Research on public housing based on the utilities of living

This paper applies the residence utility principles to the study of public housing rent and regards that the average utility of a household determines the public housing rent level. It also suggests that the government use multi-level public housing rent to substitute for single-level in order to make the policies for public housing rent more just, equitable and effective.

A Consideration of Issues in the Government＇s Public Housing Projects in Post-War Iraq

Post-war Iraq is a mix of potential opportunities, promising intentions, and difficult challenges. After 2003, the government adopted a program to manage the housing crisis and satisfy housing needs. Through a fieldwork survey, we aimed to present this program by reviewing the government targets, main housing problems, governmental legislations, and construction process. We found that the government abandoned its centralized role in its National Housing Project as it opened the door of Iraqi housing market to foreign and local investors. We also found that, considering the enormous need for housing the occupancy rate of the governmental housing units are so low and construction is also generally slow. We deduced that the pricing model of the government＇s national housing project is far from our general notion of public housing for low-income post-war people. Moreover, it is necessary for the government to formulate a clearer strategic vision and to adopt more innovative approaches to address effectively and rapidly the trade-offs of the short and long terms objectives of the reconstruction process in post-war Iraq.

Study on Tianjin Public Housing Residential District Planning to Meet the Needs of Migration in Rapid Urbanization

Along the rapid urbanization, the housing problem of medium and low-income residents in cities has been one of social problems, which is drawing the attention of government in the world for a long time. In present China, both the national policy and market of housing system are in the process of perfecting, which pay more attention to the low-income residents and rural residents. This paper chooses Tianjin, the third pole of China development as the example for research. Tianjin public housing residential district planning explored a mode of ＂large-scale mix and small-scale pure＂ for the whole homeland development. It confirms that regional coordination, ecological concepts, green transport, space characteristics and appropriate technology is important in planning.

Residents＇ Satisfaction with the Public Housing Unit Features and Its Implications in China

This paper studied the residents＇ level of satisfaction in public housing units in Shenyang of China which aimed to identify how each housing unit feature correlates with the residents＇ overall satisfaction and implication on policy and design. The discussion is based on a questionnaire survey conducted in 2011. This research concluded that more residents were satisfied with the housing unit features than those who were dissatisfied, while some remarkable differences could be observed if comparative analysis between two different public housing types in China were studied. The affordable housing residents are generally more satisfied with housing unit features than those living in low-rent housing. The most dissatisfying feature is the living room, followed by unit size and the floor plan. Additionally, the living room and the floor plans were features which were highly and positively correlated to the residents＇ overall satisfaction of housing unit features. Consequently, improving the living room size and the design of housing unit floor plans would clearly be beneficial to alleviating residents＇ dissatisfaction to the housing units.

A STUDY OF THE ENERGY EFFICIENCY RENOVATION ON PUBLIC HOUSING PROJECTS

While the energy efficiency of commercial buildings,schools,and private homes has received increasing attention,the energy performance of public housing has long been neglected.The high energy usage and resulting utility costs associated with such subsidized houses have added great financial burdens to the government and tenants.Therefore,improving public housing’s energy performance becomes an important task.This paper presents a comparative study that mainly investigates the effectiveness of energy efficiency measures(EEMs)recently implemented in the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority’s green renovation projects.Whole building energy simulation results show that due to budget constraints,the limited EEMs put into place would only result in a marginal(7.6%)improvement to the renovated building’s energy performance prior to renovation.Another 38.5%reduction would be needed,using the performance requirement of the current building energy code as a reference.Based on these findings,this research offers some insights into more cost-effective energy efficiency upgrades that can help reduce public housing’s energy consumption and green renovation costs.

Development of Public Housing Post-reform China

This paper explores the dynamic nature of the transformation of public housing regimes in urban China since the abolishment of the urban welfare housing system in the late 1990s. We summarize the latest progress in the development of public housing in post- reform China and investigate the driving forces behind these developments. A close examination of the public rental housing program in Shanghai helps to show that the recent revival of public housing in Chinese cities is mostly driven by the desire for economic growth. We conclude that the state provision of housing could be a short-run state remedy to alleviate economic imbalance and social inequality. However, in the long run China needs to seek more effective solutions to solve the low-income population＇s housing affordability problems.

Challenge-driven design for public housing： The case of Hong Kong

Public housing （PH） has existed in Hong Kong for six decades. Previous and current challenges that have been encountered over time function as a coffective driver for design progression. However, such challenges have remained under research to be able to draw useful lessons from them. To understand how this established motif can suit the sustainability-conscious era, this study uses Hong Kong as a representative case for sub-tropical compact cities by critiquing its PH design against multiple constraints. The objective of this study is to trace the historical relationships between challenges and design progress as well as to assess current and future implications of sustainability trends on PH design. By synthesizing data from literature, policy documents, and empirical evidence, this research develops an evolution map for PH design in Hong Kong that is driven by seven major challenges. Based on this map, a conceptual framework for intersecting considerations that envisaaes five main future prospects toward future PH desien is also established.

Uncomfortable prototypes： Rethinking socio-cultural factors for the design of public housing in Billiri, north east Nigeria

Public housing delivery in developing countries often involves the provision of government- funded housing units. Over time, occupants transform such units to suit their changing needs or to increase and improve housing stock-a practice that has been the focus of several documented studies intended to inform policy makers about changing housing trends. Abandoned units have, however, received comparatively less attention. The present paper reports findings from the documentation and analyses of abandoned and modified prototype units in Billiri, the main town occupied by the Tangale community in north east Nigeria. The methodology involves space syntax methods, as well as the analyses of space use patterns in 45 randomly selected compounds built by the community and in two sets of prototype housing units in the study area. Results suggest that socio-cultural factors related to kinship, security, and basic needs, which form part of the community heritage, are inadequately reflected in the location and design of the units, accounting for their abandonment and modification. These findings have implications for future housing policies in the area.

Regenerating Communal Place and Housing Rehabilitation:The Building of a Community Public Space in Beijing's Former Socialistic Public Housing Area

The rehabilitation of former socialistic public housing areas is one of the most important challenges to Chinese cities nowadays.In Beijing Chaoyang District,a pilot project for housing rehabilitation has been implemented recently by rebuilding community public space in a former socialistic public housing community.As a small-scale and bottom-up initiative,the project introduced the innovative measures,including resident participation,human-centred design and financing of sharing,in order to regenerate communal place in old housing area.The effects of the project are positive,and the local government has accordingly promoted its successful experiences.Moreover,this latest case of the attempts also offers an opportunity for revealing and rethinking the existing challenges to the housing rehabilitation.

Public Housing, School Segregation, and Children＇s Education： Evidence from Hong Kong

Evidence in the literature shows that public-housing residents move less frequently than others. This tendency may restrict school choice for children from public-housing families and lead to school segregation and lower educational outcomes for those children. Our empirical findings from Hong Kong show three strands of evidence that support this hypothesis. （1） Children from public-housing families are more likely to drop out of school after compulsory education. The result is robust after controlling for family background and a series of parental characteristics. （2） Public-housing families with school-age children are less likely to move than their private-housing counterparts. （3） Children from public-housing families are more likely to study in local community schools, which are located on the outskirts of Hong Kong and are of lower education quality. These findings have important policy implications for the public-housing programs such as those which have been implemented in China's Mainland since 2011.

An evaluation system for suitability of urban public rental housing construction in Chongqing

A social problem that low-income people are unable to purchase houses in urban areas has been focused in recent years and the housing security system has also become an important part of the social security system. In recent years, public rental houses appeared as a new type of affordable houses. The national government took the construction of public rental houses to the national strategic level. Currently, there are many problems in the public rental house construction. For example, policy mechanisms are inadequate, the use of funding is not in an efficient way, the location of public rental houses is far away from the downtown, the plot ratio is too high, and facilities are incomplete. There are no appropriate indicators to comprehensively evaluate the public rental house construction. Based on the livable evaluation system in Chongqing, we selected four aspects of relevant indicators as the economic suitability, environmental suitability, social suitability, and life suitability to establish the public rental house construction suitability evaluation system.

Holistic Approaches for Renovation of Large Housing Areas in Japan

Social imbalance and obsolescence of the built environment has emerged in large sized housing estates in metropolises. In particular, the requirement of such planned housing areas has not matched public service provided by the infrastructure. On not only physical but also social aspect of local communities of this kind of housing area have a lot of problems while it also has a lot of good characteristics. A representative one is that age of the tenants is rising very swiftly and it makes the local community imbalanced. Nowadays many countries including Japan have tackled problems concerning housing estates constructed during the mass housing era and try to search for ways to reactivate so-called new town areas by utilisation of existing environmental resources such as building stock and ample green open space. In Japan many elemental technologies have been developed in order to utilise existing building stock. However, how to combine these technologies and new holistic methods for reactivation are still underdeveloped. Therefore, it is very important to fred these ways and to make a comprehensive plan for rehabilitation of these areas. The first purpose of our study is to develop and clarify how to organise and integrate many kinds of elemental techniques and the holistic measures for the improvement of both social and physical environment in suburban mass housing estates. Subsequently we try to reorganise proper relations between human settlements and the various service provision for those regions. Our last focus is put on searching for new ways to raise the value of existing housing environment. Our conclusion intends to indicate important of the master plan and its execution, where mass housing estates progress for the physical and social improvement.

The Consumption-Stimulating Effect of Public Rental Housing in China

China's public rental policy creates opportunities for poor households to rent apartments at low rental prices.In addition to such an impact,we argue that public rental housing increases the purchasing power of the poor and therefore enhances the income elasticity of consumption,i.e.,the percentage of consumption increment due to a 1 percent increase in income.Based on a nationwide dataset from China,the Chinese Household Income Project 2018,we find that public rental housing significantly increases the marginal impact of household disposable income on consumption.Specifically,our analysis suggests that public rental apartments could increase the income elasticity of consumption demand by 18 percent among all rental households and by 24 percent among rental households with below-average income.We also find that the effect of public rental housing on income elasticity of consumption is stronger for service consumption than for nonservice consumption.These results suggest that a well designed public rental policy could not only promote consumption in favor of the service industry but also alleviate the undesirable consequences of the unbalanced consumption structure caused by income inequality.

Poverty Decentralization or Reconcentration: An Empirical Study of the Effects of Collected Public Rental Housing in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province

Based on the supply-side reform objective, it is a great transformation of housing welfare measures in China to collect private unoccupied houses as public rental housing instead of building new ones. Through an empirical study of the Collecting Houses as Public Rental Housing Program in Changzhou, this paper finds that the collected houses is relatively scattered in the city, which is beneficial to avoiding over-centralization and marginalization of the poor families. However, it has resulted in poverty reconcentration in some old communities, probably further leading to spatial solidification of the poor as well as a further decline of old communities. Therefore it may not effectively solve the housing problems of the poor population by providing this alternative public rental housing, which is collected according to economic efficiency. Accordingly, the paper argues that it is necessary to reinforce community development and to renovate the declined communities in time, as an important supplement to housing welfare improvement.

BUILDING INTEGRATED AGRICULTURE Utilising Rooftops for Sustainable Food Crop Cultivation in Singapore

Burgeoning population and rapid urbanisation have contributed to two challenges facing cities today:food security and an increasing carbon footprint due to food imports.This paper examines the viability of rooftop farming in urban centres in Asia.A context-specific exploration—sited in Singapore—looks at the challenges of building integrated agriculture.Findings suggest that Singapore’s public housing estates are suitable for rooftop farming.Implemented nationwide,such a scheme could result in a 700%increase in domestic vegetable production,satisfying domestic demand by 35.5%.Reducing food imports would also decrease Singapore’s carbon footprint by 9,052 tonnes of emissions annually.

Secretary-General Li Xikui meets with Manukyan,Chairman of the Armenian Public House

On Nov 3,Secretary-General Li Xikui met with Manukyan,chairman of the Armenian Public House,and his visiting party at the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries at the invitation of Du Qinglin,vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.Secretary-General Li expressed welcome to Chairman Manujanian and presented a brief introduction on the development of people-to-