Low-rise Housing Research Articles

Creation of programs for sustainable administration of low-rise housing construction programs in remote areas with special climatic conditions

Objective: The research is aimed at creation of programs for development of low-rise housing construction which are suitable for remote territories with special climatic conditions. They allow intensifying low-rise housing construction and contribute to the development of a natural resource base from local building materials. Methods: Authors used the methodology, which is based on the creation of regional programs for the development of low-rise housing construction (LRC) that aim to solve socio-economic problems through a new organizational and economic mechanism. Results: The procedure for creation of regional programs for development of low-rise housing construction has been developed. At a fundamental level of the created programs there is an organizational and economic mechanism which includes subject-object relations regarding implementation of low-rise housing construction development programs and is aimed at achieving the key outcome – construction of low-rise energy-efficient block-type houses for certain categories of citizens living in remote territories with special climatic conditions. The organizational and economic mechanism is based on taking into account interests of individual groups of subjects which makes it possible to achieve the highest level of efficiency in implementation of regional programs for the development of low-rise housing construction in remote territories with special climatic conditions. Suggestions: The proposed model of the Departmental special-purpose program offers solutions to the problem of providing low-rise housing with a high level of comfort and quality for certain categories of citizens employed in socially significant industries. The procedure developed in the article is recommended to be used by executive and state authorities for the creation of regional programs for the intensification of low-rise housing construction.

Empirical fragility and ROC curves for masonry buildings subjected to settlements

In the Netherlands, the potential damage to the building stock due to subsidence phenomena has recently received increased awareness. However, evaluating and predicting damage to buildings in subsiding areas is a complex task that requires associating the vulnerability of exposed structures with the intensity of the subsidence hazard. Considering the widespread presence of subsidence-related damage to the built heritage, the focus of this study is to provide empirical-based insights to assess and forecast subsidence damage to masonry buildings. A rich dataset with manual levelling measurements was collected comprising 386 surveyed masonry buildings, mainly low-rise (terraced) houses built before 1950. Of the total set of buildings, 122 cases rest on shallow foundations and 264 on piled foundations. For each building, the recorded damage is related to the settlement, calculated from the bed-joint levelling measurements, using four different intensity parameters, namely differential settlement, rotation, relative rotation and deflection ratio. These four parameters are appraised in their capacity to effectively predict the intensity of the damage. The Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) method is used to evaluate the relative efficacy of the selected hazard parameters. The rotation, the relative rotation (angular distortion) and the deflection ratio are observed as the most accurate when predicting the intensity of damage, while the differential settlement appears less accurate.Additionally, the dataset was used to generate empirical fragility curves where the probability of damage is described as a function of the aforementioned parameters. Thresholds were set to distinguish between the light damage and the functional and structural damage state. At a relative rotation of 1/500 masonry buildings on shallow foundations were observed to reach or exceed light damage with a probability of 13%, and functional and structural damage with 5%. The availability of the bed joint levelling measurements made it possible to classify eight recurrent settlement profiles, including both symmetric and asymmetric profiles, associated with both the overall deformation and the rigid rotations of the surveyed buildings.

A Deep Learning-Based Approach to Generating Comprehensive Building Façades for Low-Rise Housing

In recent years, as machine learning has been widely studied in the field of architecture, scholars have demonstrated that computers can be used to learn the graphical features of building façade generation. However, existing deep learning in façade generation has yet to generate only a single façade, without comprehensive generation of five façades including the roof. Moreover, most of the existing literature has utilized the Pix2Pix algorithm for façade generation experiments, failing to attempt to replace the original generator in Pix2Pix with a different generator for experiments. This study addresses the above issues by collecting and filtering entries from the international Solar Decathlon (SD competition) to obtain a data set. Subsequently, a low-rise residential building façade generation model based on the Pix2Pix neural network was constructed for training and testing. At the same time, the original U-net generator in Pix2Pix was replaced with three different generators, U-net++, HRNet and AttU-net, for training and test results were obtained. The results were evaluated from both subjective and objective aspects and it was found that the AttU-net generative network showed the best comprehensive generation performance for such façades. HRNet is acceptable if there is a need for fast training and generation

Sustainable development of the construction industry through the rational utilization of autonomous heat supply sources based on climate zoning

Objective: The objective of this research is to develop an integral approach for the efficient choice of space-planning and structural solutions for low-rise buildings using renewable energy sources for engineering systems during the full life cycle of the building, aimed at improving efficiency of capital investments, energy and resource conservation, and creating comfortable living conditions for the population while considering climatic zoning.
 Method: The research used a theoretical and methodological approach to develop the foundations for the efficient choice of space-planning and structural solutions for low-rise buildings. The study utilized a comparative analysis of building materials and heat supply technologies to select the most appropriate options.
 Results: The research showed that utilizing renewable energy sources for engineering systems during the full life cycle of a low-rise building can significantly reduce construction expenses while increasing availability of low-rise housing for certain categories of citizens. The developed integral approach allows for the most efficient choice of space-planning and structural solutions for low-rise buildings while taking into account climatic zoning.
 Conclusions: The research provides a means of solving the problem of supplying citizens with low-rise housing with high level of comfort and quality. The results of the research can be used in implementation of regional strategic sectoral planning and public-private partnership projects’ development. The developed integral approach allows for the rational utilization of autonomous heat supply sources in low-rise residential construction projects.

Recycled Plastic Lumber walls for one and two-story housing: An assessment of their seismic performance

Recycled Plastic Lumber (RPL) is a sustainable material that has been proposed in the last years to develop structural systems for low-rise housing in high-seismic hazard zones to reduce plastic pollution and housing deficit. Recently, experimental and analytical studies have been conducted to determine the behavior and the damage states of RPL walls under cyclic loads, and promising results have been obtained. Based on that results, a Mostaghel’s six-lines hysteretic model was implemented to simulate the nonlinear behavior and energy dissipation capacity of the RPL walls. Subsequently, the seismic performance assessment of the RPL walls was obtained by nonlinear dynamic analyses using the FEMA P-695 far-field ground motions, which allowed develop fragility functions to estimate the probability of exceeding certain damage states as a function of an intensity measure of seismic hazard. The results of this study evidence that the RPL walls have a suitable seismic performance for their implementation in low-rise housing and meet precisely the Basic Safety performance objective established in the design philosophy of the NSR-10 Colombian building code for this kind of buildings.

НОВЫЙ КОМПОЗИЦИОННЫЙ ДЕРЕВЯННЫЙ БРУС ДЛЯ МАЛОЭТАЖНОГО СТРОИТЕЛЬСТВА

The article discusses three main aspects of wooden low-rise housing construction that is environmental, economic and aesthetic ones. A wooden house is an environmentally friendly and healthy housing. Wooden houses usually cost less than stone or brick ones and require less energy for heating. Wooden houses can have a unique and at-tractive appearance thanks to various methods of finishing and decoration. The paper analyzes the new requirements for thermal engineering of enclosing structures and focuses on a new composite building material “Composite wooden beams” developed for low-rise housing construction. It presents the results of theoretical calculations and comparisons of heat transfer resistance for laminated timber and composite wooden beams, as well as the vapor permeability resis-tance of the new building material.

Development of intensive technology for constructing low-rise building walls from ash-cement mix

There is a great demand for low-rise construction in Uzbekistan. In this regard, it is necessary to continue research on the intensification of the technology of monolithic low-rise housing construction using primarily local waste from various industries. One of them is fly ash waste from the electric power industry. It is proposed to use fly ash as a filler in a cement-ash composition, and it is considered more affordable. The use of other industrial waste as fillers requires additional special processing such as drying and grinding. It was established that fly ash is more accessible for practical use. From the point of view of the structural theory of composite building materials, fly ash has a plasticizing ability, which in turn helps to reduce water consumption. It was established that it is appropriate to use mineral additives in combination with other additives in the preparation of concrete mixes with high workability and low cement consumption. To determine the strength properties, samples were prepared from an ash-cement mix with a water-cement ratio of 0.32, with a fly ash content of 85% of the total mass of the mix. The hardener additive (soda powder) was used at 1.5% by weight of the binder and activated in the mixers for 2 -4 minutes. The results of the study show that the additive accelerates the hardening process of the ash-cement mix by 80-90% at one day of age, due to activation, the strength increases by 11-22% for the mix with/without the additive, respectively. When the mix is activated, the particles are struck and the inert film is torn off from their surface and free access of water to the ash particles is ensured; this, in turn, leads to an increase in the number of hydrate formations and a deeper occurrence of hydration processes. We studied the effect of the sequence of loading components in a working mixer on strength indices. The strength of the mechanically activated mix with 80% fly ash content and 1.5% addition of soda powder, reached 18.5-19.5 MPa. An ash-cement mix for concreting monolithic low-rise buildings was developed.

Increasing safety in residential construction through a simplified earthquake- and typhoon-resistant guidelines

This paper presents the engineering basis for a document, Residential Design and Construction Guidelines (hereafter, Guidelines). The Guidelines is developed by the engineers of Build Change and its partners based on their technical reconnaissance after the 2013 earthquake in Bohol on October 15, 2013, and Typhoon Haiyan on November 8, 2013. The Guidelines are centered on the observations of typical residential construction and damage in these areas and the requirements of the 2010 National Structural Code of the Philippines. The Guidelines provide illustrated and simple instructions on residential construction, making them accessible to homeowners and local builders. The Guidelines are designed for disaster-resistant, permanent low-rise housing construction, endorsed by the Department of Public Works and Highways of the Philippines (in March 2016). Increasing understanding and application of the Guidelines in residential construction in earthquake- and typhoon-prone areas will increase the structural safety of houses and the country's resiliency.

Two-layer Factory-Made Exterior Panel for Low-Rise Housing Construction

Two-layer Factory-Made Exterior Panel for Low-Rise Housing Construction

Nonlinear Seismic Analysis of Perforated cold-formed steel shear wall with Upright Section

During the last few decades, cold-formed steel (CFS) is extensively used in mid- and low-rise housing due to the increasing demand of rapid constructions along with its various advantages in comparison with other structural material. Cold-formed steel framed shear walls (CFSFSW) are most common and primary lateral load resisting system. However, adopting it in the seismic zone is difficult, especially because many design components remain open. In this research an effort has been made to design the shear wall system with both unperforated and perforated upright sections using nonlinear static analysis method. In ABAQUS, a general-purpose finite element analysis software, three-dimensional models using shell elements are used to simulate a shear wall system. A comparative study regarding the lateral load capacities with respect to maximum allowable lateral deflection including different parameters like column sections, thickness and perforation arrangements are presented here. It was found that increasing thickness and including Chanel stiffeners improves the lateral strength of original upright section. The developed modelling protocol helps to estimate its lateral performance under earthquake with reasonable accuracy.

THERMAL BALANCE OF A HOUSE WITH AIR SOLAR COLLECTOR AND HEAT STORAGE FOR THE CONDITIONS OF THE BAIKAL NATURAL TERRITORY

In this work, thermal engineering calculations of the energy efficiency of a low-rise house made of timber, insulated with mineral wool for the conditions on Lake Baikal, were carried out. As a prototype for determining the thermal characteristics, an information model of a building typical of the island in terms of architecture and size was developed using BIM technology. The engineering equipment additionally includes an air solar collector and a heat storage device in the form of a heat-insulated soil massif. Two variants of operation are considered. In the first case, the house is operated as housing for five people, and in the second case as a hotel for ten people. The analysis of energy costs for heating for individual months and for the year as a whole was carried out. The heat consumption for heating the ventilation air and its share in the total heat costs in the mode of a residential building and a hotel are determined. The possibility of a significant reduction in energy consumption when using the heat recovery of ventilation air is shown. An additional reduction in energy consumption from traditional heating systems through the use of an air solar collector is considered. It is shown that the accumulation of excess heat by a special thermally insulated array of soil under the house leads to the stabilization of the thermal regime. The specific characteristic of heat consumption by the house is determined.

Decisive design and building construction technologies vis-à-vis embodied water consumption assessment in conventional masonry houses: Case of Jammu, India

The study assesses the embodied water (EW) of conventional masonry houses in Jammu, India. The research uses material inventory, site investigations, and hybrid EW coefficients in the hybrid process-based ISO 14046 LCA study. It carries improvised system boundary analysis to infer the disaggregated, aggregated results using descriptive statistics (frequency analysis) and regression. The study finds high aggregated EW at 43.7 KL/m2 with materials EW (EWMAT.), in-direct water (IDW), and direct water (DW) components of 51.26%, 40.34%, and 8.38%. The study infers (i) EW is equally important (97%) as the operational water, (ii) sand, aggregates, DW, and finishing materials impact EW more than typical cement, brick, and steel (iii) The unprioritized labor meals and DW are significant and seeks construction management (iv) off-site (pre-cast) construction, and transportation is not a barrier to EW as energy-related EW is negligible. The results identify EW as a multi-faceted issue requiring a collaborative stakeholders' approach than Architecture + Design (A+D) and construction optimizations. The analysis implies the importance of load-bearing constructions in low-rise houses, exposed masonry, alternatives to wall finishes and aggregates, adaptive reuse, and RCC reduction-based A+D. The four houses based solitary study breakthrough a canvas of issues to capitalize EW agenda further.

In-Plane Lateral Performance of AAC Block Walls Reinforced with CFPR Sheets

This study evaluates the structural behavior of aerated autoclave concrete (AAC) blocks laterally loaded in the in-plane direction under quasi-static loading. The study started with the evaluation of the basic physical properties of the AAC blocks, including its structural properties (individually and as part of an assembly), followed by large-scale testing of two (half-scaled) walls constructed with commercially available AAC blocks. The first wall was unreinforced, similar to the commonly used construction technique for low-rise houses where AAC blocks are utilized. The second one was internally reinforced with short dowels connecting the foundation to the walls through their lower block rows and externally reinforced with carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets through the entire wall height. The reinforcement scheme was conducted in such a way that does not delay construction time. Reinforcing the wall significantly increased the strength of the wall in the in-plane direction. The reinforced wall exhibited increased initial stiffness, higher ductility, and larger energy dissipation, in addition to a change in the failure mode. The unreinforced wall failure mode was dominated by blocks sliding, while the reinforced wall failure was dominated by compressive shear failure with wall uplifting. The findings of this study can be implemented to increase the lateral strength of unreinforced new houses and can also be extended to strengthen existing houses built with unreinforced AAC blocks.

Необходимость и возможность совершенствования жилищной политики в России в условиях санкций

The article provides a brief overview of the situation in the Russian economy after the imposition of sanctions by the United States and European countries. The assessment is given of a hard situation in the housing construction sector because of the high discount rate of the Central Bank, which affects corporate loans, mortgage loans, destruction of logistics supply chains of materials, significant increase in prices for materials and services, physical absence of foreign materials, departure of migrant workers and satisfaction of future demand in 2021. Assuming a long period of sanctions, the author presents a set of measures to change housing policy, which can become one of the main drivers of Russia’s social and economic development under sanctions, including a change in the emphasis in housing policy from high-rise to low-rise individual housing construction, which will allow maintaining the volume of production of industries connected with housing construction and developing regions by merging of urban districts into an agglomeration. In addition to preferential mortgage programs for the construction of individual low-rise houses and for the purchase of secondary housing, the municipal and private partnerships and construction savings banks are suggested, also it is suggested to use digital technologies to create ecosystems in housing construction, combination and process of big data of citizens’ assets, incomes and expenses in order to reduce the cost of mortgages and the selection of specific organizations and products for the solution of the housing issue. The author’s four-level methodology of integrated assessment of efficiency of regional housing policy is suggested for setting strategic goals and monitoring, which is based on the methodological approach of S.A. Ayvazyan and on the methodology of the urban digitalization index “IQ of Cities”, which was developed by the Ministry of Construction of Russia in cooperation with Lomonosov Moscow State University.

APPLICABILITY OF DIRECT EVAPORATIVE COOLING FOR LOW-RISE RESIDENTIAL BUILDING IN SURABAYA

Direct evaporative cooling has been widely known as the passive design strategy for ameliorating the thermal conditions of building in hot-dry climates. In the recent past, the strategy has been extended to warm-humid climates. The scope varies from exploring the system to applying the method to buildings. Few studies have been conducted regarding its application on a multi-story residential building. In response to this gap, the present study will explore the strategy's applicability on the typical low-rise housing in Surabaya and analyze its environmental consequences. Simulation is used as the primary method for the analyses. Results of the study show that direct evaporative cooling is applicable in warm-humid tropics, but with some notes regarding the increase of air humidity. Dimensional properties of the cooling pad can be arranged to minimize the increased humidity.

Building space, building value: residential space additions and the transformation of low-rise housing in Toronto

ABSTRACT While much research has documented the proliferation of new residential space in Toronto through condominium development, homeowners have been adding significant space to low-rise, single-family homes across the city through housing additions and basement underpinnings. In this article, we analyze nearly two decades of public building permit data to map the growth in these types of space-adding renovations since 2001. We show how these renovations have had significant impacts on low-rise home values as they have proliferated across the city in recent years. We discuss the importance of these types of renovations to understandings of equity wealth and housing supply, highlighting their impact on housing value assessments and on the irrevocable transformation of housing assets across the downtown. In documenting the mutual constitution of these strategies in producing both space and value, we bring perspectives on speculative homeownership into closer conversation with scholarship on home renovations and property upgrading.

Nonlinear static analysis of cold-formed steel frame with rigid connections

Cold-formed steel (CFS) has become widely popular in mid and low-rise housing owing to efficient construction practice, technical, structural, and economic advantages over conventional structural materials. However, these sections are still not presented in seismic region because of their lack of understanding in seismic response. To address this problem, CFS frames used in residential building were analysed for lateral load capabilities. A finite element analysis of cold-formed steel frames (CFSF) with rigid connections was presented in this research. 72 types of CFS frames made from developed upright sections were simulated for nonlinear static behaviour using a commercial package. A geometrical parametric study on lateral load capabilities with respect to maximum permitted lateral deflection was presented. The performance of frames for lateral load was found to be improved significantly by increasing the thickness of uprights and provision of channel stiffeners.

THE RESEARCH ON QUALITY INSPECTION OF LAND COVER CLASSIFICATION BASED ON LIDAR

Abstract. Aiming at the quality inspection of land cover classification in natural resources investigation and monitoring, a method and process for quickly inspecting land cover misclassification and omission by using airborne Lidar data are proposed. Firstly, the ground objects are separated from laser feet points by post-processing such as gross error elimination, multi echo analysis and filtering of airborne Lidar data. Secondly, the elevation information is used to distinguish the easily confused ground objects with the similar spectral characteristics, such as forest land and shrub grass, the building area and road, high-rise houses and low-rise houses. Finally, overlay and compare the classified laser feet points with land cover achieving the misclassification. Experiments shows the effectiveness of this method, improve the quality inspection efficiency of land cover classification results, reduce the workload of field data collection, and improve the accuracy of quality inspection.

The Factors Associated with Prevention and Control Practices against Zika Virus Infection among Pregnant Women in Malaysia, a Dengue-Endemic Country.

The aim of this study was to analyze the prevention and control practices against Zika virus (ZIKV) infection among pregnant women in Malaysia. A cross-sectional study was conducted among pregnant women who received antenatal care. Only 7.8% reported that they abstained from sex or used barrier methods during sexual intercourse to prevent ZIKV transmission. The odds of abstaining from sex or using barrier methods were significantly higher among the Chinese ethnic group than the Malay ethnic group (odds ratio [OR] = 4.569; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.696-7.743). A total ZIKV knowledge score of 12-24 was also significantly associated with higher odds of abstaining from sex or using barrier methods than a score of 0-11 (OR = 2.819; 95% CI: 1.682-4.725). In total, 38.6% of women had a higher mean total score for all the current mosquito control practices than they did before hearing of ZIKV. Participants living in bungalows or village houses (OR = 2.006; 95% CI: 1.023-3.936) and low-rise houses (OR = 1.566; 95% CI: 1.109-2.212) were more likely to have a higher mean total score of current mosquito control practices than the practices before hearing of ZIKV compared to those in high-rise houses. The lack of ZIKV knowledge and control practices provides insight for the pre-emptive and prompt development of health education systems for pregnant women during antenatal care visits.

How the Built Environment Promotes Residents' Physical Activity: The Importance of a Holistic People-Centered Perspective.

Promoting adequate physical activity (PA) such as walking and cycling is essential to cope with the global health challenge of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Much research has been conducted to analyze how the built environment can promote PA, but the results are not consistent. Some scholars found that certain built environments such as green spaces generated positive impacts on PA, while some other studies showed no correlations. We suspected that the built environment should be measured in a deeply holistic nuanced way in order to properly reflect its impact on PA. Therefore, our research adopted an integral urban-analysis comparing three typical neighborhoods in Beijing, China. Our data show that the highest PA occurs in the neighborhood with the lowest density, amount of green space and street connectivity, apparently compensated by its low-rise housing type and high appreciation of the quality of sidewalks and street safety. This indicates that dimensions impacting PA have to be considered in context, and the peoples’ perception of the built environment matters.