Bangladesh is known for two things: poverty and floods. It is a delta country burdened with draining large amounts of water from surrounding countries and a heavy monsoon season that have caused numerous severe floods with large scale destruction throughout the country. Rapid urbanization and migration have put an immense pressure on the urban centres. Dhaka, the capital city and the largest urban centre of the country, is struggling to provide adequate housing and basic services for the urban poor who are forced to find accommodation in the flood-prone slums and squatter settlements of the city. The alarming rate of population growth further aggravates the problem of environmental degradation which in turn causes more severe floods. As one of the most vulnerable countries for climate change, Bangladesh must work towards providing flood-resilient, safe and affordable housing for all its citizens. My response was the LIFT (Low Income Flood-proof Technology) House: an affordable, flood-resilient housing solution for the low income families of Dhaka. The LIFT house consists of two amphibious structures that are capable of adapting to rising water levels. The amphibious structures float up on buoyant foundations during floods, and return to ground level when water recedes. It is a sustainable, environmentally friendly house that provides all basic services to its residents without connection to the city service systems, through the use of indigenous materials and local skills. This thesis documents the research, design, and construction of the LIFT house with funding provided by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The LIFT house was completed on January 2010 in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and has become a symbol for the city’s desire to provide sustainable, low-cost accommodations that are protected from floods.

Bangladesh is known for two things: poverty and floods. It is a delta country burdened with draining large amounts of water from surrounding countries and a heavy monsoon season that have caused numerous severe floods with large scale destruction throughout the country. Rapid urbanization and migration have put an immense pressure on the urban centres. Dhaka, the capital city and the largest urban centre of the country, is struggling to provide adequate housing and basic services for the urban poor who are forced to find accommodation in the flood-prone slums and squatter settlements of the city. The alarming rate of population growth further aggravates the problem of environmental degradation which in turn causes more severe floods. As one of the most vulnerable countries for climate change, Bangladesh must work towards providing flood-resilient, safe and affordable housing for all its citizens. My response was the LIFT (Low Income Flood-proof Technology) House: an affordable, flood-resilient housing solution for the low income families of Dhaka. The LIFT house consists of two amphibious structures that are capable of adapting to rising water levels. The amphibious structures float up on buoyant foundations during floods, and return to ground level when water recedes. It is a sustainable, environmentally friendly house that provides all basic services to its residents without connection to the city service systems, through the use of indigenous materials and local skills. This thesis documents the research, design, and construction of the LIFT house with funding provided by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The LIFT house was completed on January 2010 in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and has become a symbol for the city’s desire to provide sustainable, low-cost accommodations that are protected from floods.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:20:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 AnaLSS.pdf: 759220 bytes, checksum: 308e02f29cc9d4810b34a103310bb515 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-10-27 / This dissertation analyses the Brazilian housing policy of today s, focusing on the programmes in the socalled Social Interest Housing Subsystem in order to discuss to what extent the government has been able to grant housing constitutional rights in the country. The discussion is about housing policy and the principles in the country s Constitution regarding the role of housing as a social right, a right that must be granted by the state. This refers to land rent theory to understand the relationship between capital and property and the reasons why, under capitalism, housing becomes a commodity in the market. Then, it discusses the national housing policy, which emphasizes land ownership through financing, that is, via market, a process that excludes all low income population. In the conclusion, it is clear that, although government programmes cover extensively at least potentially the national territory as well as social group, subsidized housing programmes cannot be implemented in the city due to land prices because subsidy is too low. In this way, the law that grants housing rights to all Brazilian citizens is violated / O presente trabalho analisa a Pol?tica Nacional de Habita??o do atual governo enfocando os programas inseridos no Subsistema de Habita??o de Interesse Social com o fim de identificar a garantia do direito ? moradia no Brasil, considerando que este ? um direito constitucionalmente assegurado. Relaciona a pol?tica habitacional aos princ?pios que regem a Constitui??o Federal uma vez que a moradia foi inserida no rol dos direitos sociais atrav?s da Emenda Constitucional n.? 26/00, e a partir da? passa a ser de observ?ncia obrigat?ria em um Estado social de direito. Trata da teoria da renda da terra para compreender a rela??o capital/propriedade e o porqu? de no modo de produ??o capitalista, o valor de uso da habita??o transformase em valor de troca e desta forma, passa a ser uma mercadoria sujeita ?s leis de mercado. Identifica que o modelo estrutural da Pol?tica Nacional de Habita??o d? ?nfase ? aquisi??o de propriedade cujo acesso se d? atrav?s de financiamentos, ou seja, via mercado, e esse mecanismo n?o atende ? popula??o de baixa renda, ainda que haja respaldo legal. Conclui que muito embora os programas analisados cubram todo o territ?rio nacional, os programas de habita??o subsidiada n?o podem ser implementados no meio urbano porque o valor do subs?dio ? muito baixo. Constata que estes programas n?o atingem as grandes cidades por conta de uma caracter?stica pr?pria do mercado de terras, podendo ser implementados somente em pequenas cidades ou nas zonas rurais, onde a terra tem pouco valor. Por conseq??ncia, identifica o descumprimento da lei pelos entes da federa??o e pelos poderes constitu?dos e, conseq?entemente, a viola??o do direito humano fundamental ? moradia do cidad?o pobre