DSpace@MIT

Thesis: M.Arch.A.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1976."February 1976."Includes bibliographical references (pages 238-240).Preface: The purpose of this study is to develop an approach to low-income housing in Third World countries. The usual combination of quick urbanization (or high housing demand) and scarcity of resources and technology makes the supply of housing extremely difficult in Third World countries. In these conditions, a housing system, in order to be significant, can not be defined a priori, based on static and often imported standards, but should be a dynamic concept which is defined directly from the characteristics of the considered region or country, at the time of consideration. This study tries to develop a methodology to evaluate both the housing demand and all available resources of a Third World country, then deduce a "housing definition" appropriate to the needs of the country. The study of the housing needs includes the evaluation of the gap between the demand and the market supply of dwellings (and the related facilities) and the observed priorities of the people who lack the housing facilities. The study of the resources consists in the analysis of all aspects which relate to the problem of housing in the considered country. They include the following: 1. Financing (public: G.N.P. and housing budgets; and private: distribution of incomes and expenditures). 2. Technology (industrial equipment and knowhow, and structure of the supply market and communications networks). 3. Construction materials (local vs. imported). 4. Labour (skilled, unskilled and unemployed). 5. Land (location and cost, related to the housing needs). 6. Climatic conditions. The model shows how to evaluate these variables and relate them to each other to design a realistic housing approach for the considered country, including financing, planning and construction proposals. 1 The financial proposals consist of general strategies to best use the available public and private (often untapped) resources. Cooperative systems are discussed which can organize and guarantee the lowest income groups to allow for more users' participation. The planning proposals consist of optimized layouts and densities which minimize the overall utilities and construction costs while respecting the patterns of life and the participation of the considered people. The construction proposals consist of a building system adapted to the defined resources of the country, including incremental and self-help alternatives to take care of the extreme cases. The costs of the optimized alternatives are then estimated, and a parallel is drawn between the range of construction costs, the range of the available land costs, the range of income of the people needing the facilities and the government's housing budget to distribute consequently the required subsidies. The methodology is fully illustrated by a detailed case study of Lebanon. A range of detailed alternatives is proposed. They illustrate the rationale and flexibility of the described model.