Greenery from apartments: quantifying and comparing views with residents' perceptions

Housing in urban and rural areas in China has been different in many ways since the PRC was founded. First, cost is different. The cost for urban housing is high and that for rural housing is low. Second, construction standards are different. Urban housing features apartment buildings and rural housing courtyard structure. Third, quality and functions are different. Compared with urban housing, rural housing features low quality and low complete set ratio. Fourth, environment is different. Compared with urban housing, rural infrastructure is poor, the living environment is disorderly and public services are of a low level. Fifth, as a sub-system of the general economic system, China’s urban and rural housing systems, like many others, differ from place to place and segmented.

Air flow, air leakage measurements and numerical simulations were made on a 13-story apartment building to characterize the ventilation rates for the individual apartments. Parametric simulations were performed for specific conditions, e.g., height, orientation, outside temperature and wind speed. Our analysis of the air flow simulations suggest that the ventilation to the individual units varies considerably. With the mechanical ventilation system disabled and no wind, units at the lower level of the building have adequate ventilation only on days with high temperature differences, while units on higher floors have no ventilation at all. Units facing the windward side will be over-ventilated when the building experiences wind directions between west and north. At the same time, leeward apartments did not experience any fresh air-because, in these cases, air flows enter the apartments from the corridor and exit through the exhaust shafts and the cracks in the facade. Even with the mechanical ventilation system operating, we found wide variation in the air flows to the individual apartments. In addition to the specific case presented here, these findings have more general implications for energy retrofits and health and comfort of occupants in high-rise apartment buildings.

An energy model of high-rise apartment buildings integrating variation in energy consumption between individual units

This opening chapter of the book Housing Estates in the Baltic Countries: The Legacy of Central Planning in Estonia , Latvia Latvia and Lithuania Lithuania presents seven important takeaway messages distilled from the chapters of this volume that, taken together, provide a comprehensive overview of the formation, current challenges and future prospects of largeHousing estates housingLarge housing estate estatesGermany large housing estates in the Baltic countriesBaltic countries. Modernist housing built between the 1960s and the early 1990s forms a large share of the housing stock in the capital cities of the Baltic states. Their sheer size suggests that various methods of reconstruction, rather than downsizing or even demolitionDemolition, would be among the ideal strategies for their future development. Today, reconstruction of these districts and housing contained therein is mainly the responsibility of private owners, since the public sector relinquished most of the housing sector in the early 1990s. Private apartment owners, organised into building-based flat-owners’ associations, often lack the ability to undertake comprehensive renovation of apartmentApartment associations, building buildingsTallinn larger housing estates in apartment associations, building and regeneration of surrounding neighbourhoods. For viable solutions to emerge, the public sector must again assume a prominent role. A comprehensive renovation strategy must be structured to include urban space even larger than individual apartments or apartment buildingsApartment buildings and encompass (a) improving the physical environment of the apartment buildings and neighbourhoods; (b) enhancing the social mobility and social integration of the inhabitants (since many possess an ethnic minority background); and (c) facilitating integrated connectivityConnectivity between housing estatesHousing estate and surrounding metropolitan space through transport, jobs, services and various other activities.

Opportunities and barriers for photovoltaics on multi-unit residential buildings: Reviewing the Australian experience

Cockroach allergen abatement: The good, the bad, and the ugly

Building air leakage analysis for individual apartments in North China

A comparison of arrangements for increasing self-consumption and maximising the value of distributed photovoltaics on apartment buildings

The Code of Practices SP256.1325800.2016 and regional standards for urban planning design are the main regulatory and technical documents regulating the design analysis of residential building electrical loads. The relevant standard values of specific electric power, which serve as the basis for designing urban power supply systems, have not been revised for more than 40 years. A study of 10/0.4 kV urban transformer substations in different regions of the Russian Federation has shown that 70 to 80% of transformers are loaded by less than 30% of their rated capacity during the year, and half of them operate with a maximum load of less than 15%. The actual daily profiles of apartment building electrical loads for the period 2016-2018 were studied, and data on power consumption were statistically processed. The results obtained allowed us to justify the possibility of reducing the design electrical load in designing apartment buildings and to develop new regional standards for specific design loads. The updated standard values of specific electrical loads are applicable to an apartment building as a whole and take into account both the electrical load of individual apartments and the general household electricity consumption. The economic efficiency of applying the new standard values in performing design calculation of electrical loads and selecting the electrical equipment is shown taking the Salavat Kupere residential complex as an example.

This study analyzes apartment building configurations in waterfront residential areas relative to water flow direction and assesses the waterfront impact on apartment construction planning. It surveyed 197 apartment buildings around Yangjaecheon, Gulpocheon, and Anyangcheon, three branches of the Han River, a major South Korean river, to ascertain the correlation between stream flows and apartment building configurations. The apartments were classified into four spatial-configuration categories relative to the adjacent stream’s flow axis—perpendicular, parallel, diagonal, and other—and three orientation categories—east- and/or west-facing, south-facing, and other. South-facing apartments were predominant around west- and north-flowing streams. The proportion of east- and/or west-facing apartments built and the percentage of south-facing apartments were relatively low, indicating that apartment building layouts are more diverse around north-flowing streams than around west-flowing streams. A t-test analysis of east- and south-facing apartments’ proportions relative to stream flow direction was statistically significant, and there were relatively higher percentages of east- and west-facing apartments near north-flowing streams than west-flowing ones. This suggests that the relationship with rivers is still important in urban housing in South Korea, and the importance of landscapes over the river is of increasing significance for planning urban settlements.

Green exposure levels are closely related to human well-being. However, previous studies have rarely considered the green exposure experienced through human mobility, especially within the framework of the 15-minute city. Additionally, due to the lack of seasonal and large-scale spatial data, seasonal variations in green exposure have often been overlooked. In this study, we propose an assessment framework for seasonal green space exposure inequality within the context of the 15-minute city. By integrating the Green View Index, spatial statistical methods, deep learning, and publicly available urban housing price big data, we analyzed green exposure inequality in Xi’an, China. The results indicate that: (1) There is a seasonal inequality in the exposure to greenery within the 15-minute residential areas of Xi’an. At short distances (5–10 min), green exposure in summer is higher than that in winter, whereas at longer distances (15–30 min), green exposure in winter exceeds that in summer. (2) There is an inequitable relationship between urban housing prices and seasonal green exposure. In short-distance living circles, housing prices are negatively correlated with seasonal differences in green exposure, meaning that areas with less seasonal variation tend to have higher housing prices. In long-distance living circles, the correlation is positive, with areas exhibiting greater seasonal variation tending to have higher housing prices. (3) Spatial autocorrelation between housing prices and seasonal green exposure varies across different living circles, showing an unequal distribution. High-value clusters extend from the southern part of Weiyang District along a northwest-southeast axis, forming a stable pattern in the west, a dynamic pattern in the east, and a heterogeneous pattern in the central region. This study not only fills a research gap regarding seasonal green exposure at the community level but also provides new perspectives for urban planning and environmental design, offering scientific evidence to mitigate urban environmental inequalities.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1038/s41598-025-13757-y.

The aim of this research is to investigate the relationship between compact urban form and housing affordability. Sustainability is a key planning and development objective in the urban sector. In spite of the multifaceted relationships between urban form and sustainable development, the compact city is widely accepted as a form suitable for pursuing the goals of sustainability. One perceived undesirable impact of a compact city is its negative effect on housing affordability. Research on the influence of urban compaction on housing affordability has been undertaken for decades, yet empirical evidence has been rarely found in developing countries, including in Indonesia. While adopting a compact city concept in the nation‘s urban development policy and strategies, Indonesia faces problems of housing shortages, particularly for low-income groups. Thus, research on the relationship between compact urban form and housing affordability in Indonesia, including its policy implications, is essential. This thesis involves, i) a qualitative exploration of the compact city in Indonesia in order to understand existing conceptions and their application in urban development policies; ii) a quantitative examination using a case study approach to investigate the relationship between compact urban form and housing affordability in Indonesia. Three metropolitan areas in Indonesia, namely Bandung (BMA), Jakarta (JMA) and Medan (MMA), are used as case studies. The relationship between urban compaction and level of affordability are examined at metropolitan level using the three metropolises, and at neighbourhood level using the Bandung metropolitan area as a case study. Both qualitative and quantitative research designs are adopted in this thesis to provide further insight into the concepts of compact city planning, including its influence on housing affordability and implications for policy. This research has led to five published or submitted peer-review papers that flow from an integrated set of research methods. A qualitative method is used to seek understandings about the adoption of the compact city concept in Indonesia, as presented in Chapter 4. Stakeholders from governments (national, provincial and local level), academics, developers and urban residents were interviewed, and policy documents were collected for analysis. The research found that, at all levels of government, Indonesian policy makers view urban compaction as an important urban planning approach to curb urban sprawl, and to anticipate a combination of urban land depletion and the rapid growth of the urban population. A mix of uses, vertical housing and transit oriented development is perceived as the key feature for this concept, although within the urban population, a cultural impediment to high-rise living still exists. In Indonesia, specific, clear leadership in guiding the application of compact city policy at all levels, as well as the importance of the role of policy advocates, is vital in order to advance urban compaction policy as part of a national urban planning and development agenda. The findings of this research can aid in the development and evaluation of compact city policy in Indonesia, and shed new light on how Western planning movements are adopted in the context of a developing country. The link between urban compaction and housing affordability is examined using a quantitative approach. A transport cost component was incorporated into the measure of housing affordability to address the differences in the geographical locations of houses. A combination of housing and transport affordability at neighbourhood and metropolitan level was measured. The neighbourhood level analysis was conducted with data being gathered via household surveys in nine residential sites in the BMA. The results are presented in Chapters 5 and 6. Metropolitan scale analysis used secondary data from Indonesia‘s Central Statistics Bureau (BPS), the 2014 National Social-economic Survey (SUSENAS), for 22 municipalities in the JMA, the BMA, and the MMA (Chapters 7 and 8). The results show that transport costs influenced overall housing affordability, and in some cases, households are making a trade-off between their housing and transport costs. In terms of urban compactness, it is shown that collecting adequate, comparable data for the three metropolises across a total of 22 municipalities is challenging. Statistical information from various sources was collected to examine the urban compactness in terms of density, mix of uses, and intensity in the JMA, the BMA, and the MMA. Descriptive analysis was applied to explain the compactness of these metropolises. Regression analysis was then employed to examine the association between urban compaction and combined housing and affordability. The results in Chapter 8 show that, generally, compact urban form has the potential to promote housing and transport affordability by supporting higher density housing development and better accessibility to main daily travel destinations, such as jobs and schools. This thesis contributes to the growing literature on compact city and housing and transport affordability. The research also has implications for policy in the urban, housing and transport sectors in Indonesia, in terms of type of housing that may overcome combined transport and housing affordability, which is useful for a range of stakeholders, including urban planners, policy makers, and social science researchers across different disciplines.

Apartment building shape and layout planning have been changed by complex density related laws and regulations, home buyers preferences, and design competition results by experts. Apartment building shape is a crucial factor in determining the apartment housing arrangement, and it differentiates the design concept of the layout planning. The purpose of this study is to analyze whether the preference of residence for any apartment building shape and the arrangement of apartment buildings. The binary logit model approach was used to analyze the cause for these evaluation. The analysis results are listed below: first, a majority of respondent prefer flat shaped buildings or the arrangement that the ratio of them is over 70%. Second, factors affecting the preference of the building shape and the arrangement are gender, age, household numbers, the preferred azimuth, floor level and housing density. These differences have to be reflected in the layout planning of the apartment housing. This study was presented that the residents' characteristics and the preferred positional condition of the residential unit give a very important influence in determining the preferred building shape and the arrangement design. Thus in the planning process it is needed to reflect the resident's opinion and determine the concept of the housing arrangement. In addition, the result of the satisfaction of the resident to live in either the flat shaped building or the L-shaped one is confirmed that it is necessary to develop various type of housing with the similar positional conditions of flat-shaped buildings.

This study endeavours to refund the evolutionary trajectory of residential building within the Djelfa region of Algeria, a landscape characterised by the cohabitation of sedentary and nomadic modes of existence. The investigation reconstructs the typological development by examining its earliest roots, namely the rudimentary forms of habitation – the hut and the tent – respectively adapted to sedentary and nomadic lifestyles. A sample encompassing approximately sixty dwellings situated within the town of Djelfa and its environs was meticulously selected, ensuring representation of diverse typological features such as size, spatial arrangement within the urban fabric, orientation, accessibility, and internal spatial organisation. This analysis aims to discern both diachronic and synchronic variations: the enduring linkages between residential building types across time and the co-existence of concurrent typologies. The research reveals a dynamic of organic links of continuity throughout this evolutionary process, punctuated by transitional phases that give rise to novel building solutions. These innovative solutions, upon achieving a degree of stability, tend to be replicated in a serialized way. The study underscores the pivotal role of the urban courtyard house within this evolutionary narrative, emphasising its remarkable adaptability and capacity for diversification. This adaptability stems from its ability to evolve in response to varying initial layout conditions, driven by principles of iso-orientation and the direction of access within the enclosed space. The courtyard house serves as a foundational substratum for subsequent residential types, including the row house and the apartment building. The succession of residential typologies exhibits a cyclical oscillation, characterised by periods of expansion wherein the residential building expands through modular replication of the elementary cell, followed by periods of contraction and urban densification, leading to a reduction in unit size through subdivision of the plot.

Cities are responsible for 60%-80% of the world’s energy use and for approximately the same percentage of greenhouse gas emissions. The existing multi-apartment buildings of multifamily housing sector are often energy inefficient, and the heating system does not ensure optimization of heat distribution of individual apartments. Heat distribution, heating system balancing, heat loss detection and calculation, individual heat energy accounting are difficult tasks to accomplish. This article deals with the temperature monitoring system designed to retrieve temperature differences necessary for overall building heat monitoring and individual apartment monitoring. The sensor testing case study process and its measurements are analysed.