Houses In Transformation

This book analyzes the reasons of spontaneous transformation in self-built houses in the context of developing countries. Recognizing Housing Transformation as a natural phenomenon, the book focuses on self-built houses in the city of Dhaka. Firstly, it explains the explicit reasons behind spontaneous housing transformations. Then the book carefully unveils the implicit values that are hidden behind those explicit reasons. The entire book is an ethnographic journey, which expresses unique stories behind houses in transformation.

How can homes be upgraded to meet today's demands - from living comfort to energy efficiency and digital requirements? How can the fusion of the historic and the new be used as a design element? The use of existing residential buildings scores not only with the charm of what has been handed down, be it a baroque villa, a 19th-century farmhouse, or a post-war bungalow, but actually also always with an excellent ecological balance. The extensive reworking, whether modernization, renovation or extension, is a widespread and thoroughly rewarding task for many architects. Since the initial situation is documented for each of the presented projects, the reader can clearly understand the redesign process.

This book describes and analyzes the phenomenon of spontaneous transformation in self-built houses in the context of developing countries. After describing briefly the history of self-built houses and the phenomenon of transformation around the world, it focuses on its context, the city of Dhaka. Firstly it describes the physical patterns of spontaneous transformation. Then it explains the explicit reasons behind those transformations. Finally, it carefully unveils the implicit values that are hidden behind those explicit reasons. The entire book is an ethnographic journey, which not only expresses unique stories of living with transformation, but also captivates the reader throughout with its compelling way of qualitative judgment.

The Chicago Housing Authority s Plan for Transformation repudiated the city s large-scale housing projects and the paradigm that produced them. The Plan seeks to normalize public housing and its tenants, eliminating physical, social, and economic barriers among populations that have long been segregated from one another. But is the Plan an ambitious example of urban regeneration or a not-so-veiled effort at gentrification? Is it resulting in integration or displacement? What kinds of communities are emerging from it? Chaskin and Joseph s book is the most thorough examination of the Plan to date. Drawing on five years of field research, in-depth interviews, and data, Chaskin and Joseph examine the actors, strategies, and processes involved in the Plan. Most important, they illuminate the Plan s limitations which has implications for urban regeneration strategies nationwide."

This collection aims to attract attention to the admirable achievements of indigenous builders in Indonesia and to contribute to a broader sense of commitment to the endangered architectural heritage in the region. It presents the second part of the results of a research project on vernacular architecture in western Indonesia, sponsored by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences. The volume is intended to provide an introduction to all relevant vernacular architectural traditions and developments in western Indonesia.

Managing a major remodel of your home involves learning various aspects of a construction project: permitting; hiring contractors; clarifying what you really mean and want; managing a budget; overseeing quality, avoiding regrets; doing what’s right for yourself and standing up for yourself. It’s a big job. The learning curve is high and often we homeowners don’t get to apply the skills we learned again. In this book, the stories of a couple going through this learning curve is told through the lens of a novice just like a conversation with a homeowner over a cup of tea. What they thought they wanted (a brand new house in modern minimalist style with solar panels and recycled materials) is very different than what they ended up with (remodel of a 90-year-old house in the classic Arts and Crafts style to meet the stringent international building standard called Passive House). What caused this shift? How did they choose the contractor? How did they navigate out of overwhelm of green building choices? How did they manage the relationships? What would they do differently? Was it worth it? This book chronicles the journey by a couple from choosing the location through living in the house after the renovation completion. It wasn’t all about finding smart people and following expert guidance. When expert opinions diverged and they got stuck in analysis paralysis they had to trust their judgment and chose what they felt was right for them. After all, they’ll be living in the house for years after the experts are gone. Reviews for MIDORI HAUS: "Chie Kawahara is a storyteller. Her book, Midori Haus, tells a compelling story in a conversational style about a couple who wanted to remodel an older home that would use as little energy as possible—and was comfortable and healthy to live in. Anyone who has an interest in green building—doing right for oneself and the planet—will find a friend in this book." -Jim Gunshinan, Editor, Home Energy Magazine “Midori Haus serves as a journey of adapting, learning, greening, nurturing, and caring for an old house by renewing the house to address current and future environmental challenges. The narrative is delightfully educational – the design process of achieving the passive house standard will be better understood through these stories and conversations.” -Alison G. Kwok, Ph.D., AIA, CPHC, University of Oregon "The international Passive House standard has gained a deserved reputation as the fastest growing building energy efficiency standard in the world. Unsurprisingly, publications about it have mostly been by and for industry professionals. Midori Haus represents an alternative, introducing readers to Passive House through the eyes of a homeowner undertaking a remodeling project. Chie Kawahara takes readers along on her journey of discovery and remodeling triumph. She makes the process understandable and accessible and readers are given practical tools they can use on their own Passive House projects. There's nothing like a good case study told by the people involved to bring abstract concepts to life. Midori Haus doesn't disappoint." -Elrond Burrell, Architect, CPHD, blogger "In this delightful book, Chie Kawahara describes the process she and her husband went through to purchase a 1920s bungalow and turn it into a state-of- the-art, healthy, green, Passive House. This account of their experiences is highly instructional for anyone considering buying and renovating a house, and it’s a wonderful read!" -Alex Wilson, Founder, BuildingGreen, Inc.

As China is transformed, relations between society, the state, and the city have become central. The Great Urban Transformation investigates what is happening in cities, the urban edges, and the rural fringe in order to explain these relations. In the inner city of major metropolitan centers, municipal governments battle high-ranking state agencies to secure land rents from redevelopment projects, while residents mobilize to assert property and residential rights. At the urban edge, as metropolitan governments seek to extend control over their rural hinterland through massive-scale development projects, villagers strategize to profit from the encroaching property market. At the rural fringe, township leaders become brokers of power and property between the state bureaucracy and villages, while large numbers of peasants are dispossessed, dispersed, and deterritorialized, and their mobilizational capacity is consequently undermined. The Great Urban Transformation explores these issues, and provides an integrated analysis of the city and the countryside, elite politics and grassroots activism, legal-economic and socio-political issues of property rights, and the role of the state and the market in the property market.

Home is simultaneously both a place-bounded anchor and a spatially open structure that changes over time. It is a meeting place of inhabitants, culture, past and present -- a multidimensional spatial and temporal intersection. Within the domestic space private and public, personal histories and shared cultural meanings overlap. This original and timely book moves in the tense area between home as a dynamic space with leaking boundaries and a stable, intimate, and secure shelter of one's own. Instead of trying to define what home is, the book explores home both as an idea and location in a variety of contexts. It examines the questions of home, inhabiting and belonging by focusing on home as historical, cultural, material, emotional, technological, gendered, and sexualised space. This book challenges the prevalent notion of home as a static shelter and emphasises home as a dynamic process. Home and its meanings are formed in the movement and daily use of space. As a dynamic process, home is not a container of social processes; it is a social process. By analysing a variety of phenomena from art to the Internet and everyday spaces from the late nineteenth-century to the early twenty-first-century the authors offer tools for the re-conceptualisation of home.