially available windgenerators and tidal power collectors, and that thiswill provide the needs of the converted warehous-es. Foul waste can go to a septic/ tight tank fortreating and recycling. As stated earlier, increasing-ly visitors are choosing to engage with ‘culturaltourism’ but at the same time reflect contemporarythoughts and concerns.

Experience in western Europe and else-where have demonstrated that small investments insoft (social) infrastructures at community level inaddition to hard (physical) infrastructures has morelong term benefit and is therefore more sustainable.In the UK and in other parts of western Europe localcivic societies play a crucial role in the advocacyand management of cultural resources.Organisations such as the National Trust, theLandmark Trust and the Society for the Protection ofAncient Buildings (SPAB) provide excellent servicesin promoting and (in the case of the LandmarkTrust) restoring important buildings for re-use as

holiday destinations, and in so doing generateincome to continue to carry on their work. Theseorganisations are often constituted as Trustsfinanced in part by the government, and are sup-ported by volunteers who take an active interest intheir cultural heritage. The promotion of such civicsocieties in North Cyprus (where civic society is cur-rently considered to be weak) could play a crucialadvocacy role.

The establishment of a Tourism InvestmentFund with clearly stated values and criteria couldhelp to maintain existing rural micro-economies inaddition to creating new ones. Moreover it is likelythat external/ international funding agencies wouldbe looking to invest only in projects that endorsedtheir own funding criteria which increasinglyincludes sustainability indicators. As suggested ear-lier, there is evidence to suggest that investment inauthentic local industries and local people will initself make North Cyprus more appealing for localsand visitors alike.

6 . Conc lus ion

The general aim of this study is to bring a lesserknown, authentic and appealing element of theIsland’s history both for the Island’s tourism indus-try and locals, but in a way that will positivelyimpact on a range of existing local micro-economies. In order for this to happen, effectively arange of stakeholders suggested to be engaged totest the proposals, and a cultural auditing exercisecarried out to establish local cultural resources andneeds. Cyprus is a unique place and this studycould help to establish and promote local distinc-tiveness and a responsible vision for a sustainablefuture. If successful, it can become a benchmark forother similar projects in developing countries.

Such an approach would not only determine usesfor the buildings along the way which were basedon the needs and aspirations of the various stake-holders, but would also have great value in termsof local advocacy and support as well as present-ing a range of funding possibilities. The implemen-tation of this proposal will require vision and dedi-cation but the benefits could be profound.

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Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank Mukaddes Faslı, Resmiye Alpar andEmine Reis for their support during the site survey of thisresearch.

List of Tables Table 1: Stakeholder typology. Table 2: Current conditions of the warehouses in NorthernCyprus.

List of Figures Figure 1: Location of Cyprus. Figure 2: A Carob tree and its fruits. Figure 3: A warehouse and its jetty in Yalousa in 1950s(Yenierenkoy) (Gursoy, 1962). Figure 4: A typical warehouse in Kaplıca (Davlos). Figure 5: Warehouses in Kayalar (1905) Figure 6: Location of the carob warehouses-the villages-start-ing from Kayalar to Kalecik. Figure 7: A carob warehouse in Mersinlik with additional units. Figure 8: Buttresses on the facades- Warehouse in Esentepe Figure 9: The front facade of the Kyrenia museum. Figure 10: Proposed tourist routes for warehouses.

Au thor (s ) :

Hulya YUCEERAdana Science and Technology University, Turkey

Beser OKTAY VEHBIEastern Mediterranean University, Northern Cyprus

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1 . In t roduc t ion

the urban population in the developing world willdouble by the year 2030, which means that wehave less than 20 years to build as much urbanhousing as was built in the past 6,000 years(goethert, 2010). During the World urban forum6 (Wuf-6) of naples, Italy, the un-Habitatannounced that the organization is in the process ofsetting up a “global Housing strategy to the year2025” (gHs2025). according to the first informa-tion sheet circulated by the un-Habitat, thegHs2025 will advance the Habitat agenda themeof “adequate shelter for all” and prepare a newvision of housing through a global strategy docu-ment emerging from broad-based national, region-al and global consultation processes. the inade-quate public policies resulted in the lack of ade-quate and affordable housing, which in turn result-ed in over 860 million people around the world liv-ing in slums and informal housing (un-Habitat,2012). providing an adequate and affordableshelter for all is a global problem that needs to beaddressed and discussed according to the lessonslearned from the experiences of the differentapproaches that are applied all over the world.this paper discusses the recent egyptian experiencein encouraging the participation of low-income

groups in the construction process of their ownhouses through an incremental housing program.the paper also derives the implications that couldbe learned from this experience towards betterapplication in the future.

2 . Hous ing p rob l em in egyp t

the provision of affordable housing units is one ofthe major problems that has been facing allsequential egyptian governments since the mid ofthe twentieth century. this long period of dealingwith this problem resulted in a huge deficit in thehousing units needed for low-income groups. thisdeficit is estimated at about 3.5 million housingunits (rageh, 2007). this deficit is primarily causedby a steadily growing gap between demand andsupply of housing units for lower income groups.the problem is further escalated by rapidly deterio-rating housing stock, high rates of populationgrowth, informal housing and slums expansion,regional imbalance, urbanization explosion, lowproductivity, deficient housing and constructionindustry, inappropriate formal housing policies andinadequate housing and development legislations(abdel-Kader and ettouney, 2012).

Ahmed M. Shalaby

Abstract

The urban population in the developing world will double by the year 2030 increasing the pressure in the housing sec-

tor that already suffers from the lack of adequate and affordable housing. Egypt, similar to most countries in the devel-

oping world, witnesses a huge deficit in the housing units needed for low-income groups. Since the mid Nineteen

Seventies, the Egyptian government adopted and implemented a variety of low-cost housing development strategies

including: site and services schemes, core housing projects, partially completed housing units in apartment blocks, and

totally finished housing projects. The huge informal housing sector in Egypt has proved the ability of the low-income

groups to build for their own-selves. Thus, the incremental housing approach was one of the approaches that were

adopted by the Egyptian government to solve the housing problem. Ebny Baitak or “Build Your House” is an incremental

housing approach and one of the approaches undertaken by the Ministry of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Development

within the National Housing Program to solve the housing problems of low-income groups in Egypt. This paper dis-

cusses the recent Egyptian experience in encouraging the participation of low-income groups in the construction process

of their own houses through an incremental housing program “Ebny Baitak project”. The paper also derives the impli-

cations that could be learned from this experience towards better application in the future.

Keywords: Incremental Housing, Housing Policies, Housing Problems in Egypt, Ebny Baitak Project, Sixth of October

City.

ImplIcatIons from recent experIence of anIncremental HousIng project In egypt.

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byIn general, the provision of affordable housing in

egypt is characterized by several negative featuresthat resulted in expanding the housing problem inegypt rather than solving it. these negative fea-tures include (ettouney, 1987; ettouney and abdel-Kader, 1989; rageh, 2007; sims, 2012):

• Inappropriate locations and settings of affordablehousing projects mostly located according to landavailability, and neither according to users’ needsnor availability of other urban amenities such asservices, work locations, and transportation net-works.

• the mismatch between the prices of the complet-ed affordable housing units and the abilities of thetargeted groups, which resulted in an expandingaffordability gap.

• exaggerated adopted building and sites stan-dards of the recent completed formal affordablehousing projects.

since the mid nineteen seventies, the egyptiangovernment adopted and implemented a variety oflow-cost housing development strategies including:site and services schemes, core housing projects,partially completed housing units in apartmentblocks, and totally finished housing projects(ettouney and abdl-Kader, 2011). In most casesand for political reasons, the egyptian governmentfavored the strategy of the totally completed hous-ing projects as these projects clearly reflect theefforts of the government in solving the housingproblem. the government preferred to play therole of providing affordable housing units for low-income groups rather than facilitating the processand allowing others to play this role besides thegovernment so that the gap could be closed.David sims (2012) in his analysis of greater cairoregion stated that although there is a much to sayabout how well cairo houses itself on average,housing remains a pressing concerns for poor andnewly forming households. In addition to thosehouseholds, sims mentioned that the percentage offamilies living in one room in greater cairo isabout 6 percent, which translates to a total of 2008population of some 230,000 families or almostone million persons (sims, 2012). taking into con-sideration that greater cairo represent about onefifth of the country’s population, housing problemin the country should address the needs of severalmillion inhabitants.

3. I nc remental Hous ing approach

Incremental housing is an affordable way to pro-

vide housing solutions for many families at a mini-mum housing and services level by integrating theenergy of families with the government policies(goethert, 2010). It starts with a starter core shel-ter that may be a kitchen/bathroom unit or just abare lot with utility connection potential. ownerscontrol the expansion of their housing based ontheir needs and resources. Incremental housingprojects are not new as they draw on the experi-ences of 1970s projects of “site and services” and“core house projects’ (goethert, 2010). ettouneyand adel-Kader (2011) pointed out that the strate-gies of incremental housing development and con-struction are dependent on two key factors: dynam-ics of development and cost phasing. goethert(2010) confirmed that the incremental housingapproach is the key process of increasing housingstock and housing qualities in most cities. Wakelyand riley (2011) argue that there is a strong casefor governments to initiate and support incrementalhousing strategies as a major component of low-cost housing programs. they pointed out that byencouraging the participation and engaging thehouseholders in the production and managementof their housing units and neighborhoods: far morelegal and affordable housing units can be pro-duced, cost of development will be shared by peo-ple with the government, partnerships that enhancethe efficiency of urban management can be built,an integrated urban development strategy can beset, a system of good governance can be created,and finally local communities can be built andstrengthened. In order to make incremental hous-ing strategies sustainable and successful, severalaspects should be addressed and integrated in con-junction with the others. these aspects include:land and location, finance, infrastructure and ser-vices, beneficiary selection, site planning and build-ing controls, community organization and assetmanagement, and citywide strategic planning(Wakely and riley, 2011).

chavez (2009) examined three case stud-ies of incremental housing programs that tookplace over three decades in peru, latin america inthe 1970’s; Burkina faso, africa in the 1980’s; andmauritania, north africa in the 1990’s. this studydemonstrated that incremental housing could workin different countries with different cultures and thatit is a resilient approach in the face of economicand political change. meanwhile, chavez con-cluded that incremental housing approach givelow-income groups the greatest freedom to build attheir own pace and according to their own needs.on the other hand, the main shortcomings of thisapproach are the know-how of construction tech-niques, the availability of land, and the appearanceof the project as it takes a long time to be com-

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pleted. along with the incremental housingapproach, other approaches such as upgrading ofinformal areas and prevention of the formulation ofnew informal areas must be addressed on a globalscale to help solve the housing problems for low-income groups (chavez, 2009).

the egyptian experience in incrementalhousing projects started in the mid nineteenseventies with several site and services and corehousing projects as shown in table 1.

these projects did not achieve the desired resultsand faced several problems. these problemsinclude (samy, 2004; and mohamed, 2009):

• the mismatch between the size of plots and built-up areas and the size of the families as cost was themajor constraint. this situation resulted in unau-thorized expansions to the units outside the buildinglimits and sometimes outside the plots themselves.

• the mismatch between the cost of land and con-struction and the financial abilities of the low-income groups, which resulted in an expandingaffordability gap. • Designation of plots to middle income groupsdue to the absence of clear regulations and themanipulation of the designation authorities.

In 2005, the government adopted the nationalHousing project to provide affordable housing unitsfor low-income groups. this project incorporatedseveral approaches for affordable housing provi-sion that include the government as a provider forthe units, real estate developers by providing themwith large-scale plots to be developed according tocertain conditions, and the users themselves by pro-viding small plots to beneficiaries so that they canbuild their own housing units (mohamed, 2009).all units under the national Housing program areeither 63 sq.m. standard two-bedroom units or 35-

40 sq.m. (al ula bel ri’aya) for the very poorthrough rentals (sims, 2012). In general, thisproject follows the previous subsidized govern-ment housing projects in the total reliance onstate land and the resulting remote and isolatedlocations far from existing urban agglomerations(sims, 2012). table 2 shows the main programsof the national Housing project and the targetnumber of units under each program.

the above table shows that ebny Baitakproject was one of the major programs of thenational Housing project as it provided morethan 90,000 plots that could accommodate270,000 units.

4 . ebny Ba i tak p rojec t

the huge informal housing sector in egypt hasproved the ability of the low-income groups tobuild for their own-selves. therefore, ebny Baitak

Table 1. The Egyptian Experience in Incremental Housing Projects.

Table 2. The Main Programs of the National Housing Program (As

of November 2012).

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or “Build your House” approach is considered atool to encourage the participation of low-incomegroups in the construction process of their ownhouses in a planned and controlled environment.

4.1 . p ro jec t Background:

the project started in 2005 with the aim of provid-ing more than 90 thousands plots of an area of150 sq.m. each. each plot accommodates a smallhouse that consists of ground plus two upper floors.each floor has a residential unit of an area of 63sq.m. in addition to a 12 sq.m. as a stair. the pro-ject accommodates a total number of about270,000 units of an area of 63 sq.m. over the90,000 plots. the target population of the wholeproject is more than one million inhabitants. this iswhy this project is considered a large-scale projectespecially when compared to the previous projectsthat were adopted by the government. the plots aredistributed in 13 new cities all over the country aspresented in figure1.

4.2 . the ro le o f the government :

the government plays an important role in the pro-ject by providing the following (ministry of Housing,utilities, and urban Development 2008, and per-

sonal meetings with government officials):

• land allocation and physical planning to deter-mine the areas for the plots and other services andfacilities.• the main infrastructure (water, sanitary, electrici-ty, roads networks,….) and the main services andfacilities (schools, commercial services, medicalservices,…).• complete engineering drawings for housing pro-totypes so that the beneficiaries adhere to theseprototypes in order to control the typology of theproject.• a conditioned financial support to each benefi-ciary for a total of 15,000 egp (about $ 2,700 asof 2008 exchange rate) paid according to theprogress of the construction.• financing options through banks and financialinstitutions.

4 .3. the Bene f i c ia r y se l ec t ion cr i te r ia:

the beneficiaries of the project are selectedaccording to the following criteria (ministry ofHousing, utilities, and urban Development 2008,and personal meetings with government officials):

• age: between 21 and 40.

Figure 1. The locations and Number of Plots at Each Location of Ebny Baitak Project

Source: Ministry of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Development (2008).

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• Income: a proven monthly income for singleapplicants of no less than 1,000 egp (about $ 180as of 2008) and a proven monthly income for mar-ried applicants of no less than 1,500 egp (about $270 as of 2008).

• residence: applicant must be a resident of thesame geographical zone of the city where he/she isapplying for a plot.

• the applicant should not have benefitted fromany previous governmental housing projects.

• the applicant and his family should not have got-ten any plots in any of the cities developed by theauthority of new urban communities.

• If the number of applicants exceeds the numberof plots, the beneficiaries are selected according toa public lottery.

4 .4. the Bene f i c ia r y obl iga t ions:

after being selected, the beneficiary should satisfythese obligations (ministry of Housing, utilities, andurban Development 2008, and personal meetingswith government officials):

• the land is priced at 70 egp/sq.m. (about $ 13as of 2008) for a total of 10,500 egp (about $1900 as of 2008) per plot, although it costs thegovernment about 215 egp/sq.m. (about $ 39 asof 2008). on applying, the applicant pay 10% thatis 1,050 egp (about $ 190 as of 2008) and theother 90% is paid with no interest on seven equalannual installments, which start after one year ofdesignation. • the beneficiary is exempted from paying the restof the land installments once the house is com-pletely built and externally finished. • the beneficiary should get the construction per-mit within a maximum of 4 months and pay a con-struction permit fee of 300 egp (about $ 55 as of2008).• the beneficiary is allowed to build a house ofground and two upper floors according to certainprototypes on 50% of the plot area.• the construction cost for the ground floor semifinished from inside and completely finished fromoutside is about 60,000 egp (about $ 10,800 asof 2008).• the construction cost for the first floor semi fin-ished from inside and completely finished from out-side is about 45,000 egp (about $ 8,100 as of2008).• the construction cost for the second floor semifinished from inside and completely finished fromoutside is about 45,000 egp (about $ 8,100 as of2008).

• the government provides the beneficiary with aconditioned financial support for a total of 15,000egp (about $ 2700 as of 2008) paid according tothe following schedule:

• 5,000 egp (about $ 900 as of 2008) forthe excavation, foundation, and ground floorcolumns if completed in 3 months.

• 5,000 egp (about $ 900 as of 2008) forthe ground floor roof if completed in 3 months.

• 5,000 egp (about $ 900 as of 2008) forthe ground floor external finishing if completed in 3months.• If the beneficiary is behind the schedule in anystage, he/she losses the subsidy of that stage andthe following stages.• the beneficiary is not allowed to sell or rent theland. However, the beneficiary is allowed to sell thebuilt units.

4 .5 . Des ign samples

the plots have equal area of about 150 sqm withsimilar dimensions of 8.6 m * 17.5 m. all the pro-totypes are designed at 50% of the plot area with atotal area of 75 sqm. each prototype offers twodesigns: one for attached units and the second forcorner units. plots are attached together in blocks.each block consists of even number of plots with amaximum length for the block of 150 m. In addi-tion, blocks are attached back to back for maxi-mum utilization of infrastructure. the governmentprovided several prototypes and then three proto-types were selected for all cities so that the benefi-ciaries can select their desired prototype. figures 2,3 and 4 show the three available prototypes for allcities.

4 .6 . Inc rementa l e xpans ion s tages

this housing project adopts the vertical incrementalexpansion approach. the beneficiary has to builda two-bedroom unit of 63 sq.m. at each stage. Inaddition, the beneficiary has to complete theground floor with external finishing in 9 monthsfrom getting the construction permit in order tobenefit from the government subsidy of 15,000egp as shown before. Internal finishing is not anobligation at this stage and can be done at a laterstage. then, the beneficiary can build the first flooras a second stage and finally the third floor as thelast stage. the beneficiary can use the upper floorsfor his own family expansion. otherwise, he can sellor rent the units of the upper floors to other peopleand generate financial benefits while providinghousing units for other people.

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Figure 2. Ebny Baitak Prototype. Source: Ministry of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Development (2008)

Figure 3. Ebny Baitak Prototype Source: Ministry of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Development (2008).

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5 . case s tudy - s i x th of october ci t y

In 1979, the egyptian government started thedevelopment of sixth of october city as part of thenew cities program to relieve of the over populationproblem in the greater cairo region. the new cityis located about 28 km to the west of cairo andcan be reached by the cairo – alexandria Desertroad or by the cairo – el-fayoum Desert road. Inaddition, in 1998, the city had a new accessthrough the 26th of july axis, which connects thecity with downtown cairo in just a 15 minutes drive.figure 6 shows the location of the new city and itsrelation with “greater cairo region”.

sixth of october city, considered one ofthe first generation of the egyptian new cities, is oneof the largest new cities in egypt with an area of500-squared kilometer, about 119,214 feddan. Itscurrent population, according to the estimates ofthe ministry of Housing, utilities, and urbanDevelopment, is about 1,177,079 inhabitants witha target population of 6 millions in 2027. (ministry

of Housing, utilities, and urban Development,2012)

5 .1 . ebny Ba i tak a t s i x th of oc tober

sixth of october city is one of the major cities forebny Baitak project. this city alone accommodatesabout 42,000 plots that represent about 50% ofthe total plots assigned for the whole project allover the country. these plots are distributed inseven zones in the southern area of the city asshown in figure 7.

5 .2 . cur ren t s ta tus o f the p ro jec t

In 2006, the government started the project by allo-cating the areas designated to the project to theinfrastructure and roads contractors. In 2008, thegovernment started delivering the plots to the ben-eficiaries and this process was completed in 2009.according to the current official reports, about 80%

Figure 4. Ebny Baitak Prototype. Source: Ministry of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Development (2008)

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Figure 5. Ebny Baitak Project Incremental Stages - Sixth of October City. Source: Ministry of Housing, Utilities, and Urban

Development (2012).

Figure 6. Sixth of October City and Greater Cairo Region. Source: Ministry of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities

(2000).

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of the beneficiaries in sixth of october city alreadycompleted the construction of the ground floor oftheir plots as of april 2012. the incentives and timeconstraints that the government provided to thebeneficiaries encouraged them to move forwardwith the construction process. (ministry of Housing,utilities, and urban Development 2012, personalmeetings with government officials, and site Visits)

on the other hand, the roads and infra-structure are not completed yet. most of the waterand sanitary major networks are completed.However, the electricity network is far behind. Inaddition, the roads network will be completed afterall other networks are completed. the overall per-centage of roads and infrastructure completeddoes not exceed 60%. this represents a majorchallenge for the success of the project. Housesare there, but people cannot live in them becauseof the absence of infrastructure. this situation willhave a negative impact on any future phases of theproject. table 3 shows the status of roads and infra-structure works in the different zones of the project.(ministry of Housing, utilities, and urban

Development 2012, personal meetings withgovernment officials, and site Visits)

the following pictures show samples of thehousing buildings at ebny Baitak project at sixth ofoctober city.the following pictures show samples of the services

Figure 7. Ebny Baitak Project Zones - Sixth of October City. Source: Ministry of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Development

(2012).

Table 3. Ebny Baitak Project: Infrastructure and Services

Percentage of Completion.

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buildings at ebny Baitak project at sixth of octobercity.

the following pictures show the infrastructure situa-

Figure 9. Services Buildings at Ebny Baitak Project at Sixth of October City (Left: Commercial Center – Right: Medical

Center). Source: Ministry of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Development (2012).

Figure 8. Housing Buildings at Ebny Baitak Project at Sixth of October City – April 2012. Source: Ministry of Housing,

Utilities, and Urban Development (2012).

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tion at ebny Baitak project at sixth of october city.

5 .3. p rob lems o f app l i ca t ion

the project encountered several problems thataffected its progress and results. these problemscan be summarized in the following points:

• the prototypes are almost standard in all differ-ent locations and do not reflect either the differ-ences among these locations or the different needsof expected residents in each location. • the selection of the beneficiaries based on theirproven income only allowed people with higherunofficial income, which is common in egypt, toapply for plots for investment purposes. • the areas allocated to the project are not servedby public transportation lines, which increased thedelivery cost for labor and also for constructionmaterials. this situation resulted in a generalincrease in the construction cost. In addition, thissituation will make it difficult for the beneficiaries touse their units upon completion.• the delay of the provision of the infrastructure tothe extent that the residential buildings are built andthe infrastructure is not available yet. as a result,the beneficiaries are not able to use their units.• the absence of security in the areas of the projectresulted in the dependence on certain families from

the surrounding areas to provide security againstmonthly fees.•the lack of accuracy in survey works, which result-ed in some difficulties in defining the boundariesand areas of the allocated plots. even the govern-mental works suffered from this problem as shownin figure 11.•the government is managing the infrastructureworks, while the beneficiaries are managing theconstruction works of their own plots. there is noproject management body for the wholeproject.this situation resulted in destroying parts ofthe infrastructure networks during the excavation

Figure 11. Electricity Room in the Axis of the Road. Source:

Ministry of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Development(2012).

Figure 10. Infrastructure Works are Far Behind the Houses Construction. Source: Ministry of Housing, Utilities, and Urban

Development (2012).

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and foundation phases of the construction works• most of the financing is self provided, whichmakes it difficult for a large sector of low-incomepeople to apply for the project. conditions foravailable financing options do not match with thefinancial capabilities of targeted residents.

6. Imp l ica t ions fo r fu ture p ro jec t s

the preliminary results of the project along with theproblems of application suggest some implicationsthat will improve the outcome of similar. theseimplications can be summarized in the followingpoints:

• selecting the beneficiaries according to severalcriteria. the selection of the beneficiaries shouldreview, besides their proven financial income, theirunofficial income, and their social and educationallevels to make sure that the project serves the tar-geted sector. • emphasizing the characteristics of expected resi-dents and their requirements in the prototypesdesigns. the design of the prototype units shouldreflect the needs of the expected residents in size,finishing, privacy, and elevations elements. • emphasizing the identities and natural character-istics of the different locations in the prototypesdesigns. • adopting the approach of participatory planning.the role of the residents in the current project is lim-ited to the construction of their units. residentsshould be encouraged to participate in the processfrom its early stages to guarantee that the newdevelopment will meet their needs. • maintaining a multidimensional balance betweenthe completion of the infrastructure with all itsaspects and the delivery of the plots to the benefi-

ciaries. this will help the beneficiaries control thecost of construction and expedite its process. Inaddition, this will help the beneficiaries use theirunits once built and finished.• providing effective housing finance mechanisms.Housing finance can be provided to the beneficia-ries through the mortgage system by using thehousing unit itself as a way of insuring the coverageof the loan. • providing effective transportation facilities. thearea of the project should be served by publictransportation system, which will help the beneficia-ries during the construction period and alsoencourage them to live in the area after completingtheir houses. • providing a management body to manage thedevelopment of the area. this management bodywill facilitate the coordination between the infra-structure works and the construction of the units. Itwill also guide the beneficiaries through the wholeprocess to guarantee better outcome.

7. conclusion

ebny Baitak project intended to provide an oppor-tunity for low-income groups to build their ownhouses in an affordable manner. However, the costof the land, even with the government subsidy, andthe construction cost are far beyond the abilities oflow-income groups. this resulted in unofficial saletransactions of the plots for other people mostly ofthe middle-income groups. meanwhile, the gov-ernment has not fulfilled its obligation yet, to pro-vide the infrastructure to the plots so that the peo-ple can use their units. thus, this approach seemsmore appropriate for providing housing units for acategory of the middle-income groups giving thatthe government could cancel the subsidy and pro-

Figure 12. Destruction of Sanitary Networks because of Excavation and Foundation Works.. Source: Ministry of Housing,

Utilities, and Urban Development (2012).

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vide infrastructure in time. In conclusion, this pro-ject had a limited impact in solving the housingproblems of the low-income groups in egypt.

references

aBDel-gHany, aHmeD. 2009, Towards a New Model for

Self-Housing in Egypt, the International conference for new

urban communities Development, march, alexandria, egypt.

(arabic)

aBDel-KaDer, nassamat and ettouney, sayeD m. 2012,

Decrying Sensible Housing Developments – Recapitulating

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april, Istanbul, turkey.

cHaVez, roBerto. 2009, Incremental Housing: The Past

and Future Dwelling Solution for the Poor, global consortium

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http://web.mit.edu/incrementalhousing/, accessed 12th

september 2013

ettouney, sayeD m. and aBDel-KaDer, nasamat 2011,

Incremental Housing Development 2010: Lowering the Cost,

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ettouney, sayeD m. and aBDel-KaDer, nasamat 1989,

The Egyptian New Settlements, A Critical Review with Reference

to Adopted Housing Policies, open House International,

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ettouney, sayeD m. 1987, Physical Aspects of Shelter

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priate & practiced Low Income Housing developments, with

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england.

goetHert, reInHarD. 2010, Incremental Housing – A

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Housing, sIgus, mIt, available online,

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january 2013

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DeVelopment, general organIzatIon for pHysIcal

plannIng, center for greater caIro regIon 2012,

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Housing, utilities, and urban Development, cairo, egypt.

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plannIng 2008, National Housing Project – Ebny Baitak,

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egypt. (arabic)


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communities, cairo, egypt. (arabic)

moHameD, ranIa I. 2009, The Revival of Self-Help Housing

in Egypt, Case Study of Ebny Baitak Project, unpublished

master thesis, cairo university, cairo, egypt. (arabic)

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samy, KHalID m. and norelDIn, moHameD. 2004, The

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author(s):

ahmed m. shalabyDepartment of architecture, faculty of engineering, cairo university, cairo, egypt

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With regard to learning about spatialissues, and in particular about architecture andurban design, we detect problems in two directions.The first problem concerns the mutual understand-ing among professionals involved in spatial1 prac-tices. For example; urban designer and sociologistmay have the same goals, however the problem ofdifferent perspective persists. Their different viewscan be explained as a »translation« problem fromvisual to cognitive and vice versa (Kos 2005).Improved communication in this sense closes thegap between planning and architectural issues andsocial studies. linguistic and visual uncertainties arecrucial in communicating knowledge successfullyamong all actors involved (Kratochwil & Benedikt2004). In order to operate, spatial professionalshave to conceptualize space in a manner appropri-ate to their goals (lefebvre 2000). The ‘reality ofplanning’ has three interlinked constituents: 1)

space can be seen, 2) space can be representedand, as a derivative of the first two, 3) space can bedesigned. To illustrate and formulate the problemof the conceptualization of space in spatial prac-tices we can point at the difficulty of really under-standing in what way the everyday events anddetails of spatial practices – gestures, voices, tra-jectories of walking, graffiti, temporary alterations,decay – partake in the production of public space.

The second problem concerns the under-standing between professionals and non-experts2.This problem is more complex, since it concerns dif-ferent demographic profiles of people (e.g. by age,education, etc.) and their abilities, motivations,interests, etc. We argue that the best way toimprove the mutual understanding is throughimplementation of learning about architecture,planning and sustainable urban issues into the life-long learning process as early as possible (support-

Matevz Juvancic, Marjan Hocevar, Tadeja Zupancic

abstract

the persistence of difficulties related to communication of the stakeholders in the architectural and urban design

process is mainly due to the diversity of interests, different perspectives, representation problems and the abilities of

visual communication. the paper delves extensively into communication abilities and divides between experts and non-

experts, exploring their epistemological origins and possible solutions. one of them, education about spatial issues for

general public, is argued for and supported by in the form of a digital education tool. it builds on the idea that non-

expert public should be approached with both: adaptation to its abilities and with additional teaching to improve these

abilities. the experiment puts the prototypical architectural educational interface to the test in primary schools and

observes the effect the level of interactivity has on learning outcomes. the results show possible ways of enhancing the

efficiency of such tools and help developers and designers evaluate and fine-tune them for the process of non-profes-

sional architectural learning. the communication and attitude-changing topics are discussed from the specific archi-

tectural and from broader social science point of view.

Keywords: architecture; Digital education tools; sustainable spatial Development; professionals; non-expert public.

ImprovIng communIcATIon And chAngIngATTITudEs In ArchITEcTurAl prAcTIcEs: Digital architectural eDucation tools for non-

experts.

1In the paper we use spatial as an adjective that binds together architecture, urban design, urban planning and their associated fields that are dealing with(built) space and interventions in space. The research described has been focused mostly on architectural (the facades and buildings) and on urban designissues (e.g. placement of individual building into an existing urban environment, greenery around homes, placement of buildings into the surroundings, prob-lematics of the dispersed building), but given the multiplicity of the phenomena it has also larger scale implications. Adjective architectural on the other hand isoften perceived as dealing with a single building and its elements in an isolated manner, the connotation which we want to avoid, emphasizing especially theresponsible acting in- and within- the given surroundings.2It also includes general public which can be, for that matter, defined as non-expert public. For the purpose of this article we will consider general public, lay-public, non-expert and non-professional synonymously. Experts are defined by their formal knowledge in the field of 'spatial sciences' and their ability to at leastread the whole spectre of messages in the planning process. Architects have often more specific (narrow) view of who the experts are in the planning processbut in this paper we look at spatial science as at an integrated science (incorporating different experts) and we also maintain an integrated perspective whenapproaching the topics discussed.

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ed in svetina et al 2011). And we also suggest pos-sible means and digital tools to make the imple-mentation easier. however existing circumstancesneed to be highlighted first and some conditionsexplained before we delve into that topic.

communi ca t ion abi l i t i e s and d iv ides :( i n t e r - ) p r o fes s i ona l and non -exper tper spec t i ve .

Architecture and urban design as professions haverecently been dealing not only with planning butmore and more frequently engaged in awarenessraising and education about spatial values and sus-tainable practices as well. In these processes, dif-ferent participants that act in existing social con-texts, are addressed. research to date has demon-strated the apparent differences in how architects,as experts and publics as non-experts perceive andunderstand visual representations (Bates Brkljac2007). Any participation always brings to the sur-face the issues regarding the profile of the partici-pants and what, if any, intersection of knowledge,(visual) communication skills, attitudes and valuesthey share. many previous studies (e.g. ucelli, conti& Klercker 1999; mullins, Zupancic & Juvancic2002; etc.) have been researching different tech-nological solutions, understanding of visual mes-sages and presentation techniques for different

publics. The communication issues emerge mostevidently during the face-offs of different publics inthe planning process, where there is much interfer-ence on different levels in understanding of visualmessages. This problem is most noticeable in con-tacts between non-expert and expert public.visual representations as ‘artefacts of knowing’ arecharacterized by an ‘unfolding ontology’ (Knorrcetina 2001) – they are constantly in flux, ratherthan fully formed. Their emergence and use giverise to a range of questions that demand commu-nication, coordination and collaboration acrossdomains of knowledge, among professionals them-selves (e.g. architects and planners, social scientistsand educators) as well as between professionalsand different publics.

According to studies, the majority of all knowl-edge acquired (75%) comes to us visually3 (peoples1992); the percentage can vary according to indi-vidual sensory modality preferences, abilities andtypes. The rest is split between hearing and othersenses: smell, taste, touch, etc (Fig. 1). Individualperception and cognition are influenced also byother factors, such as personal interests, motivation,previous experiences, etc.

The importance of visual inputs has grown withthe spread of (visually oriented) mass media. Thevisual information perceived through such means ismore valued (fashionable, creditable, etc., in theeyes of the perceiver) but also preferred as the mes-sages are delivered faster and ‘read’ with less effort

figure 1. Modality of perception and knowledge acquisition: according to studies the majority of all knowledge acquired

(75%) comes to us visually. adapted from peoples, D. a. (1992.), presentations plus, 2nd ed, John Wiley & sons, new Yorkand pike, r. W. (1994.), creative training techniques handbook: tips, tactics, and how-to’s for Delivering effective training,3rd ed., hrD press, inc., amherst.

3visual in this connotation includes written word (text) as well, while in paper in general when discussing visual messages we separate them from- and do notinclude- written word.

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(chaplin 1994; harper 1998). It can be arguedthat in visual societies the visualization is not only apreferred form of communication but ratherdemanded by the public and certain forms of mes-sages are expected.

however, the specifics of the flow of informationin mass media and the specifics of feedback relyonly on the abilities of the public to ‘read’ visualmessages, not compose them themselves.Furthermore, the messages appeal to the overlap-ping referential knowledge fields to reach thewidest public possible and the ‘reading’ issues canthus be set aside. Introducing special topics, suchas architectural or spatial issues, and with themsometimes very specific visual messages (and con-tents), opens new questions on ‘reading’ and ‘writ-ing’ of visual messages by different actors in theinclusive design process.

In terms of visual reading-writing abilities in thearchitectural planning process three groups can bediscerned (Fig. 2): the group of experts who areable to read and write visual messages, but lessable to express themselves in writing (architects,urban planners, designers, civil engineers, etc.) ascompared to the next group of humanists, socialscientist, etc., who express themselves primarily inwriting but are also able to understand (‘read’), yetmuch less able to compose expert visualizations;the third largest group of non-experts who are verylimited in reading and writing abilities when itcomes to the specifics of architectural planningprocess, especially concerning visual messages.

differences in reading-writing abilities and dif-

ferent knowledge sets among the two expert groupscan be attributed to epistemological differences inprofessions, specifically: knowledge transmission,acquisition and ways of knowing.

In architectural professional education, empha-sis is put on learning through examples, learning bydoing and project based learning. There is muchless factual and explicit knowledge transmitted thanin social sciences. glanville (2005) describes thedichotomy that could help explain differences inways of learning and knowing. he distinguishes twokinds of knowledge: ‘knowledge for’ (action) and‘knowledge of’ (what is) – learning in architecture istypical characterized by the first and second is thecommon basis for social sciences.

The whole architectural education process is pri-marily based on the exchange of visual messages(plans, drawings, schemes, photographs), whilewritten and spoken word are the norm in social sci-ences (papers, books, seminar work). cooperatingin the same process makes architects active visualreaders and writers, reaching for text only to sup-port the visual messages. on the other hand, socialscientists involved in the planning process, areactive text readers and writers as well as passivereaders of visual messages. In their case visualmessages illustrate primarily worded expressions.The communication of experts in the process is thushindered at least to some extent. Their different per-spectives can be explained as a »translation« deficit,from visual to cognitive and vice versa (more in Kos2005; mlinar 2009). Improved communicationamong those experts would bridge the gap

figure 2. representation of communication tendencies related to different actors: worded versus visual messages. three

groups can be discerned in terms of visual reading-writing abilities in the discussions about space related issues.

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between visual and cognitive, visual and linguisticand finally, between planning, architecture, archi-tects, planners and social sciences as a whole.

The distinction between expert and non-expertgroups can be drawn on the basis of formal knowl-edge. When it comes to architectural planningprocess, experts possess certain formal knowledgein the field, while non-experts can only rely on theirinformal and tacit knowledge. The same applies totheir skills in perceiving and expressing themselves.“We can know more than we can tell” (polanyi1983: 4) is explaining one of the fundamental prin-ciples of human knowledge, where the subject getsto know the particulars without being able to iden-tify them (polanyi 1983), and that we can define astacit knowledge. In similar notions norman (1998)applies the tacit knowledge to human behaviour,claiming that precise behaviour can emerge fromimprecise knowledge.

When incorporating non-experts into the plan-ning process, one has to take into account their lim-ited abilities to read expert visual messages, formu-late their concerns and suggestions at an adequatelevel (from the expert point of view) in written or,even less probable, visual way.

common to all actors in the design process islearning by acquiring formal or tacit knowledgethrough examples that are often analysed, modifiedand used in architecture. In social sciences anexample is often used to illustrate theoretical defin-itions, while non-experts use them to get their ideasacross.

The previous experiences of actors involved(especially non-experts) influence their abilities toactively read messages and can be used to definethe preferred method of conveying information(written or graphic way)4.

The next factor influencing and distinguishingactors in architectural planning is their motivationsthat originate partly from their interests and person-al involvement and to a certain extent from theirprofessional background - the experiments with eyetracker (Keul, hutzler, Frauscher and voigt 2004)have shown experts (architects) pay more attentionto different details in the picture representing thearchitectural theme than non-experts.

communication problems between experts andnon-experts are multidimensional, but as someobservers have pointed out in the broader contextof urban design, much of the difficulties are deriv-ing from expert specific perception which leads toinappropriate design representation and informa-tion. “Architects necessarily edit reality when makingdrawings that represent the completed condition of

building projects. Were they to include all of theinformation required for decision makers to be fullyinformed, they would have to present their propos-als at a scale of 1:1. Technologies of representa-tion, necessarily edit out of the picture some infor-mation so as to emphasize other informationdeemed more salient by the picture maker, thearchitect. This normative practice of architecturalrepresentation influences public choices about citymaking” (moore and Webber 2008).

d i f f e r ence s be tw een ‘wo rd s ’ and‘ac t ions ’ and mo t ives fo r educa t ion ofnon-exper t pub l i c

The proverbial lack of common visions regardingarchitecture, spatial interventions, sustainable andsocio-cultural values does not arise merely fromtranslation deficit, misunderstandings and visualexpression disabilities. The national surveys inslovenia (Tos et al 2004) along with some otherresearches on socio-spatial values (hocevar et al2005) indicate that there have been substantial dif-ferences between expert and general public valuesorientation regarding natural and built environ-mental issues, including those concerning buildingdesign. There is also inconsistency between valuesand actions among the general public; the resultsof actions, as traced in space, often contradict thedeclared values.

communication of architecture and urbandesign aimed at the public should not be just amatter of a formal appearance of the built environ-ment. Effective communication has to include otherissues apart from aspects to do with built form andits realistic representation, and should be a goodbalance between 'image' and 'content' (leao neto2006). In other words, such communication has toaddress social and cultural awareness of architec-tural design as an important civic issue and notmerely address them as material artefact.

lifelong learning process presents an opportuni-ty to address wider spatial problems before theyemerge, confronting non-experts at the stage whenchanging attitudes does not require as much effortas in later years. The public especially worthaddressing is younger generations, still in theprocess of formal education, engaging in the futuresustainable development that will consequently andmost likely take part in shaping of the future builtenvironment (svetina et al 2011). raising aware-ness in such an “audience” can also lead to theoverspill of conveyed messages to their reference

4For example: worded denotation of a certain place is more concrete for the person who is familiar with it. In case somebody is not familiar with the place, theworded denotation is an unknown abstract notion, while the pictorial (or photographic) representation would be understandable and convey the meaning to theperson who knows the place and to the person who does not – the level of abstraction is in this case much lower. Building on his/her previous experience withthe similar planning processes, the social scientist involved in the planning is able to read into abstract architectural visualisations. This ability supersedes theabilities of non-experts who have great problems in understanding abstract messages of all sorts in the same processes.

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notoriously much harder to address.hence comes the basic pre-assumption that

awareness raising, stemming from education ofnon-expert public, and the introduction of spatial-sustainable topics into the lifelong learning processcan bring different actors involved in the shaping ofour environments more in-sync – specifically;improve the understanding of expert ways of think-ing, issues, attitudes, values, and established formsof visualisation. All these will finally (and hopefully)contribute to more prudent spatial interventions aswell as the reduction of spatial and environmentalproblems.

leaving the problematics of intra-expert com-munication aside for future research and papers toaddress, this paper will now focus on possible waysof bridging the gap between experts and non-experts, bringing them closer in ways of thinking(directly) and communication abilities (indirectly).

d ig i ta l a rch i tec t ura l educa t i on too lsfo r non-exper t pub l ic

The results of the survey conducted among teach-ers in primary and secondary schools (demsarmitrovic et al 2007) have shown the lack of timeprovided for spatial-sustainable topics, the lack ofinformation and suitable learning tools5 and lastbut not least – teacher’s belief that they themselvesare not ‘equipped’ with adequate knowledge toconvey the issues to their students, which may leadto awkward presentations and unintended omis-sions.

As a transitional help in transmitting expertunderstandings, values, perceptions etc., and over-coming the knowledge barriers of teachers, whoare already besieged with other equally importanttopics, the emerging field of digital architecturaleducation tools offers new opportunities to addressyounger generations and wider public as early aspossible. such tools represent only a fragment offresh ways of teaching and transmitting of spatialtopics to non-experts6. graphical user interfaces ofthese tools are considered crucial because they actnot only as mediators and communication plat-forms, but according to carroll (1991), they alsocreate the environment which broadens humancapabilities, enables access to digital tools andsupports cognitive interaction. The main role of

education tools and their interfaces is bridging thegulf between the learner and knowledge embodiedin the field (Quintana et al 2002). While the digitaltools in professional education for future architectshelp students embrace the knowledge in the field,support experimentation, develop skills needed topractice architecture, the tools for non-experts andtheir interfaces have to bridge the gap between tacitknowledge and rudimentary field knowledge (val-ues, problematics, etc), raise awareness and thuscontribute to a better communication between pro-fessional and non-professional public. The distinc-tion can be simplified to learning in architecture(professionals) and learning about (non-experts)architecture (Juvancic, mullins and Zupancic2012).

The re s ea r ch o u t l i n e and t h eE xper iment : the Eco- spa t ia l7 d ig i ta leduca t ion too l .

our research, used here as proof of concept, sup-porting our claim, builds on the idea that generalpublic or non-experts should be approached byexperts through the following: adaptation to theircommunicative abilities and knowledge as well aswith additional teaching to improve these abilities.

In endeavour to improve the communicationbetween different participants and develop specifictools that could bridge the divide of attitudes’ valuesystems and actions with architectural tools for edu-cating non-expert public, we followed lasswell’srudimentary model of communication (severin &Thankard 1992): who - says what - in which chan-nel - to whom - with what effect?

In an attempt to apply the questions to the spe-cific fields of architecture and sustainability, theresearch tackled the questions about the partici-pants, the target group characteristics, topics to becommunicated, and finally the effect they all haveon conception, testing and use of education tools.In order to answer these questions, some elementsand characteristics concerning two aspects of toolswe distinguish between content (‘what’) and com-munication-technical (‘how’).

In the experiment the elements of interfaces (thecontents included) were tested through their use ineducational settings in primary schools and thevariables of interface characteristics – ways of nav-igation, ways of narration and ways of interaction

5For the purposes of clarification the distinction needs to be made between the following notions: platform, tool and interface. We use the term tool in thispaper whenever we refer to a unit that functions as a whole and serves as a helping hand in i.e. education. most often we have digital tools in mind and theseare meant to be functioning software applications. We talk about platforms when we discuss the integration of several tools 'under one roof', be it online,offline or in any other way, but usually digital. We use the term interface when we want to make specific distinction between the software front, its design, itsfunctionalities and the contents.6other efforts include i.e. Arkki school of architecture for children and youth, Finland; museum of Architecture and design in ljubljana, slovenia – thematicworkshops for children, etc. 7adjective eco-spatial was coined from two adjectives: ecological and spatial to emphasize the interrelation between the two and their interdependence

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with elements – were experimentally tested with thehelp of prototypical eco-spatial education tool thatincorporated the afore mentioned findings(Juvancic, mullins and Zupancic 2012).

figure 3. Digital eco-spatial education tool was designed as a collection of five tasks, dealing with sustainable topics and

most urgent, common and annoying local problems the experts want to warn future generations of-, call to their attention- orchange their attitudes toward-, such as: building on sloped grounds, greenery around habitats, unfinished houses and theirsurroundings, building in the existing environment, adapting to scale, renovation of residential neighbourhoods, etc. (task#3 and primary school classroom setting).

figure 4. the tool has tested 5 different variations of the interface, with different levels of interactivity consisting of naviga-

tion, narration/presentation of contents and interactivity of tasks (visual feedback, reversibility of actions, experimenting).conditions ranged from maximum to minimum interactivity, from traditional face-to-face education method to the test group(task no.1, maximum & minimum interactivity).

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Methods and Mater ia l s

The education tool was designed as a collection offive selected tasks (Fig. 3). The contents and tasksdealt with sustainable topics and most urgent, com-mon and annoying local problems the experts wantto warn future generations of-, call to their atten-tion- or change their attitudes toward-8.

The interface was prepared in 5 different varia-tions (Fig. 4), with different levels of interactivityconsisting of 3 variables: (i) navigation, (ii) narra-tion/presentation of contents and (iii) interactivity oftasks (visual feedback, reversibility of actions,experimenting). conditions ranged from maximumto minimum interactivity, from traditional face-to-face (f2f) education method to the test group9.several parameters were automatically recorded(e.g. time, user choices, etc.) and results of eachtask graded. The test group was made of 9th gradeprimary school pupils10 (aged 13-15, n=218)and distributed among 5 test settings – 5 variationsof interfaces.

resul t s

looking at the excerpt of results we can clearly dis-cern the influence of interactivity on the test results(average score)11 (Fig. 5). results also show thatnavigation has some effect on the results (moving

freely among the tasks contributes to effectiveness),while narration/presentation of contents (or the lackof it) and interactivity of the task have considerableinfluence on the final score, but due to test designtheir individual effect contribution cannot be isolat-ed. considering the interactivity of tasks, while thepossibilities to reverse the actions (‘undo’) did notplay a significant role, whereas visual feedback,possibilities to test different elements and situations,visually evaluate and change decisions if needed,do matter and significantly contribute to higherscores.

discussion

The meaning of the results is discussed first in thelight of the specifics of non-expert architecturaleducation tools used in educational settings. Thisdiscussion is then followed by the general implica-tions the results have on the topics of life long archi-tectural education, participation of non-experts inarchitectural and urban design planning processesand communication among different actorsinvolved.

The joint results of theoretical analysis and dataobtained with the experiment show that the selec-tion of elements and their mutual connections(characteristics) influence the effectiveness of archi-tectural tools for the general public in two majorsets: the content and communication-technicalset12. The results also reveal to what extent theinteractivity and effectiveness are related in theexperiment presented: greater interactivity coin-cides with the increase in awareness and generalpublic education.

The results about narration implicate that non-experts (at the age tested) do not explore the edu-cational contents on their own. This calls for otherprinciples for conveying contents, analogue togame tutorials, which lead the player through seriesof task learning skills, familiarizing them with theinterface itself, goals and means to achieve them –the process could be described as learning-while-playing (Juvancic, mullins and Zupancic 2012).

The importance of interactivity of the task over-shadowed the effects of narration, except in f2flearning where narration proved to be crucial forhighest scores. such interactivity supports use of

figure 5. average scores in different test situations and

interface variations: greater interactivity coincides with theincrease in scores, yielding better results.

8They consisted of building on sloped grounds, greenery around habitats, unfinished houses and their surroundings, building in the existing environment,adapting to scale, renovation of residential neighbourhoods, etc.9Which did not receive any information and educational contents, just the task and basic instructions10The population has been intentionally chosen because they represent the last instance before the whole generation diversifies into different vocational andprofessional directions. It is mature enough as it has built relatively independent system of abstract, contextual thinking abilities and social responsibility aware-ness and whereas - the architectural awareness of their parents is still reflected in their way of thinking.11The traditional f2f teaching with the computerized test solving part at the end still yields the best results. It has the smallest range between the lowest andhighest grades. It is closely followed by the maximum interactive version of the interface, with middle and minimum versions trailing behind. The results of thetest group were unexpected - it has surprisingly good and focused scores. nevertheless, the average scores are not as good as in traditional f2f approach, theyare lower than the maximum interactivity group average, equalling middle and beating minimal interactive interfaces.12The correlation between the two is difficult to be completely determined. nevertheless, it can be ascertained that tested characteristics influence the achievedresults and consequently determine its effectiveness.

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intuition, tacit knowledge, past experiences, con-straints and sometimes compensates for factualknowledge, consistent with norman (1998) sug-gestions that precise behaviour can emerge fromimprecise knowledge. The results also show thatcomplex, game like tasks can be very engaging foryounger learners13.

high scores of the test group suggest anotheraspect of learning through education tools. Thelack of scaffolding, interactivity and information,combined with irreversibility of actions, make theusers more cautious, self-reflecting and conscious-ly pondering all the options before deciding. Yetanother confirmation that more (information) is notalways more effective.

The experiment and the prototypical educationtool have taken the factors (‘reading’ and ‘writing’abilities, motivation, knowledge frameworks andexperience) introduced at the beginning of thepaper into account, especially the expert to non-expert communication. much effort has been putinto the preparation and the adaptation of thegraphic material and worded description in ways ofgetting closer to targeted non-expert public. Themajority of the content was presented graphically,building on the fact that the usual way of acquiringknowledge is visual. The interface itself (especiallythe most interactive version) and the contents reliedon user’s previous experience and his/her tacitknowledge. The method of learning and communi-cating through examples, established to be the con-nection point in intra-expert learning, has beenapplied also to non-expert education and upgrad-ed with the constructivist learning principles(glasersfeld 1989).

We can comment on users’ responses, observa-tions and the result from this perspective. The non-experts, even at the age of 14 and 15, were able tograsp the problems and tasks presented, whichindirectly indicates that the efforts to get closer tonon-expert public has paid off. While the feedbackfrom non-experts to experts was not built into theeducational interface14, we still got some feedbackfrom the users’ comments during interface testing.Two needs were expressed commonly: 1) moreoptions and more openness of the system allowinggreater possibilities in task solving and 2) constantfeedback how well the user is doing solving thetasks, whether he/she is doing it correctly or incor-rectly. Evaluating the results, we can also speculatewhich contents have been adequately adaptedeither in terms of problematics formulation (beyondthe grasp of non-expert tacit knowledge) or presen-tation (beyond non-expert visual reading capabili-

ties), and which ones have been not.While spatial problems presented are common

and near to participants’ everyday experience, theyare still not close enough to talk about personalinvolvement and motivation that would be so farreaching to create engagement on this basis alone.The engagement level of using and learningthrough education interface (which was quite high)should be searched for in different, uncommonapproach (computer based) or even novelty, game-like tasks and general feeling of younger genera-tion that they need to act on- and learn about- envi-ronmental issues, which spatial problematics is apart of.

conc l us ion

Although the education tool and learning environ-ment described in the paper were used in specificsituation, broader implications can be derived fromthe research that targets non-expert audience andthe transmission of architectural messages. Theresults confirm the applicability of the idea of blend-ed professional architectural learning to the mostgeneral target audience, given the needed adapta-tions are considered and made. The results alsoindicate the possible ways of enhancing the effi-ciency of such tools through a measured mix of ele-ments and characteristics and help developers anddesigners evaluate and conceptualize their work tobe fine-tuned to the target audience in learningabout architecture.

While the study focused mostly on the commu-nication aspect between experts and non-expertsusing digital architectural education tool, buildingon this successful proof of concept, we ground ourbeliefs, that by starting to learn about architectureand urban design as soon as possible we couldovercome the communication problems and signif-icantly reduce the noise between visual and cogni-tive.

The nature of tasks in our research hasapproached problems in an isolated way to makethem more understandable and transparent to non-experts. however, in reality, they are often connect-ed in a complex manner, be it due to their frequen-cy, different interactions or on-going negotiations ofelements, users and phenomena.

13The pupils considered task no.3 the most interesting one. The same task was also the most complex of all five tasks and most game like, with different archi-tectural elements, their ‘value’ and ‘financial’ balance required. The most difficult task was, according to the pupils, task no 4, which was also the mostabstract and the least liked.14It has not been designed as a two way communication tool

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described tool have been selected on the groundsthat they can be presented in experiential15 way.demonstrations of larger scale urban phenomenawould have to resort to conceptual presentations orthe combination of both. several researchers havetested computer games with complex urban mod-els that use such visualizations in educational set-tings (devisch 2008, gaber 2007) to teach aboutthe complex cause-effect relationship. While werecognize the need for an overall, top down aware-ness and insight into our living environments’mechanics, we wanted to show also a bottom up,recognizable, ‘from-my-doorstep’ alternative per-spective on those environments and with them con-nected issues. The main purpose: emphasizing notonly the collective, but also the individual responsi-bility for acting in space.16

These two approaches – top-down and bottom-up– combined could have a significant impact on theeffective understanding of our spatial environmentsand consequently on the effective participation inspatial planning. however, this assumption has yetto be confirmed through future research.

communication, coordination and collaborationacross domains of knowledge, both among profes-sionals themselves as well as between professionalsand different publics, are of great importance forestablishing visually more understandable repre-sentations of architecture and urban design and ina wider sense to insure the foundations for moreinclusive and participative approach to spatialinterventions.

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15Bosselman (1998) distinguishes between two main principles depending on “the perception of the world”, which may be (applied to the image or messageitself) abstract/conceptual or concrete/experiential. The experiential approach is directly derived from the experience, whereas the abstract approach indirectly.16making users aware the small scale decisions also matter: “What would you do specifically when it comes to such a mundane, everyday life decision? Andare you aware that this decision is influencing the environment?”

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Author(s):

matevz Juvancic, university of ljubljana, Faculty of architectureTel +386 1 2000 715; gsm +386 41 868 388; Email: [email protected]

marjan hocevar, university of ljubljana, Faculty of social sciences

Tadeja Zupancicuniversity of ljubljana, Faculty of architecture

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Comparatively no longer a radical alternative to manyapproaches emerging to analyze and organize thedesign and construction processes which shape thebuilt environment, THE FUTURE OF OPEN BUILDINGconference asks participants to critically consider whatthe notion of 'open building' continues to offer withinbroader international contexts. The aim of this provoca-tion is to encourage participants to challenge how col-laborative synergies amongst the design professionsand those impacted by design choices, are often made,unmade and transformed within every scale of the builtenvironment. What forms and directions should ‘openbuilding’ take in the twenty-first century?

StructureDesigned to be relevant and accessible to both acade-mics and practicing design professionals, the confer-ence is organized around keynote speakers and pan-elists in the morning sessions and case study orientedpaper sessions in the afternoon.Special Guest of HonorN. John Habraken

SpeakersFrank Bijdendijk / Bijdendijk ConsultProf. Alfredo Brillemborg / Urban Think Tank / ETHZürichProf. Yung Ho Chang / Atelier Feichang Jianzhu / MIT -Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyProf. Renee Chow / Studio Urbis / University ofCalifornia, BerkeleyProf. Dietmar Eberle / Baumschlager Eberle / Director,ETH Wohnforum - ETH CASE / ETH ZürichProf Dr. Bernardo Gómez-Pimienta / BGP Architects /Director, Architecture School at the Anahuac University

Martin Henn / Design Director, HENN ArchitectsProf. Kerstin Höger / Kerstin Höger Architects / NTNU -Norwegian University of Science & TechnologyHiromi Hosoya / Partner, Hosoya Schaefer ArchitectsProf. Hubert Klumpner / Urban Think Tank / ETHZürichGiorgio Macchi / Canton of Bern, Former ChiefArchitectProf. Dr. Amira Osman / University of JohannesburgProf. Dr. Arno Schlüter / Founder, Keoto AG /Singapore - ETH Centre - Future Cities Laboratory /ETH ZürichUte Schneider / Director, KCAP Architects & PlannersRoland Stulz / Founder, INTEP / Director, 2ooo WattSocietyAdditional details coming soon...

Key DatesJanuary 30, 2015 - Paper Abstracts & Poster ProposalsDue - CET Midnight (Central Europe Time)March 2, 2015 - Authors Informed & Payment OptionsOpenMay 1, 2015 - Full Papers & Posters Due for ReviewJune 1, 2015 - Review Comments DistributedJuly 1, 2015 - Final Submissions Due & RegularRegistration ClosesAugust 1, 2015 - Late Registration ClosesSeptember 9-11, 2015 - Conference at ETH Zürich

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open house 4 Vol.39 No.4.pdf · 2015-03-16 · Eastern Mediterranean University, Mersin 10, Turkey...

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