Public Housing Developments Research Articles

Why Do People Move to Cohousing Communities in Sweden? - Are there any Significant Differences Between the +40 Cohousing and the Mixed-Age Cohousing?

Cohousing is based on collaborative network, or fictive kin in the community. It could facilitate the goal of self-sufficiency. This research aims to investigate the motivation of move to cohousing communities in Sweden, and to find out if there are any significant differences according to two different cohousing types; between the +40 cohousing and the mixed-age cohousing. The +40 cohousing is a kind of senior cohousing in which residents are supposed to be aged over 40. Questionnaire survey was applied and 242 collected data were analyzed by SPSS statistical program. Notable differences in demographic and dwelling variables are found between the 2 groups. There are more women, singles, academics, and small dwellings in the +40 cohousing than in the mixed-age cohousing. Referring motivation of move, "sharing common activity" and "idea of cohousing" are commonly noticed as the main reasons why people move to cohousing communities. Major difference between the 2 groups is that residents of the +40 cohousing tend to stress more on social interaction with neighbors than practical merit. On the contrary, ones of the mixed-age cohousing focus more on practical advantage than social interaction. As a conclusion, it is evident that motivation of move to cohousing communities is different by cohousing types, which have different residents' characteristics. Cohousing could contribute to elevate marginal group's quality of life as an alternative living environment. Therefore, cohousing design has to be tailored to adapt residents' specific needs of different life-stages. In order to implement cohousing model into other countries, for instance into Korea, it needs to experiment with the notion of transplanting selected cohousing principles to a public housing development. In the mixed-age cohousing where more dual income families with young children than conventional housing developments reside, residents would need more practical advantage than emotional support in the community, while as residents in the senior cohousing need vice versa.

Long-term monitoring of high-rise buildings connected by link bridges

Structural health monitoring has potential to become a central tool to be used in the field of civil engineering. A proper monitoring strategy allows one to assess long-term structural behavior, schedule maintenance, and ensure occupant safety. Although monitoring of civil structures is a rapidly growing field, very little literature exists regarding the long-term monitoring of complex high-rise structures and the associated monitoring strategies. The Pinnacle@Duxton is a public residential housing development in Singapore. It is a complex structure consisting of seven 50-story high-rise buildings connected with link bridges at floors 26 and 50. Long-gauge fiberoptic strain sensors are installed in all seven buildings and 4 of the 12 bridges. Building sensors were embedded in the first-floor concrete columns during construction, and sensing data were available from the onset of construction into the service life of the structure. Bridge sensors were surface mounted immediately after the bridge construction, and provide data during their service life. Using the monitoring results, it was possible to evaluate the behavior of the structures in long term on a local and global level. Locally, strain in all monitored members was evaluated and compared with material limit states. In addition, strain components were estimated where appropriate. Globally, the structural behavior of the buildings was evaluated using statistical analysis of results, while global behavior of link bridges is evaluated using simplified bending analysis. The monitoring system, results, and data analysis for the Pinnacle@Duxton complex are presented in this paper.

Urban Competitiveness and Public Housing

The purpose of this study is to link the security housing with urban competitiveness improvement, this is the new trend of the current housing reform field. It is proposed that under new development situation, we should change the traditional concept of housing security, establish a modern concept of housing security, combine public housing with enhancing the competitiveness of city, through the establishment of various policy systems, make use of market mechanisms to resolve the housing problem by way of development. Do a good job in public housing, can contribute to the competitiveness of the city, thus achieve mutual promotion between the two. We must establish the modern concept of housing security, swift from the traditional focus on welfare to pay attention to social benefits, combine the development of public housing with urban competitiveness.

Your neighborhood is not my neighborhood: a mapped comparison of the neighborhoods of public housing developments with other neighborhoods in Boston

Components of a neighborhood provide insight into people's daily life and needs. Limited food access can subsequently adversely affect health status. Challenges to environmental accessibility to healthy foods and transportation are drivers of obesity. Therefore, the immediate environment of people who live in public housing developments may not be conducive for residents to purchase and eat healthy foods, and be physically active. Mapping Boston's public housing developments with ArcGIS (Geographic Information Systems) and defining key asset characteristics of the neighborhoods surrounding them is a powerful strategy to visually depict regions which are known as “food deserts” due to the limited accessibility to healthy foods. Food deserts proximal to public housing developments may then be major factors in the occurrence of obesity in urban at‐risk populations. We demonstrate the relevant differences between neighborhoods containing public housing developments and those which do not. We further use mapping to present an accessible picture of a complex urban public health issue: the interaction between type of neighborhood and differential access to healthy nutrition and activity options.CDCU48DP001922Grant Funding Source: CDCU48DP001922

What Do Public Housing Residents Say About Their Health?

Residents of public housing have poorer health indicators than comparably resourced individuals from the larger community. To identify major health concerns, issues, and barriers to health of community members living in public housing developments, especially as related to cardiovascular disease prevention. To identify similarities and differences between data collected using two methods to inform future health promotion programs and policies. Key informant interviews were conducted with resident leaders and analyzed qualitatively in eight housing developments. Results were compared with quantitative data collected from a resident health survey with a large sample that analyzed individual and development-level characteristics, major health concerns, and barriers. Several development-level characteristics were significantly associated with residents' health concerns and barriers, including development size, percentage of Spanish speakers, and presence of a tenant task force (TTF); important health promotion barriers included lack of resident engagement, inconsistency in programming, lack of knowledge of actions to prevent chronic disease, and lack of resources for health promotion. Safety-related health concerns were named as a priority. Multiple data collection methods can yield important data about community health priorities and barriers; areas of difference and similarity between methods are especially useful in guiding health promotion efforts and opportunities.

What Do Public Housing Residents Think About Their Health?

What Do Public Housing Residents Think About Their Health? Deborah J. Bowen, PhD , Tracy A Battaglia, MD, MPH , Samantha S. Murrell, MPH , SarahG. Bhosrekar, MPH , Sarah E. Caron, MPH , Eugenia Smith, Gerry Thomas, MPH , Jo-Anna Rorie, CNM, MSN, MPH , Laura M. Maetschke, and Rachel Goodman What is the Purpose of This Study ? • In this study, we were interested in learning more about the health issues and concerns of residents of public housing. We also wanted to learn about the barriers and challenges to health improvement that public housing residents face. • We used two different methods of collecting data to learn more about differences and similarities in perspective and viewpoint of “key informants” like resident leaders and a large sample of residents who took part in a survey about health. • We wanted to know how environmental characteristics of public housing developments impacted the concerns that residents had about their health. What is the Problem ? • As a group, people who live in public housing have more health problems and worse overall health than people with similar resources who do not live in public housing. • Residents of public housing face important barriers to opportunities for health improvement and chronic disease prevention. • Involvement in the solutions for those barriers is important for residents of public housing and for researchers. What are the Findings ? • The health concerns of public housing residents are effected by environmental characteristics of public housing developments, such as development size, percentage of Spanish speaking residents and whether or not there is a Tenant Task Force. (A Tenant Task Force is an elected group of residents representing the concerns of residents in a specific development. • The formal and informal leaders of housing developments often identified a lack of community engagement as a barrier to resident health and resident participation in programs and opportunities for health improvement. However, they felt that this challenge could be overcome and saw engaging residents as part of their role. • Residents of public housing who completed a survey about health thought about challenges and barriers to health differently than leadership. Though leadership saw the lack of community engagement as a key problem, residents often thought of health problems as related to individual-level concerns, such as not having enough money. • Leadership also felt that many public housing residents have little knowledge about their health, and about the relationship between risk behaviors (for example smoking) and development of disease. This gap might make disease prevention in general a low priority. • Residents of public housing often identified safety as their most important health concern; leaders were less likely than residents to identify safety as a major concern. [End Page 27] • There was a great diversity of health related issues and concerns that need to be addressed from both leaders and residents. • Two methods of collecting data (talking with 6–8 “key” people per development and conducting a large survey of residents) gave us two different and important perspectives. Looking at the differences and similarities between the data yielded important information. Who Should Care Most ? • Residents of public housing. • Tenant Task Forces and other leaders in public housing developments. • Policy makers, city planners and housing authorities interested in environmental factors that impact the health of public housing residents. • Public health and other professionals planning health promotion programs and health improvement opportunities with residents of public housing. Recommendations for Action • Future research, programs and policies should involve residents of public housing in identifying the health issues of importance to themselves and their communities. • Health promotion programs aimed at residents of public housing should take place in the housing development, be consistent (and be careful to inform residents of the reasoning behind changes and endings, if funding or other considerations necessitate change) and have sufficient resources to provide incentives to participating residents. • Health promotion programs should begin by increasing awareness of the health issues driving chronic disease, rather than simply offering programs to address the behaviors that may increase one’s risk of developing disease. • Due to the diversity of health issues, policymakers and others should consider a systems approach, rather than focusing on a single disease. • People planning health-related programs in public housing are strongly urged to consider safety as...

The Impact of Housing Stressors on the Mental Health of a Low-Income African-American Population

Health and disease reflect broad social conditions including economic, environmental, and cultural components. The impact of challenging housing conditions experienced by low-income African American households on their mental health is an example of this principle. Do physical housing conditions, the presence of roaches and rodents, plumbing defects, and heating/cooling problems contribute to mental health dysfunction such as being depressed, feeling worried, feeling sad, feeling helpless, and feeling emotionally upset? To address this research question, a sample of 128 households that originally lived in public housing in Washington, D.C. were surveyed. These households had been relocated to other low-income housing during the demolition and reconstruction phase of a HOPE VI project, some to alternative public housing developments and others to private units based on vouchers. The survey included self-reports by heads of household on their housing conditions and mental health status using Likert scales. The survey also asked participants for demographic, socio-economic, and physical health data and for information on neighborhood characteristics. Correlation and regression analyses were used to estimate the impact of building structure, building systems, neighborhood characteristics, physical health, and socio-economic/demographic variables on mental health stresses. Specific housing issues included the number of bedrooms, plumbing, heating, cooling, rodents, roaches, and building security (the independent variables). Mental health stresses (the dependent variables) included feeling depressed, nervous, anxious, sad, helpless, and having trouble concentrating. Several alternative specifications and models were used and estimated. They generally demonstrated strong overall explanatory value. The findings from these models suggested that challenging housing conditions significantly contributed to many mental health disorders. For example, in the 2SLS model of “problem being depressed”, the condition of the apartment (β =0.278, t=2.022) and plumbing (β = 0.182, t=2.145) were significant and the model's explanatory power was reasonable with an adjusted R2=0.221. Many non-housing control variables were also significantly associated with mental health challenges.

Accessibility of Services and Facilities for Residents in Public Housing in Urban Areas of Ogun State, Nigeria

Against the backdrop of the need to improve accessibility of services and infrastructural facilities for urban residents in Nigeria, this study examined the accessibility of services and facilities for urban residents in newly constructed public housing in Ogun State, Southwest Nigeria. The study was based on household surveys and data were collected from 452 respondents in nine public housing estates constructed between 2003 and 2010 in urban centers in the study area using structured questionnaire and observation schedule. It was observed that although the majority of households in the housing estates have good access to human waste disposal system, accessibility to refuse bins, treated water, electricity, and public transport services as well as educational, shopping, recreational, healthcare, drainage, and other vital facilities is poor. One instructive finding of this study is that more emphasis is given to the production of dwelling units than accessibility to basic services and facilities for residents in public housing schemes in the study area. The paper suggests that to improve the quality of public housing and living standard of residents, policy action is required to compel public housing developers to provide basic services and facilities in housing schemes in Nigerian cities.

Race and Selective Enforcement in Public Housing

Drugs, crime, and public housing are closely linked in policy and politics, and their nexus has animated several intensive drug enforcement programs targeted at public housing residents. In New York City, police systematically conduct “vertical patrols” in public housing buildings, making tens of thousands of Terry stops each year. During these patrols, both uniformed and undercover officers systematically move through the buildings, temporarily detaining and questioning residents and visitors, often at a low threshold of suspicion, and usually alleging trespass to justify the stop. We use a case‐control design to identify the effects of living in one of New York City's 330 public housing developments on the probability of stop, frisk, and arrest from 2004–2011. We find that the incidence rate ratio for trespass stops and arrests is more than two times greater in public housing than in the immediate surrounding neighborhoods. We decompose these effects using first differences models and find that the difference in percent black and Hispanic populations in public housing compared to the surrounding area predicts the disparity in trespass enforcement and enforcement of other criminal law violations. The pattern of racially selective enforcement suggests the potential for systemic violations of the Fourteenth Amendment's prohibition on racial discrimination.

Health-integrated planning at the local level in England: Impediments and opportunities

The project commissioned by the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) aimed to examine the degree to which UK, mainly English local planning authorities, incorporate health in their land use plans and development decisions. The project involved systematic reviews of evidence together with case studies. The range of performance in relation to health identified in the project shows that best practice in England depends not so much on the planning system per se, as on the leadership, commitment and knowledge of politicians and practitioners involved. The barriers to health integration are organisational and professional silos, ignorance, resources, and reactive planning regime. Clear lessons for research and practice are emerging: first, well attested research evidence is quite scarce, for example in relation to sustainability appraisal and health; second, planning agencies need to forge good partnerships with public health, transport, housing and economic development decision-makers, and develop proactive, healthy plans; the new planning regime and move of the public health function into local authorities in 2013 in England will give policy opportunities for the consideration of health outcomes in planning decisions, and research should in time evaluate if results have been achieved on the ground.

다문화사회의 주거를 위한 공공주택의 법정책적 연구

The foreign population in South Korea marked about 1 million as of 2011. This study was proposed for improving the supportive housing problems of foreigners and multicultural families with multicultural society in Korea. I was examined to the public rental housing policies of France, Japan and Singapore. This implies that housing policies should be improved in the direction of achieving the of social integration. The HLM Built massively since 1950s in France. and it was conceived by the principle of social mix. The Singaporean housing policies shows the housing provision system that includes housing market, housing supply and distribution, housing financing. Japanese housing policies are coincident with an international tendency toward privatization. The housing polices are necessity to which the nation must imperatively answer for foreigners and multicultural families. The right housing policies is needed at a right time to spearhead a society in a desirable direction. Its ultimate goals of the long-range public housing development are clearly addressed including funding sources to execute the relevant law polices for multicultural society. And multicultural hosing policies should be collaborated with the related government departments. So we should specifically divide roles between government departments and local governments for multicultural housing policy.

Health of Older Adults in New York City Public Housing: Part 1, Findings From the New York City Housing Authority Senior Survey

Older adults are an important and growing part of the social fabric of New York City (NYC). As people age, they face health concerns that can affect their ability to live comfortable, independent lives. Recent national surveys have found that more than 60% of older Americans have multiple chronic conditions and 20% have a physical disability.1,2 The quality of life older adults experience can be greatly improved by living in supportive physical and social environments and having routine access to high-quality health care services. More than 61,500 New Yorkers aged 65 and older live in New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) public housing developments. 3 Age group projections suggest that the growth of this group will outpace that of NYC's older adult population,4 as NYCHA residents are more likely to stay in their residences instead of moving into assisted living facilities or out of the City. The large and growing number of older NYCHA residents also presents tremendous opportunities to target health, social, and financial services towards older adults in NYC. Despite the critical financial relief provided by subsidized housing, poverty remains a critical challenge for many. Almost half of older NYCHA residents live with incomes below the federal poverty level. In general, lowincome adults have higher rates of chronic illnesses, have worse access to health care services, and receive poorer quality of care than higher-income adults.5-7 In 2007, NYCHA convened a multidisciplinary task force to develop a strategy and recommend actions to address the needs of its large and expanding older population. The same year, the Age-friendly New York City initiative was launched by the NYC Mayor's Office and City Council with the New York Academy of Medicine.8 Following these efforts, NYCHA collaborated with the New York City Departments of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) and for the Aging (DFTA), as well as with the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Public Health, to conduct a survey among NYCHA residents aged 65 and older to examine health status and barriers to care in the context of nearuniversal Medicare coverage. This report summarizes our survey findings, makes recommendations to improve physical and mental health outcomes among older public housing residents in NYC, and aims to promote a more informed dialogue among residents, community-based organizations, and City agencies on how best to improve quality of life for older New Yorkers living in NYCHA housing. About the Data More than 1,000 randomly selected adults aged 65 and older living in NYCHA housing were interviewed by telephone in June 2009 for the NYCHA Senior Survey. Participants' demographic information was obtained from the NYCHA Tenant Data System. Analyses presented in this report were statistically weighted to be representative of all older NYCHA adults, and all comparisons discussed in the text are statistically significant. Additional data sources were used to draw comparisons between the demographics and health of older NYCHA adults and those of older adults in NYC and the US. Qualitative feedback was gathered from meetings with resident leaders across the five boroughs and a variety of NYCHA officials and development-based staff. OVERVIEW OF THE NEW YORK CITY HOUSING AUTHORITY (NYCHA) NYCHA is the largest public housing authority in North America, comprising more than 178,000 apartments in 334 developments with 2,602 residential buildings throughout the five boroughs of NYC. Nearly 404,000 individuals officially reside in NYCHA's public housing developments. The first senior development exclusively for residents aged 62 and older, Gaylord White Houses in Manhattan, was completed in 1964. Since then, the number of senior developments has grown to 42, and 14 mixed family developments include designated buildings for older adults. In total, 10,000 apartments in NYCHA's public housing portfolio are reserved for older adults. …

Connecting Boston's Public Housing Developments to Community Health Centers: Who's Ready for Change?

Despite close proximity to community health centers, public housing residents are at increased risk of uncontrolled chronic disease, in part because of underutilization of routine health care. To assist in program planning, the Partners in Health and Housing Prevention Research Center (PHH-PRC) used the Community Readiness Model to compare readiness of public housing developments and community health centers to address community-identified health priorities. The model assumes that program success to affect change depends on matching the community's level of readiness to address the issue. Key respondent interviews were conducted across 15 communities: Eight housing developments and seven health centers. Interviews were scored across six dimensions on an anchored, 9-point scale and averaged to provide a composite readiness score. Higher scores indicate increasing levels of readiness. Interview transcripts were reviewed for consistent themes. Health centers scored significantly higher (mean, 5.88) than housing developments (mean, 3.33), corresponding with the Preparation stage of readiness compared with the Vague Awareness stage, respectively. Both scored highest in Existing Programs and Resources and lowest in Knowledge of Efforts. Qualitative analysis revealed a lack of existing partnerships between housing developments and health centers as well as significant social barriers preventing housing residents from engaging in care. We found a mismatch in readiness to address community health priorities. Although health centers have programs to address health issues, community awareness of programs is limited and barriers to engaging in care persist. The model provided a useful tool for engaging communities into shared program planning.

Connecting Boston's Public Housing Developments to Community Health Centers: Who's Ready for Change?

Connecting Boston's Public Housing Developments to Community Health Centers: Who's Ready for Change?

“We Don't Live Outside, We Live in Here”: Neighborhood and Residential Mobility Decisions among Low–Income Families

Over 20 years of scholarship suggests that living in America's poorest and most dangerous communities diminishes the life course development of children and adults. In the 1990s, the dire conditions of some of these neighborhoods, especially those with large public housing developments, prompted significant policy responses. In addition to the demolition and redevelopment of some of the projects, the federal government launched an experiment to help families leave poor neighborhoods through an assisted housing voucher program called Moving to Opportunity (MTO). While families who moved through this program initially relocated to census tracts with poverty rates almost four times lower than their original projects, many returned to communities of moderate to high poverty. Why? We use mixed methods to explore the patterns and the decision–making processes behind moves among MTO families. Focusing on the Baltimore MTO site, we find that traditional theories for residential choice did not fully explain these outcomes. While limited access to public transportation, housing quality problems, and landlords made it hard for families to move to, or stay in, low–poverty neighborhoods, there were also more striking explanations for their residential trajectories. Many families valued the low–poverty neighborhoods they were originally able to access with their vouchers, but when faced with the need to move again, they often sacrificed neighborhood quality for dwelling quality in order to accommodate changing family needs. Having lived in high–poverty neighborhoods most of their lives, they developed a number of coping strategies and beliefs that made them confident they could handle such a consequential trade–off and protect themselves and their children from the dangers of poorer areas.

Participation, Deliberation, and Decision Making

This paper explores the mechanisms, processes, and dynamics of participation and deliberation in three newly created, mixed-income communities being built on the footprint of former public housing developments in Chicago. Our findings reflect enduring dilemmas about the challenge of democratic participation and representation for low-income citizens in the context of urban revitalization efforts. In the current case, a fundamental tension exists between two orientations to organizing participation, one (dominant) orientation that privileges “mainstreaming” public housing resident participation into collaborative governance structures and existing market and civil society mechanisms, and another that suggests the continuing need for dedicated mechanisms that maximize public housing representation. In this paper, we frame the theoretical debates over the potential for establishing effective mechanisms to promote deliberative democracy at a neighborhood-level. We then provide an overview of the participatory landscape in these communities, explore how key stakeholders view participation, and examine how the organization of opportunities for deliberation and emerging patterns of participation shape dynamics of inclusion and exclusion in these contexts. Based on these findings, we suggest implications for policy and practice.

WEB-BASED CONTRACTOR EVALUATION SYSTEM FOR MASS-HOUSING PROJECTS IN TURKEY

Determining the most appropriate contractor for a construction project is a highly critical issue. Selecting the right contractor for the right job can significantly influence the overall project performance. In the selection process, construction clients have to know all financial, technical and general information about the contractors to determine the most appropriate one for the project. Within this context, clients should consider several criteria that may include quality of production, adequacy of technical staff and financial stability. In this study, a survey was carried out among 52 construction professionals working at the Public Housing Development Administration (PHDA) in Turkey. The objective of this survey is to examine the relative weights of the criteria that have been using by this owner in the construction contractor selection process. Afterwards, a web-based contractor evaluation system, WEB-CONTEST, by which the contractors can be evaluated based on a combined criterion, is proposed. The system facilitates the contractor selection process and enables the construction owner to select the most correct contractors for its relevant projects.

Posters for Housing and Health

THE 1930S POSTER IMAGE contrasts a modernist public housing development with conditions in a tenement district. In the latter, a woman pushes a baby carriage through a neighborhood that at the time would have been considered unhealthy.1 She approaches overflowing garbage cans; laundry lines fill the tall, narrow space between tenement buildings; and an old water tank tops a roof. An elevated train can be seen in the distance. The image, in gray-blue and gold, is crossed out. Eliminating these types of neighborhoods as a means to promote health has been a goal of housing and health advocates since the time of Thomas Southwood Smith and Edwin Chadwick in the 19th century.2 The modernist housing development, rendered in four colors, sits on a superblock with no through traffic; each building has ample access to sunlight and green space but not to streets. Long, narrow buildings, designed to maximize ventilation, contain many corner units. Residents would have views of nature and plenty of opportunities for outdoor recreation. The poster's text reads: “BETTER HOUSING: THE SOLUTION TO INFANT MORTALITY IN THE SLUMS.” This poster was produced by the federal Works Progress Administration–Federal Art Project sometime between 1936 and 1938. During its years of existence between 1935 and 1943, more than 2 000 000 copies of approximately 35 000 distinct posters were produced, but fewer than 2000 have survived.3 At least a half dozen of these involved housing and health themes. Some promoted overall public housing goals of clean, safe living; others celebrated the opening of individual developments. In addition, some posters were dedicated to other health-related topics, including syphilis, workplace injuries, tuberculosis, and hand washing. Overall, the Works Progress Administration program produced posters dedicated to everything from travel and tourism to book readings and war bonds.4 Many of the posters had designs similar to the one pictured here with simple graphics; clean, bold lettering; and socially oriented messages.5 Better housing: the solution to infant mortality in the slums, one of a series of posters promoting health through new forms of housing, 1930s. The idea for this publicly funded program to support unemployed artists began in New York City as an initiative by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia; in 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal took over the program and expanded it across the United States. The New York poster program was administered by Richard Floethe, an artist who had trained at the influential Bauhaus School in Weimar, Germany. He illustrated many popular children's books before and after his work in the program. The artist who designed the poster was Anthony Velonis, a master printmaker who helped elevate the process of silk screening to an art form he called serigraphy.6 Velonis eventually cofounded a printing firm that would produce work for many famous artists in the decades after World War II. The poster program operated by accepting requests from public and nonprofit agencies for a poster on a specific topic.7 Floethe would post the topic request along with some parameters for the project, and individual artists on staff in the department would submit designs. A winning design was then produced for the client.8 This poster was produced for the New York City Housing Authority, which may have intended to use it to promote its plans for slum clearance and public housing construction. It was a unique time in the history of health and housing; an early phase of the New Deal had produced about 35 000 units of public housing, many modeled on European models of new architecture, and Congress was about to pass the 1937 Wagner-Steagall Act, which would dramatically expand the program to eventually produce almost 1.2 million units.9,10 The new housing development in the poster reflects the values of modern architects who believed that the incorporation of strong design elements would achieve important social and health goals.11,12 These modernist ideals would dominate public housing architecture for decades despite a growing disillusionment with the social effects of these designs that began in the 1950s.13 Some of the health assumptions that underlie the poster, including the superblock as a preferred way to provide access to open space and reduce traffic conflicts, would not be totally challenged until the growth of the built environment and health movement in the 1990s.14 By the beginning of the 2000s, a new consensus as to what constituted a healthy neighborhood—one that features fine-grained development, mixed uses, street connectivity, and other features that promote walking, healthy eating, and social capital—would emerge.15,16

Study on the Public Rental Housing Design for the Elderly Generation in Hong Kong

China is carrying out a large-scale public rental housing construction for the low-income citizens. In order to cope with China public housing development and the concept of 'ageing in place', the introduction of innovative design initiatives is hopeful considered in low-rent housing design. Hong Kong has more than 30 years experience in public rental housing design for the elderly. This paper focuses on the design for the elderly in Hong Kong in the past 30 years.

Innovative arc screen development for adaptive traffic noise mitigation of housing development using full scale prototype testing

The Housing Authority is responsible for public housing development in Hong Kong. With increasing demand for sites of challenging environmental conditions, the authority has been continuously diverting efforts on innovative design to tackle site environmental issues. One of the frontline development is an innovative arc-screen structure, which was devised to become one of the new generations of adaptive traffic noise mitigation. Its inception was initiated from the need to reduce traffic noise impact of a major highway parallel to the public housing development in Sai Chuen Road. As scale model evaluation of traffic noise reduction is somewhat limited, the project commissioned a full scale testing of an arc-screen prototype built into a 3-storey full size stacking up housing flat model for evaluation. This is believed to be the first time of a full scale experimental evaluation of traffic noise mitigation for housing development. The arc-screen structure has achieved 5 dB(A) nominal noise attenuation performance. Results are encouraging for public housing development applications and will form new generations of adaptive architectural forms of arc-screen uses to suit different needs. The first application is already planned at the Sai Chuen Road development and in-situ performance evaluation will be assessed in second phase.