O termo customização em massa se refere à habilidade de fornecer produtos diferenciados aos consumidores sem que haja um aumento significativo de custos e tempo de entrega. Esta estratégia vem sendo adotada com sucesso por um crescente número de empresas do setor de manufatura, entretanto, o mesmo não se observa no contexto de produção habitacional. No Brasil, as empresas de construção civil engajadas na produção de habitações por intermédio de programas governamentais vêm sendo criticadas pela falta de eficiência em lidar com a diversidade de necessidades e desejos dos clientes finais. A oferta de flexibilidade nesses programas tende a ser muito limitada, devido, principalmente, à adoção de um paradigma de produção em massa no desenvolvimento desses empreendimentos. Dessa forma, o objetivo principal deste trabalho foi propor diretrizes para a adoção da estratégia de customização em massa na realização de empreendimentos habitacionais para a baixa renda no Brasil. Foram realizados dois estudos de caso em diferentes programas habitacionais, esses estudos foram desenvolvidos em três etapas. Na Etapa A buscou-se compreender o processo de desenvolvimento de produtos e identificar oportunidades para a adoção da customização em massa. Foram realizadas entrevistas com os agentes que participam do processo e analisados dados de fontes secundárias, previamente coletados por outros pesquisadores. A Etapa B teve como objetivo identificar os requisitos de customização. Para isto, foram analisados dados de fontes secundárias sobre o perfil dos clientes e avaliações pós-ocupação. Esses dados foram complementados com uma coleta sobre as adaptações realizadas realizadas pelos clientes durante o uso do imóvel. Por fim, a Etapa C caracterizou-se por uma reestruturação do PDP da empresa que participou desta pesquisa, na qual foram testadas as proposições sobre as oportunidades de adoção da customização em massa. As principais contribuições do presente trabalho dizem respeito não só a uma melhor compreensão da diversidade de requisitos do público-alvo desses programas, mas também à identificação de possibilidades de adoção da estratégia de customização em massa na realização de empreendimentos habitacionais para a baixa renda promovidos no âmbito de programas habitacionais Brasileiros. / Mass customisation stands for the ability to develop high value-added products within short time frames and at relatively low costs. This strategy is well known in manufacturing, where it has been widely used for competitive advantage. By contrast, the housing building industry in Brazil has been criticized for the lack of effectiveness in dealing with the diversity of customer needs. In low-income housing, for instance, product flexibility tends to be very limited, due to the fact that most housing programs adopt mass production core ideas in their conception. In this way, the main objective of this research was to propose guidelines for adopting a mass customization strategy in the provision of low-income housing in Brazil. Two case studies were carried out in different government housing programs. Both studies were divided into three phases. The first phase involved understanding the product development process and analysing opportunities to adopt a MC strategy. It was based on a set of interviews with product development participants and on the analysis of documents and secondary data previously collected by other researchers. The second phase consisted of mapping customization requirements, which was possible by analysing previously collected data regarding costumer’s profile and satisfaction. Also, data was collected to identify modifications made by users in their dwellings after occupation. Finally, in the third phase some propositions concerning the opportunities to adopt MC were tested. Some changes were implemented in the product development process of a house building company. Based on the main findings, guidelines for introducing a mass customisation in low cost housing are proposed. The main contributions of this research work are concerned with understanding the diversity of costumer’s requirements in low cost housing programs, and the identification of possibilities to adopt a mass customization strategy in the development of those programs in Brazil.

The relationship between humanity and environment influences the health and quality of the environment. In turn, the state of the environment determines the quality of life that inhabitants are bound to live. Urbanization and shortage of housing among the economically deprived groups coupled with lack of affordable housing has encouraged formation of informal settlements in cities throughout South Africa. Poor environmental health conditions are characteristic of such settlements, and these conditions can be attested to numerous factors such as politics, policies as well as failure by local municipalities to strategically improve living conditions of the economically disadvantaged. Twenty years into the new democratic South Africa, communities in these informal settlements are still faced with environmental uncertainties, poor service delivery and forced removals. Authorities are failing to come up with strategies that counter the ever growing urban poor populations that often result from migration of poverty. Communities of these settlements are not homogenous, and thus they perceive their prevailing environmental health conditions differently depending on their world view. Makause informal settlement in Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (EMM) lack basic services such as sanitation, water and electricity, which compromise the environmental health of the area. Residents of this settlement have a history of staging marches in a quest to obtain basic services. Their protests have been intercepted by the heavy arm of the law in the form of South African Police Services. This has been tailored into many other factors that can inform perceptions of their prevailing environmental health. The focus of this dissertation is to investigate local environmental health perceptions in Makause informal settlement with attention to factors that inform these perceptions. Semi-structured interviews formed the major research method employed for this research with a random selection of interviewees from the settlement. The sample generally expressed dissatisfaction with their prevailing environmental health and living conditions. This points to the fact that the government is faced with a task to improve living conditions in informal settlements around the country.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at the University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Built Environment (Housing) / A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at the University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Built Environment (Housing) / In South Africa, there is a group of families that live in small four-room houses that were transferred to them by the apartheid regime in 1978. As elsewhere in the developing world, many of these families are extended families which live together because they do not have any other options. This study explores the housing needs and living conditions of the Ndala family and three other extended families living in or near Pimville, Soweto. Structured interviews, observations and evaluation research are utilised to determine the extent to which poor extended families in South Africa are excluded from housing finance. Literature discussing self-help housing, livelihoods, poverty and enablement is presented in order to construct a theoretical framework, after which an overview of housing finance arrangements in the developed world, developing countries and South Africa in particular provides the backdrop against which the findings are discussed. The findings and analysis demonstrate that extended families such as those included in the study fall into a gap in the provisioning of housing finance in South Africa. They do not qualify for government housing assistance, and they also cannot obtain loan finance from banks because they do not meet the strict lending criteria. As a result, the extended families turn to non-conventional sources of income and finance such as rental income, loans from relatives and stokvel funds in order to survive and in some cases extend their houses. It is recommended at the end of the study that South Africa review its current housing policies. Specifically, the study recommends that a new strategy called “rent a room” be put into place in order to assist poor extended families like the Ndalas.

Thesis (M.S. in Community Research and Action)--Vanderbilt University, May 2007. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

<p>The ANC government came to power in 1994 and has had to come to grips with many economic, social and political challenges it inherited from the apartheid regime. A majority of the people were marginalized and subjected to poor standards of living in areas that were inadequately provided for in terms of basic services. One of the biggest challenges the new government is facing is the delivery of services especially housing. Poor policy implementation continues to complicate the existing problems. The study critically examined the extent to which poor policy implementation has affected the provision of housing in Khayelitsha with focus on the respective stakeholders.</p>

<p>This research endeavours to identify existing participatory structures and explore the role of local government officials, community representatives and other role players in the housing delivery process in Joe Slovo / indicate opportunities for the participation of beneficiaries in the housing process as well as the extent and nature of community engagement / highlight existing barriers to effective community participation and other problems related to housing delivery in Joe Slovo / draw general conclusions within the framework of the government&rsquo / s housing policy / and provide recommendations to policy makers, urban planners and other stakeholders. Consequently, this research employs qualitative methodological tools as they are most appropriate in the collection of this type of data. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with local officials, and observations were used to gather critical information. In addition, secondary data, with a special focus on newspaper articles, were used.</p>

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.

The cost of housing is rising disproportionately to income throughout the country. Alternative methods of providing low to moderate income housing are always being sought to offset the gap created by the varying rates of growth between the cost of housing and income. The purpose of this professional report is to examine the Limited Equity Cooperative (LEC) which by simple definition generally limits the resale value of member shares to maintain affordability over time. This report looks at the specifics the LEC to determine how it can by used to provide a viable solution to an overall shortage for low to moderate income households through an hypothetical test cased using 2007 data for the Metropolitan Boston area. / text

This report documents the growth of renting in Texas colonias, low-income informal settlements along the US-Mexico border. Historically, owner-occupied self-help and self-managed housing has been the norm in these settlements, so scholarly treatment of renting in colonias has been very limited. I begin with a literature review of housing development and housing policy in colonias, before turning, for comparison, to a discussion of renting in the US as well as in informal settlements in the developing world. Chapter 2 draws upon data from the US Census Bureau to describe the nature and extent of the colonia rental market in the six Texas counties with the largest colonia populations: my analysis reveals that renters now make up more than one in five colonia households. I expand on this discussion by examining differences between renter and owner households, paying particular attention to factors that make renters more vulnerable than owners. Chapter 3 employs a variety of regression models to identify the determinants of varying rental rates in colonias. The results suggest that larger, older, and more densely populated colonias have higher rates of renting. In Chapter 4, I utilize a mixed methods approach -- including household surveys, key informant interviews, and intensive case study interviews -- to a) better understand the tenure decisions of colonia renters and to place such decisions within a context of extreme socio-economic vulnerability and b) examine the factors that incentivize a turn toward renting among property owners. I conclude with a discussion of potential policy solutions to ensure that colonia rental accommodation remains affordable, accessible, and of sufficient quality. / text

Sub-divided units (SDU) and the similar type of tiny accommodation namely cage home and cubicle apartment have been existed in Hong Kong for a long period of time. Despite the factthat the living condition of those flats is usually undesirable, there are views in the community that there is demand in the market because these flats can provide affordable urban accommodation to those who are not eligible for Public Rental Housing (PRH) or those who wish to live in the urban area which is closer to their workplaces or their children's place of study at a cheaper rent. The repeated fire incidents happened in the tenement buildings consisted of SDU causing number of casualties has widely aroused the public concern about the safety of SDU. Although the HK government has been implementing measures since 2011 to tackle the problems of SDU, the number of people living in SDU has still greatly increased from 53,000 in 2007 to 171,300 in 2013, accounting for 2.4% total population of Hong Kong. In fact, the increase of SDU not only reflects that many low-income group cannot afford the high housing rent, but also many households are being forced into inappropriate or sub-standard accommodation. J Pynoons, R Schafer, C Hartman (2012) stated that the quality and location of housing affect the security, happiness, and stability of families, and have serious implications for the economic and social wellbeing of our urban areas. The problems arising from SDUs not only affect the individual of tenants, but also impose hazard to the building management, fire safety, building structure and social order. Due to speculation and limited land supply, the problems of SDUs were still remained unsettled and the housing price has still been escalating to a higher recorded price causing shortage of adequate housing supply and thus the increase of rental price on housing. With rents escalating and Housing Authority waiting lists lengthening, low income households, particular the households who were not eligible to or awaiting for PRH were forced into inappropriate and sub-standard accommodation. Although the government has formed a long Term Housing Strategy (LTHS) Steering Committee to look into the housing problems of grassroots families, it would not see the proposed measures shall immediately solve the housing problems, particularly in relation to SDUs within a short period of time. All the proposed measures require number of years to plan, discuss and compromise with different parties. The goal of this dissertation is to review the phenomenon of SDU and to study the reasons of trend of such phenomenon. Without a thorough understanding on the phenomenon of SDU and the reasons of trend, no proper measures shall be implemented to tackle the problems of SDU. The phenomenon of SDU shall be deemed to be the result of number of reasons relating to land supply and housing demand. The ever rising housing price, the attitude and direction of property developers, the housing policy towards affordable housing and the high cost of living are the factors affecting the supply and demand of affordable housing whereas decreasing vacancy in the private rental market, lack of funding, lack of private development of affordable housing, increasing rent prices, lack of long-term affordable housing planning and the absence of a comprehensive housing policy cause the supply of affordable housing cannot meet the increasing demand. Besides, the attitude of people who worried that affordable housing will increase traffic, reduce their property values and lack of safety in their communities, no one wants to be near or to have additional affordable housing in their communities. These attitudes further make the government difficult to find suitable locations for affordable housing. Besides, various articles and news revealed that many people living in SDU are single parenthood, mental illness, disable and addiction to drugs and drink. However, there is no survey to reflect or indicate the real situation. Government should look into the real situation and to effect proper measures to tackle the problems of the above people. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management