Introduction to housing

Introduction to housing
House is a building that provides shelter, comfort, and protection. Shelter protects man
from wind and rain, and from hot and cold weather. It shields him against insects and wild
animals, and helps protect him from other dangers.

Why housing matters,

the concerns and challenges related to affordable and quality housing.

housing requirement in Sri Lanka is estimated to be around 4.95M where as the existing housing stock is nearly 4.35
M. There is a gap of approximately 600,000 units. (Source: Department of National Planning, Ministry of Finance &
Planning, 2006). In Sri Lanka only 8.1 million included to labor force out of 21 million total populations. Although this
8.1 million people earn income it is not enough to live in good wealthy according to living expenditure in country.
According to Sri Lanka Central Bank annual report, savings rate, % of Household Income in 2006/2007 is 11.1%. Its
mean country labor force also is suffered from better housing problem.
SETTLEMENT HIERARCHY
Megalopolis: A group of conurbations, consisting of more than ten million people each.
Conurbation: A group of large cities and their suburbs, consisting of three to ten million people.
Metropolis: A large city and its suburbs consisting of multiple cities and towns. The population is usually
one to three million.
Large city: A city with a large population and many services. The population is <1 million people but over
300,000 people.
City: A city would have abundant services, but not as many as a large city. The population of a city is over
100,000 people up to 300,000.
Large town: A large town has a population of 20,000 to 100,000.
Town: A town has a population of 1,000 to 20,000.
Village: A village generally does not have many services, possibly only a small corner shop or post office.
A village has a population of 100 to 1,000.
Hamlet: A hamlet has a tiny population (<100) and very few (if any) services, and few buildings.
Isolated dwelling: An isolated dwelling would only have 1 or 2 buildings or families in it. It would have
negligible services, if any.
Factors Affecting Demand and Supply for Housing

•Affordability
With increasing income, many people have been able to afford and spend certain amount on
houses. Demand for housing has always risen during times of economic growth. Demand for
housing has been a luxury good for many years and rise in income has caused vast rise in demand.

• Interest rates
Interest rates help determine the cost of housing or mortgage interest settlements. An increase
in interest rates to a certain percentage will lead to a decline in demand for housing. Low interest
rates have invariably spurred more people to buy homes.

•Population
Demographic changes have influenced the number of people buying homes. A large growing
numbers of people living alone have pushed the demand for more houses higher.
Factors Affecting Demand and Supply for Housing

•Government regulations and policies

Government rules and legislation can impact the supply and demand of housing in a number
of ways. Firm regulations for planning approval of new house building may discourage
investors. Better and relaxed housing policies will encourage building and related services.

•Unemployment and economic growth

Falling unemployment and higher economic growth have all led to an increase in demand and
supply of houses. On the other hand, rise in unemployment have made it hard for people to
access houses or mortgages or enter the property market.
Factors such as consumer confidence, mortgage availability, cost of renting and rate of inflation
have all impacted demand and supply of housing in one way or another. Housing market
represents the biggest single purchase and largest part of individual wealth. Interestingly,
changes in house prices have considerable effects on the rest of countries economy. Hence, it
is wise to make exceptional decisions while planning on housing investment.
Key issues in urban settlements

• Inadequacy of guidelines on settlement planning at national and regional levels

• Shortage of suitable land for residential purposes in urban areas
• Rapid escalation of land values in major cities and suburbs
• Blocking out and selling of lands by private developers without proper utilities and
infrastructure
• Difficulties of access to affordable housing for the urban floating population and worker
communities
• Poor maintenance of urban housing schemes by inhabitants, which burdens the government
for their maintenance
• Regular price increases of, and lack of standards in, building materials
• Inadequate planning and space left for conserving or increasing the tree canopy along roads
and village gardens
Why housing matters
•Land tenure related:
•Occupying in risky places:
•Landlessness
•Occupying in very small plots: There are lots of houses put up in plots of land less than recommended or
appropriate size for habitable living. (Ministry of Urban Development, Construction and Public Utilities,
1998).

•Land price: Land price is obviously a major barrier that poor people cannot over come easily in the city.
Evolution of housing
Man as Nomad and Cave Dweller (Up to 10,000 B. C.)

• Earth estimated to be formed about 4 billion years ago

• Homo Sapiens (the one existing species of man) believe to date from about
500,000 B. C.
• Earliest man did not settle anywhere as they wandered around in search of food
• Did not know how to construct buildings so lived in the open
• Occasionally took shelter on top of trees to protect themselves from wild animals

The first shelters

Towards Settled Habitation (Up to 10,000 B. C. - 5,000 B. C.)

• Man learned to practice cultivation

• Could stay at one place and produce food
• Began to settle down near the fields cultivated by them
• Choose fertile lands and where water was available in plenty
• Learned to build huts and mud houses
• Some of the earliest settlements began to take shape
• Settlements then consisted of groups of houses built by the side of agricultural fields, a
shrine and a burial ground.
• Some inhabitants continued to live in caves and wander around for hunting animals - more
as a pastime rather than as a necessity
The Common Habitat and Beginning of Civilization

• Inhabitants organized as a community under a recognized leader

• Began to get the first lessons of civilized living
• Started learning to provide for themselves the three basic necessities of life
- food, clothing and shelter

Beginning of permanent settlement

• Assured food supply through agriculture encouraged man to

permanently settle by the side of the fields he cultivated
• Compact settlement since agriculture could support up to 35
persons per sq. km as compared to 15 persons per sq. km
applicable to hunting and food gathering societies
Favorable Locations for Settlements

• Favorable environment for human existence and survival

• Climate not very harsh
• Epidemics not frequent
• Land fertile
• Good quality of water available in plenty
• River Valleys as popular places for settled habitation
Why River Valleys

• Land was fertile, water and food (fishes and prongs) extracted from rivers, and soft clay good
for constructing huts
• River also used later as means of transportation
• First settlements in the river valleys of India, China, Egypt, and areas known as the Fertile
Crescent (modern Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Israel)

Other Factors Considered for Siting Settlements

• Took care to locate on higher ground for better drainage, protection from floods and reasons
of security
• Spacing between settlements to leave space for future expansion
Ancient Egypt
The earliest inhabitants of Egypt lived in huts made from papyrus reeds. However, it was
soon discovered that the mud left behind after the annual flooding of the Nile (inundation)
could be made into bricks which could be used for building. Bricks were made by mixing mud
and straw and leaving them to dry in the sun.

The houses of the poorest people used one row of bricks while those that were not so poor
used two or three rows. Although mud brick houses were relatively cheap to make, they
were not very strong and began to crumble after a few years. The houses of the richest
people were stronger because they could afford to build their home from stone.
Ancient Mesopotamia

At the center of each city-state was a temple

surrounded by courts and public buildings. Radiating
from the all-important city center were the two-story
houses of the priests and merchants, or the upper
ity-state also included the fertile farming landclass.
Residential areas were connected by a network of
streets and alleys.

Materials : Ancient Mesopotamian houses were

constructed from materials still used until today.
Walls were made of sun-dried mud bricks, whose
shapes and sizes changed over time. Clay and
chopped straw were put into molds
The second story is also thought to have been the
area that the family occupied, leaving the ground
floor as an area for public or social activities.
Ancient Greek

All domestic architecture, later investigators will

discover, falls into two great categories—of the
northern house and the southern house.
Types of Housing
Basis of location
Urban Sector housing
Estate Sector housing
Rural Sector housing
Based on principle material Used
permanent
semi-permanent
Improvised types

Based on type of Structure

Single House
Attached Houses/Annex
Flats
Row Housing/ Line Housing
Huts/ Shanties
Process of Housing

A.K. Jain explains this as

"the shelter is not an end product or a standardized commodity. It's a complex process
including mental and physical , individual and community aspects and social and historical
activities."

• Psychological variables

• Physical variables

• Social variables

• Cultural Variable
 During the Medieval period plagues and famines
During the Medieval period plagues and famines significantly restricted
population growth, however under the Tudors, London’s population
increased to around 200,000. Following Henry VIII’s demolition of
London’s religious houses, significant new development occurred, and a
number of royal retreats were built away from the centre: Hampton
Court and Eltham Palace survive.

The Great Fire of 1666 destroyed four-fifths of the city and

more than 13,000 medieval, Tudor and early-17th century
buildings were lost. As a result only a tiny proportion of pre-
1700 London buildings and structures exist today; all those that
survive largely intact are protected and their location is shown
in the animation.