Low Income Housing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Dissertation

Low Income Housing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - Dissertation Example Objectives 1- To study the theory of post-occupancy evaluation, its emergence, and its importance. 2- Understanding the importance of POE for creating better houses for low income people. 3- To critically evaluate literature about international housing policies and compare them to housing policies in Saudi Arabia. 4- To assess a case study by using the post-occupancy evaluation of the: a- Functional aspect b- Social views c- Technical factors 5- Evaluate building performance taking account the feed back from the residents. Research Questions: To which extend are the users satisfied with current housing design? What is post-occupancy evaluation? Why is it important? How to apply it? How did it emerge? What are the international housing policies, and Saudi housing policies? What are the differences? How to assess a case study by using POE for Functional aspect, Social views and Technical factors? How to evaluate building performance taking account resident's feedback fr om? Research methodology Review literature: Define both the area and the nature of POE that enhances the understanding of the concept, the scope and the process of POE. Setting Aims and objectives. Develop questions. Select research respondents. Implementing the survey. Analyzing the data collected. Structure of the research Chapter 2: Introduction Aims Research question Objectives Methodology Chapter 2: what does POE mean? What is POE ? History and background of POE Uses of POE Process of POE Benefits of POE Chapter 3: International housing policies Housing policies in Saudi Arabia Housing policies in Saudi Arabia for low-income Chapter 4: General information of Saudi Arabia. General information of case study.... Low income housing is a main requirement of many developed and developing countries, conducting necessary studies about it and implementing policies in order to provide economical solutions to provide appropriate housing to millions of poor around the world Different organizations world wide have played an active role in the development of housing models for low income housing some of them which have succeeded in providing appropriate housing to low income people. In recent years the government of Saudi Arabia has started providing houses to needing families so a number of housing projects were built in different parts of the country. And Algazala is one of these projects provided for low income people and in this research Algazala project will be the case study which will be evaluated using POE (Post-occupancy evaluation), by implementing a questionnaire on the residents of Algazala project to identify the advantages and disadvantages of these houses. Algazala which is located in the region of Hael is one of the of many low income housing projects that the government of Saudi Arabia has built for needing people it was built in 2007 and it contains 254 housing units and two schools, two mosqes, a health centre and a community centre . History and Background of Post Occupancy Evaluation From the past few years, the area that gained more attention of business industry experts and researchers is about identifying the ways in which the building attributes affect its users.

China's Dangerous Overvaluation Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

China's Dangerous Overvaluation - Article Example Based upon labor costs and trade patterns, author is of the view that Yuan is certainly overvalued by approximately 15% suggesting that it’s time for China to take corrective measures. Author suggests measuring increasing labor costs as one of the indicators to measure how much the currency has appreciated and also cites the fact that labor costs have increased more than the overall profitability of the Chinese companies. Author indicates that any further appreciation in the currency would actually be more harmful for the country because the overall level of debt has been creeping up in the economy which would ultimately hurt the domestic consumption in China. Author suggests that to arrest the appreciation of Yuan, one way could be to allow domestic prices to adjust to the appreciated Yuan however; this may result into difficult economic consequences whereas rebalancing from investment to consumption is recommended as an easier way to manage Yuan. Probably one of the biggest weaknesses of the article is the absence of any figures and data based upon which author made the claims. Almost all the arguments are without any solid economic data and most arguments are relatively theoretical in nature. It would have been much better had the author used the real economic data to point out the appreciation trends in the value of Yuan against the major international currencies specially US Dollar. It is also critical to note that China has basically not highlighted as to how an appreciated Yuan have been benefiting Chinese economy in maintaining healthy trade surplus besides emerging as the leading export oriented economy in the world. An increase in the labor costs may not be one of the basic indicators of measuring the appreciation in Yuan. An increase in labor costs may also be due to the increasing specialization within the Chinese economy and the fact that Chinese workers may be gaining more advanced skills. Gaining more