Building adaption model in assessing adaption potential of public housing in Singapore

Abstract

Building adaptation is instrumental in curbing building degradation and urban dilapidation. Owing to budget constraint, the policy decision makers who manage substantial public buildings always face the problems of which existing buildings should be selected for adaptation. A tool is required to aid them to prioritise existing buildings based on their adaptation potential. Thus, the aim of this study is to develop a model which acts as a tool for the policy decision makers to perform the challenging work of prioritising the existing public housing for adaption. This research presents a conceptual framework for assessing adaptation potential of existing public housing in Singapore and discusses its validation process. The results show that the proposed approach is effective in estimating the adaptation potential of existing residential buildings. In practice, the decision makers can use this model to rank existing buildings' adaptation potential and select those buildings with high potential for adaptation, with the intention to optimise the allocation of a tight building adaptation budget. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.