This article reviews previous literature on housing satisfaction, with the specific aim of identifying the factors that plays the dominant role in determining occupants housing satisfaction. This is because the notion of residential satisfaction has attracted much attention in recent years and that researchers and research bodies, be it corporate or government that try to develop housing policies should begin with an understanding of the determinants of housing satisfaction. The study is mainly an extant review of literature survey on the determinants of housing satisfaction. Findings from the study reveals that previous empirical studies have identified a number of important determinants of residential satisfaction, such as income, tenure, life cycle stages, house size, and housing quality amongst others. For example, being older, having higher income, having a smaller family have been related to more housing satisfaction. Overall, the study explores the causes of housing satisfaction; and presents a robust background on the determinants and theories of housing satisfaction and interpretations.
In recent years the issue of urban security has assumed an increasing importance, showing a transformation whose features help to define specificity of every city. The growth of offenses, the increased crime rates, the growth of the global economic difficulties, lead up to an increase in demand for social security often addressed to the local government aspects having as its object the daily life. Even though security and police resources are the first to be cut back in the shrinking economy, the present turmoil requires even greater concentration of security and law enforcement assets to keep our property, people, and information safe. Given the situation, the need to implement new procedures based on innovative theories requires a different approach to the problem of urban security. In fact, based on a theory called ‘CPTED’ (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design), an evaluation method capable to estimate crime risk of the urban district in its entirety has been developing. The risk of crime for a building is related to its vulnerability (i.e. presence of security leaks) and the hazard (i.e. crime rate) in the neighborhood. The method proposed in this study, aims at providing a rational measure for evaluating burglary vulnerability of a building. In this article, an analysis of burglary data, collected by observing selected building parameters, is presented. Openings are the basic element of the evaluation. Their characteristics, but especially their relationship with the surroundings, influence the decision of a burglar in performing a criminal act. Through a preliminary qualitative evaluation based on existing literature, a list of basic indicators has been selected. Statistical approach reveals how some of these indicators have a greater influence than others in the final outcome. An algorithm capable to grade openings first, and buildings then, referring to burglary vulnerability, has been carried out.
This paper focuses on the evaluation of the environmental compatibility of concrete, which is used in contact with groundwater. The German regulations for hardened concrete that are used for technical approvals of new raw materials for concrete are explained. The leaching of fresh concrete was investigated in a field test and in laboratory tests. Based on the laboratory tests the groundwater concentrations were calculated using a numerical transport simulation program. A comparison of the real concentration and the calculated values showed that transport modelling is an adequate tool for the evaluation of the leaching of building materials. An evaluation concept should always include a realistic description of the source term, which is usually time-dependent, reasonable assumptions for the transport (e.g. adsorption or decay of organic compounds) and a practice-relevant exposure scenario, for which the concentrations in soil or groundwater are modelled. These concentrations can be compared to national limit values.
The provision of private capitals to build and operate of works bringing benefit to the community received a major boost during the last three decades, by the spread of public private partnership schemes all over Europe. Both project financing (contractual PPP) and public-private partnerships with shared capital (PPPI) were mainly used to build infrastructures able to generate income through revenues from users, recovering by this means at least a share of the investment costs. Some changes that have occurred over the last five years make it difficult in the near future the implementation of the cooperation models used in the past. The economic and financial crisis has dramatically worsened the supply of capital necessary to complete the projects, while the needs to which the public administrations are facing are rapidly changing. Over the most tried and tested field of big infrastructure and urban facilities, new priorities are emerging, such as the refurbishment of social housing stock and the supply of new homes at affordable prices or rents for low income households, as well as the rehabilitation of public school buildings. As for environmental reasons, the achievement of high standards of energy efficiency is also an important variable for the feasibility of PPP scheme, in particular in retrofit and refurbishment of existing buildings. A reliable prediction of the achievable energy efficiency levels and their impact on operating costs of the buildings affects the structuring of public private partnership, and in some cases it may represent a main driver of its economic and financial sustainability. In this context, significant benefits can be derived from the use of several tools – mandatory, incentive, voluntary – made available to support energy efficiency by different levels of regulations – European, national, local. This paper investigates innovative business models for energy retrofitting actions and several available tools to subsidize their adoption. The paper comprises a case study selection, based on a detailed analysis of eco-innovations collected in Italy, and a focus on a significant case.
The proportion of elderly persons aged 65 and over in Hong Kong is currently 13.3% and is expected to reach 26.5% by 2031. When experiencing failing health, most elders rely heavily on the indoor facilities available in public housing. However, most public housing is not purposely built for the elderly. To improve elderly quality of life (QoL), appropriate facilities should be provided. Hence, this paper aims to investigate the relationship between the indoor facilities management (FM) of public housing and elderly QoL by a questionnaire survey using the post-occupancy evaluation method. In order to understand the complicated relationships among FM and elderly QoL, reliability analysis, t-test, and correlation analysis were adopted. The results of the t-test and correlation analysis indicated that (1) FM components presented significant differences between old and new public housing; and (2) several FM components, such as distance, lighting, non-slip flooring, and doors, had a significant relationship with final elderly QoL in public housing. Based on the findings, several practical recommendations are proposed, including wide entrances with barrier-free access, the repositioning of power sources to seating or table level and installation of non-slip floors in the bathrooms, and handrails near bath cubicles, toilets, and beds.
Construction is the single biggest industry in the developed world, at around 13% of Gross Domestic Product, with the greatest environmental impact. There are approximately 190 million buildings in Europe and most of them were built before energy efficiency was a common issue in construction. Accelerating the market uptake of Energy Efficient Building (EEB) projects is crucial and that is where innovative business models (IBM) can play a major role. IBM can support the needed change by reorganizing firms’ internal structure and offers, overcoming certain barriers to EEB uptake and aligning with the new business opportunities brought by the need for sustainable and energy efficient buildings. In the frame of the UMBRELLA project, a Europe-wide stakeholders’ engagement was undertaken to analyze their understanding of the business model concept and their motivation for energy efficiency, and to determine how to overcome the issue of building value chain fragmentation. This paper relies on concepts of sustainable and energy efficient transition pathways to address how innovative business models can boost the energy efficient market. It highlights how the co-evolution of business models with both the wider energy system and the natural environment is responsible for the need of both innovative and sustainable business models, which are necessary for ensuring long- lasting change in the energy efficient building market. The innovative and sustainable characteristics of four business models are presented, according to criteria of functional and product-service systems thinking. The analysis of these elements will allow for further replication and adaptation of these promising models.
