Housing Cooperatives Research Articles

Assessment of Satisfaction Level of Residents in a Housing Community, A Case of City Paradise, Lalitpur

As mentioned by Canter and Rees (1982), residential satisfaction (RS) is the degree to which the residential environment helps dwellers achieve their goals, and it evaluates the extent to which the current housing environment is meeting residents’ needs, expectations and ambitions. Residential satisfaction in planned housing is a widely researched topic in global context, however, in case of Nepal, not much research has been done on the topic. There are many planned housing communities being developed, but the living experience of the residents are rarely studied, and neither their perception in living in gated communities. This paper aims to contribute to theory and practice concerning residential satisfaction in housing community of Lalitpur known as City Paradise which is one of the major projects of Civil Homes Housing Company. This study is based in a household survey conducted in City Paradise Housing community. Data was collected from 40 households out of total 72 units, through simple random sampling to avoid any kind of biasness during the study. Data was analyzed to study the level of satisfaction, using Likert scale, among the residents with respect to design and planning characteristics of housing units, public facilities and services, and neighborhood. The results of analysis show that the respondents comparatively had higher satisfaction levels in context of neighborhood planning and less satisfied with design and planning features of housing and provision of public facility and convenience. Residents are quite satisfied with the child-friendly environment in their neighborhood, but planning and layout of buildings are not good enough to meet their satisfaction level. This research helps to address current issues related to satisfaction level of the residents of housing community and recommend the possible ways for its betterment.

Differentiated Rehabilitation and the Geographies of Unfreedom in Post-Colonial Bombay

Abstract The “refugee crisis” after the 1947 Partition of British India generated new contestations over urban resources, especially for securing accommodation. It resulted in a proliferation of encampment laws and policies with outcomes at multiple levels: city, neighborhood, and community. This article traces the uneven geographies produced by Bombay’s encampment laws and the (spatial) politics of refugee rehabilitation. It focuses on the state’s use of “camps” to segregate impoverished refugees and consolidate the urban periphery. The article explores the interplay between law, space, and property to illustrate how refugee entitlements created and sustained various forms of power and precarity in the metropolis. Refugee camps provided “conditional access” to shelter for indigent Sindhi refugees and became markers of social identification. Middle-class Sindhi refugees, on the other hand, secured their place in the city by establishing cooperative housing societies. This article highlights how caste and regional distinctions in pre-Partition Sindh translated into class-based spatial divisions among the displaced Sindhis in post-colonial Bombay.

Community-led housing: Between 'right to the city', 'actually existing neoliberalism' and post-pandemic cities.

This paper examines the Self-Managed Housing Program (Law 341), in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This programme created 45 cooperative housing units between 2001 and 2020 in consolidated urban areas currently undergoing renewal processes. It investigates the conditions that the programme has generated for the realisation of the 'right to the city' in the context of 'actually existing neoliberalism' and challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper analyses the origins of the process and mode of cooperative housing production, including tangible and intangible aspects and capacities acquired by the inhabitants. This study used a mixed quantitative and qualitative methodology. The analytical strategy focused on defining a set of dimensions that characterised the self-managed mode of production, conditions of social and urban insertion in the case studied and participants' perceptions of the influence of material characteristics and organisational arrangements during the pandemic. This paper contributes to our understanding of the socio-economic dynamics in the production of urban space by elucidating the role of the state and specific tensions arising due to bottom-up policies, specific forms adopted by urban experiences of resistance and their contribution in the promotion of concrete conditions of urban life. Finally, this paper characterises an emergent self-managed urbanism and reflects on its possibilities of dialogue with the construction of alternative local policies that challenge growing territorial inequality caused by the subordination of policies to real estate financialisation and its deepening tendencies in the pandemic context.

Swedish public and private housing companies’ access to the capital market for financing energy renovation

The financing of energy efficiency measures and renovations is key to reaching energy efficiency targets for the housing sector. The purpose of this article is to add the Swedish case of how capital market funds have become accessible and used by public and private housing companies, in particular for energy efficiency measures. The core of this article are interviews with representatives of Swedish housing companies made during the spring of 2021 with the purpose of mapping how public and larger private housing companies finance renovation and energy efficiency measures, and to what extent funds from the capital market are used for these purposes. In this article, we have found that capital market funds are commonly used by the Swedish public and the largest private housing companies. Bonds are less costly compared to bank loans, and green bonds are 0.02–0.03 percentage points less costly than conventional bonds. Furthermore, control systems that investigate the values of building portfolios as security for bonds are poor. A conclusion is that governmental control systems over the capital market issuing bonds for the housing market could be needed to avert future housing bubbles.

Heavy Metals, Pesticide, Plasticizers Contamination and Risk Analysis of Drinking Water Quality in the Newly Developed Housing Societies of Gujranwala, Pakistan

The supply of clean drinking water is essential for a healthy life, but access to safe and healthy drinking water has become a key issue worldwide, especially in developing nations such as Pakistan. This research work focused on investigating the suitability of groundwater by measuring quality parameters, identification of pesticide pollutants, and health risk analysis in adults and children due to the consumption of groundwater in recently developed housing societies of the Gujranwala district, Punjab, Pakistan. Drinking water samples (n = 200) were collected from electric water pumps and analyzed by in situ testings following the Standard American Public Health Association (APHA) methods. Pesticides and plasticizers detection was carried out using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Results showed that the concentrations of dissolved Cr and Pb at more than 20% of sampling sites exceeded the allowable limit of the World Health Organization (WHO). However, the measured physico-chemical attributes and concentrations of Fe and Zn did not exceed their respective permissible limits. The most abundant pollutants detected were plasticizers (30); followed by herbicides (21); fungicides, acaricides, and insecticides (16); and various types of plant growth regulators (7). Differential patterns for the hazard quotient (HQ) and hazard indices (HI) were observed, of which were above the WHO limits. The decreasing order of the hazard quotient was Cl > Zn > Mg > Cr > Pb for both adults and children. In crux, the quality of water is poor for drinking purposes and the safety and well-being of residents in the recently developed housing societies of the study area may be at risk. Hence, it is important to implement a plan for water quality management, and the regular monitoring (periodic testing of qualitative and quantitative attributes) of the water quality to overcome health-related issues.

Energy consumption and indoor environmental quality evaluation of a cooperative housing nZEB in Mediterranean climate

A cooperative housing is a more democratic and affordable alternative that could contribute to ecological sustainability in local context. The paper evaluates the cooperative housing La Borda (Barcelona) from two points of view: energy consumption at building and household level and indoor environmental quality of six representative households. The evaluation aims to investigate how this housing alternative may contribute to reduce the energy impact of the building providing comfortable conditions to the users. A post-occupancy evaluation has been performed where energy consumption, environmental data and user perception have been gathered to make a qualitative and quantitate analysis. The paper wants to investigate how thermal comfort can be characterized in depth, analysing only air temperature, relative humidity and outdoor conditions. Furthermore, it has been paid especial attention to the overheating analysis and the impact of the relative humidity in the thermal comfort satisfaction of the occupants. The paper demonstrates that La Borda is a model that contributes to reduce the energy impact of the building, which can be related to some of the characteristics of the cooperative housings: sharing goods and resources; community support; training initiatives; strong involvement during the design of the project; and sustainable design of the building. The thermal comfort evaluation combines different tools (adaptive comfort model, Givoni psychometric chart, Heat Index and surveys) to achieve a good understanding of the thermal behaviour of households and comfort perception, achieving satisfactory results; However, some discrepancies have been found between the different indicators and qualitative perception of the users.

Joint Production of Public Services in Shrinking Rural Areas in Germany: Results of Exploratory Research

The demographic development in most German rural areas raises major questions for the future of public service provision, especially with regard to the performance of different organisational arrangements and their joint action and governance for achieving publicly-desired outcomes. The international literature on collaborative approaches to public service provision is flourishing. However, little attention has been paid to the contribution of public economy and non-state stakeholders to solve these problems. Facing this gap, the exploratory study aims to analyse and discuss the role that civil society, municipally-owned housing companies and public savings banks play in delivering public services and implementing public policies in shrinking rural areas in Germany. By focusing on the scope, drivers, benefits but also limitations of these arrangements, the study helps us in understanding cautious patterns in this field of research and addresses some lessons and perspectives.

The Absence of Social Expenses and Social Profits in Housing Projects in Jordan

This paper discusses the ignored social costs and profits in cooperative housing schemes. These projects focus on monetary costs and benefits. These projects ignore the social side, which is an important part that housing projects must consider. This study is necessary because of the importance of housing projects, and their contributions to the problems and solutions to the problem of different societies. Housing projects also play a significant role in supporting the construction industry nationwide. The importance of the study lies in the fact that cooperative housing projects often ignore the social costs of housing. Therefore, the aim of this study is to shed light on social expenses and profits in cooperative housing projects, and to make suggestions for improvement. Literature is reviewed on the available research work that has previously been done on housing schemes in Jordan. However, the focus of this study is on examining the housing schemes conducted by the Jordanian Engineers Association. The review takes care of the different opinions of architects and thinkers on the issue of housing in Jordan as well as a case study to help address the problem. The cooperative housing schemes in the Jordanian Engineers Association aim to grant a plot of land each to members of the association to enable them to build their own independent homes. Further, the study helps to understand the neglected social expenses and social profits, and to revive those benefits in housing projects, because these projects depend on the financial side while ignoring the social part of these projects. The study ends by recommending more government power in planning and designing private cooperative housing schemes, because government's role is necessary to support and monitor these projects to ensure the existence of social benefits in them.

Sustainable accounting standard for increasing sustainable refurbishment projects

A sustainable refurbishment is a fundamental approach toward reaching the EU’s climate goals. Some challenges to rehabilitating existing housing areas are few high-quality standards, lack of funding, and low residential interest. This paper aims to present the findings from the development of a SAS – Sustainable Accounting Standard tool from different stakeholders’ perspectives and information from the testing period. A triangulating combination of literature review, survey, and interview are chosen. The literature review forms a theoretical basis within the field. Experiences with the SAS tool are retrieved through semi-structured in-depth interviews with project participants from co-operative housing associations and a survey for residential board members from selected pilot projects. The SAS tool forms an improved process for sustainable development in housing co-operatives, addressing all aspects of sustainability, early involvement of stakeholders, and the importance of residents’ participation. The project shows that the equal involvement of stakeholders is essential to reaching the goal and that commitment, trust, communication, and knowledge sharing are the basis. The established KPIs are good indicators for condition analysis and ambition plans. The SAS tool can contribute to a smoother refurbishment process with proper prioritization of improved measures.

Pemilihan Perumahan Idaman dengan Penerapan Metode Weighted Product

Home is a basic need for every human being. Each house will function as a place to live or as a place to rest and a place of protection from various outside disturbances. Based on the needs of every human being for the house, developers compete in providing houses with their respective advantages and disadvantages in order to attract consumers or buyers to buy the house, and prospective buyers are also faced with various choices, including house prices, house locations, and house models. And various choices that will affect the choice of a dream home. With the existing problems, it is necessary to design a decision support system that is designed with an incremental model. The method used in order to provide a recommendation is the weighted product method. With the existing problems, this study aims to provide recommendations for which housing to be chosen by consumers. The results obtained in this study in the form of calculations using the weighted product method, it was found that a company named PT Berkah Prosperous as a housing company had the highest preference weight value of 7.35852. With these results obtained, the first recommendation for determining the ideal housing was chosen from the company PT Berkah Sejahtera.

From Marshall Plan to “Hilton in the wild”: The Transnational History of a Cooperative Housing Block in Esat, Ankara

This paper concerns the planning, design, and construction history of a postwar multifamily housing block in Ankara, Turkey, viewed from the perspective of the transnational and local networks behind its realization. Built by the Mintrak Building Cooperative (1957-1962) founded by executive engineers and managers of TürkTraktör, Turkey’s first tractor manufacturing company established as part of the Marshall Plan (1948-1952), the block is one of the local examples of the International Style built throughout the country. It was the tallest housing block in the Esat neighborhood, with a reinforced concrete structural framework, pilotis, and a terraced roof with communal spaces. Besides adopting the formal characteristics and common construction materials of its time, as this paper suggests, the building is emblematic of the postwar housing production from policy and development to design, construction, and domestic culture. Built as part of a workers’ housing cooperative advocated by postwar housing policy yet founded by the executives and US-educated employees of a transnational company, the block exemplifies postwar Americanization in Turkey in terms of transnational and local exchanges and their urban, architectural, and social imprints. Through content analysis based on archival sources, official reports and architectural drawings as well as oral testimonies collected from cooperative members and residents of the building, this paper questions the transnational extent of the Marshall Plan, to which a local housing cooperative could represent. It provides an in-depth analysis of the technocratic making of the housing block, through all different stages of its development, from founding “the cooperative in the wild” to building “Esat’s Hilton,” as its initiators and residents called it. In this respect, the paper argues that the block is a transnational prototype of US-guided local modernization, based on the US-promoted self-help model that introduced an autonomous organization to housing production in Turkey.

Performance and Evaluation of Sewage Treatment Plant Based on MBBR and EBB Technologies

Abstract: The rapid expansion of modern housing and industrialization around the cities has polluted environment. This trend was observed in many developed countries in the beginning of nineteenth century which resulted in the contamination of air, water, soil etc. with pollutants. If the pollutants are released in the environment and left untreated they would cause serious diseases in both humans and animals. Large scale pollution of water bodies around the globe became a major problem due to release of industrial and domestic waste directly in water streams. To prevent the leaching of pollutants in the ground water scientist developed various methods of wastewater treatment based on the hazardous chemicals and microorganisms, which were present in the untreated water. Modern sewage treatment plants were installed in big cities to treat the water released from households. Most STPs were designed based on the stringent criteria to check the pollutants levels in the treated water so that when it is released or recycled it is safe to the environment. Modern day STP plants have a high cost of operation due to huge power consumption. In order to reduce the pollutant levels in the wastewater this study was conducted using a Eco Bio Block (EBB) techniques with aeration and without aeration. A comparison of EBB was also carried out with MBBR technique. Our results show that when EBB technique was applied with aeration it is effective in reducing pollutant levels in the wastewater akin to MBBR. In addition, we tested the EBB without aeration and found that the treated waste water has relatively low levels of BOD, COD and turbidity, suggesting that the treated water can be utilized for landscaping and horticulture activities. Overall, the outcomes from this study are encouraging to adopt EBB in smaller towns and in small housing societies to treat the wastewater prior to release

Proposal of Resilient Housing Features for the Disaster Affected Community of Bangladesh

Thinking resiliency in terms of housing features for post disaster housing reconstruction (PDHR) is a paramount initiative after a disaster. Therefore, the aim of this research is to ascertain the demands of the disaster victims and propose a wind-resistant, resilient housing prototype that would be affordable. Based on a three-month survey of the region severely damaged by Cyclone SIDR in Bangladesh, this research argues that PDHR’s planning features are significantly short of the victims’ choice, need, and demand, forcing them to quickly modify or transform the reconstructed houses. Based on the survey, a prototype covering an area of 37.21 sq. m (400 sq. ft) with a hybrid construction technique and a cost model are proposed that will be a resilient solution against cyclones and other natural hazards. Additionally, the proposed house was modeled using finite elements, and its findings are within the International Building Code’s allowable limits. In conclusion, this paper proposes some guidelines to strengthen Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC) that would enable to build a resilient housing society in the disaster-prone areas.

LAST MILE LOGISTICS: IMPACT OF UNSTRUCTURED ADDRESSES ON DELIVERY TIMES

Abstract. The e-commerce industry has seen significant growth over the past few years. One significant issue that has sprung up as a result of this growth is unstructured addresses during last mile delivery. These ambiguous addresses are an established issue, particularly in developing countries like Pakistan. They are difficult to read and locate by last mile delivery riders thereby increasing delivery times and cost, negatively impacting the business of the company. Increased delivery times are also detrimental to the environment. In this paper, we aim to quantify the effects of unstructured addresses on last mile logistics. Many attempts have been made to standardise addresses to tackle this problem. Deep learning based approaches using recurrent neural networks (RNN) as well as probabilistic approaches using hidden Markov models (HMM) have been used. However, the main downside to these approaches are the underlying variation in address schemes in housing societies. We present an end to end rule based pipeline using Levenshtein distance (LD) and regular expressions (RegEx) rules which takes those unstructured addresses and outputs their structured forms along with their Geo-coordinates. The pipeline also returns the optimized route to minimize the last mile distance traveled.

An Islamic co-operative housing solution for China’s housing affordability issues

PurposeThis study aims to propose a new housing affordability solution by combining the Islamic finance concept of Musharakah Mutanaqisah (diminishing partnership) with a cooperative and crowdfunding model. The proposed alternative housing loan model is presented to experts in financing and real estate business, whose views and comments were solicited to evaluate the applicability of the proposed model in real world.Design/methodology/approachThis is a qualitative study that uses semi-structured interviews to determine the initial thoughts of various stakeholders regarding the adoption and implementation of the proposed model.FindingsThe majority of experts (interviewees) agreed with and appreciated the model’s original ideas but expressed concern over the absence of community culture and trust in China, which could represent a serious threat to the model’s viability. It is anticipated that the suggested model will be implemented as pilot projects by the local government in places where Islamic culture and faith are more widespread, hence possibly impacting the model’s effective implementation.Research limitations/implicationsAs there are insufficient Islamic financial specialists in China, the limitation of this qualitative study is the small sample size. If certain policymakers could participate, the outcomes would be more hierarchical and trustworthy.Originality/valueThis is, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the first study of its kind to examine the viability of this innovative Islamic cooperative housing finance scheme within the context of a specific housing issue in China.

“A Revolution in Labor”: African Americans and Hybrid Labor Activism in Illinois during the Early Jim Crow Era

“A Revolution in Labor”: African Americans and Hybrid Labor Activism in Illinois during the Early Jim Crow Era

INVESTIGATING THE FACTORS IMPACTING THE ADOPTION OF SOLAR WATER HEATERS AMONG THE RESIDENTS OF COOPERATIVE HOUSING SOCIETIES- STUDY CONDUCTED IN CITIES OF INDIA

According to U. S. Energy Department, water heating accounts for about 18% to 25% of household energy consumption. World today faces energy security problems due to its demand and supply disruptions. Using solar energy for water heating becomes a good option. Solar energy is renewable, clean and green thus its usage helps in sustainable development. This research paper tries to identify the factors impacting the adoption of solar water heaters among the residents of Cooperative Housing Societies (CHSs) in six cities of India these factors will help the manufacturers/suppliers of solar water heaters to frame marketing strategies for adoption and augmenting the sales of these products.

COVERAGE OF PAKISTANI PRINT MEDIA ABOUT TRANSPARENCY OF JUSTICE: A CASE OF PAKISTANI JUSTICE SYSTEM REGARDING CORRUPTION

This research explores how leading English newspapers “Dawn”, and the Urdu newspaper “Jang” covered the judicial proceedings of political corruption cases in the light of Agenda Setting and Framing theories. News stories on the front and back pages and editorials of these two newspapers for two years (December 1, 206 to December 1, 2018) were selected. Corruption Cases (Panama gate case, Ephedrine case, Al- Azizia steel mill, Ashiana Iqbal Scam, Saaf Pani Case, Paragon housing society case, Fake Bank Accounts, and Nandipur case) were taken for data collection. The researcher used the Content Analysis method for gathering data. The Result indicates that Daily Dawn and Daily Jung covered judicial proceedings of mega political corruption cases differently. The findings reveal that Daily Dawn blamed all sides for corruption while Daily Jung blamed state institutions. The view of Daily Dawn in this regard is Objective, while the idea of Daily Jung is Subjective. The researcher suggested that the dailies should play a neutral role, and the content of dailies should be critical despite being absurd or baseless. Moreover, Dailies should convey reality to the public. Keywords: Political Corruption cases, Newspapers Coverage, Judicial Proceedings, Media Activism, Judicial Activism

Conceptualising the commons as a relational triad: Lessons from the grant of use cooperative housing model in Barcelona

The current crisis of housing affordability in urban environments has drawn the attention of geographers to housing commons. This paper provides a conceptual and operational framework for an empirical study of housing commons. In thinking about the commons as a ‘relational triad’ involving a resource (the object), and community (the actors) and a form of organisation (the activity), I argue that housing commons are hybrid, imperfect social processes that escape binary scrutiny. Drawing on the findings of a research project that took place between 2017 and 2021, I focus on an emerging form of self-managed cooperative housing in the city of Barcelona, known as the ‘grant of use model’. I dwell on the contradictory nature of self-management in the context of a social reproduction crisis. Housing commons can be conducive to solidaristic communities and non-individualist subjectivities outside the financialisation of everyday life via mortgaged homeownership. However, the time and emotional investment required to self-develop housing projects in highly regulated, neoliberal urban spaces are not available for everyone. Housing commons require a favourable political context, economic resources, social connections and technical knowledge, which prevent democratic access. I analyse the origin and causes of exclusionary boundaries surrounding these housing commons to understand how these boundaries can be softened. Departing from disembedded conceptualisations of the commons, I show what type of public-common partnerships and innovative policies can make housing commons more inclusive without renouncing principles such as self-organisation and autonomy.

A socio-spatial approach to the first legal hall dwelling setting in Switzerland: the case study of Hallenwohnen in Zurich.

The study explores the collective settings of Hallenwohnen (hall dwelling) as a section of the Zollhaus settlement, which is the follow-up project by the Kalkbreite housing cooperative, functioning since January 2021 in Zurich, Switzerland. Hallenwohnen is the first legal hall cohousing arrangement in Switzerland. The private and semiprivate spaces of Hallenwohnen consist of a large open hall with collective basic structures and mobile residential towers (rollable spaces) as the core concept, which offer an affordable, self-managed/self-build, collaborative living and coworking arrangement in the center of Zurich. The qualitative case study method has been applied through the face-to-face semistructured interviews mainly with three occupants of Hallenwohnen as representatives of this residential community, in-situ observations, spatial investigations and document analyses. The theoretical framework of the study is grounded in the concept of collaborative housing. The results reveal that the innovative socio-spatial potentials of the collective spaces have been activated through the participatory intentions of the microcommunity and intended functional mix of the setting. Living as one collective household , multiplicity usage of hybrid spaces and the spatial activation of intermediate spaces have enabled participation-capable residential spaces and have resulted in optimal usage of housing spaces. Nonetheless, constraints and points of conflicts, which trigger the (re)negotiations and reinterpretations of the usage of collective housing spaces facilitate collective solutions of the residential community. A bottom-up initiative such as Hallenwohnen is helped along, through the long-term planning and top-down support of the cooperative housing model of Zurich.