Concrete block single-story detached homes are popular residences in Florida, but construction materials and methods must undergo changes to combat rising prices and material shortages. Those systems with the greatest pressure of price or material shortage will change first. When current costs and methods are examine, it is found that two systems, roof and exterior walls, have the greatest need for changes in the immediate future; and one system, thermal insulation, needs an empirical study. The roof is of materials which are in short supply and rapidly increasing in cost. The study concludes that, with present cost trends, metal frame members for the roof or a reinforced concrete slab roof are feasible alternatives. The exterior walls have excessive labor costs, and the feasible alternative may be cast-on-site masonry tilt-up panel walls. Power prices, electrical and fuel, create a need to establish new guidelines for the extent of home thermal insulation. The heat gains and losses are examined to direct future studies of the home's thermal insulation problems. The concrete block home will continue to be viable if the necessary innovations are implemented to reduce cost rate of increase and to reduce operating and maintenance costs.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1981. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-124). / This thesis initially focuses on the development of the U.S. stick-built house. The material and construction methods of the structure remain simple and unchanged, whereas the non-structural elements offer an enormous variety of choices in materials and components as a result of the improvements in technology . In Chapter 2, a case study of the U.S. system suggests that the stick-built house has a great potential for self-help construction, with least subcontracting, rental of some special tools and equipment and the use of prefabricated materials. A comparison of the U.S. and Japanese systems shows that the Japanese system offers lesser potential for self-help . On the average, higher skills would be required in on-site assembly. Difficulties would occur in using members of different sizes and joining methods. Also, there would be less flexibility in future change of housing design. The author recommends greater simplification of structural members for production and construction methods in Japan. / by Yutaka Takase. / M.S.

The primary purpose of this study is to give simple and detailed instructions for building a log cabin by the post-and-beam method. The data were gathered from three sources: (1) library research, (2) interviews with experienced builders of cabins, and (3) personal experience in cabin construction. A step-by-step guide for building a cabin is given in Chapters II and III, which explain in depth how to construct each section of the cabin, from laying the foundation to putting on the finishing touches. It is believed that any serious builder can follow the directions and construct his own log cabin for less than one-third the cost of a similar commercially built cabin.

This thesis argues that early nineteenth-century domestic architecture along Indiana's eastern National Road (Wayne, Henry and Hancock Counties) was a product of the available local materials, not a product of cultural influences traveling along the Road. While the first chapter drives in this point, the second and third chapters describe the local materials (builders and carpenters, wood, saw-mills, clay, brickmaking and limestone), and explain construction techniques in a series of case study buildings. The thesis concludes by not only confirming the proposition, but also by making a few conclusions regarding early nineteenth-century construction methods. / Department of Architecture

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1980. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references. / The concept of self-help in a site and services project is based on the assumption that given the security of land tenureship_, an owner-builder can manage the whole process of house implementation. Generally, in any sponsored site and services project this assumption is supported by "aid" ; that is, the sponsor provides some financial and/or technical assistance. while this "aid" is minimum, often provided in the form of infrastructure, serviced plots, and some cash for purchasing building materials, it is assumed that such "aid" would assist the owner-builder in implementing the dwelling on the serviced plot. It is also assumed that the planning and construction of the dwelling would be carried out throughout the dweller's own decision-making and self-help efforts. In theory, the concept is valid. It is also adopted in most of the site and services projects in East Africa. Self-help is assumed to contribute towards economic savings, mobilization of human resources, increase in community spirit and group participation and to achieve a host of other benefits. This study looks at one such site and services project in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. Through several in-depth case histories of carefully selected allottee families from the Dandora Community Development Project, a site and services project in Nairobi, the thesis shows the actual form(s) and practice of self-help. Several allottees were interviewed to understand further the real nature of self-help. That is, who did what, when, how and at what cost. Other inquiry was on the background and characteristics of the allottees' families, their approach to house planning and construction, characteristics and economics of construction, self - help practice amongst different: groups of allottees', cost and benefits of self-help and some impact of the rules of the Dandora Community Development Department (DCDD) in house implementation. The study presents several case histories of immigrant families in the process of urbanization in Nairobi. The cases trace the path of these low-income families from squatter settlements to the site and services project, emphasizing the element of self-help underlying the process of settlement. The actual role of an owner-builder is different from some of the assumptions held on self-help housing. The hard line of economic cost and benefits, as perceived in theory, does not necessarily hold true and neither do other assumptions on self - help applications in the site and services project. Chapters 1 and 2 present some background to the study, the research method employed and some of the theoretical constructs underlying the concept of self-help. In Chapters 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 findings of the field research are presented. Specifically, different forms of self-help, their characteristics, practice, costs and benefits, and some illustrations as observed in the site and services project are presented. All the material covered under these Chapters is an outcome of the author's intensive field research on the allottees of the Dandora Community Development Project, from later 1978 to mid 1979. In· Chapter 8 the uses, costs, and benefits of the dwellings completed by means of the various self-help forms are further articulated. In the final Chapter the findings on actual self-help practices are compared with the held on self-help. This analysis is followed by major conclusions drawn from the study. / by Praful Naran Soni. / M.Arch.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1982. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 177-182). / The purpose of this thesis is to determine the factors affecting the transformation of user requirements for a single family detached house by analyzing changing technology and life-styles of the traditional and modern house and to use these factors as guidelines for alternative building systems. Chapter 1 gives an overview of trends in housing construction and describes the user requirement profile with required floor area for each life stage. In Chapter 2, the underlying ideas of house, family and home in Japanese culture are analyzed to determine the factors which influence housing design and the way the Japanese live. Specific changes in life-style and housing design were analyzed in order to clarify certain issues which affect residential design. In Chapter 3, alternative performance statements are determined, based on changing life-styles. Chapter 4 briefly describes the four-stage development of housing industry technology after WWII. In Chapter 5, typical house plans of three selected development stages are compared and analyzed with regard to changes in technology. Principal transformation factors are derived from this analysis. Finally, projected trends assessing the future of building systems in Japan are discussed in the conclusion. / by Yoshiko Ryu. / M.Arch.

Thesis. 1977. M.Arch.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Bibliography : leaves 73-74. / by Robert J. Osten Jr. / M.Arch.

This thesis examines the construction practices in the traditional domestic architecture of Kerala in India. In doing so, it identifies two vital aspects of the architecture, namely the Vedic planning principles of the Vasthushasthra and the indigenous craft practices. The thesis pays tribute to both: the theories of Vasthushasthra in the construction of houses are examined in detail; the craft practices are documented and analyzed through a field study of 24 houses in Kerala selected across the caste, class and religious structures of the society. The thesis arrives at the proposition that the construction practices in the domestic architecture of Kerala, as evident in the case studies, are the result of a simultaneous presence of both these aspects. The Vedic principles were adapted to the contingencies of the context. The craft and techniques prevalent in Kerala at that time are part of a larger picture of cross-cultural transfer of techniques that occurred in the early historic times. Thus in Kerala, practice and theory worked together towards making a traditional domestic architecture that was meaningful and relevant in the socio-cultural, political and religious context at that time.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1997. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [208]-237).

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Technology, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 77-80).