Ordinary Houses Research Articles

Forsaken Objects, Haunted Houses, Female Bodies, and “the squalor of tragedy in ordinary life”: Reading Dance of the Happy Shades with Later Stories

Relying on Michel de Certeau’s analyses in The Practice of Everyday Life, this essay considers the functions of small, trivial or discarded objects and jumble to be found in ordinary houses that pepper Munro’s fiction and, more specifically, their connection to story telling and writing. The essay links them to patterns, and their metatextual dimensions. Thirdly, taking into account the attention paid to female bodies and their flaws, such as lumps, the essay considers how Munro explores connections between body and text. The corpus under consideration comprises several stories from her début collection; “The Beggar Maid,” from Munro’s second story cycle; “Meneseteung” from Friend of My Youth; “Family Furnishings” (2001) and two stories from her 2009 collection: “Child’s Play” and “Free Radicals.”

A Full-Scale Shaking Table Test on Philippine Concrete Hollow Blocks (CHB) Masonry Houses

Most of the human casualties in past earthquakes were attributed to the collapse of buildings, particularly masonry constructions in developing countries. Most of these buildings are categorized into “Non-Engineered Construction.” In effect, these structure are spontaneously and informally constructed in various countries in a traditional manner without any or with little intervention in their design by qualified architects and engineers. Unfortunately, these types of buildings have been extensively constructed in most of the seismic prone areas in developing countries. Therefore, the safety of “Non-Engineered Construction” has become one of the most urgent issues in recent years. The concrete hollow block (CHB) masonry structures have recently become common residential structures in the Philippines. A full-scale shaking table test on CHBmasonry structures of Philippine ordinary houses was conducted in Japan. This experiment aims to acquiring a better understanding of the behavior of these structures during major earthquakes, and its results will be used to produce simple seismic evaluation methods as awareness tools, and to disseminate information on safer construction of houses in the Philippines.

The invention of the Barcelona Gothic Quarter

The Barcelona Gothic Quarter was re-constructed in the twentieth century. Although theoretically historic monuments refer back to past epochs, in many cases they were produced recently. In Barcelona, medieval buildings were restored in a gothic style, while other historic buildings and facades were moved stone-by-stone into the area and ordinary residential houses were removed and replaced by seemingly historic buildings. As a result, the new Gothic Quarter seems to be a space which is completely medieval but was actually re-built between 1927 and 1970. This re-creation was meant both as an example of the invention of tradition in the context of Catalan nationalism and as a way to promote the city through spectacular historic monuments, irrespective of whether they were materially authentic. In this context, this article focuses on the second phase of this process, in the commoditisation of heritage alongside city marketing, stressing the relationship between the touristic promotion and the production of urban space. It also examines the principal reconstructions in the neighbourhood and how this process of changing a residential area into a space for tourist consumption were the first signs of gentrification in Barcelona.

The individual supported living (ISL) manual: a planning and review instrument for individual supported living arrangements for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities

Following the closure of large residential facilities over the past several decades, emphasis on community living for adults with developmental disabilities has strengthened. However, the concept of community living is ambiguous. The term is often associated with congregation of people with disabilities in ordinary houses 'in' the community. Group homes, the most common contemporary formal expression of 'community living', may use ordinary houses and accommodate a small number of residents comparable to a large family. Individual supported living (ISL) arrangements around a single person with a disability using person-centred principles are occurring with increasing frequency. The ISL manual was developed over 4 years in two sequential research projects to produce a quality framework articulating ISL and operationalising the framework into a review and planning instrument for ISL arrangements. The ISL manual was developed in three stages and overseen by a reference group of key stakeholders purposively recruited as well-versed in ISL. The first stage operationalised the quality framework over two half-day workshops with a group of key informants. Participants identified indicators and sources of evidence for each attribute of the quality framework. The quality framework, indicators, and sources of evidence were compiled into an initial evaluation instrument of nine themes consisting of 27 attributes. This was piloted in two rounds to enhance the utility of the instrument and develop the final manual which contained eight themes and 21 attributes. A comprehensive literature search was carried out to identify relevant empirical ISL studies. The literature search identified four empirical studies that incorporated ISL over the preceding 3 years. A previous literature search from the first research project that produced the quality framework spanned 27 years and identified five empirical studies. We concluded that the empirical base for developing evidence for the nature and outcomes of ISL arrangements was sparse. The ISL manual and scoring booklet developed in the current research project includes six illustrative case studies of ISL, instructions for potential users to review living arrangements or set up a new arrangement, and the review framework consisting of descriptions of themes and attributes, indicators, and sources of evidence. The dearth of empirical studies of ISL arrangements for people with developmental disabilities, despite increased policy emphasis on individualised options, underscores the importance of planning and review tools to promote quality outcomes. The ISL manual can assist adults with developmental disabilities, families, carers, and service providers to plan and review ISL arrangements. Further research will enhance the properties of this instrument and establish the relationship between quality of ISL arrangements and outcomes such as quality of life, and participation and inclusion.

Chinese migrants in Melbourne and their house choices

Meanings behind the choice of the migrant house are explored through an examination of 12 houses of migrants who emigrated from mainland China to Melbourne during the 1990s and 2000s. A qualitative investigation shows that there are three interconnected meanings behind the choice of houses in Melbourne: a desire to counter past experiences of housing in China, a desire to improve future opportunities through housing, and the wish to blend into Australian society. While much of the literature claims that migrant housing represents the ethnic character of their owners through architectural features, these Chinese houses do not resemble past houses in China in any physical way. The location of the house in a ‘good’ suburb was the most important factor when choosing the house. The house should be located near good educational, transport and shopping services before the built form becomes important. Chinese migrants wish to assimilate into Australian society through their choice of ordinary houses that do not communicate their ethnic identity through their external façades, while also adopting Australian ways of living that are focused on gardens and backyards.

The effect of rainstorms on adult Anopheles funestus behavior and survival

We describe the effect that the passage of a cold front, with a subsequent heavy rainstorm ten days later, had on a population of Anopheles funestus mosquitoes collected exiting houses or in light-traps from a village in southern Mozambique. Temperature effects explained 40% (r=0.634; p <0.001) of the variation in numbers of males collected and 19% of the variation in gravid females collected (r=0.437; p=0.033). The age structure of mosquitoes varied according to distance from the breeding site (χ(2) = 64.1, df 6, p <0.001). The proportion of parous insects that were caught in the light-traps with sacs (χ(2) = 6.33, d.f. 2, p=0.042) and young insects that had mated before being collected (χ(2) = 13,3, d.f. 2, p=0.001) were reduced on the night of the rain but this effect was short lived. It is concluded that the effect of rain on mosquito populations depends on the kind of water body used for larval development.

Energy Storage in Ordinary Houses. A Smart Grid Approach

The last couple of years more and more non-controllable energy sources, e.g. wind turbines, have been connected to the power grid. This has caused an inefficient energy production and a huge variation in the energy prices. In the near future (10 to 15 years) the amount of non-controllable energy sources will double or more. This again will result in a number of problems: Inefficient energy production, problems with controlling the power grid, the wind turbines have to stop when the wind is optima and so on. A way to reduce these problems is to use the possibility to store energy in ordinary houses. Ordinary houses are the main electricity consumer. More than 60% of the total electricity production is consumed in family homes. A way to overcome these problems with non-controllable electricity production is to use residential homes as energy storage. For instance floor heating systems, hot water tanks, refrigerators and freezers are all examples of systems and appliance that can be used for storing energy in an efficient way. Beside of that it is possible to use the washing machine, the dryer and the ventilation in a more flexible manner which will have the same effect than storing energy. This paper analyzes the possibility for using floor heating systems and hot water tanks as energy storage in ordinary family houses. Beside of that the size and the efficiency of this energy storage are analyzed. The main idea are to make the power consumer more flexible, or in other word the consumer have to use the energy when it is available, and by that mean secure a more efficient and green energy production. If houses and private households have to play that role, then it is very important to find a solution that minimizes the impact on the living comfort. The way to do that is to make an automatic and intelligent house control system that maximizes the consumption flexibility based on the energy user's behavior without affection the living comfort. This behavior is of course different from household to household, because of that it is necessary to include an adaptive behavior prediction system. This paper describes a method for making houses more energy flexible based on pre knowledge of the user behavior. The energy flexibility is calculated based on simulation for 200000 typical houses in Denmark. The simulations shows that it is possible based on these 200000 houses, to store enough energy to absorb the variation in the production in Denmark over a time horizon on several hours.

Two Chiefs’ Houses from the Western Aleutian Islands

The earliest Russian explorers of the Aleutians described Near Island chiefs’ houses that were larger than those of ordinary people. The Russians noted that these houses were also functionally different than ordinary dwellings. Chiefs entertained guests, sheltered widows and orphans, and hosted religious ceremonies in their houses. Between 1997 and 2003, Western Aleutians Archaeological and Paleobiological Project (WAAPP) archaeologists excavated two unusual structures on the Near Islands of Buldir and Attu that may have been the houses of chiefs. The structures were larger than ordinary houses, with substantial whalebone structural components. Perhaps of more significance are the substantial caches of artifacts, parts of animals, and burials associated with the structures. The items used in the construction appear to have had spiritual significance, suggesting that people with great power and authority occupied the structures.

A Study on Promotion Means of Installing Smoke Alarms in Ordinary Houses

A Study on Promotion Means of Installing Smoke Alarms in Ordinary Houses

Easily Installable Wireless Behavioral Monitoring System with Electric Field Sensor for Ordinary Houses

This paper describes an indoor behavioral monitoring system for improving the quality of life in ordinary houses. It employs a device that uses weak radio waves for transmitting the obtained data and it is designed such that it can be installed by a user without requiring any technical knowledge or extra constructions. This study focuses on determining the usage statistics of home electric appliances by using an electromagnetic field sensor as a detection device. The usage of the home appliances is determined by measuring the electromagnetic field that can be observed in an area near the appliance. It is assumed that these usage statistics could provide information regarding the indoor behavior of a subject. Since the sensor is not direction sensitive and does not require precise positioning and wiring, it can be easily installed in ordinary houses by the end users. For evaluating the practicability of the sensor unit, several simple tests have been performed. The results indicate that the proposed system could be useful for collecting the usage statistics of home appliances.

Development of Getting Up Detection and Report Device using Power Line Communication and Mat-Sensor

In this paper, we propose the getting up detection and report device which can be installed in middle-small facilities and ordinary houses. This device combines a mat sensor which detects rising and a power line communication (PLC) device as a reporting system. This device does not need any additional construction for installation as long as facilities equip electric power supply 100V for ordinary businesses. At first, the mat sensor in the system detects rising of an elderly person or lying down to bed. The PLC system sends ON/OFF signal and reports to nurses and staff members in their rooms. Since the main objective of the PLC system is to keep exact detection and transmission of the mat-sensor ON/OFF signal, high-speed network is not necessary. It is required that the system should be robust against noises of household electrical appliances. We used the selected-career method as a transmission method in which we located 2 lines of tone frequency (132kHz or 115kHz) for the power line transmission in the device. The effectiveness of the proposed device has been confirmed by the field experiments in welfare facilities for elderly people.

House‐dust mites and summer cottages

Estimated indoor climate conditions in unheated summer cottages offers house-dust mites unfavorable temperature and feeding conditions while giving them optimum humidity conditions. We aimed to estimate the exposure level of house-dust mites in summer cottages. A total of 37 summer cottages were sampled for house dust and storage mites in three locations and the results compared with samples from 33 patients suspected of house-dust mite allergy and living in ordinary houses. The processed dust samples were investigated by microscopy and exposure levels given as number of mites per 0.1 g dust. The summer cottages were without exception all heavily infested with threefold or higher concentrations of both house dust and storage mites in comparison with ordinary houses. In unheated summer cottages were found tropical high concentrations of house dust and storage mites with a median concentration of house-dust mites in mattress dust of 2000 house-dust mites/g of dust which corresponds to an average of 40 microg allergen/g of mattress dust. As a probable consequence of high indoor air humidity conditions in unheated summer cottages in winter, dust samples contained threefold or higher concentrations of house dust and storage mites. Indoor humidity conditions thus more than compensated for lack of continuous supply of skin scales from human beings and an unfavorable low indoor air temperature. The uniform high mite exposure in summer cottages is likely to imply disease deterioration in patients already allergic to mites.

Disability, Identity and Inclusion. Community Services in Ordinary Houses

Disability, Identity and Inclusion. Community Services in Ordinary Houses

Architecture in the United States, 1800–1850

American architectural history took a turn in the 1970s as historians introduced ideas borrowed from social and cultural history, anthropology, and archaeology. A discipline that had largely emphasized descriptive appreciation of high-style designs using art-historical methodology began to recognize social processes and the diversity of architectural producers and users. Women and immigrants of different ethnicities began taking center stage, and, as they did, new classes of buildings came under attention, such as ordinary houses, barns, service stations, and malls. The study of American architectural history became a serious contributor to understanding American social and cultural history. W. Barksdale Maynard's volume focuses on the early nineteenth century and celebrates Anglo-centric high-style art-historical approaches. The strengths of Maynard's book include its rich visual and narrative material, its intensity of detail, and its flawless standards of production. As Maynard notes, the early nineteenth century is less studied by architectural historians than the eighteenth...

Social inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities: the impact of place of residence.

People with intellectual disabilities are increasingly living in more domestic style accommodation, either in housing provided within a specialised campus setting or in ordinary houses in community settings. The main objective of the study was to determine if the extent of residents' involvement with their families and with the local community varied when they resided in campus settings (n = 55) or community housing (n = 51) and to investigate the main predictors of this involvement. With the resident's permission, their key-workers - mainly nurses - completed standard questionnaires that covered resident characteristics, contact with families and a range of life experiences. Although the type of accommodation did have a significant effect on residents' social inclusion in families and communities, the best predictor of this was the individual's level of dependency in personal self-care. Those who were more dependent tended to be more excluded. Staff working with more dependent residents need to proactively promote their social inclusion although this could be harder to achieve for those living in campus style settings.

家庭用空気清浄機の汚染物質除去性能と室内濃度予測に関する研究(その2) : 花粉粒子に対する除去効果

The purpose of this paper is to quantitatively determine the removal performance on cedar pollen of domestic air cleaners which have widely been utilized in ordinary houses. Five domestic air cleaners were tested in an experimental chamber, using cedar pollen and the JIS Test Powder. The evaluation were made with an index of equivalent clean air rates (ECAR). The results showed that the removal rates of cedar pollen were 19.12〜180.2(m^3/h) for 0.3μm particles, and 18.7〜213.0 (m^3/h) for 0.5μm particles except for one type and with JIS Test Powder 20〜50(m^3/h) for all type of domestic air cleaners. The pollen has smaller particle portion than the JIS Test Powder No.11 and the performance of cleaners cannot be estimated simply from the morphological size distribution of the test aerosols. The analytical prediction of pollen concentration were made and compared with the results of experiment to show a fairly good fit for particles smaller than 1μm.

1P2-B2 マット・センサと電灯線通信を用いた離床検知通報装置の開発(講演,介護支援II)

We propose the rising detection reporting device which can be installed in the middle-small facilities and ordinary houses. This device combines a mat sensor which detects rising and a power line communication (PLC) device as a reporting system. This device does not need any additional construction for installation as long as the facility equips electric power supply 100V for ordinary business. At first, the mat sensor in the system detects rising of a elderly person or lying down to the bed. The PLC system sends on/off signal and reports to nurses and caring people in the management room. Since the main objective of the PLC system is exact detection and transmission of the mat-sensor on/off signal, high-speed network is not necessary. It is required that the system should be robust to noises of household electrical appliances. We used the multi-career method as a transmission method in which we located 2 lines of tone frequency (115KHz and 132 KHz) for the power line transmission in the device. The effectiveness of the proposed device has been confirmed by the field experiments in welfare facilities for the elderly people.

寒冷地の戸建住宅における室内空気質の実態調査(環境工学)

In order to clarify IAQ problem of detached houses located in cold climatic region, particularly well-insulated airtight houses, measurements were conducted in the winter since 2001. The formaldehyde concentrations in most houses were found to be lower than 100μg/m^3, but the TVOC concentrations in most houses including a conventional house that has low insulation and airtightness without mechanical ventilation system were higher than 400μg/m^3. Materials used in daily life as well as building materials might lead to emission of VOCs. It was suggested IAQ problem in cold climatic region would be serious in not only well-insulated houses but also ordinary houses.

Housing policy towards a super aging society: From building specifications to special needs measures

Japan is becoming a ‘super‐aging society’ beyond an ‘aged society’. During last decade, considerable political measures on the housing for the elderly have been launched, but the turning point is coming. There are many private detached houses in Japan. In order to upgrade the quality of ordinary houses, ‘guidelines of housing design devised to cope with aged society’ was announced by the ministry. From April 2000, under the Long‐term Care Insurance Law, house adaptation system for the frail elderly was institutionalized and the needs of it have been increasing wider and wider. Most elderly people feel anxious for the future when they need personal care that includes home help services and nursing care. Elderly residents of collective housings want to reserve the service facility in the same building. New types of dwellings have also been developed (such as senior housing, care house, group home) Recently, the old peoples homes began to consider a high value to the comfortable atmosphere as a house. Even the nursing homes are changing into houses that contain small scale homes. Group living is not an institution, but a house that must have a possibility to suit the all categories of elderly people. The scheme will become one of the mainstreams of housing for the elderly as a new type of dwelling.

Archaeology and settlement in the Third Cataract region during the Medieval and Post-Medieval periods

This paper concentrates on the archaeology the Third Cataract Region of the Nile Valley, essentially the rocky course of the river between Tombos in the south and Kajbar in the north. The Medieval Period in Nubia can be defined as AD 500–1300, during which time the official religion was Christianity, whilst the Post-Medieval Period is AD 1300–1600, when both Christianity and Islam were present as popular religions, and there was no longer a central government in the region. The history, culture, and archaeology of both periods is presented, including material discovered during the Mahas Survey Project. For the Post-Medieval Period, the archaeology and settlement patterns are related to a model of Nubian society known from ethno-historic sources, indicating the elements which allowed that society to maintain cohesion in times of anarchy, viz. the Nubians and the ‘other’; togetherness; the organisation of settlement; and kinship. The use of these principles is tested against the archaeology of the region, in terms of several types of remains. These comprise cemeteries, for evidence of religions affiliations, including Islamisation; fortified houses (Diffis); and the ordinary houses and villages. In conclusion, the historical settlement pattern as reconstructed archaeologically is related to the Nubian classification of the landscape, and the way in which knowledge of this classification can aid in the interpretation of the archaeology is discussed.