Building Better
Participatory Process in Urban Management
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Maria Da Graça S.A. Moreira, Jose Luis Crespo, Ana Rita Queirós
Participation processes, as instruments of participatory democracy, are increasingly being used to reinforce the weaknesses of representative democracy, especially in the current context of political mistrust and exponential rise in electoral abstention, usually implemented by top-down public agencies, or in "exceptional" situations by communities, inserted in the concept of "bottom up," with or without recourse to Universities as partners of civil society associations. Citizen movements are a form of manifestation of the society that aims to promote the defense of the interests of the group. With great importance at the local/municipal level, they have been gaining greater visibility and dynamism in recent years and allowed the creation of participatory programs by the municipalities. The analysis showed that in the participatory urban processes, the transition from collaborative planning to collective governance implies the need for the projects to work in the four dimensions of governance - Policy and Public Policies, Local-based Policies, Strategic and Urban Planning, and Organizational Management. Simultaneously, they contain actors that integrate the four typologies defined by Michael Hall - hierarchies, markets, networks and communities - that is, public administration, local economic agents, associations and citizens. The participatory budget (PB) can be considered as an informal example of urban management, with the direct participation of the population in determining priorities regarding the part of the municipal budget. This is a mechanism (or process) through which the population contributes to the decision making.
The Potential of Off-Site Prefabrication to Enhance Low Income Housing Delivery
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Chris Allen, John Smallwood, Brandon Murray Cunningham
South Africa is experiencing a major backlog with respect to the delivery of low-income housing. With a constantly changing environment, and an increasing population and urban migration rates, a degree of transformation needs to be considered. The country needs to produce better quality housing at a quicker rate, and the possibility of achieving this through the current methodology, which happens to be traditional masonry construction, is slim. It is, therefore, important to research and investigate workable solutions through alternative methods of construction and building technologies that are gradually making inroads, with specific focus on off-site prefabrication and on-site assembly. Research found that these off-site methods are suitable to South Africa, and that the prefabricated market has the skills and capacity to deliver, with the possibility of this method being cost competitive in terms of traditional masonry construction. The research followed a qualitative phenomenological approach, whereby a set of semi-structured interviews were used to collect the responses of key stakeholders, which were then analysed accordingly. The platforms to further knowledge and skills development in the construction industry should be drawn from other sectors, and the change implemented needs to take government objectives and socio-economic considerations into account, ensuring the new methods get the necessary acceptance from all involved.
Designing an Interactive and Energy Efficient Building Facade for Tiny Houses Using Photo Voltaic Panels
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Reza Foroughi
Most of the heat gain and loss occur through the building facade as it separates outdoor from indoor condition. Adapting with nature is one of the sustainable and effective strategies in order to reduce building energy consumption. As the sun angle changes over time and differs in various latitudes, designing an interactive building facade, capable of adapting itself with outdoor condition, will improve the efficiency of indoor condition and save a significant amount of energy. Identifying the trade-off between heating and cooling loads and lighting energy use is always challenging especially for the buildings with small facades such as tiny houses. In this study, an interactive building facade was designed for tiny houses in order to adapt with the sun angle. A simulation-based optimization method was applied to achieve the goal. In this process, an optimization code was developed in Microsoft Visual Studio and coupled with EnergyPlus (i.e., energy simulation) software to identify the trade-off between Energy loads of a tiny house. The interactive facade using movable Photo Voltaic (PV) panels was designed in DesignBuilder software (i.e., a graphical interface for EnergyPlus software) to identify the optimum position of movable panels. Finally, the amount of energy saved was calculated and compared with the baseline model to show the efficiency of the proposed interactive facade.
