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INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH IN BUSINESS
4. Conclusion
The malfunctions in design and construction stages help to create an awareness of the
need to understand the determinants of satisfaction with the residential environment.
Attention has been directed to the concept of 'user satisfaction' as a subjective indicator of
success in housing in developed countries (Morris and Winter, 1978; Onibokun, 1976).
Liu (1999) suggests that, the study of residential satisfaction may serve as one
component of a broader quality and productivity improvement programme in the client‘s
organisation. Base on the above analysis this research has concluded with the user‘s
sensitivity indexes in a context of architectural design and construction faults, which
shows the state of design practice and vulnerability of users to such awesome housing
conditions. The indexes as shown in Table 5 and 8 illustrate the severity of each factor
(design and construction) and its implication on housing maintenance. These indexes are
well supported by the findings discussed in section 3.2.5 and 3.2.10. These sensitivity
indexes are an important tool for analysing the housing situation in Karachi city. In order
to improve the design quality of housing the design and construction professionals can
refer these indexes as the benchmark for quality assurance in housing design. The
continuous feedbacks in architectural and construction aspect are necessary for long-term
performance of housing. These aspects has been identified, as housing components,
internal surfaces, ventilation, spatial movement, management and maintenance of the
housing etc. This feedback can be used to document deficiencies as part of the
justification of new construction or remodeling projects. The out come of this study
could even be used by Housing Authorities of Karachi, which utilizes a number of
standard designs for residential blocks. The proper utilization of research results may also
enhance the private developer‘s competitive standing in the marketplace and improve the
company‘s public image and reputation.
The study also revealed that housing districts in Karachi have different design and
economic backgrounds that control the value of land and quality of homes. However, the
housing provision and existing conditions of housing stock presents a depressed picture.
Housing finance is not available to most of the people thus making the population
incapable to have a quality house. Some families in this study have made very small
design moves to create very liveable and pleasant environments. Others have made
drastic renovations that show the extent of how inappropriate some of these housing
projects were. It has also been revealed that low rise housing is experiencing defects
caused from design, in addition to lack of maintenance consideration in their respective
design. It shows that design professionals do not bother to improve their practice in
radiance of post occupational surveys. It could also be concluded that except the luxury
to have a house in down town, residents of medium cost apartment are facing the similar
problems, which perhaps can be associated with low cost housing blocks.
COPY RIGHT © 2011 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research
JANUARY 2011
VOL 2, NO 9
481