Construction Boom Research Articles

Understanding sociodemographic characteristics shaping the choice of large homes: lessons from Turkish metropolises

Purpose In metropolitan areas experiencing rapid urbanization and housing production, the size of housing units emerges as a crucial factor to consider in housing policy formulation. This study aims to focus on Turkey, a developing country undergoing rapid urbanization and a construction boom in recent years, to examine households’ housing size preferences. Through a detailed analysis, this research delves into the causal relationships between income, education and housing size preferences. Design/methodology/approach This study uses the Family Structure Survey in Turkey 2016 data set collected nationwide by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat). To address potential endogeneity issues related to income and education levels in households’ choice of house size, an extended regression model is used. In addition, survey weights are applied to the statistical model to generalize the results of the study. Findings The study demonstrates that household income correlates with an increase in house size, while household education is associated with a decrease in house size. Variables such as household age, composition and vehicle ownership are found to impact the choice of house size. Particularly, one-person and couple-only households tend to prefer smaller dwellings compared to others. Lastly, the results reveal that the influence of household composition on dwelling size varies according to household age. Originality/value This study presents a comprehensive analysis of the determinants influencing households’ housing size preferences within the framework of a developing country context, focusing on Turkey. It specifically offers insights into the causal impact of education and income levels on housing size preferences, as well as the intricate interplay between household characteristics in shaping these preferences.

Monitoring of Open-Pit Mining Areas Using Landsat Series Imagery (1984–2023) and Cloud Processing

While open-pit mining activities represent one of the human-derived most impactful land cover changes, these changes and the linked restoration processes can be challenging to assess. This article presents a reproducible methodology carried out with cloud processing of satellite images (Google Earth Engine (GEE)) to evaluate the evolution of open-pit mining activities and their restoration in a Mediterranean landscape. For this purpose, the calculation of the normalized differential vegetation index (NDVI) was used to obtain a quantitative parameter to monitor vegetation presence in each extractive area. To validate these results, confusion matrices were performed between the classification obtained in the study and the official land cover mapping, using randomly selected mining areas as test points, with an average accuracy of 88%. According to the methodology used, the surface of areas denuded by mining in the period 1984–2023 has fluctuated over time, with a maximum in 2005 coinciding with the peak of the Spanish construction boom, and a subsequent decrease towards the present. From these results, it can be concluded that Landsat-type data processed using GEE provide a quick and useful tool for monitoring the evolution of mining activity, including restoration trends, becoming particularly valuable for public bodies’ inspections or decision making.

Impacts of urbanization on ecosystem carbon cycle: a case study of land use change in Tianjin metropolitan area.

For the sustainable development of the city, in a study of Tianjin's rapid urbanization, we explore the complex interplay between land use change and the ecosystem carbon cycle from 2000 to 2020. Spatial analysis and profit-loss matrix calculations reveal contrasting ecological impacts: expansion of woodlands and grasslands enhances Net Primary Productivity (NPP) and reduces carbon emissions, while urban construction shows the opposite effect. Over 20 years, Tianjin's urban transformation led to a 16.91 GgC decline in NPP amidst a construction boom. However, post-2015 ecological policy shifts resulted in a significant net carbon uptake of 0.85 Gt, demonstrating the potential of policy interventions in mitigating environmental impacts of urbanization. This study underscores the importance of sustainable urban planning and ecological conservation strategies in highly urbanized settings.

Stadiums in the 1970s: Beyond the Myth of the Concrete Doughnut

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, fans assembled at stadiums and arenas across the country to witness a recurring spectacular event. They headed toward the local ballpark or arena, not to watch their favorite teams and entertainers perform inside, but rather to witness the implosion of the facilities themselves. As the United States was in the midst of its latest stadium construction boom, a new community ritual took shape: the ceremonial demolition of stadiums that were built in the 1960s and 1970s. Facilities that were once celebrated for their modern designs and conveniences were deemed ugly and obsolete seemingly overnight. Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, Market Square Arena in Indianapolis, among dozens of other professional stadiums, were demolished in this spectacular fashion (Figure 1). Explosives were strategically placed throughout the abandoned facilities, and fans gathered yards away to watch the buildings burst into gigantic clouds of dust and smoke, the environmental consequences of sending pollutants into the air notwithstanding. Television networks covered the detonations while fans donned team colors, cheered, and shed tears as their beloved community gathering places were blown into oblivion.

Zombie lending, labor hoarding, and local industry growth

After the bursting of real estate bubbles in 1991, Japanese banks continued lending to unviable firms to conceal problem loans. We revisit Japan’s experience and propose a new mechanism via which banks’ loan-evergreening policy undermines allocative efficiency across industries by focusing on construction and real estate loans. Namely, banks’ continuing support for construction and real estate firms encourages labor hoarding in unviable construction projects. Since construction projects predominantly use low-skilled workers, banks’ loan-evergreening policy in these troubled sectors may depress other low-skilled industries. Based on the industry-level data in each of Japan’s 47 prefectures from 1992 to 1996, we document empirical facts consistent with this hypothesis. On average, low-skilled industries experienced disproportionately slower output and employment growth and more sluggish growth in the number of new establishments in prefectures where the share of bank loans to local construction/real estate sectors increased more after construction boom ended.

Das House Kapital: A Long-Run Theory of House Prices and Housing Wealth

Abstract Over the last 70 years, many advanced countries have experienced growing real house prices and an increasing housing wealth-to-income ratio. To explain these long-run patterns, this paper introduces a novel multi-sector growth model where housing services are produced using non-reproducible land and reproducible structures. Land is also employed in the non-housing sector. First, we identify two fundamental mechanisms driving the long-run increase in the real house price: (i) technological progress in the construction sector lags behind the technological progress of the rest of the economy and (ii) housing production is more land-intensive than non-housing production. Second, we study transitional dynamics for the US, UK, France, and Germany. Our calibrated model explains most of the observed increase in the housing wealth-to-income ratio since 1950. Counterfactual experiments identify initially low stocks of residential structures and non-residential capital as key exogenous drivers for this increase. The associated investment incentives led to a long-lasting construction boom and steadily increasing land scarcity, boosting residential land prices.

‘One System, Two Shadows’: A local public finance perspective on China's shadow banking system

Why does shadow banking persist in China despite repeated policy efforts to contain it? While studies of informal finance have traditionally emphasized the credit needs of private businesses as a demand-side explanation, this study contends that China's local public finance also constitutes an important driver for shadow banking. Based on document research and administrative data, we find that China's shadow banking system has bifurcated into two segments since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). One is the ‘entrepreneurial shadow’ that has long provided informal credit to the private sector, especially small- and medium-sized enterprises. The other is a ‘fiscal shadow’, which serves property developers and local government financing vehicles (LGFVs), the two pillars of China's land-based local public finance regime. Property developers are major contributors to local fiscal revenues through the land economy, while LGFVs function as off-balance sheet backdoor financing intermediaries for local governments.Although localities have borrowed from unconventional sources throughout the reform era, the central government's GFC stimulus plan marked a turning point by fueling a debt-financed real estate and infrastructure construction boom. Property developers and LGFVs were launched onto a highly leveraged model of feverish expansion for over a decade. When the central government abruptly reversed its course by restricting the availability of formal credit, they became further entangled into the fiscal shadow for refinancing. Local public finance has thus become reliant on shadow banking, despite subsequent policy efforts to curb such activity. Our findings suggest the need for a more integrated analytic and regulatory framework that recognizes the mutual dependence between shadow banking and local debt – two major sources of systemic financial risks in China.

EXPLORING THE SUSTAINABILITY OF CONCRETE BRIDGES

After the construction boom of the past 30-40 years, United Arab Emirates has been left with many costly structures that may or may not fulfill modern sustainability requirements. With the on-going economic recession seen by most of the world and a higher awareness among the population regarding the environmental and societal impact of construction, engineers and designers are carrying out sustainability studies for all kinds of infrastructure. Although most of past research has focused on sustainability rating of buildings, recent advances in this area shows a heightened interest in sustainability assessment of bridges as well. Several of the key sustainability indicators for buildings are also applicable for bridge; quantitative (construction cost and assembly, transportation of materials, service life, environmental impact, etc.) and qualitative (aesthetics, safety features, etc.). This paper contributes to an ongoing research project aimed at developing a sustainability rating system for bridges in the UAE. It includes a comprehensive survey designed to evaluate the relevance of current sustainability indicators for bridge projects within the region. The findings and analysis of this survey are discussed, providing insights into the adaptation of these sustainability metrics for UAE bridges.

EXPLORING THE SUSTAINABILITY OF CONCRETE BRIDGES

After the construction boom of the past 30-40 years, United Arab Emirates has been left with many costly structures that may or may not fulfill modern sustainability requirements. With the on-going economic recession seen by most of the world and a higher awareness among the population regarding the environmental and societal impact of construction, engineers and designers are carrying out sustainability studies for all kinds of infrastructure. Although most of past research has focused on sustainability rating of buildings, recent advances in this area shows a heightened interest in sustainability assessment of bridges as well. Several of the key sustainability indicators for buildings are also applicable for bridge; quantitative (construction cost and assembly, transportation of materials, service life, environmental impact, etc.) and qualitative (aesthetics, safety features, etc.). This paper contributes to an ongoing research project aimed at developing a sustainability rating system for bridges in the UAE. It includes a comprehensive survey designed to evaluate the relevance of current sustainability indicators for bridge projects within the region. The findings and analysis of this survey are discussed, providing insights into the adaptation of these sustainability metrics for UAE bridges.

MOVEMENT TO COASTAL TOWNS IN TURKEY: Urban Rescaling, Local Deregulation and New Prospects for the Predatory Construction Sector

AbstractIn Turkey, as in many Mediterranean countries, the Covid‐19 pandemic enhanced the mobility of the country's affluent classes to coastal towns. Many decided to settle there permanently, either by making their second homes their main residences, or by purchasing or renting new property. This has created severe social, infrastructural and environmental problems in these towns because of transformed demographics, a largely unregulated construction boom, increased renovation activities and an unprecedented rise in real‐estate and consumer‐goods prices. In this article we contextualize these problems in relation to the Justice and Development Party's neoliberal policies of urban governance and rescaling in the past 15 years. The government, having given the construction sector the main role in Turkey's economic development, subsequently granted it new spatial opportunities through the authoritarian and centralized allocation of urban and rural land. Coastal towns have been the target of unregulated urban growth and predatory construction in this process and have thus provided new spatial development prospects. Local governmental reform in 2012, which introduced radical urban rescaling and weakened district municipalities’ planning and regulation capacities, further intensified the process. These factors have had a severe impact on coastal towns and their middle‐income residents, who face new mobility pressures.

Boxed in: changes in apartment residents’ health behaviours following the COVID-19 lockdown – a longitudinal cohort study

ABSTRACT Australia’s housing context has long been characterised by low-rise detached homes, but rapid population growth has prompted a recent boom in apartment construction. Apartment residents may be more vulnerable to the negative impacts of COVID-19 stay-at-home orders due to the distinct constraints and stressors of apartment housing, but empirical research on this population is scarce. This study adds to the literature on the health impacts of lockdowns by examining longitudinal changes in the health behaviours of Australian apartment residents. Participants (n = 159) completed a survey between 2017–2019 and a follow-up survey in 2020 following a six-week national lockdown. Residents reported increased walking for recreation, sleep duration, and home cooking frequency, but decreased walking for transport, greater sitting time, and weight gain. Alcohol consumption remained stable. The findings highlight the complex and multifaceted impact of the pandemic, with some health behaviour changes highlighting the benefits of having more time to devote to certain activities, and others showing the unintended negative health consequences of lockdowns. Given the likelihood of future pandemics, a renewed policy focus on apartment space and layout provisions that better facilitate home-based activity is required to mitigate the health risks of lockdown conditions for those living in apartments.

House Owners – Tenants – Lodgers: The Topography of Tenement Houses in Medieval Prague

The phenomenon of tenement housing in medieval Prague is as yet understudied. This study attempts to outline the character of tenement housing on the basis of extant written sources from the fourteenth and fi fteenth centuries using an interdisciplinary perspective and the prism of four select themes: 1. contracts of lease; 2. the town house and its layout from the viewpoint of history and construction history; 3. analysis of Old Town tenement books for 1427 and 1429; 4. the social structure of inhabitants of an average Prague house using the example of three persons: the owner, the tenant-conventor, and the lodger-inquilinus. It appears that the Prague agglomeration being the centre of the Czech lands and the residence of the ruling Luxembourg dynasty, it was an exclusive urban centre in which only the members of the urban upper and upper-middle classes could aff ord to own a house. Small craftsmen and tradesmen had to rent their living space and workspace. The metropolis experienced a construction boom throughout the fourteenth century. Building lots were much more densely covered and dozens of new houses appeared built for the purpose of tenement housing (as opposed to being the residence of the owner). It is clear that this development had a signifi cant impact on the architecture and urban structure of the medieval city.

Assessment of Cost Benefit Analysis of Implementing Sustainable Practices for Construction Organisational Performance in Abuja, Nigeria

There is growing need to improve the implementation of sustainable construction in Nigeria. The awareness of the costs and benefits of sustainable construction is a fundamental principle underlying the implementation. This study assessed the economic viability and societal impact of implementing sustainable development practices in the construction industry in Abuja, Nigeria. Through a comprehensive Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) framework, the research investigated the long-term costs and benefits associated with sustainability practices in building construction. Data collection was done using mixed method approach. Corelational analysis was use to analyse data of existing datasets on economic indicators, environmental parameters, and social statistics. The study revealed a dichotomy in the construction professionals' stance toward sustainable development, with a high level of awareness but a disparity in actual implementation. The Relative Importance Index (RII) findings emphasize the importance of indoor ventilation, energy-efficient systems, and structured construction waste management. Findings from the research recommend deepening the awareness levels of the long term benefits associated with sustainable construction among relevant stakeholders. The research contributes to addressing the gap between booming construction activities in Abuja and sustainable construction practices, aiming to create a more environmentally friendly, economically viable, and socially responsible construction industry.

Buildings for Higher Education in Africa

Access to formal education has long been considered essential to progress by people in Africa. The design and building of educational institutions were also an important part of the post-war modernism construction boom around the world and on the African continent, coinciding with post-independence nation-building. From the 1940s through to the early 1970s, ambitious nations from Algeria to Zimbabwe invested in universities and higher educational buildings as both literal and physical centers of intellectual advancement for their nations’ youth in that jubilant era, heralding freedom from colonization and the emergence of self-rule.More than half a century later, these edifices borne of hope and expectation have generally stood the test of time and remain recognizable features in many African cities and landscape settings. How these structures have fared architecturally and how they have been adapted or incorporated into contemporary life varies by country, institution, and socio-political context: an important subject to be studied. As the provision of educational buildings is still important to African nations and is part of the global sustainable development goals, what better time to revisit those purpose-built institutions in a time of hope and exuberance? Especially as their relevance remains critical to the development of Africa’s best and brilliant young minds?This special issue of the Docomomo Journal focuses on educational institutions, particularly universities and other higher educational establishments built in Africa from the late 1940s to the 1970s, as instances of shared’ social, political, cultural, economic, and architectural heritage. This architectural heritage has been shared through actions of coercion, co-option, and co-operation between various proximal African countries, former colonial powers, and contemporary socio-economic partners. Many contributions are linked to the Shared Heritage Africa (SHA) Project—funded by the German Foreign Ministry (Auswärtiges Amt)—, which focused on the documentary rediscovery of modern university campuses as examples of cultural landscapes from the period of independence from colonial rule.

Rise of container structures along the Danube River in Bratislava: Transformation of the embankment after the river regulation

Abstract The paper traces the particular moments of historical development of the Bratislava (now the capital of Slovakia) embankment along the Danube River during the 20th century until present. The observed territory is understood as a relatively newly formed terrain that resulted as a by-product of river regulation at the end of the 19th century. The emerged space offered attractive and spacious building plots for various new typologies and rather than a compact city block, these were mostly hosted in the container-like structures. Referencing the theoretical work of De Solà-Morales, the containers are understood as self-standing, large-volume envelopes creating a controlled platform for order and consumption. Research was focused on the study of visual archival materials and contributions in architectural journals of the period. The selected aspects were subsequently displayed in the form of author’s schemes, which combine map data with an axonometric representation of the described objects. The paper distinguishes three different periods of embankment development that correspond to the political and economic historical framework and highlights the specific characteristics of each of them. While the interwar era brought the concept of free-standing palaces on the waterfront, the period of socialism was generally characterised by failed ambitious plans. Finally, the period of the neoliberal transformation of the city set the new condition for real estate market and resulted in the construction boom on the waterfront. The long-awaited construction on the waterfront is now in the hands of the private sector, while containers-like residence complexes and shopping malls are ultimately raising the questions about their generic nature.

Evolution of Landscape Architecture and Urban Design discourse in B.Arch. Schools, India

Architectural Discourse in a typical B.Arch. program across architecture schools in India was dominated by the “Star Architect”, for the most part in post independence India. It probably continues to do so in many schools or is at least an inherent thinking block in the minds of most young architects. However there are many compartments that post independent India can be categorised into, depending on the location and associated growth pattern. The late 90s to 2000s heralded a construction boom in the country, importing many building prototypes mainly from the western world. Landscape Architecture and Urban Design were more peripheral in this context, being limited to historical studies and as a secondary context to the architectural built form. Landscape Architecture was seen through a decorative lens, to be considered post finishing the construction of a building, as an afterthought, as mere decoration. On the other hand Urban Design was not necessarily taught even as an elective in many schools. It was found buried under the aegis of town planning, in very introductory formats in B.Arch. schools. At best it found a place in master’s programs trying to imagine the future India but tied to history in its thinking. Economic growth and associated development became the focus, further blurring boundaries of development, planning and design. Amongst the major centers of architectural training, the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT), Ahmedabad and Sir J J College of Architecture, Mumbai and many other schools in Mumbai, a certain shift in this viewing lens started to occur post liberalisation in the 1990s. Growth fuelled urbanisation and urban sprawl forced the focus on these disciplines at the bachelors study level also. This paper brings forth observations in these changes and how the viewing lens and discourse of these two disciplines now informs architectural education, particularly outside these centres of excellence. Key Words: Discourse, architectural education, viewing lens

“Freeways without futures”: Urban highway removal in the United States and Spain as socio-ecological fix?

Urban highways are widely recognized to have devastating social, economic, and environmental consequences, locking in fossil energy dependence, racial and class segregation, and suburban sprawl. Today, as much of the infrastructure built during the peak of the midcentury road construction boom in the global North reaches the end of its lifespan, there is growing interest in removing highways and replacing them with parks, housing, and surface boulevards in the interest of economic development, repairing social divisions in urban space, and fostering more sustainable mobility. Based on preliminary research, this paper offers an empirically driven conceptual outline of highway removal projects in the United States and Spain. I argue that highway removal constitutes an opportunity for a “socioecological fix” for the emerging crisis of automobility, but in practice, highway removal projects may reinscribe the scalar contradictions of carbon-intensive urban-regional metabolisms. Through several empirical cases of highway removal projects, I examine three dimensions through which these contradictions can be understood: national policy changes in urban infrastructure planning and governance, material conflicts between demolition and tunneling and their implications for regional metabolisms, and local sustainable development politics and their distributional contradictions. Although the projects sketched here tend to fall short of their transformative promises, I emphasize that highway removal remains a critical arena of urban climate change politics.

Urban Growth in a Mediterranean Island-State: A Data-Driven Study of Malta’s Development Permits in the Last Thirty Years

Land is a natural resource, and settlement development is central for human activities. The growth of settlements comes at the expense of natural and agricultural land. Understanding urban growth dynamics, defined in this study as new urban development, can lead to an increased awareness of the stresses on land resources and the suitability of current land use policies. It can also reflect how changes in the economic cycles and planning policies can influence these dynamics. This is even more critical in small island states, where land is a scarce resource. This study uses data extracted from development-planning applications between 1993 and 2019 in order to understand urban growth in the island-state of Malta. A methodology was developed to (i) use web-scraping techniques to extract development-planning applications data from a public online database in order to define development descriptors, (ii) establish keywords that imply growth within the urban area, and (iii) analyse growth in view of local planning zones and regulations. The results show that over the years, there has been a decrease in the share of granted development-planning applications that lead to the growth of the urban area when compared to those granted applications permitting other forms of development, such as that linked to minor modifications to existing buildings and restoration works amongst others. Nonetheless, the absolute number of granted development-planning applications resulting in growth has increased, particularly in the last construction boom (post 2013). The share of applications denoting growth granted within the development zone has remained stable throughout the years. The years with the highest numbers of permits granted outside the development zone, where there was a disposition against development, were 2017 and 2018. In conclusion, the trends and patterns resulting from development cycles were analysed and discussed. The outcomes of this work will lead to better measurement of urban growth in Malta and assess the efficacy of current national development-planning policies. This is in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 11, which aims at making “cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable”. The research specifically addresses Target 11a, which is focused on supporting “positive economic, social, and environmental links between urban, peri-urban, and rural areas by strengthening national and regional development planning”.

Warszawskie Jelonki – od wsi folwarcznej, przez miasto ogród do wielkomiejskiego osiedla mieszkaniowego

The Jelonki neighbourhood in Warsaw is a part of the capital’s Bemowo district. It is primarily a residential area, but it is characterized by mixed development, consisting of single-family and multi-family houses, blocks of flats, as well as contemporary, modern apartment blocks and gated estates. The specific urban layout of Jelonki has been shaped over the last hundred years. The successive stages of the formation of space in this part of Warsaw illustrate the changing architectural and social standards. From the pre-war garden city, through the “Przyjaźń” (“Friendship”) settlement subordinated to the socio-political conditions of Stalinist Poland and the prefabricated high-rise neighbourhoods of Jelonki, Lazurowa and Górczewska, built in the construction boom of the seventies and eighties, to the new housing projects of the free market economy post 1989.

Warszawskie Jelonki – od wsi folwarcznej, przez miasto ogród do wielkomiejskiego osiedla mieszkaniowego

The Jelonki neighbourhood in Warsaw is a part of the capital’s Bemowo district. It is primarily a residential area, but it is characterized by mixed development, consisting of single-family and multi-family houses, blocks of flats, as well as contemporary, modern apartment blocks and gated estates. The specific urban layout of Jelonki has been shaped over the last hundred years. The successive stages of the formation of space in this part of Warsaw illustrate the changing architectural and social standards. From the pre-war garden city, through the “Przyjaźń” (“Friendship”) settlement subordinated to the socio-political conditions of Stalinist Poland and the prefabricated high-rise neighbourhoods of Jelonki, Lazurowa and Górczewska, built in the construction boom of the seventies and eighties, to the new housing projects of the free market economy post 1989.