Harmonising homeowners aspirations towards sustainable housing: An examination using the multiple sorting task

Basavapatna Kumaraswamy, Satish 2016. Harmonising homeowners aspirations towards sustainable housing: An examination using the multiple sorting task. Presented at: Sustainable Earth 2016: A global forum for connecting research with action, Plymouth, UK, 23-24 June 2016. Sustainable Earth 2016 | Abstracts. Plymouth University,

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Abstract

The emerging world has empowered large and powerful consumer oriented demographics, which are aspirational and aimed at achieving western living standard and moving away from a traditional communitarian social model. In the domain of sustainable housing, it is critical to understand the social and cultural values, which enable us to propose a bottom up and localised solution for the sustainable housing strategies. This research focus on testing homeowners’ preferences on one aspect of the housing, threshold or boundary condition, which is qualified by a multiple sorting task (MST) analysis. The MST enables the participants to sort representation of the building as simulation of the real environment and sorting allows researchers to conduct surveys without preconception, which will otherwise influence the judgement of the respondents. This analysis was further triangulated with study-model performance tested by sophisticated environmental simulation and fieldwork studies to help propose sustainable housing strategies. The methodology adopted has been critical to supporting the architectural response to the cultural and economic condition on one hand (social methods) and the climate responsive, traditional design and simulation models (environmental design methods) on the other. Different sets of fieldwork were conducted that involved archival searches and detailed interaction with architects, builders and homeowners. In total, 240 respondents answered a questionnaire survey and 146 semi-structured interviews were conducted. This research demonstrates how MST can be used as a research tool in understanding the social perception and economic aspirations of the homeowners, which have direct bearing on the acceptability of sustainable design and construction strategies.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Other)
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Architecture
Publisher:	Plymouth University
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	3 August 2025
Date of Acceptance:	2016
Last Modified:	06 Aug 2025 11:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/180131

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