Wednesday, November 16, 2011

DiscoverUBD: Students' project finds public largely supportive of vertical housing

DiscoverUBD posts highlight articles that have been featured in the UBD newsletter. The following was taken from the third issue (July-September 2011).

Only 16% disapproval rate
of high-rise housing in Brunei Darussalam

MOST Bruneians are open to the idea of living in vertical housing schemes, provided that the houses are provided with enough bedrooms to accommodate all family members and are located between the 1st and 5th floors.

These are among the findings of a study by a group of third-year Geography students from Universiti Brunei Darussalam which examined public perception of high-rise housing that have been proposed for future housing applicants.

According to the study, only 16% of the respondents were against the plan with the majority of respondents in favour of it. However, most respondents were concerned about the space available within each housing, with only 23% satisfied with the current plan of having three bedrooms per housing unit. The rest would prefer to have four or more bedrooms, with one respondent remarking, “The authorities must consider that different families have different numbers of members. It will be difficult for a big family to stay in a small apartment, so
they need to design the unit in a way that will be comfortable for the family to live in.”

Another concern was the preference for lower vertical housing areas as opposed to higher ones, with most respondents preferring to stay between the first and fifth floors. This poses a problem for current proposals to construct 14-story housing blocks.

Respondents also insist that the housing areas should be equipped with community facilities such as shopping centres, clinics, sports centres, recreational parks, mosques, child day cares, multi-purpose halls and libraries, among others. Most of these have already been considered in the proposed design planned for the Vertical Housing project.



Many respondents were also concerned about efficiency of the promised services and facilities, such as lift maintenance. Given these concerns, planners should reconsider public opinion and make amendments to meet the needs of both the public and the government.

The study was conducted as part of the Geography Research Methods course in the early months of 2011 by the following students: Nurul Hidayah Binti Pg Hj Momin, Siti Nor Fakhrina Binti Pg Samsu, Khairunnisa Binti Haji Mansor, Siti Norhatiqaah Binti Hj Abd Hamid and Zuriah Binti Zabidi, under supervision of Dr. Kazimierz Becek.

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