How should residents' needs be considered in housing production?
08.04.2014
In the planning and construction of housing, new ways are needed to benefit from the requirements, values and experiences of residents.
In his doctoral dissertation written at the Department of Design at the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Antti Pirinen examines the complicated way in which the planning living arrangements relates to the residents, and production.
Focusing on residents is a recognised and important goal in housing production. However, this is not necessarily realised in practical planning and construction. Pirinen wants to fix the shortcoming by approaching housing production from an atypical angle - that of user-oriented design.
‘Although we know much about people's needs and hopes with respect to housing, they often do not translate into solutions in design,’ Pirinen says, describing the problem addressed by his research.
‘From the residents' point of view much more needs to be designed than the physical building.’
Concepts of dwelling link individuality and reproducibility
The interests of industry and those of residents can converge in a so-called dwelling concept. In his thesis Pirinen has studied five different Finnish dwelling concepts. In them construction companies, for instance, offer a service allowing residents to make individual choices concerning a dwelling, or residents can commission the construction of a house within the framework of a concept.
Pirinen seeks to close the gap between products and processes standardised by industry on the one hand, and very resident-oriented concepts on the other.
‘How is it possible to establish differences in repeated concepts, and how could users participate in the planning process, bringing their own values and needs into it?’ Pirinen asks, as a way of defining the challenges related to planning.
‘It is necessary to ascertain what elements of a dwelling and the environment, and their fixed establishment and variation in housing production - will bring residents value and individuality,’ Pirinen says.
High-quality planning exceeds users' expectations
In user-oriented design, qualitative differences in people's needs, lifestyles, and values are examined. This differs considerably from the statistical and demographic methods of housing research. Pirinen compiles the dwelling experiences of people of very different socioeconomic backgrounds and suggests how to include the needs of the residents in housing production in a concrete manner.
"User orientation does not only mean asking people what kinds of dwellings or products they want and need. The value of professional and creative design and planning is that the final product is always better than the user could have imagined", Pirinen emphasises.
According to Pirinen, housing planners and developers do not sufficiently utilise information about the residents.
"It is known that nearly everybody appreciates peacefulness and proximity to nature. However, they also mean different things to different people, and therefore require different design solutions.
The doctoral dissertation Master of Arts Antti Pirinen, ”Dwelling as Product: Perspectives on Housing, Users and the Expansion of Design”, will be examined at Aalto University’s School of Arts, Design, and Architecture on Wednesday, 16 April 2014 at 12.00 noon in lecture room 822, Hämeentie 135 C, Helsinki. His opponent will be Prof. Sten Gromark from the Chalmers University of Technology. Serving as custos will be Prof. Pekka Korvenmaa. Orders for a copy of the dissertation can be made to the online bookstore of the Aalto University School of Arts, Design, and Architecture: books.aalto.fi, enquiries: artsbooks [at] aalto [dot] fi.
Further information:
Antti Pirinen
antti.pirinen [at] aalto [dot] fi
tel. +358 40 5300 828