Browsing by Author "Khin Lin Nwe"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1

Open Access
Deficiency analysis and recommendations for improvement of housing in Yangon
(2012) Khin Lin Nwe; Reuter, Wolf (Prof. Dr.-Ing)
The main intention of this research is to provide a basis for improved solutions for the future development of housing in Yangon, Myanmar. Yangon has expanded from 348 km2 in 1985 to 599 km2 in 2003. Due to the development of new satellite towns after 1988, the government and private sectors tried to supply housing by various strategies. However, there appeared weaknesses with respect to functional, social, cultural and climatic aspects in the design and planning, especially in the low and middle class apartments in Yangon. Analyzing these weaknesses is the precondition to develop recommendations for a better design and planning. In order to develop the recommendations on a scientific basis, the research deals with four main questions: 1) What are the special conditions of housing in Yangon? 2) What is the method to detect deficiencies? 3) What are the deficiencies of housing in Yangon? 4) Is there a potential input by German experiences and problem solutions for better planning in Yangon? Concerning the first question, the historical development of housing projects and supply strategies are shown. In order to substantiate the special conditions in Yangon, the main functional, social, cultural, economic and climatic factors which influence housing are reported. Regarding the functional aspect a result is that there happened a transformation of the spatial arrangement in rural area houses to that of urban apartments, but holding some characteristics at the same time. As factors of the social conditions, average household size, age distribution, in and out migration rates, social relations inside families and with neighbors as well as the way of people’s living style, habits and their behaviors are presented. With respect to the cultural conditions, the traditional beliefs concerning constructing the house give important hints to understand the spatial arrangement in Myanmar residential architecture. Examining the cost factors in relation to Plinth Area Estimate (PAE) rate, the costs with respect to room dimensions, to the numbers of storey, and the form of the apartment influence the economic aspect. Climatic conditions with relevance to architecture such as the amount of sun shine, sun angles, rainfall, temperature, relative humidity and wind velocity are presented. The method to detect deficiencies in an ordered and transparent way uses an aspect tree. The main aspects, by which judgments on certain objects or features of objects are made, are divided in sub aspects and sub sub aspects. The whole tree is thought to map the important performances of the selected apartments and buildings. The deficiency analysis is focused on the four performances: functional, social, cultural and indoor environmental quality. The selection of cases was done by five defining factors: location, time, financial organization, types of housing compound and building. The examination of the adequacy of functional areas by four main areas: communication and access area, public area, private area, and cooking and supplying area indicates some deficiency of the order of functional areas. The analysis of the area sufficiency using the comparison of occupancy rate, examined by average household size, with the standards of international institutions’ results in the inadequacy of areas in some selected cases. The investigation of the social performance looks for the suitability of available spaces for social activities. The examination was carried out at hand of the questions: which activities are mostly done at which space and whether there is enough space for these activities. Main deficiency has been detected that there is not enough and no adequate space for the social communication of residents as well as with neighbors. Examining the cultural aspects, which strongly influence the spatial composition of apartments, the result was found out that there is only poor space for praying, deposing shoes, and donating activities. The indoor environmental quality is inspected by two aspects, natural ventilation and natural lighting. The analysis of various aspects such as air flow system, ratio between opening and floor area, room depth as well as orientation of building shows various weaknesses of the indoor environmental quality in most of the selected apartments. To deal with the last question, some comparable projects of German housing after the First World War are considered. They have been selected by their similarity concerning urgent housing demand for poor and low middle class people in Germany at that time. Some of the transferable problem solving tools for minimizing space has been: to supply double used space by sliding doors, to provide foldable beds, as well as to plan long outside corridors with common stairways for social communication. The deficiency analyses and solutions of German cases enable it to access improvements of design and planning of housing. They are presented in form of recommendations and schematic proposals. Thereby a rich repertoire of improvements is offered. The advantages and disadvantages of the proposals are named. Single recommendations and proposals concerning a certain aspect (e.g. the functional one) can improve that aspect, but at the same time can come into conflict with a solution of another sub system (e.g. the cultural one). Therefore a decision is to be made by taking into account the special situation and special users’ needs. Finally it is concluded, that a general recommended step is the linkage between users’ needs and design. The negotiation between users, developers and designers is an important issue to achieve a better quality of future housing in Yangon.