Attributes influencing the determination of building adaptation potential for public housing in Singapore: Occupants' perspectives

Abstract

The literature stresses the importance of the role building adaptation plays in detaining building deterioration and delivering building sustainability. Nevertheless, attributes that influence the determination of building adaptation potential remain unknown to the readers. Thus, this research intends to address this problem by identifying these attributes from occupants' perspective. Personal interview survey with questionnaire provided the basis for the study. The targeted respondents were occupants of public housing in Singapore. The findings show that these key attributes could be grouped into four categories: occupants' attitudes before adaptation, housing obsolescence before adaptation, expected impacts during adaptation, and expected impacts after adaptation. Identifying the key attributes would assist policy makers in obtaining an accurate result of building adaptation potential, which will enable them to select the right buildings for adaptation with the intent to optimize the allocation of limited resources like budget and to promote the sustainability of existing public building stock in Singapore. © 2012 ASCE.