Industrialization,Efficiency and Social Housing:Sustainable Prefabrication for the Colombian Social and Cultural Context

This research aims to generate processes of industrialization and qualification of social housing in Colombia through prefabrication,low energy consumption and high environmental quality to reduce the current deficit and improve the quality of life in communities with fewer economic resources.Modular coordination and the use of materials with thermal behaviors,appropriate to the country’s climatic characteristics,reduce production costs,avoid waste and improve the architectural and environmental quality of social housing.Passive cooling strategies,such as controlling solar incursion and generating natural cross ventilation eliminate energy consumption and allow reaching desired standards of comfort.In a context in which traditional construction systems have still not resolved the social housing deficit in Colombia and which generate high costs for energy consumption in the search for thermal comfort,industrialized and efficient construction with high environmental quality provides solutions according to the economic,geographic,social and cultural context in Colombia.

Architecture as a Means of Developing Social Exchange:Learning from a Danish Case Study of Refurbishment and Urban Transformation in a Disadvantaged Housing Area

Disadvantaged housing areas from the postwar period typically consist of relatively monotonous and monofunctional multi-storey blocks and have a separate traffic system rendering the areas isolated enclaves in the urban fabric.It is argued that this spatial isolation contributes to social isolation,and current refurbishments are therefore aimed at linking the housing areas with the surrounding neighbourhoods to enable social exchange between the residents and people from the surrounding areas.Based on a case study in a Danish social housing area,this paper discusses to what extent architectural development and urban strategic transformations can contribute to enabling social exchange in disadvantaged housing areas.Do neighbours enter the disadvantaged housing area as intended?If so,how does this influence their perception of the housing area?The analysis shows that architectural development and urban transformations are interdependent in establishing a social mix in disadvantaged housing areas.It is argued that refurbishments can reduce the stigma surrounding the housing area and its residents.However,the applicability of such strategies is highly dependent on the local context of the housing area.

Green Affordable Social Housing: A Survey-Based Passive Cooling Design, with Focus on Jakande Housing Estate in Lagos, Nigeria

With rising health risks escalating from temperatures in the Global South, the shortage of essential indoor cooling is frequently seen as a dimension of energy poverty and human wellbeing. As a result, this study assessed ventilation and passive cooling in Jakande, Lagos Housing estate to design social housing that integrates proper cross ventilation and cooling. A total of 1215 housing units in the estate were used for the sampling frame. Based on the survey, the authors proposed an analytical housing design equipped with urban greenery that allows for free air movement with minimal thermal discomfort. The design methodology aids continuous cooling within the housing envelope and also improves aesthetics and landscaping within the environment.

Energy Efficiency in Social Interest Housing:NZEB Building Analysis for Southern Brazil

This article aims to investigate the potential for energy savings and impact on greenhouse gas(GHG)generation of social housing in southern Brazil.Thermal and energy analysis of two architectural projects was carried out,one of them being a social interest housing unit and an optimized version of this unit characterized as Nearly Zero Energy Building(NZEB).At the end of the study,a cost analysis was carried out taking into account the building construction and local electricity generation through the installation of a photovoltaic(PV)system.Regarding the methods,software SketchUp Make and EnergyPlus was used for computer simulation,after which the PV power generation system for both buildings was dimensioned using the PvSol software.Subsequently,the percentage of adaptive comfort of ASHRAE 55 was calculated,as well as financial analysis for the building construction and PV modules installation.It is concluded that it is possible to reduce energy consumption of this social interest housing by 52%and the heating consumption by 72%with passive strategies and envelope insulation.Investing in an efficient building results in a 29%increase in building costs and promotes savings of 39.5 tCO_(2)over the life of the building.The study demonstrates the importance of making NZEB buildings economically viable.

Life Cycle Assessment:Embedded and Maintenance Environmental Impacts of Social Interest Housing Construction Systems

Characterized by high consumption of natural resources and great generation of environmental impacts,civil construction becomes an important ally to the development of strategies for a more sustainable built environment.In this context,this article aims to evaluate construction systems of social interest housing and point out their participation in relation to total impacts,in addition to indicating the environmental impacts embedded in the construction materials present in these systems.To this end,a case study was selected to apply Life Cycle Assessment(LCA)methodology and assess impacts of the building materials used in a house of a social housing complex.LCA was applied to masonry,roof,coatings and floor systems.The scope adopted assesses impacts incorporated in construction materials,analyzing the stages of raw material extraction,materials production,transport to construction site,maintenance and materials replacement.Concerning life cycle inventory,Ecoinvent 3.6 database was used and environmental impacts were calculated using CML method with the aid of OpenLCA 1.9 software.In general,results showed that the maintenance phase has the greatest environmental impact participation related to analyzed systems.Furthermore,it was possible to conclude that coatings and masonry systems were the ones that most added to total environmental impacts.

From the backyard to collective gardens in the “blue-courtyard”: Reversing the process of upgrading historic timber-framed courtyard buildings in Madrid

This paper presents an analytical framework for evaluating the impact of the two main processes identified in Madrid timber-framed courtyard buildings reinforcing the courtyard's crucial role in architectural heritage sustainability:their development caused dwellings to darken(1737–1950),and the existing challenge is to open new patios according to the listed buildings'protection policy.Critical findings in archival research and existing building assessments led to completed data collection and analysis.When exploring construction expansion,from the house towards the collective prototype around a gradually reduced patio and dwelling darkening(1737–1786),buildings resulted in open,semiopen,underlighted and closed designs.Study area on-site assessment uncovered the transition from the older low-rise type(1–3)floors to the modern closed model of up to(4–6)storeys.Construction enlargements,consequently reducing original green areas and courtyards,call for reversing that process or formulating a new strategy.It debates the partial demolition of listed buildings in upgrades and its agreement with the needed“blue courtyard”strategy(PGOUM),resulting from joining new rear individual patios to create a communal building block courtyard.The uncovered“in-between”type(1864),which integrates two open-air collective spaces,an inner courtyard and a back garden,appears challenging to explore.

Interactions of sex and early life social experiences at two developmental stages shape nonapeptide receptor profiles

Early life social experiences are critical to behavioral and cognitive development,and can have a tremendous influence on developing social phenotypes.Most work has focused on outcomes of experiences at a single stage of development(e.g.perinatal or post-weaning).Few studies have assessed the impact of social experience at multiple developmental stages and across sex.Oxytocin and vasopressin are profoundly important for modulating social behavior and these nonapeptide systems are highly sensitive to developmental social experience,particularly in brain areas important for social behavior.We investigated whether oxytocin receptor(OTR)and vasopressin receptor(V1aR)distributions of prairie voles(Microtus ochrogaster)change as a function of parental composition within the natal nest or social composition after weaning.We raised pups either in the presence or absence of their fathers.At weaning,offspring were housed either individually or with a same-sex sibling.We also examined whether changes in receptor distributions are sexually dimorphic because the impact of the developmental environment on the nonapeptide system could be sex-dependent.We found that differences in nonapeptide receptor expression were region-specific,sex-specific and rearing condition-specific,indicating a high level of complexity in the ways that early life experiences shape the social brain.We found many more differences in V1aR density compared to OTR density,indicating that nonapeptide receptors demonstrate differential levels of neural plasticity and sensitivity to environmental and biological variables.Our data highlight that critical factors including biological sex and multiple experiences across the developmental continuum interact in complex ways to shape the social brain.

Impact of indoor air volume on thermal performance in social housing with mixed mode ventilation in three different climates

There are prototypes of social housing massively built in contrasting climatic conditions,generating thermal comfort needs that are difficult to satisfy by the users themselves.Variation of indoor air volume in living spaces where the use of air conditioning and natural ventilation strategies provides elements to improve thermal comfort conditions.This research shows the thermal performance located in a representative social housing according to Mexico’s National Housing Commission.Operative temperature results from a benchmark case were compared to six Virtual Evaluation Models,using the Dynamic Thermal Simulation tool Design Builder®from the perspective of probability.The main objective was to determine the minimum use of active systems with different indoor air volumes and improve comfort conditions to promote sustainable living in social housing.The analysis was conducted under an adaptive comfort range according to three different climate conditions in Mexico adopting a Numerical Theoretical Method.The main findings can be divided into two parts:a)the impact of the indoor air volume on thermal performance was evidenced in a proportion of time in three representative climates of the central region of Mexico,and b)no relationship was found between indoor air volume and thermal comfort in sub-humid cold climate;in sub-humid temperate climate,the same number of comfort hours was found in two different models,and in sub-humid warm climate,an inversely proportional relationship was found between indoor air volume and the comfort hours.This findings implies a greater knowledge relative to what we know about sub-humid cold,temperate and warm climates.

A typology of clustered housing for older adults towards opportunities for social interaction:A case study of Dutch social housing

Dutch housing associations are dealing with a growing number of tenants who are ageing in place.Meanwhile,there is a lack of suitable housing that meets the(social)needs of this target group.Clustered housing,which offers a socio-spatial context that facilitates encounters between residents,is considered a promising housing concept to(partly)fill this gap.However,clustered housing is a broad concept consisting of a variety of housing types that differ from each other in the extent to which people“live together”.Still little is known about which types of clustered housing can be distinguished in relation to the potential for social interaction.Therefore,in this article we distinguish between types of clustered housing based on social,organizational,and spatial building characteristics.We have mapped these characteristics by combining real estate data of housing association Woonzorg Nederland with survey data collected among their building managers.Based on this dataset,an explorative cluster analysis was performed,resulting in four types of clustered housing.Finally,further exploration of the data shows that,from the perspective of building managers,residents of certain types of clustered housing interact more often and feel more connected with each other than residents of non-clustered housing types.

Contested incrementalism: Elemental’s Quinta Monroy settlement fifteen years on

Quinta Monroy is an award-winning co-designed settlement for 93 families on half a hectare of land at Iquique in northern Chile.Neighbors,complaints about the disorderly settlement peaked after the landowner^death and provoked untenured residents to seek government subsidies to redevelop the settlement.From 2003,a government social housing project was coordinated by the,,Elementar,architecture firm with US$10,000 per household.With the residenfs temporary relocation,93 modular and interlinked apartments were built around a series of courtyards.These apartments,which were designed as,fhalf-houses,M were subsequently co-opted by residents adding rooms in locations planned in advance by Elemental.Many households have since doubled the size of their apartment and reformed the settlement in ways not anticipated by Elemental.This paper details a spatial and ethnographic study of the Quinta Monroy settlement since redevelopment to identify opportunities and risks that accompany this type of social housing model.The study reveals evidence that residents,capacities to enlarge apartments commonly exceeds the architects expectations and that unregulated expansions often compromise the settlements livability.This research anticipates further opportunities for expansion in this semi-regulated settlement and investigates possibilities that another contested slum settlement may emerge.