High-rise residential tower is an inevitable and prevalent building type in high-density areas such as China. Because of the large population such buildings accommodate, improving the quality of people's lives in these towers has significant meaning. One of the important problems in such environments is the loss of identity of individual homes. This occurs because living spaces cannot fit individual families' unique and changing physical and spiritual needs. People can identify their lives and express their individual values in their homes in only the most meager ways. Consequently, people and their communities suffer deeply for the loss of identity of individual homes.The first focus of this thesis is to bring the question of individual control into light with the issue of identity of individual homes. Identity of any built environment results from the interplay of both shared values and individual values. In an identifiable and accommodating environment, both value sets should be in balance, over time. In high-rise residential towers, individual values are hardly presented because of the lack of individual control. So the radical way to establish identity of individual homes is to enable individual control in the building process.The second focus of this thesis is a study in architectural design of the distribution of control in such high-rise environments. Two kinds of individual controls are assumed and distributed: the control of the dwelling layouts and the control of dwelling unit facades. To enable these tow configurations of parts to be subject to individual control, propositions for setting up a new balance between centrally controlled parts and individually controlled parts in high-rise residential towers are put forward.To demonstrate these propositions, a specific high-rise residential tower in Beijing is redesigned to the solution of technical problems, regulatory issues and conventions when control is distributed. Individual control of both the dwelling layouts and the facades are simulated in a methodical way.Finally, notes about supportive products and management techniques, broader developments in other types of high-rise buildings, and the cultivation of shared values out of individual values are offered. / Department of Architecture

xii, 145 p. : ill. (some col.), maps. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / In an effort to confront global warming and the increasing scarcity of resources, the preservation community began several years ago to adopt sustainable and green building practices and metrics for historic rehabilitation projects. As a result, there is an ever growing number of rehabilitated historic buildings in the United States not only incorporating sustainable building designs but also achieving Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. Most of these are large, architect-designed buildings in urban settings rehabilitated for cultural and commercial uses. This thesis explores the application of the LEED 2009 New Construction and Major Renovation Rating System for the development of a sustainable rehabilitation plan for the modest vernacular 1897 Jeff. Smith's Parlor Museum in Skagway, Alaska. The goal of this research is to demonstrate how the LEED rating system might be applied to the rehabilitation of this building and other historic vernacular buildings. / Committee in Charge: Donald L. Peting, Chair; Grant Crosby, NPS Historical Architect

This dissertation consists of three essays that explore the interplay between economic shocks and local context. The first chapter studies the role of Korea's unique social fractionalization in explaining a 60% growth in agricultural productivity during the 1970s. Social fractionalization along dimensions like ethnicity or class can stunt economic development. This paper investigates how fractionalization affects a group's ability to respond to economic shocks by studying rural South Korea in the 1970s. Social groups in rural Korea were defined by one dominant characteristic: extended kin network identified by family name. Some villages displayed high homogeneity, with up to 90% of households sharing the same family name. This unique social context offers a reliable measure of social fractionalization that is otherwise difficult to measure. I combine this cross-sectional variation with the time variation in market access created by the construction of a new bridge, the Namhae bridge, in 1973. I find that homogeneous villages displayed higher agricultural investments and productivity growth than heterogeneous villages following the bridge construction. Homogeneous villages capitalized on the opportunities created by the bridge by providing complementary local public goods more effectively than heterogeneous villages. This paper highlights the critical role of social homogeneity in enhancing a community's ability to capitalize on new opportunities in the face of external shocks, such as improved market access. In the second chapter, I investigate the impact of expanding access to education on the quality of pre-existing schools, using India's Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) national secondary school construction program as a case study. I use a difference-in-differences strategy to assess the effects of new school construction on existing schools' enrollment, facilities, and the number of students taking and passing the nationally administered exam at grade ten and twelve. The analysis utilizes school-level data from the Secondary Education Management Information System (SEMIS) database, which tracks all secondary schools in India between 2009 and 2020. I find that while opening new schools increases the number of students taking and passing exams, it does not necessarily lead to improvements in the quality of education, as measured by the proportions of students taking and passing exams. This suggests that constructing new schools alone may not be enough to enhance educational quality through increased competition, and other factors or interventions may be necessary. This paper highlights the potential trade-off between expanding access to education and maintaining the quality of education provided by pre-existing schools. In the third chapter, I empirically test ``learning-by-exporting'' by examining the long-term performance of Indian IT firms after their exposure to the temporary export shock created by the Y2K bug. The Y2K bug was a computer software glitch that misinterpreted the year 2000 as 1900 due to the widespread use of two-digit date representations in computer systems at the time. As the new millennium approached, concerns grew that this programming oversight would lead to widespread system failures and potential global disruptions. This uncertainty prompted extensive efforts to identify and fix potential issues before 2000, resulting in a surge in outsourcing to Indian IT companies. However, by the year 2000, concerns proved to be largely overstated as few major problems materialized. This event represented an unexpected yet short-lived export boom for Indian IT firms. I use two exposure measures: IT firms with a history of exporting before 2000 and the Bartik instrument, which leverages regional variation in IT sector employment share. Overall, I find that exposure to the Y2K export shock had a positive and statistically significant effect on the long-term performance of Indian IT firms, supporting the concept of ``learning-by-exporting.'' Event study analysis shows that firms exposed to the Y2K shock experienced improvements in sales, export share, and total compensation paid to employees. However, the 2SLS results using the Bartik instrument reveal statistically insignificant findings, suggesting a potential weak instrument problem. This highlights the need for more accurate measures of Y2K shock exposure and further exploration of alternative estimation strategies.

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

The theory of sustainable development has received worldwide acceptance, and is characterised by the protection of environmental quality, social justice and economic development to ensure a quality of life for future generations. The concepts of sustainable development have transcended to all aspects of society, including the built environment through the Habitat Agenda and building sustainability rating tools. The thesis investigates the implications of sustainable development on how it relates to the building construction industry in South Africa. The study sought to evaluate the extent of consideration and motivation for the incorporation of sustainability criteria in building design, using the case of the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity wet collection facility in Grahamstown. The goal of the thesis was achieved by evaluating sustainability considerations and barriers to adoption of sustainability criteria in the design of the SAlAB building, the rating of the building against the LEED ™ criteria, and evaluation of the applicability of the LEED ™ in the South African context. The importance of the research emanates from the fact that, despite the proliferation of sustainable development and sustainability rating tools in the world, there is no widely used building sustainability rating tool in South Africa, even though the country is industrialising with a very active built environment. The study therefore contributes to the body of knowledge necessary for the implementation of a building rating tool in the country, through an understanding of barriers to implementation. The research method used in the study was a case study with the intention of obtaining the design professional's considerations and challenges in the context of designing the SAIAB building. The case study used multiple data collection methods, with primary information obtained from interviews of professionals involved in the design of the building, whilst additional information was from analysis of technical drawings and review of literature on the subject. The findings of the research showed that there is an understanding of sustainability and consideration in the building industry even though there is no targeted intent to meet sustainability goals. The barriers to building sustainability were identified as lack of regulation, incentives, access to land, awareness, availability of professional codes and standards, economic costs and capacity. These barriers translated into a relatively low score, a silver rating for the SAlAB building when using the LEEDTM rating system. The implications of the findings suggests a need for the development of a comprehensive building sustainability rating tool suited for the South African context, with performance standards and a technical manual to support it. This should however be done in an environment where sustainability goals are supported by regulation and incentives have been developed.

Klimatförändringarna blir allt mer omfattande i takt med att jordens befolkning ökar. Den negativa miljöpåverkan bottnar till stor del i användandet av råvaror och energiförbrukning vid skapandet av materiella ting. Enligt energimyndigheten (2015) står byggsektorn för ca 40 % av Sveriges totala energianvändning. För att minska energianvändningen har mål både på nationell och internationell nivå skapats. Målen är tänkta att skapa större förståelse av ett mer energieffektivt byggt samhälle för samtliga aktörer inom byggbranschen. En hållbar utveckling av husbyggandet kräver förutom att värna om miljön en beaktning av de ekonomiska och sociala aspekterna.   I det här examensarbetet har det undersökts om två specifika standardhus från en småhusleverantör kan utvecklas till passivhus med bevarad arkitektonisk karaktär. Studien syftar delvis till att undersöka om begreppet passivhus kan fungera som ett hållbart koncept för byggandet av enfamiljshus. Begreppet hållbar utveckling har begränsats och en förenkling har applicerats i arbetet. Den ekologiska aspekten representeras av energiberäkningar och eventuella åtgärder för att standardhusen ska uppnå kraven för passivhus. Den ekonomiska aspekten representeras av en livscykelkostnadsanalys med hjälp av nuvärdesmetoden och återbetalningsmetoden. Den sociala aspekten representeras av en utvärdering av förändring i boendekvaliteter vid utveckling från ett standardhus till passivhus. Studien presenterar även en alternativ utformning av ett passivhus med avsikt att främja positiva boendekvaliteterna.   Standardhusen tillhör en småhusproducent, Intressanta hus, som har sitt huvudsäte i Västerås. Husen utgörs av en villa på 147 m2 i ett plan med pulpettak samt en villa på 151 m2 i två plan med sadeltak. Med anledning av Intressanta hus geografiska läge har Västerås klimat använts som utgångspunkt vid energiberäkningarna. För att addera ytterligare en utmaning har även möjligheter för utveckling till passivhus undersökts för standardhusen i ett subarktiskt klimat i Kiruna. Västerås representerar därmed klimatzon III och Kiruna klimatzon I.   Resultaten avslöjade att det är möjligt att utveckla standardhuset i två plan med sadeltak till passivhus och samtidigt bevara den arkitektoniska karaktären i de båda klimatzonerna. Standardhuset med ett plan och pulpettak är endast möjligt att anpassa till passivhus i klimatzon III med bevarad arkitektonisk karaktär. Livscykelkostnadsanalysen visar med hjälp av nuvärdesmetoden att det är ekonomiskt fördelaktigt att investera i passivhus som ett koncept för en kalkylperiod på 50 år. Den boendekvalitet som främst förändras är bostadens ljusinsläpp och för passivhuset i ett plan är skillnaden av ljusinsläpp markant i klimatzon I.   Studiens slutsats är att konceptet passivhus är en metod av husbyggnation som främjar den hållarbara utvecklingen i förenklad form. Resultaten är framförallt positiva för klimatzon III men om byggnaden har låg formfaktor kan konceptet fungera bra även i kallare klimat som återfinns i klimatzon I. / The climate changes increases as the population increases. The negative environmental impact is mostly based on the use of raw materials and energy consumption in the production of various products. According to Energimyndigheten (2015), the building sector is the cause of about 40 % of Sweden's total energy use. In order to reduce the energy use goals have been created at both national and international levels. The goals are intended to create a greater understanding of a more energy efficient society for all actors within the construction industry. In addition to create a sustainable development of the building sector one needs to also take in account the social and economic aspects.   This master thesis examined whether two specific standard houses from a small house producer can be adapted to passive houses with a preserved architectural character. The purpose of the study is partly to investigate whether the concept of passive houses can serve as a sustainable concept of building single family houses. The concept of sustainable development has been simplified. The ecological aspect is represented by the energy calculations and possible actions that the standard houses need to achieve in order to meet the requirements for passive houses. The economic aspect is represented by a life cycle cost analysis using the Net Present Value method and the Simple Payback method. The social aspect is represented by an evaluation of changes in living qualities as the standard houses develops to passive houses. The study also presents an alternative design of a passive house with the purpose of improving the accommodation qualities.   The standard houses belong to a small-house-producer, Intressanta hus, who has their main market in Västerås. The houses is represented by a 147m2 villa with one floor and a pulpit roof and a 151m2 villa with two floors and a pitched roof. Due to Intressanta hus geographic location, the typical climate for Västerås has been used in the energy calculations. To add another dimension, opportunities for developing the standard houses to passive houses have also been investigated for the typical climate in Kiruna. Therefore Västerås represents climate zone III and Kiruna represents climate zone I.   The results revealed that it is possible to adapt the standard house with two floors and a pitched roof to a passive house while preserving the architectural character in both climate zones. The standard house with one floor and a pulpit roof is only possible to adjust to a passive house in climate zone III with a preserved architectural character. The life cycle cost analysis using the Net Present Value showed that it is an economical advantage to invest in a passive house in a period of 50 years. The accommodation quality that changes the most is the incident light in the houses and for the passive house with one floor the difference of light is remarkably high in climate zone I.