Apartment Blocks Research Articles

Bytový dům pro zemědělce: k procesu adaptace městských standardů bydlení v prostředí vesnických sídel

Housing construction in Czechoslovakia began to grow in the 1940s, which was reflected in the increased number of flats and improved housing standards. This growth was made possible mainly due to the construction of blocks of flats. Although in the countryside, in contrast to the cities, people predominantly lived in their own family houses, the construction of apartment blocks also contributed to the increase in capacity there. However, the experience from the 1940s and 1950s shows negative impacts of adopting the projects for blocks of flats which were designed for the city and the urban way of life and did not suit rural residents, who had different working patterns and needs. In the 1960s, an intensive dialogue between local participants, architects, and the authorities took place, leading to the adaptation of the apartment block concept to the needs of agricultural workers. The adaption concerned both the external appearance, which had to respect the village environment, and the internal layout. The adapted projects included separate rooms for residents to wash themselves after their return from fields and gardens, and storage compartments for foods and livestock feed. Attention was also paid to the surroundings, where buildings related to residents’ farming activities were designed (small animal breeding, working in the gardens and small fields). The willingness to conduct the dialogue and to adapt the projects for rural blocks of flats disappeared in the 1970s as a result of the normalization and gradual improvement in agricultural workers’ living standards.

Optimization Bundle Paths of the Building Envelope for Zero-Carbon Strategies

Improving building energy performance with minimum emission and cost is important for zero-carbon strategies. In this regard, this study mainly focuses on the envelope of an apartment block. The aim is to investigate the tripartite relationship between energy performance, CO2 emission, and cost by using different wall and roof insulation materials, and various glazing types in a typical reinforced concrete five-floor apartment block in Istanbul, Turkey. In a building performance simulation tool - Cove. Tool, material alternatives’ impacts on energy use, cost, and CO2 emission are calculated. Consequently, 32 different design bundles are generated. Finally, the most advantageous material combination is explored from the design combinations to make cost-conscious, performance-driven, and environmentally-friendly decisions.

Valeska Bopp-Filimonov and Martin Jung, eds. Kaleidoskop Rumänien. Einblicke in die aktuelle Vielfalt des interdisziplinären Faches Rumänistik

Valeska Bopp-Filimonov and Martin Jung, eds. <i>Kaleidoskop Rumänien. Einblicke in die aktuelle Vielfalt des interdisziplinären Faches Rumänistik</i>

High-standard farmland destruction monitoring by high-resolution remote sensing methods: a 2017–2018 case study of Hebei and Guangdong, China

Remote sensing has emerged as a new technique for collecting farmland data due to its rapid advancement, rising popularity, and application in social production practice. In order to understand and manage farmland resources in China, it is essential to account for and monitor high-standard farmland and its usage. Therefore, this work used satellite remote sensing empowered with various abilities for monitoring high-standard farmland by employing GF-2 high-resolution satellite images to identify targets and objects in Hebei and Guangdong provinces. Farmland occupation and utilization were analyzed by detecting destructions, underutilization, and overutilization, and converting farmland for other economic activities registered on a special field sheet for quantification. A statistical summary was compiled for the two provinces, and the results reveal that high-standard farmland irregularities were detected in both Hebei and Guangdong provinces. However, in Hebei province, this was due to domestic purposes, such as building home shelters and domestic factories. On a contract, the result shows that in Guangdong province, farmland was being converted for economic purposes on an industrial scale, such as high residential apartment blocks and new industrial zones, and environmental destruction. Furthermore, the results reveal that there is still a steady and continuous decline in arable land due to accelerated industrialization and population pressure, especially in the Guangdong provinces, which is a threat to national food security. The high interpretation accuracy demonstrates that high-resolution remote sensing is an effective farmland monitoring tool that can be used to advance policy formulation.

Switching from Risks to Opportunities: The Application of a Superbonus Tax Incentive to Heritage Buildings from the 1960s in Fragile Mountain Contexts

This paper introduces actual considerations for the progressive disuse of residential space in the Alpine territory, considering possible actions. Nowadays, the building complexes built around the 1960s and 1970s (a symbol of mass tourism) are suffering and searching for a new identity. The generation of owners who bought them has aged and the propensities of the new generations for holiday in those places has changed, which means fewer opportunities for leisure, particularly in the winter. Due to the great attention (and seeming opportunities) of current incentive policies toward improving the energy use of the existing stock, the authors investigate the private conveniences of transformations through the refurbishment of these buildings. Starting from a study of the territory and the dynamics of the local population, this research analyzes a possible set of energy works, based on a new (2020) incentive measure, the 110% Superbonus, which consists of a series of facilitation mechanisms, deductions, and reimbursements for building interventions. A large part of the insight is focused on a technical and economic feasibility study of the possible actions, following a process based on the evolution of the legislation. This work is based on a specific case study, located in a small municipality in the Piedmont mountain area, consisting of three apartment blocks of mostly second homes. The methodology adopted lends itself on the one hand, as a guide for preliminary economic energy assessments and, on the other hand, as a policy evaluation tool from the public and private perspectives.

Experiencing resonance: everyday life in modernist blocks of flats in Oslo, Norway

Based on an interdisciplinary approach to architectural history, drawing upon sound studies and anthropology, this article offers a case study of contemporary experiences of resonance by residents living in modernist blocks of flats in Oslo built in 1964. Drawing upon ethnography and archival research, I ask how these sonic experiences affect people's relationships, both with other neighbours and the building itself. Moving from the outside and into the building, following architectural historian Katie Lloyd Thomas' theoretical approach to materials and how these materials come into being, I discuss the way resonance creates a series of tensions, affecting the way individuals relate to their surroundings, both affecting the way we see our built environment and social relations. Asking what it means to live in a modernist block of flats, I frame the residents' own stories of resonance within a larger context of changing neoliberal housing reforms in Norway from the 1980s until today. I argue that the experience of resonance creates new spatial configurations and also can stand as a critique of neo-liberal housing politics, forming connections that are both social and material.

Stylizacja na język warszawskich blokersów w kreskówce Blok ekipa

STYLIZATION FOR THE LANGUAGE OF WARSAW CHAVS IN THE CARTOON BLOK EKIPA The article presents the linguistic stylization for the sociolect of young people living in blocks of flats (chavs) in the adult cartoon entitled Blok ekipa [“Blok of flats – crew”]. The language of the protagonists imitates both elements typical of subcultures and colloquial Polish language: expression, vulgarization, slang and prison vocabulary, as well as language of domination and aggression. In addition, the language of the cartoon characters reflects negligent pronunciation (phonetic, inflectional, dialectisms). Furthermore, the elements that make the series attractive are original comparative structures. The stylization covers almost all levels of the language system (phonetics, inflection, word formation, lexis) and stylistics. Moreover, all the above-mentioned exponents are deliberately cumulated, so the type of stylization in the cartoon might be perceived as reconstructive-manneristic.

Bydlení jako výjimka, evikce jako každodennost

This article focuses on evictability and the eviction of the residents of one block of flats in a small southern Slovakian town. Most of the building's inhabitants are Roma, but the problem of cultural racism is interconnected with political, economic, legal, and even research and activist issues. The article is based on socially committed ethnographic research and the perspective of critical human geography. The theoretical framework is informed by the geographies of eviction, which grasp evictions as a becoming affective process. In this approach the focus is on not just the structural and other causes of eviction and its negative consequences but also and above all on the eviction that is taking place in the present and that temporally goes beyond the act of displacement - it signifies the lasting effect of sovereign power exercised through threats of eviction and 'home unmaking' brought about by the withholding of vital infrastructure. The analysis distinguishes four becoming phases. The first one shows how tenants' precarity is made when their stigmatisation as Roma intersects with the neoliberal imperatives of individual responsibility asserted by the town. In the second phase, the eviction begins, giving rise to affects of confusion, desperation, and fear. The third phase brings resistance to the arbitrary sovereign power of the town authorities. In the fourth phase the resistance sees some successes, but the town's sovereign power at the same time expands its spatiality. The state of the eviction here is not final and it can still develop in different ways.

Boosting Construction Project Timeline: The Case of Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM)

Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) has emerged as a notable approach in recent years for improving time management in construction projects. This methodology focuses on optimizing project schedules, and its impact on construction projects has been explored through a review of literature from the past five years. However, a theoretical understanding alone may not be sufficient for promoting the adoption of CCPM in the sector. Therefore, an experimental study was conducted to assess the practical impact of CCPM on shortening the timeline of a construction project. The study involved the use of CPM for the planning phase and CCPM for the execution phase of finishing works (drywalls, carpentry, painting) in three identical blocks of flats. At the completion of the project, an important economy of 36 days (around 20%) was achieved, and the project was completed in 151 days using CCPM compared to the planned 187 days using CPM. The research was limited to finishing works, and further studies are planned to explore the applicability of CCPM to other construction works. It is imperative to establish a continuous collaboration between researchers and practitioners in the construction industry, as research findings should be effectively applied in real-world scenarios.

Social sustainability of residential squares: Evidence from Narmak neighborhood, Tehran

Local squares function as open spaces where people can conduct many activities and where many social events take place. While squares in Iran have had a historical role in urban life, in recent years they have lost their place as social nodes of neighborhoods. They are losing their sustainability due to diminishing social roles in residential neighborhoods. The primary aim of this research was to investigate social sustainability dimensions in the squares of Narmak neighborhood located in the east of the metropolitan city of Tehran. The research method was descriptive, and 140 questions in seven dimensions were asked from 378 respondents aged 12+, who were selected randomly in 2018. The results showed that social sustainability variables differ in all five types of squares, particularly in terms of sense of place. However, equality was ranked on average as low in all types of squares. This study concluded that social sustainability in residential squares is very sensitive to a rapid urbanization process that has imposed mass apartment blocks, traffic flow, and lack of place identity. As a result, the process has led to social unsafety, low urban security, and weak maintenance of squares, particularly larger squares, as well as the transformation of their role as residential squares to mostly traffic squares and parking spaces. Additionally, this study concluded that small squares are socially more sustainable than larger ones because respondents felt that small squares were safer, more secure, and full of a sense of place. Urban policy-makers can use the results of the present study to evaluate the effects of their executive strategies on urban livability, social sustainability, and the satisfaction of residents.

“Space shapes a person; constraints free the soul”: Watercolour sketches of Moscow panel-block apartments on the eve of demolition.

This visual anthropology project was informed by a series of plein-air water-color sketches of panel-block apartment buildings, painted in conversation with ethnographic research participants in Moscow in 2021. Such housing, built on an industrial scale during Nikita Khrushchev’s mass-housing campaign between 1955 and 1964, and which came to be nicknamed khrushchevkas, became ubiquitous across the Soviet Union. In 2017, in Moscow, Russia, panel-block apartments were threatened by the renovatsiya campaign, which asked residents to vote to demolish their own homes, now declared dilapidated housing. The author painted a number of these apartment buildings slated for demolition, recording details in the construction, ornamentation, and topography of each apartment block. The author also gathered testimonies of artists who live in-, and whose artistic practice revolves around such housing, asking participants to share their artistic process, memories of growing up and living in such housing, and feelings about the prospect of losing their home. While supported by the majority of the population, the renovatsiya campaign would erase local histories, revealing the state’s authoritarian attitude towards its own citizenry, but much worse, it served as premonition for Russia’s renewed aggression in Ukraine, which, less than a year later, caused a widespread political and humanitarian disaster, closing all possibility for further research.&nbsp

Properties of War: The Militarization of Housing Policy and Urban Planning in Contemporary Azerbaijan

War has defined Azerbaijan for more than three decades. The unresolved conflict over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh has not only structured the sociopolitical climate of the nation but also everyday relations and the very manner in which both the private home and the homeland is imagined. Increasingly, the line has blurred between housing policy and military strategy, with desires for greater securitization and armament seeping into proprietary arrangements, construction plans, and mainstream narratives surrounding the domestic. I examine three sites where inhabitation has seemingly become inextricable from the military apparatus — a state-sponsored apartment block for the families of martyrs (şəhid ailəsi) and those disabled by war (müharibə əlillərinə), a newly built housing complex for servicemen (yüksək rütbəli hərbçilər), and, finally, a makeshift settlement for internally displaced people (məcburi köçkünlər). In these spaces, both temporal and material qualities of war seep into the quotidian, informing the ways in which individuals negotiate the intimate aftermaths of violence, injury, and severed relation. Whilst the article begins by examining state-sponsored settlement forged along lines of allegiance, masculinized duty, and capacity, it concludes by attending to moments that upend oppressive forms of homemaking.

Editorial

Over the last few months, grassroots activists based in urban Russia have got involved in humanitarian projects supporting the inhabitants of Mariupol, a city almost fully destroyed by what the Russian government calls a ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine. Control over the city was surrendered to the Russian military in May 2022. Volunteers provide survivors of a three-month-long siege with clothes, food, medicine and firewood – the latter being important as heavy bombardment and severe fighting have damaged the heating systems of residential apartment blocks, which means that many individual apartments are kept warm this winter with the help of home- or industrially made metal wood-burning stoves. Yet, apart from bringing these material necessities to Mariupol, volunteers also return with new perspectives on the conflict. ‘Mariupolitans are remarkably resilient’, explained one of the volunteers. But they also pointed to the ‘flip side’ of this resilience: ‘This woman, for instance, thinks that after managing her daily survival thanks to the stuff that we bring, things might start looking up and [that] she might be eventually able to continue as before, living essentially a European life’. Volunteers saw their duty here also in explaining that the inhabitants of Mariupol had yet to fully grasp what kind of society they were now a part of. Conveying new regimes of silence and hierarchies can be seen as a form of grassroots humanitarianism. The present special issue of Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale explores cases of humanitarianism and their sociohistorical conditioning.

Features of the urban environment associated with Aedes aegypti abundance in high-rise public apartments in Singapore: An environmental case-control study.

Aedes aegypti abundance in residential estates is hypothesized to contribute to localised outbreaks of dengue in Singapore. Knowing the factors in the urban environment underlying high Ae. aegypti abundance could guide intervention efforts to reduce Ae. aegypti breeding and the incidence of dengue. In this study, objective data on Ae. aegypti abundance in public apartment blocks estimated by Singapore's nationally representative Gravitrap surveillance system was obtained from the National Environmental Agency. Low and high abundance status public apartment blocks were classified based on the Gravitrap Aegypti Index, corresponding to the lowest and highest quartiles respectively. An environmental case-control study was conducted, wherein a blinded assessment of urban features hypothesised to form breeding habitats was conducted in 50 randomly sampled public apartment blocks with low and high abundance statuses each. Logistic regression was performed to identify features that correlated with abundance status. A multivariable logistic model was created to determine key urban features found in corridors and void decks which were predictive of the Ae. aegypti abundance status of the public apartment block. At a statistical level of significance of 0.20, the presence of gully traps [Odds Ratio (OR): 1.34, 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 1.10, 1.66], age of the public apartment block [OR: 2.23, 95% CI: 1.48, 3.60], housing price [OR: 0.33, 95% CI: 0.16, 0.61] and corridor cleanliness [OR: 0.67, 95% CI: 0.40, 1.07] were identified as important predictors of abundance status. To reduce Ae. aegypti abundance around public apartment blocks and potential onward dengue transmission, gully traps could be remodelled or replaced by other drainage types. Routine inspections of Ae. aegypti breeding should be targeted at older and low-income neighbourhoods. Campaigns for cleaner corridors should be promoted.

The Borderlands

The Borderlands

A Performance-Based Decision Support Workflow for Retrofitting Residential Buildings

The trend towards high-performance residential buildings with new building regulations necessitates fundamental changes in the residential market, which is currently driven by low initial investment costs and dominated by weak innovative cycles. This change involves a difficult decision-making process that must consider the multiple and generally conflicting objectives regarding optimal retrofitting for residential buildings. This study aimed to develop an approach that would provide feedback about a building’s energy and economic performance in relation to the decision-making process to ensure that the complex residence retrofitting process is more efficient. For this purpose, a performance-oriented decision support workflow is recommended for a typical multifamily apartment block within a hypothetical settlement context in Istanbul Province, which includes (i) an automated parametric energy simulation through the coupling of EnergyPlus and MATLAB® to determine differences between retrofit alternatives in relation to the building envelope, energy systems and renewable energy systems, and (ii) a multiple-criteria decision analysis to determine the retrofit alternatives by which the optimal performance can be achieved, taking into account the conflicting nature of key performance indicators (primary energy saving and life-cycle cost saving). Architects and residence owners—who are the main decision makers—can use this proposed workflow to explore effective retrofit alternatives and to make informed decisions about performance-based retrofitting by comparing the energy and economic performance of these alternatives.

Designing for social interaction in high-density housing: A multiple case analysis of recently completed design-led developments in London

Over the past two decades, the Greater London Authority (GLA) has pursued the delivery of high-density development in London in order to respond to population growth whilst protecting the green belt. Though high-density places have been associated with sustainable outcomes, it is well documented that residents interact less frequently and build fewer relationships in these environments. This can be particularly detrimental since social contact is fundamental for our general wellbeing and happiness. In response to this problematic, this study explored if and how we can design for social interaction in high-density housing. To do so, it adopted the process of inducting theory from case studies. Firstly, three case studies of recently completed developments were undertaken to determine whether social interaction was a driving factor in the design process, the type and location of social interactions, and clarify the influence of physical design on social contact in comparison to other factors. Three research methods were used to find answers to these questions including interviews with the residents and architects of the schemes, participant observation, and content analysis. These design-led schemes were chosen for investigation as award-winning developments which had received commendation for creating the foundations for a strong community. Next, a cross-case comparison was undertaken to identify hypotheses that addressed the research question and objectives. Providing support for existing literature in the context of high-density housing, it was discovered that limiting the number of apartments to a building allows for collective stewardship, and that communal areas shared by smaller groups are used more intensively. Moreover, combining shared paths and communal areas was observed to support fleeting interactions and helped to nurture a local sense of community. New findings included that externalizing the circulation spaces of multi-story apartment blocks can facilitate conversations between neighbors, and that bike stores can represent an epicenter for contact if internalized and co-located with shared paths. Notably, the impact of physical design factors was not deterministic.

The cost of ownership: Learning from Flamingo Court, a former social housing apartment block in Durban

ABSTRACT: Owning property is an aspiration for many people living in South Africa. The belief that private ownership is a stepping-stone towards material and financial wealth is dominant in South African housing policy. While property ownership may lead to better living conditions and the accrual of wealth, it can also lead to exclusion, dispossession, and displacement for many low-income families. This article analyses the socio-economic, and built environment consequences, of privatising a municipal social housing block, Flamingo Court, located in the city of Durban. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative studies in Flamingo Court, we show that the impact of private ownership for the residents has proved more of a curse than a blessing. There are also unexpected costs to the state in privatising social housing units. The paper argues that low-income beneficiaries of privatised former social housing cannot always afford the costs of maintaining communal spaces or the dwelling units that come with private ownership. This results in deterioration of the building infrastructure, communal finance and governance of the apartment block, and ultimately places residents' security of tenure at risk. Flamingo Court offers an important case study for thinking through some of the hidden costs of ownership for sectional title blocks in the urban core and how and why ownership does not always translate to improved economic or social benefits, countering the current South African policy objective of upliftment and empowerment through the provision of housing.

Hedonic Price Index Number for Blocks of Flats and Terraced Houses in Finland

Hedonic Price Index Number for Blocks of Flats and Terraced Houses in Finland

Air movement processes in living rooms with windowsill supply air valves

The main issue highlighted in the given paper is deviation of microclimate parameters from regulatory values due to improper distribution of air flows in living rooms of blocks of flats. The present work is aimed at obtaining a working mathematical model of natural ventilation system operation, and its further studying for optimization or modernization. The analysis of regulatory documents, research works of national and foreign scientists, developments in the field of natural ventilation and ventilation of residential buildings in general, as well as specific field experiments describing or mentioning similar problems has been carried out. The author’s mathematical model of air exchange in the living room has been presented and analyzed. The boundary conditions in the mathematical model were set as air flow rate and air temperature, and the temperature on the surface of the heater. The features and patterns of air flow distribution inside the room were determined, obtained as a result of mathematical modeling. The distributions of air velocity in the volume of the room were given. Similar problems were indicated for premises of residential buildings of a different functional purpose. Amendments to the existing standards, as well as technical solutions were proposed.