Housing and Space Management

Housing And Space Management 3(2+1)

Lesson 20 : Housing Standards

General Standards For Housing

Early efforts to determine what should be considered as overcrowding led to the establishment of standards based on cubic feet of space.

Crowding is measured by the coefficient of room density and expressed as:

1. Persons per room and
2. Space and occupancy standards

The first is an important index of the supply of housing in a community and the latter sets forth minimum requirements of space conducive to healthful living.

Room density
The coefficient of room density is expressed as persons per room or the number of individuals in the home divided by the number of rooms they occupy (PPR ratio). As many persons as rooms may generally be accepted as suitable.

Accepted standards for person per room are:

One room	Two persons
Two rooms	Three persons
Three rooms	Five persons
Four rooms	Four to eight persons
Five or more	Ten persons (additional two) children above 1-10 are counted as ½ units. Infants are not counted.

Space and occupancy standards:
At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution when masses of workmen moved from their cottages to newly-developed industrial centres, efforts were made to set up space and occupancy standards which should govern rental practices and building permits. This led to the establishment of standards based on cubic feet of space with.
300 cubic feet --- for an adult
200 cubic feet --- for a child in his/her living quarters
The minimum ceiling height is 2 ½ metres.
The absolute minimum acceptable space for an adult is perhaps 2 ½ - 3 square metres but the minimum desirable area could be twice that amount.

Floor area:
The floor area of a living room should be at least 120 square feet for occupancy by more than one person and at least 100 square feet occupancy by a single person. The optimum floor area in living room is 100 square feet.

Cubic space:
Unless means are provided for mechanical replacement of air, the height of rooms should be such that the air space is at least 500 cubic feet per capita, preferably 1,000 cubic feet.
Unless mechanical ventilation and artificial lighting are provided

1. Every living room should be provided with at least 2 windows and at least one of them should open directly on to an open space
2. Windows should be placed at a height of not more than 3 feet above the ground in living rooms
3. Window area should be 1I5th of the floor area. Doors and windows combined should have 2/5th of the floor area.

Floor space:
The accepted standards are
> 110 sq. ft - Two persons
70 - 90 sq. ft - One person
< 50 sq. ft - Not recommended

In tropical countries floor space ratio may fail to give a complete picture of actual living condition as it requires the provision for outdoor living as necessary. In these parts it is necessary to relate floor space to total living space.