Coding Engines in Participatory Social Housing Design—A Case to Revisit Pattern Languages

Viktor Bukovszki, Gabriella Dóci and András Reith
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Viktor Bukovszki: Advanced Building and Urban Design Ltd., Alkotás út 53, 1123 Budapest, Hungary
Gabriella Dóci: Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Science and Engineering, School of Architecture and The Built Environment, KTH/Royal Institute of Technology, Teknikringen 10b, S-100 44 Sotckholm, Sweden
András Reith: Advanced Building and Urban Design Ltd., Alkotás út 53, 1123 Budapest, Hungary

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 6, 1-27

Abstract: Participation has been touted as a critical instrument for both citizen empowerment and responsibility-sharing in sustainability. In architecture, participation allows for the progression of green building to sustainable habitation that integrates environmental, economic, and social dimensions. However, participation in practice rarely delegates meaningful decisions to marginalized groups and is mostly a one-sided process. This study seeks to investigate which factors of the participatory method afford both empowerment and behavioral change to a sustainable lifestyle in low-income groups. To do so, a case study of designing a social housing estate in Hungary is presented, where participatory design was used to codevelop a building that considers and adjusts to the sustainable lifestyle envisioned by the future residents. A coding engine based on the concept of pattern languages was developed that places conditions and experience of everyday activities at the center of design, translating them to spatial features. As a result, a focus group of social housing tenants and cohousing experts were able to define explicit shared spaces, allocate square meters to them, and articulate legible design criteria. Of the early-stage design decisions, 45% were made with or by the participants, and the bilateral process made it possible to convince the tenants to adopt a more sustainable habitation format.

Keywords: participatory design; codesign; pattern language; behavior change; affordable housing; housing poverty; cohousing (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 (1)

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