Abstract: The Build-Then-Sell (BTS) is a novel system
implemented in Malaysia after a number of complaints have been
received from buyers in the preceding Sell-Then-Build (STB) system.
When the government announced the implementation of the BTS in
2007, proponents of BTS have asserted that the new system will
provide houses with low level of defects. Their argument however is
not supported by any empirical data. Hence, this study is conducted
to evaluate the housing defects in BTS houses. Six BTS residential
areas have been surveyed to collect the defects data. Questionnaires
were administered directly to the occupiers in each of the BTS houses
through door-to-door visits. The result has shown that the rate of
defects for the six residential areas is ranged from minor to slight,
which only affect the aesthetic value of the house.
Abstract: This paper describes the design and development of pico-hydro generation system using consuming water distributed to houses. Water flow in the domestic pipes has kinetic energy that potential to generate electricity for energy storage purposes in addition to the routine activities such as laundry, cook and bathe. The inherent water pressure and flow inside the pipe from utility-s main tank that used for those usual activities is also used to rotate small scale hydro turbine to drive a generator for electrical power generation. Hence, this project is conducted to develop a small scale hydro generation system using consuming water distributed to houses as an alternative electrical energy source for residential use.
Abstract: The purpose is to study the model and characteristic of
participation of the suitable community to lead to develop permanent
water marketing in Bang Noi Floating Market, Bangkonti District,
Samutsongkhram Province. A total of 342 survey questionnaire was
administered to potential respondents. The researchers interviewed
the leader of the community. Appreciation Influence Control (AIC)
was used to talk with 20 villagers on arena. The findings revealed
that overall, most people had the middle level of the participation in
developing the durable Bang Noi Floating Market, Bangkonti,
Samutsongkhram Province and in aspects of gaining benefits from
developing it with atmosphere and a beautiful view for tourism. For
example, the landscape is beautiful with public utilities. The
participation in preserving and developing Bang Noi Floating Market
remains in the former way of life. The basic factor of person affects
to the participation of people such as age, level of education, career,
and income per month. Most participants are the original hosts that
have houses and shops located in the marketing and neighbor. These
people involve with the benefits and have the power to make a water
marketing strategy, the major role to set the information database. It
also found that the leader and the villagers play the important role in
setting a five-physical database. Data include level of information
such as position of village, territory of village, road, river, and
premises. Information of culture consists of a two-level of
information, interesting point, and Itinerary. The information occurs
from presenting and practicing by the leader and villagers in the
community.All of phases are presented for listening and investigating
database together in both the leader and villagers in the process of
participation.
Abstract: The objective of this research is to study the people’s level of participation in activities of the community, their satisfaction towards the community, the attachment they have to the community, factors that influence the attachment, as well as the characteristics of the relationships of military families’ of the Royal Guards community of Dusit District. The method used was non-probability sampling by quota sampling according to people’s age. The determined age group was 18 years or older.
One set of a sample group was done per family. The questionnaires were conducted by 287 people. Snowball sampling was also used by interviewing people of the community, starting from the Royal Guards Community’s leader, then by 20 of the community’s well-respected persons. The data was analyzed by using descriptive statistics, such as arithmetic mean and standard deviation, as well as by inferential statistics, such as Independent - Samples T test (T-test), One-Way ANOVA (F-test), Chi-Square. Descriptive analysis according to the structure of the interview content was also used. The results of the research is that the participation of the population in the Royal Guards Community in various activities is at a medium level, with the average participation level during Mother’s and Father’s Days. The people’s general level of satisfaction towards the premises of the Royal Guards Community is at the highest level.
The people were most satisfied with the transportation within the community and in contacting with people from outside the premises. The access to the community is convenient and there are various entrances. The attachment of the people to the Royal Guards Community in general and by each category is at a high level. The feeling that the community is their home rated the highest average. Factors that influence the attachment of the people of the Royal Guards Community are age, status, profession, income, length of stay in the community, membership of social groups, having neighbors they feel close and familiar with, and as well as the benefits they receive from the community. In addition, it was found that people that participate in activities have a high level of positive relationship towards the attachment of the people to the Royal Guards Community. The satisfaction of the community has a very high level of positive relationship with the attachment of the people to the Royal Guards Community.
The characteristics of the attachment of military families’ is that they live in big houses that everyone has to protect and care for, starting from the leader of the family as well as all members. Therefore, they all love the community they live in. The characteristics that show the participation of activities within the community and the high level of satisfaction towards the premises of the community will enable the people to be more attached to the community. The people feel that everyone is close neighbors within the community, as if they are one big family.
Abstract: Abstract–Indoor air (VOCs) samples were collected
simultaneously from variety of indoors (e.g. living rooms, baby-s
rooms) and outdoor environments which were voluntarily selected
from the houses in which pregnant residents live throughout Ankara.
This is the first comprehensive study done in Turkey starting from
prenatal period and continued till the babies had one year old. VOCs
levels were measured over 76 homes. Air samples were collected in
Tenax TA sorbent filled tubes with active sampling method and
analyzed with Thermal Desorber and Gas Chromatography/Mass
spectrometry (TD-GC/MS). At the first sampling period in the baby-s
rooms maximum concentration of toluene was measured about
240.77μg.m-3 and in the living rooms maximum concentration of
naphthalene was 180.24μg.m-3. At the second sampling period in the
baby-s rooms maximum concentration of toluene was measured
about 144.97μg.m-3 and in the living rooms maximum concentration
of naphthalene was 247.89μg.m-3. Concentration of TVOCs in the
first period was generally higher than the second period.
Abstract: Many agricultural and especially greenhouse
applications like plant inspection, data gathering, spraying and
selective harvesting could be performed by robots. In this paper
multiple nonholonomic robots are used in order to create a desired
formation scheme for screening solar energy in a greenhouse through
data gathering. The formation consists from a leader and a team
member equipped with appropriate sensors. Each robot is dedicated
to its mission in the greenhouse that is predefined by the
requirements of the application. The feasibility of the proposed
application includes experimental results with three unmanned
ground vehicles (UGV).
Abstract: This research aimed to study the market feasibility for
new brand coffee house, the case study of Thailand.. This study is a
mixed methods research combining quantitative research and the
qualitative research. Primary data 350 sets of questionnaires were
distributed, and the high quality completed questionnaires of 320 sets
returned. Research samples are identified as customers’ of Hi-end
department stores in Thailand. The sources of secondary data were
critical selected from highly reliable sources, both from public and
private sectors. The results were used to classify the customer group
into two main groups, the younger than 25 and the older than 25years
old. Results of the younger group, are give priority to the dimension
of coffee house and its services dimension more than others, then
branding dimension and the product dimension respectively. On the
other hand, the older group give the difference result as they rate the
important of the branding, coffee house and its services, then the
product respectively. Coffee consuming is not just the trend but it
has become part of people lifestyle. And the new cultures also created
by the wise businessman. Coffee was long produced and consumed in
Thailand. But it is surprisingly the hi-end brand coffee houses in Thai
market are mostly imported brands. The café business possibility for
Thai brand coffee house in Thai market were discussed in the paper.
Abstract: Located within the tropical belt region, there are
certain rules which should implemented in creating a passive
sustainable housing design in Malaysia. Traditional Malay house
possess a strong character with certain special spaces to create a
sustainable house which suit to the tropical climate in Malaysia. One
of the special space known as verandah or serambi gantung, create
various advantages in solving various issues. However, this special
space is not extremely being applied currently which produce major
issues in term of social and environmental aspects. Hence, this
phenomena create a negative impact to the occupant while Malaysia
already has a best housing design previously. Therefore, this paper
aims to explore both of the main issues mentioned above and reveal
the advantages of implementing verandah into passive sustainable
housing design in Malaysia. A systematic literature review is the
main methodology in this research to identify the various advantages
about verandah.. The study reveals that verandah is the best solution
in term of social and environmental issues and should be
implemented in current housing design in Malaysia.
Abstract: Nowadays over-consumption of fossil energy in
buildings especially in residential buildings and also considering the
increase in populations, the crisis of energy shortage in a near future
is predictable. The recent performance of developed countries in
construction with the aim of decreasing fossil energies shows that
these countries have understood the incoming crisis and has taken
reasonable and basic actions in this regard. However, Iranian
architecture, with several thousands years of history, has acquired
and executed invaluable experiences in designing, adapting and
coordinating with the nature.
Architectural studies during the recent decades show that imitating
modern western architecture results in high energy wastage beside
the fact that it not reasonably adaptable and corresponded with the
habits and customs of people unlike the architecture in the past which
was compatible and adaptable with the climatic conditions and this
necessitates optimal using of renewable energies more than ever. This
paper studies problems of design, execution and living in today's
houses and reviews the characteristics of climatic elements paying
special attention to the performance of trombe wall and solar
greenhouse in traditional houses and offers some suggestions for
combining these two elements and a climatic strategy.
Abstract: The current study describes a multi-objective optimization technique for positioning of houses in a residential neighborhood. The main task is the placement of residential houses in a favorable configuration satisfying a number of objectives. Solving the house layout problem is a challenging task. It requires an iterative approach to satisfy design requirements (e.g. energy efficiency, skyview, daylight, roads network, visual privacy, and clear access to favorite views). These design requirements vary from one project to another based on location and client preferences. In the Gulf region, the most important socio-cultural factor is the visual privacy in indoor space. Hence, most of the residential houses in this region are surrounded by high fences to provide privacy, which has a direct impact on other requirements (e.g. daylight and direction to favorite views). This investigation introduces a novel technique to optimally locate and orient residential buildings to satisfy a set of design requirements. The developed technique explores the search space for possible solutions. This study considers two dimensional house planning problems. However, it can be extended to solve three dimensional cases.
Abstract: Housing is a basic human right. The provision of new
house shall be free from any defects, even for the defects that people
do normally considered as 'cosmetic defects'. This paper studies
about the building defects of newly completed house of 72 unit of
double-storey terraced located in Bangi, Selangor. The building
survey implemented using protocol 1 (visual inspection). As for new
house, the survey work is very stringent in determining the defects
condition and priority. Survey and reporting procedure is carried out
based on CSP1 Matrix that involved scoring system, photographs and
plan tagging. The analysis is done using Statistical Package for Social
Sciences (SPSS). The finding reveals that there are 2119 defects
recorded in 72 terraced houses. The cumulative score obtained was
27644 while the overall rating is 13.05. These results indicate that the
construction quality of the newly terraced houses is low and not up to
an acceptable standard as the new house should be.
Abstract: Socioeconomic stability and development of a
country, can be describe by housing affordability. It is aimed to
ensure the housing provided as one of the key factors that is
affordable by every income earner group whether low-income,
middle income and high income group. This research carried out is to
find out affordability of home ownership level for first medium cost
landed-house by the middle-income group in Selangor, Malaysia. It is
also hope that it could be seen as able to contribute to the knowledge
and understanding on housing affordability level for the middleincome
group and variables that influenced the medium income
group-s ability to own first medium-cost houses.
Abstract: Chest pain is one of the most prevalent complaints
among adults that cause the people to attend to medical centers. The
aim was to determine the prevalence and risk factors of chest pain
among over 30 years old people in Tehran. In this cross-sectional
study, 787 adults took part from Apr 2005 until Apr 2006. The
sampling method was random cluster sampling and there were 25
clusters. In each cluster, interviews were performed with 32 over 30
years old, people lived in those houses. In cases with chest pain, extra
questions asked. The prevalence of CP was 9% (71 cases). Of them
21 cases (6.5%) were in 41-60 year age ranges and the remainders
were over 61 year old. 19 cases (26.8%) mentioned CP in resting
state and all of the cases had exertion onset CP. The CP duration was
10 minutes or less in all of the cases and in most of them (84.5%), the
location of pain mentioned left anterior part of chest, left anterior part
of sternum and or left arm. There was positive history of myocardial
infarction in 12 cases (17%). There was significant relation between
CP and age, sex and between history of myocardial infarction and
marital state of study people. Our results are similar to other studies-
results in most parts, however it is necessary to perform
supplementary tests and follow up studies to differentiate between
cardiac and non-cardiac CP exactly.
Abstract: The urbanization phenomenon in Yogyakarta Special
Province, Indonesia, encouraged people move to the city for getting
jobs in the informal sectors. They live in some temporary houses in
the three main riverbanks: Gadjahwong, Code, and Winongo.
Triggered by its independent status they use it as the space for
accommodating domestic, social and economy activities because of
the non standardized room size of their houses, where are recognized
as the environmental hazards. This recognition makes the ambivalent
perception when was related to the twelfth point of the philosophy of
community development concept: the empowering individuals and
communities. Its spatial implication have actually described the
territory and the place making phenomena. By analyzing some data
collected the author-s fundamental research funded by The General
Directorate of Higher Education of Indonesia, this paper will discuss
how do the spatial implications of the occupants- behavior and the
numerous perceptions of those phenomena.
Abstract: A Data Warehouses is a repository of information
integrated from source data. Information stored in data warehouse is
the form of materialized in order to provide the better performance
for answering the queries. Deciding which appropriated views to be
materialized is one of important problem. In order to achieve this
requirement, the constructing search space close to optimal is a
necessary task. It will provide effective result for selecting view to be
materialized. In this paper we have proposed an approach to reoptimize
Multiple View Processing Plan (MVPP) by using global
common subexpressions. The merged queries which have query
processing cost not close to optimal would be rewritten. The
experiment shows that our approach can help to improve the total
query processing cost of MVPP and sum of query processing cost
and materialized view maintenance cost is reduced as well after views
are selected to be materialized.
Abstract: Thermal load calculations have been performed for
multi-layered walls that are composed of three different parts; a
common (sand and cement) plaster, and two types of locally
produced soft and hard bricks. The masonry construction of these
layered walls was based on concrete-backed stone masonry made of
limestone bricks joined by mortar. These multilayered walls are
forming the outer walls of the building envelope of a typical Libyan
house. Based on the periodic seasonal weather conditions, within the
Libyan cost region during summer and winter, measured thermal
conductivity values were used to implement such seasonal variation
of heat flow and the temperature variations through the walls. The
experimental measured thermal conductivity values were obtained
using the Hot Disk technique. The estimation of the thermal
resistance of the wall layers ( R-values) is based on measurements
and calculations. The numerical calculations were done using a
simplified analytical model that considers two different wall
constructions which are characteristics of such houses. According to
the obtained results, the R-values were quite low and therefore,
several suggestions have been proposed to improve the thermal
loading performance that will lead to a reasonable human comfort
and reduce energy consumption.
Abstract: Reasonably priced and well-constructed housing must
be an integral and element supporting a healthy society. The absence
of housing everyone in society can afford negatively affects the
people's health, education, ability to get jobs, develop their
community. Without access to decent housing, economic
development, integration of immigrants and inclusiveness, the society
is negatively impacted. Canada has a sterling record in creating
housing compared to many other nations around the globe. Canadian
housing gets support from a mature and responsive mortgage network
and a top-quality construction industry as well as safe and excellent
quality building materials that are readily available. Yet 1.7 million
Canadian households occupy substandard abodes. During the past
hundred years, Canada's government has made a wide variety of
attempts to provide decent residential facilities every Canadian can
afford. Despite these laudable efforts, today Canada is left with
housing that is inadequate for many Canadians. People who own their
housing are given all kinds of privileges and perks, while people with
relatively low incomes who rent their apartments or houses are
discriminated against.
To help solve these problems, zoning that is based on an
"inclusionary" philosophy is tool developed to help provide people
the affordable residences that they need. No, thirty years after its
introduction, this type of zoning has been shown effective in helping
build and provide Canadians with a houses or apartments they can
afford to pay for. Using this form of zoning can have different results
+depending on where and how it is used. After examining Canadian
affordable housing and four American cases where this type of
zoning was enforced in the USA, this makes various
recommendations for expanding Canadians' access to housing they
can afford.
Abstract: The draft Auckland Unitary Plan outlines the future land used for new housing and businesses with Auckland population growth over the next thirty years. According to Auckland Unitary Plan, over the next 30 years, the population of Auckland is projected to increase by one million, and up to 70% of total new dwellings occur within the existing urban area. Intensification will not only increase the number of median or higher density houses such as terrace house, apartment building, etc. within the existing urban area but also change mean housing design data that can impact building thermal performance under the local climate. Based on mean energy consumption and building design data, and their relationships of a number of Auckland sample houses, this study is to estimate the future mean housing energy consumption associated with the change of mean housing design data and evaluate housing energy efficiency with the Auckland Unitary Plan.
Abstract: A large section of the society in Urban India is unable
to afford a basic dwelling unit. Housing shortage due to the rising unafforability makes it logical to consider alternative technologies more seriously for their application How far do these alternative
technologies match up with the conventional techniques? How do these integrate with the present-day need for urban amenities and
facilities? Are the owners of bamboo dwellings, for instance, a part of
the mainstream housing sector, having the same rights and privileges
as those enjoyed by other property owners? Will they have access to loans for building, improving, renovating or repairing their
dwellings? Why do we still hesitate to build a bamboo house for ourselves? Is our policy framework and political resolve in place, to
welcome such alternative technologies? It is time we found these answers, in order to explore the reasons for large-scale nonacceptance,
of a technology proven for its worthiness.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to identify the underlying
causes of late payment from the contractors- perspective in the
Malaysian construction industry and to recommend effective solutions
to mitigate late payment problems. The target groups of respondents in
this study were Grades G3, G5, G6 and G7 contractors with
specialization in building works and civil engineering works registered
with the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) in
Malaysia. Results from this study were analyzed with Statistical
Package for the Social Science (SPSS 15.0). From this study, it was
found that respondents have highest ranked five significant variables
out of a total of forty-one variables which can caused late payment
problems: a) cash flow problems due to deficiencies in client-s
management capacity (mean = 3.96); b) client-s ineffective utilization
of funds (mean = 3.88); c) scarcity of capital to finance the project
(mean = 3.81); d) clients failure to generate income from bank when
sales of houses do not hit the targeted amount (mean=3.72); and e)
poor cash flow because of lack of proper process implementation,
delay in releasing of the retention monies to contractor and delay in the
evaluation and certification of interim and final payment (mean =
3.66).