Housing and analysis of design defects: A post occupational evaluation of private housing in Malaysia

Abstract

Housing provision and quality housing are two issues, which remained the subject of research and interest to researchers’ and designers’. Whenever a designer completes the project, they are not fully aware of consequences of their design. Only through post occupational survey, the designer usually realizes the shortfall they have made during the design process. Unfortunately, such unforeseen conditions are the part of daily life for the end user of residential buildings in developing regions. The main purpose of this research is to understand and identify the causes of design tribulations and their effects on residential buildings at post occupational stage. This research circumscribes the issues and problems faced by the users of private housing at post occupational stage, which results in because of deficient design. These problems affect the users through unplanned maintenance to major repairs leading to danger of collapse. In order to evaluate these effects on buildings, case studies were conducted in housing stock of metropolitan areas of the Klang Valley in Malaysia. The finding reveals that the housing is experiencing common building defects for housing such as dampness, facade deterioration and sanitation problem.   Key words: Building maintenance, building survey, design maintenance, design tribulation, material selection, post occupancy survey, user implication, workmanship.