LOW COST HOUSING

1. LOW COST HOUSING
USAGE PATTERN OF LOW COST BUILDINGS
ASSIGNMENT -4
SUBMITTED BY- SATYENDRA P
4TH YEAR B.ARCH , 1604012

2. INTRODUCTION
Housing is an arduous problem across the world, especially in developing countries like India. Apart from being one of the
three basic necessities of life, adequate housing helps to address an important social determinant of health and prevent
diseases, injury and death, provides security and increases household and National income. It has become a top priority for
the Government and the society at large to address this issue. This is particularly severe in cities because, by 2025, more than
50% of the population is expected to reside in urban settlements in search of stability and income [7]. This would lead to a
shortage of 25 Million housing units – 99% of it being in the Economically Weaker Section and the Low Income Housing
space[7]. Through this study we intend to find viable solutions to address the growing problem of low cost urban housing in
India
PRESENT HOUSING SCENARIO IN INDIA
India is a populous country where approximately 70% of the people reside in rural areas [7]. These people are migrating to
urban settlements in search of jobs and better living standards. Scale of the Problem The Figure 1, given below shows the
State wise and category wise Housing Shortages in India. Here it can be seen that Maharashtra (1.97 mn) has a housing
shortage of over 3.7 million homes followed by Tamil Nadu (2.8 MN), Uttar Pradesh (2.4 mn), West Bengal (2.0 mn) etc.
and India‟s 99% urban housing shortage is being primarily driven by the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) and the Low
Income Housing (LIH) categories.

3. ADVANTAGES OF LOW COST HOUSING
Following are the advantages of the low cost housing:
• Economic Benefits To The Community Affordable housing provides direct economic advantages to the immediate
community. Since the houses are affordable, people will have extra money to spend. This is going to lead to an increase in
the demand of various services and goods further leading to increased employment opportunities.
• Provides a diverse workforce The best thing about affordable housing is the fact that it accommodates individuals with
different skills that are beneficial to the community. For instance, construction workers, bus drivers, cleaners, shop
assistants, teachers and nurses are well catered under affordable housing and thus they can provide their important services
to the community.
• Promotes social and economic integration Affordable housing ensures low cost housing due to which such families can
afford to meet their respective health and education costs. This is also beneficial as it provides an adequate security of
tenure for improving an individual‟s capacity to get and also maintain employment. In addition to that, affordable housing
enables people not to migrate from their root place.
• Stronger labour force Through affordable housing, the employees will live near their respective employment centers and
this leads to a stronger labour force. The work is also going to be done quickly since the people living
DISADVANTAGES OF LOW COST HOUSING
disadvantages for people living in the low cost housing are as following:
1. The low income neighbors are more likely to snip belongings from you/other neighbours.
2. The residents have limited money so there will be less likely to improve or maintain their homes or the surrounding
environments
3. Houses have a simple layout that may or may not have living area separate from a sleeping area and large family inhabit
will probably cram 2 people per bedroom and 3 in the living room and make the space over crowded.
4. As there are few official jobs available, people create their own employment: selling items; making any repairing things
on a small scale; becoming cleaners, gardeners, taking laundry etc. Hence they will constantly invite their shady friends
over which might further leads to the theft and property damage.
5. There will be no choice or control of public type to reside near or adjoin as your neighbours.

4. Low-Cost Housing in Malaysian Plan
The Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP) gave special attention to low-cost housing. The overall performance of houses built under the
low-cost housing category is encouraging with 200,513 units completed or 86.4% of the target. Out of this number, 103,219
units or 51.5% were constructed by the public sector including state economic development corporations [2]. To ensure an
adequate supply of low-cost houses,
any mixed-development projects undertaken by private developers are required to allocate a minimum of 30% to low-cost
housing [15]. However, some state governments made adjustments to the policy taking into account the situational demand for
low-cost houses as well as to address the issue of unsold units. Under the Public Low-Cost Housing Program (PLHP) for the
low income group, during the 9MP period, a total of 27,006 low-cost houses were constructed under 70 projects. These projects
were implemented by state governments through loans provided by the Federal Government and mainly concentrated in small
towns and sub-urban areas [2]. These houses were sold to eligible buyers. Eligible buyers registered under the computerized
open registration system administered by the respective state governments. The Program Perumahan Rakyat Bersepadu (PPRB)
was implemented for the resettlement of squatters in cities and larger towns. Under this program, 37,241 low-cost houses were
completed and rented out to those eligible. Out of this number of units, 24,654 units were built in Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala
Lumpur while 12,587 units are in other major towns throughout the country [2]. But it is too horrible when we see the 10th
Malaysia Plan is only talking about 78,000 affordable units when Malaysia is facing more than 1,300,000 people under the
poverty line [16]. Furthermore, we have to include at least 440,000 workers with less than $250 (RM700) of monthly income.
:
Housing Needs
1. Bedrooms - at least two for a family of
five members.
2. Verandahs for receiving guests in the absence
of a living-room, and for sitting out as well.
3. A kitchen, and a store, if possible - or a
larger kitchen to be provided.
4. Firewood store.
5, Cattlesned, if cattle are kept.
6. Wash place, privy, and refuse collector.

5. Bedroom Requirements:
1. Should be large enough.
2. Should be oriented North-South (being the best orientation for catching the prevailing breeze and
for protection from the sun in the regions of West Bengal) and have openings on opposite walls.
3. The walls should be damp-proof and should be protected from the sun with deep overhangs.
4. The floor should be smooth, preferably, and easily cleaned.
5. The roof should withstand the heavy rains.
6. Beds should be raised from the floor, prefer-ably.
7. Due to alternate rain and bright sunshine gen-erally, there should be provision for opening and closing windows, if
necessary.
8, There should be provision for keeping clean clothes.
Verandah Requirements:
1. In the absence of a real living-room in a mini-mum house the verandah should be designed for sitting out in relation
to a garden and given some privacy.
2, The kitchen should have a sort of work verandah attached to it which may be covered or open in a tropical climate,
Kitchen Requirements:
1. Should be covered for cooking during wet weather.
2. Structure needs to be stable enough
3, Should be large enough to store food in the ab-sence of a food store.
Store Requirements:
1, The store is usually used for firewood storage.
2. Should be near the kitchen,
3. Should be covered to keep out the rain.

6. Rural House:
Area: 800 sq, built up. The plan is designed to include:
(a) Two large rooms (9' x 14'), both of which could be used for living during the day and for sleeping during the night.
(b) A large verandah facing a fenced court, the fence being a high but lightly designed bamboo structure.
(c) A well-ventilated kitchen (10' x 9') opening into the verandah and easily reached from the two rooms.
(d) Work area attached to the kitchen and enclosed by a fence.
(e) Wash space.
(f) Privy.
(g) Drying area for wet clothes near the wash space and in the open.
(h) Vegetable garden near the kitchen and other ser-vice area,
The houses are placed North-South so that all of the rooms have good access to breeze and pro-tection from the sun. The
major rooms have pro-vision for venting off hot air at ceiling level.
The kitchen is placed so that smoke and odors are not likely to affect the rest of the dwelling. Wash and privy are approached
from outside and in
the scheme this enables the grouping of privies to reduce the cost of plumbing. Also, the use of the privy as an intimate part of
the house is strange to local conditions and the idea will be a sort of forcing upon the people at this stage.
Out of a thousand houses built in the rural-urban town,
750 type common -240 sq.ft.
150 type middle -300 sq.ft.
80 type special -400 sq.ft.
20 type special -600 sq.ft.
1000 latrines and 1000 bathrooms,
The rural house uses materials as follows:
Lower portion of walls: Woven split bamboo, between two layers of treated clay. Posts: Branches of sale trees or bamboo.
Roof: Hand or machine-sewn small-size timbers,
Roofing: Inner layer of clay mud covered with oiled
paper; the whole between two layers of split mulebamboo,
Floor: Bamboo poles finished with earth and cow-dung in the major rooms only; earth and cowdung in
the kitchen, store, privy, etc.

7. The Village:
It consists of the village center with the groups of houses around the center and the farm-lands beyond the housing groups.
The village center includes the market and the shopping center, the bus and the cart terminal, the police station, the public
administration, the post office, the village hall, the secondary school, the cottage industry training center, the public park with
the tank, the open-air auditorium, the health
center and the playgrounds in connection with the school. In the layout suggested for such a civic center the village center is
planned along the main traffic road but set back from the main road with a patch of green about 100 feet wide so as to allow for
future extensions along traffic roads. Besides, this arrangement serves to keep the villagers away from the busy traffic along the
main highways. This green space need not be wasted. It can be used for gardens, for sitting-out spaces under trees, for planting
various types of trees, etc.
The bus and the cart terminal and the loading and unloading facilities for the market and the shop- ping center are all planned
alongside the main road so that these will not conflict with the rest of the pedestrian circulation within the center, As we
approach the center along the village secondary road we come into the big village square with the village hall and the public
administration building with the big tank forming the focal point. The secondary school, the cottage industry training center and
the shopping center also face into this plaza with the open-air auditorium in between. The health center is on the other side of
the road facing into a quieter.
area and it makes use of the buffer space between the main road and the village siting. The village hall, the secondary school, and
the cottage.
industry training center on their rear open out into a large green which serves as the village common and as playgrounds in
connection with the schools. The various housing blocks are arranged around this large green,
CONCLUSION
Life in Bengal, and generally all over India, has been influenced, in the past, purely by a rural economy which has lent a stable
character to the whole society, but, on the other hand, it has led to a passive attitude towards the material aspects
of life which has deprived it of its dynamic char- cater. So, in this era of science and technology,
when we are passing through a series of changes both in our economic and social patterns, we must look to some of the
lessons of our own past as well as that of the west wherein the fast pace of an in-
doctrinal revolution has given birth to certain new problems of behavior within the society. Housing, in the future, will have to
take into account these factors in improving living conditions and changing existing patterns of life in order to fit in with a
progressive national economy.