Human Settlements Review - Parliamentary Monitoring Group

Human Settlements Review, Volume 1, Number 1, 2010
Literature reveals that there is no universal
framework that defines such technologies.
However, the sustainability paradigm gives us
the avenue through which such frameworks
can be developed, although from a region,
project or process-specific perspective.
It is difficult to have a universal framework
because, as stated earlier, people’s needs
and requirements are subjective and different.
This is also because of the conflicting goals
in the development and management of
construction activities, for example, (i)
financial versus technical factors, (ii) shortterm
versus long-term planning horizons,
and (iii) network versus project factors. With
the advent of the sustainability paradigm,
we now have an avenue to balance various
objectives and trade-offs. The key, however, is
to utilise a systems approach in defining the
goal and criteria methodologies for measuring
sustainability (Sahely et al., 2005: 74).
Socioeconomic
Figure 1: Superimposing the three components
of sustainability
Technical
Environment
al
Furthermore, the envisaged framework
seeks to address building technologies
from a multidimensional perspective, that is,
technical, socio-economic and environmental
components. However, each component has
different characteristics and solutions than the
others, and more often than not, with different
units of measurement. Figure 1 illustrates the
three dimensions and their interaction. The
optimum technological solution is confined to
the area where the three components overlap.
It is easy to see that any solution complying
simultaneously to the three components has
to be contained within this area. However,
even if this common area could be known or
determined, it is necessary to remember that
there can be thousands of different solutions,
but only one of them will be the optimum
solution.
When one considers that there is a set of
building technologies that is responsive to the
urban poor and their environment, how can
these technologies be evaluated on the way
they comply with these three dimensions
The answer is that one can compare the
alternatives and a reach a compromise which
allows for the selection of the best combination
of technologies in a given scenario.
However, to reach a compromise, it is
necessary to establish a set of acceptable
criteria for the different components of
sustainable technology. Such criteria should
be determined with the target community
in mind. Consequently, there will be a set of
criteria regarding the socio-economic aspect,
and others for the environmental and technical
aspects of the technology alternatives.
These criteria can then be used to gauge the
contribution of each technology alternative in
attaining the final goal. It is important to note
that each criterion can impose a threshold
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