2014 Volume 16 Issue 2 Pages 24-28
The typical design of temporary housing tends to hamper community building and limits accessibility for the elderly and physically disabled. We propose a community-care temporary-housing project to prevent these problems. The housing design has the wood deck to connect housing units and to ensure that the entrances and thresholds are at the same elevation. After occupation, observations and interviews on the residents' behaviors were conducted to gauge the effects of our proposal. Belongings were more prevalent on the covered wood decks than other outdoor locations. The residents personalized the covered wood decks. More social interactions with respect to frequency and length were observed in housing units with wood decks than those without wood decks. Residents whose houses faced a wood deck recognized each other by sight. Residents in the covered wood deck zone viewed the deck as a common space where community building occurs. Consequently, a wood deck zone positively impacted the residents' ability to establish a sense of community.
