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Public housing represents a significant percentage of the housing stock in many developing countries. Its shortcomings have been identified and examined by many scholars and experts in an attempt to investigate the possibilities of growth and adaptability in future projects. Yet, for many years and through their own initiative, public housing dwellers have been engaged in alteration and extension activities aimed at adapting their dwellings to better suit their needs. These activities have resulted in the transformation of entire housing developments in many parts of the world. / Therefore, this study examines the development of transformations in different public housing projects in Egypt and attempts to identify some of the implicit factors that control change at both dwelling and community levels. A wide array of transformation activities were recorded during a survey of twenty projects in Cairo and Alexandria, from which it was possible to establish a typology of transformations and to distinguish between different patterns through which they take place. One project (Ain el Sira) was chosen as a case study in order to examine change of dwelling characteristics from both external and internal aspects. / It was found that user transformation of public housing projects should not be considered as a simple space enlargement process, but rather a result of a complex set of inter-related determinants associated with both context and dwelling characteristics. The finding also revealed that in favourable conditions, users were capable of successfully undertaking transformation activities which not only increased the range of used spaces within housing developments, but also created dynamic multi-functional estates that better respond to changing needs of households. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

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