Lesson Three

Cultural Belief in Housing

What is Culture?
In its broadest sense, culture may be defined as:
A way of life, a design for living
Shared pattern of behavior and meaning of expectations and responses
Shared system of vital ideas about the world

Filipino space consists of main multi-functional space necessarily relating with

a lot of extension spaces round it.
Father Bobby Rodrigo Perez III Filipino space is organized as a space
surrounding a space as an excellent treatment of Filipino architecture.
Fernando Zialcita - We have a distinct architecture with a distinct special
system. It is neither Spanish nor Antillean. It is Filipino.
Dr. William Henry Scott - an episcopal, wrote a powerful article, Cordillera
Architecture of Northern Luzon 1962, represents along with accurate
structural description of the section of the houses.
In all those houses, one saw a small space enclosed by a bigger volume
around it.
Felipe de Leon Humanities Department in UP; Talked about the space and
aesthetics of the Filipino Houses: transparency, flexibility, layering, organic,
free, openness, artistic, eastern, harmony with nature and multifunctional.

Bukas ang kalooban, not private

Windows all around ancestral houses
Aliwalas, airy, spacious and openness of interiors
Space surrounds space
High value placed on being natural, informal, and personal.
My space is your space
Open House: In most Western cultures, guests are allowed to move around
only within the confines of the living room. In Filipino Culture, guests may
roam anywhere inside or outside the house, even in the bedrooms.
Feel at Home: How long can your relative or close friend temporarily stay
in your house?
Cultural Trends
Filipinos rank first in religiosity and spirituality.
Maka-Diyos and maka-kalikasan are closely woven together in the
Filipinos concern for the environment.
These include: openness, freedom of expression, gender sensitivity, facility at
conflict resolution, resilience, flexibility, highly personalized approach at
relationships, strong family orientation, bayanihan spirit and passion for
creative expression (as in arts).

The Filipino Cultural Psyche

1. Bayanihan: the creation of alliances with neighbors and the helping attitude
whenever one is in dire need.
2. Close Familial Ties: Filipinos tend to uphold close family ties.
3. Pakikisama: Pakikisama or harmony, involves getting along with others to
maintain a harmonious relationship.
4. Hiya: shame and is a motivating factor behind behavior. It is a sense of social
propriety and conforming to society norms of behavior.
5. Utang na Loob: Utang na Loob or Debt of Gratitude is owed by one to a
person who has helped him through the trials he had undergone.
Amor Propio: Concern for self-image
Delicadeza: Sense of discretion
Palabra de Honor: Word of Honor
Perception of Filipino Space
Guidelines for shaping New Filipino Communities (Ponce) discusses Filipino
sense of community and Spatial culture where it list the traditional Filipino
neighborhood tended to have this features applied to her proposal guideline.
Meaning of Place
Place Identity how people incorporate a place into the larger concept of
their own identities or senses of self.
Sense of Place a level of comfort and feelings of safety are associated
with a place.
Place Attachments a persons bond with the social and physical
environments of a place.

Lesson Four

Behavioral Aspects of Housing

Theories on Housing
Residents Satisfaction
An indication of peoples response to the environment they live in.
Environment is not only the physical setting but also the social and
economic dimensions of such settings.
Basic Needs Approach to Development
(Barileche 1976 Galtong, 1977)
Basic Material Needs
1. Food (Nutrition)
2. Clothing
3. Water
4. Sanitation
5. Health Care
6. Shelter and sleep
7. Income / Employment
8. Sex and Procreation
9. Recreation
10.Education
11.Electricity
12.Transportation
13.Communication
Basic Human Needs
1. Freedom
2. Security
3. Identity
4. Well-being
5. Common with Nature
- Ecological Balance
Minimum Basic Needs [MBN, PHIL.]

Survival

Security

Health
Food and
Nutrition
H2O and
Sanitation

Shelter
Peace and Order

Infant Mortality
Malnutrition
Access to safe
water
Access Sanitary
Toilet
Households with
Squatters
Households with
Makeshift
Housing

Enabling

Income
Employment
Education

Poverty Threshold
Food Threshold
3 meals a day
Unemployment Rate
Elementary School
Patricipation
High School
Participation

Mascows Hierarchy of Needs

Theorists say that behavior of people at a given point of time is prompted by their
needs.
1. Self-Actualization Improvement of ones self
2. Self-esteem Source of pride, reflection of economic standing
3. Social Needs Sense of belonging
4. Safety Protection from the violence/lawlessness
5. Physiological Needs Protection from natural elements
Interactional Approach to Housing Satisfaction
Interaction among family members is necessary before they know of
satisfaction/dissatisfaction.
Situation a set of values and attitudes in a process activity.
Consensus about the level of satisfaction depends on:
Relative power of the family members
Family structure
Dominance
Post-Occupancy Evaluation
To measure occupants behavior and their relations to the surrounding environment
70s Post-occupancy evaluations were carried out
80s Decline as housing policies changed (privatization)
- Systematic post-occupation evaluation studies started
90s Adoption of these studies by developing countries

The Major Concerns of P.O.E are to evaluate the occupiers views on:
Privacy
Security
Use of internal and external space
Building image
Satisfaction level
Personalization of space of their houses and housing areas

Major Findings of P.O.E.

Find expression and control to their own home environment
Provide adequate degree of security and privacy
Provide rich and varied physical settings for various ages
Image created by the environment
- Important consideration for the occupants

Lesson Five
Housing Typologies
Typology
Within a given field, the systematic classification of types according to their
characteristics
House Types
The type of house that one lives in reflects a lot about the occupant
Reflect the occupants personality, socio-economic status or means of
livelihood

The Wide Array of Housing Typologies that characterizes human settlements around
the world are categorized according to:
1. Scale
2. Structural Shell
3. Materials
4. Ratio to Land/Density
5. Mode of Occupancy
6. Layout/Relationship to open spaces
7. Prices
8. Interior Spaces
9. Dominant or Sub-uses
Types of Housing
Single-Detached, stick-built
Row Houses (Socialized Housing)
Modular Homes Duplex, Triplex, Quadriplex
Apartment Complex
Townhouses (Medium-Rise)
High Rise Condominium
Manufactured Housing Pre-fabricated
Mobile Housing (Trailer Vans)
Converted-use Property
Cooperative Housing Time-share
Typologies of Houses Tested for Design Solution
Single Detached a house surrounded by open space, having no common
walls with one another
Single Attached Usually homes that have one common wall with another
home maybe as small as a few feet in common, they have legal standing of a
single family home with a separate lot, etc.
Duplex a two family house generally with two floors, a complete dwelling
unit on each floor and a separate entrance to each.
Row House a dwelling unit that is part of a row or set of houses built in the
same style and sharing one or more sidewalls with the adjacent houses
Medium-Rise a building having roughly between 5 and 10 floors, generally
equipped with elevators.
Condominiums a type of real estate ownership within a multifamily
dwelling, in which each proprietor owns 100% of his private apartment and a
share of the public facilities such as corridors, lobbies, garden, plumbing
installation, etc.
Apartment Housing a building consisting of compact temporary dwelling
units that share public areas like stairs, elevators, corridors, lobbies, and
sometimes dining rooms.
Townhouse a comfortable-luxurious dwelling in an urban environment.

Manufactures or Prefabricated House a house assembled from

components cut to size at a factory or assembled from building modules
shipped to the construction site
Mobile Housing a movable or portable dwelling built on a chassis,
connected to utilities, designed without permanent foundation, and intended
for year-around living.
Semi-Commercial
Semi-Industrial
Semi-Institutional
Subdivisions a tract of land divided into residential lots
Courtyard Housing a distinct medium density multi-family housing
typology centered around a shared outdoor open space or garden and
surrounded by one or two stories of apartment units typically only accessed
by courtyard from the street (and not by an interior corridor).
Cluster subdivision technique in which detached dwellings are grouped
relatively close together, leaving open spaces as common areas.
Adaptive Reuse is the process of adapting old structures for purposes
other than those initially intended.

Filipino Designs for mass housing are unimaginable.

Sites-And-Services
Are provision of plot of land, either on ownership or land lease tenure, along
with a bare minimum of essential infrastructure needed for habitation
Urban Renewal
Project is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high
density urban land use.
Urban Planning and Renewal, needed to improve the living standards of
people in Metro Manila
Urban Planning
Is a means of directing the citys physical social growth to provide a more
healthy, pleasant and prosperous environment
New Urbanism
Urban design movement
Housing Needs
The House as a Response
A house is well-designed if it caters to the users needs
Concept of need varies
Identifying needs leads to a blurred concept of a responsive house
The Concept of Fit
Behavior Settings: a stable combination of activity and place consist of

Recurrent Activity a standing pattern of behavior

Particular Layout of the Environment Milieu
Congruent relationship between the two
Specific time period

Theories on Needs
Theories relative to human needs and wants
Served as the foundations upon which design responses have been
developed.
Un-addressed needs
Cases of unsold and unoccupied housing units, abandoned resettlement sites,
high turnover rates, illegal alterations/expansions