The Change over Time in Finnish Residents’ Attitudes towards Multi-Story Timber Apartment Buildings

Markku Karjalainen and Hüseyin Emre Ilgın
Additional contact information
Markku Karjalainen: School of Architecture, Faculty of Built Environment, Tampere University, P.O. Box 600, FI-33014 Tampere, Finland
Hüseyin Emre Ilgın: School of Architecture, Faculty of Built Environment, Tampere University, P.O. Box 600, FI-33014 Tampere, Finland

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 10, 1-14

Abstract: Due to increasing urbanization, the need for sustainable housing, e.g., sustainable timber housing, is increasing in Finland, as in other countries. Understanding residents’ perceptions plays a critical role in the transition to sustainable housing as an important part of the forest-based bioeconomy. This study examined the change over time in Finnish residents’ attitudes towards multi-story timber apartment buildings. To do this, findings from surveys among residents in 1998–1999 and 2017 were compared with each other. Results mainly highlighted that: (1) residents’ attitudes towards timber apartment buildings remained positive over time; (2) participants of both surveys were satisfied with functionality of the apartment unit, immediate surroundings of the building, and number of furnishings and appliances; (3) positive perception regarding sound insulation, indoor climate, and coziness did not change over time; (4) dominant preferences to move to detached and one-or-two story terraced houses gradually gave way to two-story housing and apartment buildings; (5) demand for more timber inside the building and more timber apartments continued over time; and (6) while fire and environmental properties were evaluated positively, impact sound insulation was still seen as a problem. These findings will assist in understanding contemporary housing needs and provide a direction to relevant stakeholders for Finnish housing development.

Keywords: apartment buildings; timber; Finnish residents; attitude; change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/10/5501/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/10/5501/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:10:p:5501-:d:554585

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().