Bahirdar University

Department Of Architecture
Low Cost
Adaptability and Affordability
Of Housing

To: Dawud Abdi

BY: DEGAREGE TSEGAW

DATE: May, 04, 2018

Defining Adaptable
Adaptable describes something capable of being or becoming fit (as for a new use) often by
modification. Scholars have proposed many different definitions of what the term ‘adaptable
housing’. Avi Friedman suggests that ‘providing occupants with forms and means that facilitate a
fit between the space needs and the constraints of their homes either before or after occupancy’
(Freidman, 2002) is one interpretation of adaptability. By including ‘either before or after
occupancy’ in the definition, Friedman’s definition encompasses housing adapted for occupants’
original needs, but does not require that housing to be adaptable for future needs.

Friedman’s definition of adaptability is widely contested for this reason. For example, in the
Adaptable Futures project, Schmidt and colleagues identify four characteristics that must be
included in the definition: “capacity for change, ability to remain ‘fit’ for purpose, maximizing
value, and time (speed of change and through life changes).” As their working definition of
adaptability, Adaptable Futures generated ‘the capacity of a building to accommodate effectively
the evolving demands of its context, thus maximizing value through life’ (Schmidt et al., 2010).
Although Friedman’s definition of adaptable would include some buildings that Schmidt and
colleagues would not classify as adaptable (in the long term), these definitions are similar in that
they both describe buildings that fit or accommodate the context of that building at some point
in time.
The term flexible further complicates interpretations of the term adaptable. Schneider & Till
define flexible housing as ‘housing that can adjust to changing needs (personal, practical or
technological) and patterns (demographic, economic, or environmental), both social and
technological’ (Schneider & Till, 2007).

Defining Affordable
Although the typical definition of affordable housing varies from one jurisdiction to another,
affordable housing is generally defined as housing for which an occupant pays no more than 30%
of his or her income for gross housing expenses such as rent and utilities. Therefore, the
population of those eligible to live in affordable housing units is diverse: no specific market and
no specific demographic comes close to encompassing all who live in these units. Due to this
subjectivity a clear definition of affordable housing is difficult to pin down. In an attempt to take
an objective approach to the issue, various metrics have been utilized to assess affordability.
Income is the main factor that determines whether or not housing is affordable, which means
that ‘affordable’ has a different interpretation for every individual regardless of the relative
intrinsic flexibility or adaptability of housing. Although no consensus exists on how exactly to
measure housing affordability, most [government officials, researchers, property managers etc.]
gauge affordability based on housing expenditure-to income ratios (Cars well, 2012). Housing
expenditures include the cost of rent plus the total cost of utilities (gas, oil, electricity, other fuel,
water, and trash collection) (Vandenbrouke, 2011). According to this measure, affordability is
defined as housing that does not exceed more can 30 per cent of the occupants’ income. David
Hubchanski argues that while the 30 percent rule is a reliable quantitative indicator in housing
research and administration, it is an invalid and misleading measurement for defining housing
need (to inform public policy), predicting ability to pay for housing rent or mortgage, and as
selection criteria in decisions to rent or to provide mortgages (Carswell, 2012). Although the
conventional 30 percent rule is imperfect, as Hubchanski revealed, most literature, and HUD,
continue to use this measurement.

Walker Wells reiterates the practical significance of this measure in his Definition of affordable
housing:
 “Affordable housing includes rental, for-sale, co-, and transitional housing that is income
restricted and usually developed through one or more forms of public subsidy. Affordability is
achieved by setting the monthly rent or mortgage payment in accordance with the resident’s
income (no more than 30 percent of their gross income), rather than at market rates (Wells
2010).”

Adaptability and flexibility are modern architectural design criteria to create spaces, which are
competent to meet changeable needs of the occupants. They became key words of formulating
new housing productions systems, shifting from providing to enabling paradigm. “As our
environment changes and individual requirements and aspirations develop, the need for adaptable
architecture is ever more current" (Holdham, 2008).

These concepts were adopted as new trends to produce affordable houses for poor people,
after the failure of standard rigid units of mass housing to solve housing problem in both
developed and developing countries.

Problem - Mass housing projects depend on huge state investment in building industries to
implement those massive finished housing units in a short time. These projects failed to cope up
with the dynamic change of users' needs. They didn't reflect any sustainable development due to
the following problematic issues:

 Socially-They don’t reflect or maintain local socio-culture values.

 Environmentally– The local environmental conditions have been neglected in their design
and planning.
 Economically-They deteriorate rapidly and need high maintenance cost.
 Esthetically-Their appearances are monotonous and they are exposed mostly to informal
transformation or vandalism.
 Affordability – They don’t cover the deficit of housing demands for poor people.

Defining adaptability
Looking backwards, the etymology of the word adapt can be traced to early 14th century Latin,
aptus, meaning “suited, fitted” to adaptare meaning “to join”, through Middle French as adapter,
to its English roots in 1610 to mean “to fit something for some purpose” (Harper 2001). Current
definitions have changed subtlety, “to make suitable to requirements or conditions; adjust or
modify fittingly” (Random House 2010). Adaptability then is concerned with the capacity to be
adjusted to suit new situations. One could assume that is simple and straight forward enough,
but through literature and conversation one finds dozens of interpretations of what adaptability
means embodying the very plasticity it looks to describe. Depending upon its application and
context, even within the built environment, one finds a wide range of subjective permutations.
Within the architectural literature, for example, a high-level characterization can be made.

Adaptability can mean:

 Accessibility - to describe making spaces accessible for all concerning stages of life and
various special physical conditions (Lifetime Homes 2009).
  Open Plan - to symbolize a universal floor plan or open office which allows a company the
capacity to subdivide a space based on its needs (Gelis 2000).
 Building Responsiveness - to describe an interactive building via real-time changes
through the use of kinetic systems in response to environmental changes through
variable mobility, location, and/or geometry (Bullivant 2005, Hoberman et al 2009).
 Performance-based buildings - to describe the performance aspects of a building related
to functionality and maintaining fit purpose over time concerning issues of planning,
programming, and people (Slaughter 2001, Blakstad 2001).

Adaptable Housing
BC Building Code
Built to support people whose mobility becomes (or is) limited due to age, disability or illness,
allowing them to live independently in their own home.

• Building access, corridors

• Suite doors and doorways
• Bathrooms
• Kitchen
• Outlets/Switches/Other Controls
• Patios and Balconies

The focus of Flex Housing project is to allow people to adapt their houses according to their
needs easily and economically. In addition, increases the lifetime of houses. Flex Housing was
originally based on four basic principles of flexible design:

1. Adaptability,
2. Accessibility,
3. Affordability and
4. Occupant Health

Adaptable housing clearly has a very interestingly intertwined history with affordable housing.
Adaptable architecture first originated as a necessary solution to make affordable housing
functional and livable, but it was also fetishized as form of minimalist modernism. Later,
architects including Gropius and Le Corbusier saw emerging production technologies and
thought these could be used to design customizable and continually adaptable housing that
would be affordable to the masses. What resulted instead were easily affordable, prefabricated
housing elements with a planned obsolescence. Finally, by the time Habraken was advocating for
open building, adaptability had been so far removed from affordable housing that it would have
been extremely difficult to build subsidized housing using open building practices. Although open
building argued for user participation, the user still had to be able to afford to participate. It is
important to note that the three drivers discussed in this section (housing demand & limited
space standards, new methods of construction, and user participation) still exist today at the
forefront of the contemporary housing agenda (Schneider & Till, 2007).