Energy efficiency in residences—Challenges for women and men in the North

In a Northern country such as Sweden, energy use in the home may be reduced by 20% through changes in behaviour. However, little is known about how households respond to policy instruments encouraging such change or to what degree this in turn may affect the workload of women and men in such communities. The current study presents findings from interviews with 30 households in Sweden that participated in intervention measures aimed at reducing energy use in the home and explores how the sexes divided the new household chores and their opinions regarding these. The empirical findings are analysed against a theoretical framework of behavioural change. Results from the interviews indicate that lower indoor temperature and fewer hot baths had a greater impact on women than on men. When electricity charges varied, the workload of women increased as they washed clothes and dishes at night and at weekends when electricity was cheaper. Women also refrained from using clothes’ driers resulting in more time spent completing this chore. Based on these results we argue that a gender perspective in future intervention programmes in Northern communities may be useful as residential energy conservation in its present form affects the timing and types of household chores with resulting increased workload for women. How energy policy should change requires further analysis.     

Redevelopment of public housing estates: The Australian experience

This paper provides an overview of some key aspects of the different contemporary approaches being utilised across the Australian States to redevelop public housing estates. Questions are raised about the effects of the projects on existing and future tenants, both in terms of the strategies used to address particular concentrations of disadvantage on the estates and the success in maintaining the current and future supply of public housing stock. In addition, the study points to the need for further evaluation of the approaches used in redevelopment, as currently little is known about the success or otherwise of the projects.     

Review of Standard Practice for Wind‐Resistant Manufactured Housing

Manufactured homes are popular as single family dwellings because of their low cost per square foot (square meter) relative to conventional housing. Despite their popularity, there is concern for the significant wind losses reported each year, not to mention the accompanying injuries and deaths. Wind damage is primarily in the form of roof loss and tiedown∕foundation failures. Initiation of roof loss or tiedown∕foundation failure sometimes leads to sudden and total destruction of a manufactured home. Federally enforced wind‐load design criteria need to be reevaluated, but changes in construction practices to provide redundancy and ductility in the load‐resisting structural system will be more effective in improving the performance of housing in high winds. The use of ground anchors in the tiedown∕foundation system must be abandoned in favor of permanent foundations similar to those used in conventional housing construction. Permanent foundations are somewhat more expensive than the tiedown∕foundation system currently in use, but the effects of additional costs can be minimized with longterm financing.     

The Planning System and the Provision of Affordable Housing in Rural Britain: A Comparison of the Scottish and English Experience

This paper compares recent experience in the use of the planning system to facilitate the provision of affordable housing in rural areas of Scotland and England. Following an introduction summarising key issues arising from the relevant literature, the paper first sets out the scale of need for rural affordable housing in the two countries and then summarises the differing planning policy frameworks. Scale of delivery is then addressed and an attempt is made to establish the extent to which differences in performance reflect variations in policy, delivery mechanisms or differing housing markets. The hypothesis is advanced that Scotland, although a more rural country, has made less use of planning policy to tackle issues relating to the need for rural social housing. In both countries scale of provision has lagged behind perceived need and a major reason for this would appear to be the tensions in planning policy between environmental and social sustainability objectives, with the scales so far weighted towards the environmental rather than the social imperative.     

需求信息更新下缺货成本共担的易逝品供应链协调研究

考虑在销售期初对市场需求进行更新的单制造商和单零售商组成的易逝品两级供应链系统,在缺货情形下仅允许零售商一次订货,且制造商采取两阶段生产并与零售商共同分担缺货成本。分析了缺货成本共担水平对供应链的影响,并用算例对结果进行了验证。研究表明,缺货成本共担水平与零售商订货量成正相关关系,与零售商利润成反相关关系;通过引入期权契约,供应链得到帕累托改进。     

Gentrifiers Settling Down? Patterns and Trends of Residential Location of Middle-Class Families in Amsterdam

Based on data for Amsterdam, the Netherlands, this paper presents new evidence of a strong increase in the number of middle-class families in the city. By presenting the spatial patterns and trends of middle-class families in selected Amsterdam neighbourhoods, the paper shows that central neighbourhoods in particular attract middle-class families. In addition, new-build areas, both central and peripheral, offer a residential environment for middle-class families as a compromise between inner city and suburb. This paper links these patterns and trends with gentrification literature. Middle-class family neighbourhoods are classified in a typology that perceives neighbourhoods as fields that are accessed by means of capital, and operate as a stage for the accumulation of various forms of capital, which are associated with various habituses of the middle class.     

Housing Wealth and Housing Decisions in Old Age: Sale and Reversion

Population ageing brings new challenges to long-term household economic decisions. In the event of old-age dependency, housing assets become a key self-insurance device. However, little empirical evidence has been reported regarding an individual's expectations of having to use their housing wealth for such a purpose. This paper draws upon two complementary data sources to empirically examine: (1) the influence of housing assets on an individual's willingness-to-sell (WTS) their dwelling for care purposes, and (2) the willingness to take out a reverse mortgage contract loan in the event of old-age dependency. The paper's findings suggest that homeowners' WTS in old age is unaffected by their income or housing assets and is, rather, determined by socio-environmental housing characteristics and the individual's health and personal needs. Conversely, the study finds that the uptake of home reversion loans is largely dependent on income or education, but not on a household's housing assets.     

Crossflex: Concept and early development of a true building integrated wind turbine

This paper describes the concept development and work to date, of an innovative ‘true’ building integrated wind turbine. The context for this is the role of small-scale renewable energy in addressing climate change. In the UK a number of small wind turbines have reached the market, however, in almost all cases, these are existing HAWT or VAWT tower mounted systems. Due to their inherent design qualities, and issues such as planning requirements, these have much reduced output due to their form and siting and are unable to take advantage of augmented airflow around buildings.The Crossflex proposal is a radical new development of a Darrieus turbine form. As well as having a technically innovative flexible blade system, it also utilises a lightweight cowling system that can provide both augmented airflow and improved visual integration into new and existing building forms. It is a modular form that can be sited on ridges and corners of buildings to provide useful levels of generation.     

Internal housing space standards in Italy and England

This monograph reports on a study comparing the regulation of internal housing space in Italy – since the introduction of broad, generic standards in 1975 – and in England, where there are no universal rules governing internal space. After tracing the evolution of standards in both countries from public health legislation in the late 19th century to specific building and urban codes in Italy today, and a range of standards applied to some social housing in England, it outlines the space characteristics of homes in the two countries, before drawing on a series on interviews with key built environment professionals in the cities of Turin and Manchester, to unpack the ‘conditions’ of space standard regulation in both countries. The purpose of the study has been to explore the politics, practicalities, acceptability and impact of internal space regulation in Italy and England, and to ask why regulatory standards in Italy seem more palatable than they are in England and Wales: the only remaining part of the EU where legal minimum space standard for residential development remain absent. Discussion also centres on how regulatory approaches to delivering housing quality compare with approaches based on local negotiation through planning, and how these are situated in the context of different market drivers, lending and planning cultures. Moving to a regulatory approach in England (with fixed space standards) may be problematic given that such a move would not address the market fundamentals – speculative production and investment consumption – that, alongside land supply constraints, determine the amount of space in homes. In this context, a more effective strategy might be to expose home buyers to more information on internal space, thus influencing market behaviour and thereafter, the types of homes built to supply future demand.