AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
Figure 1: Types and variants of construction systems. (source:
EkoWATT)
The contemporary condition of reconstructed panel buildings is
satisfactory in terms of energy saving but it is due to application
of standard economy measures and often due to one-sided view
of the matter, the total reconstruction of residential buildings in
light of internal lay-outs has not yet been considered for years.
While in the 1960s and 1970s, the construction of residential
houses of pre-fabricated concrete blocks prevailed, primarily the
construction of panel houses with a large number of flats, this
proportion has been changed slowly since the beginning of
1980s. Since mid 1990s, the construction of family houses has
prevailed. Growing interest in family living in one's own house
supported new building round large cities, but it was also
reflected in reconstruction and resettling of family houses that
were only used for recreational purposes in previous decades.
The trend was changed in inhabitation. While the number of
inhabited family houses was gradually declining in the period of
1961 – 1991, the tendency has been opposite since 2001.
(Census - czso.cz)
While at the time of construction of blocks of flats it used to be
common to design and frequently use these house facilities, they
rarely play their originally intended role now. Before designing
the house and flat layout we need to clarify the requirements for
the operation relationships, functional and special requirements.
Therefore we need to think about the usability and spatial
efficiency of the select areas of house facilities, especially the
rooms for baby prams, bicycles and invalid chairs, storage rooms
(unless a storage room is part of the flat), which are defined by
the norm ČSN 73 4301 about housing in the Czech Republic as
mandatory for ensuring the economic and technical operation of
a residential building.
3 Interior facilities in Residential buildings
The quality of dwelling is created by personal dwelling space,
the nature of surroundings, public areas and by creation of
conditions and background for activities and actions related to
dwelling. Other additional functions and services necessary for
good quality living such as parking lots for cars or facilities are
solved. It is necessary to design the facilities for provision of
economic and technical operation of residential building.
According to ČSN 73 4301, residential buildings are defined as
mandatory area of the facilities such as the area for storage of
prams, bicycles and wheel chairs, rooms for storage things that
are not part of the flat, the space and equipment for heating in
buildings with central heating, the space for fuel in buildings
with local heating, the space for storage of unobjectionable
garbage in terms of hygiene and fire prevention, lay-byes and
parking areas, garage parking for passenger cars. Residential
buildings may have other premises and facilities namely a
housekeeping and storage room, a cleaning room with sink and
hot water outlet, linen drying room perhaps even laundry and
ironing room, the facility for beating carpets, an assembling
room for inhabitants with multi-purpose utilization,
customization of flat roofs for recreational purposes or for linen
drying. These premises, primarily the space of basement
compartments, common rooms for storage of bicycles and prams
should be a frequently discussed topic in designing of new
residential buildings and during the reconstruction of buildings.
While in the period of development in housing estates it was
common that a basement compartment, among others, was
designed in each new residential building; these premises serve
now for other purposes in the better case. The initial intended
function of these premises was to store food, preserves or
various clubs could have established clubrooms, workshops or
fitness centres in larger premises. Times have changed during
the last several decades. Due to the fact that food is more easily
available in a supermarket and shopping frequency has changed,
it is not necessary to store less durable food at the expense of its
shopping frequency. Also thanks to social integration of
inhabitants, within hobby groups and clubs into multi-purpose
buildings, it is not necessary to build them in the residential
building premises.
According to the Rule of the house, it is clearly defined how the
residential building appurtenances should be utilized. The
residential building facilities are only used for purposes
corresponding to their operation and intention so that the rights
of other tenants in the house cannot be limited. Placing or
storage of any objects is not permitted in collective rooms except
for those for which the spaces are designed (e.g. prams in pram
room, bicycles in bicycle room, etc.). For this reason, one of the
residential building premises that retained its function are the
rooms for storage of bicycles and prams.
In a number of residential buildings, the premises are not utilized
at all. This can be utilized for the establishment of the above
mentioned functions and services for cheap rent. But the
settlement on utilization of empty premises with owners is
crucial. However, with the current increasing trend towards the
utilization of bicycles in traffic and creation of new cycle paths,
it is surely more suitable to find solutions for utilization of these
premises that would be aimed at supporting the initial plan for
utilization of these premises for storage of bicycles.
Generally speaking it can be said the facilities are an important
part of the residential building – it can largely influence the
convenience of living in the building. The implementation of
premises for placement of the facilities increases simultaneously
the costs for construction and these are negatively reflected in
the dwelling unit price.
4 Influence of Household Equipment for evaluation user
comfort apartment buildings according to the methodology
SBToolCZ
The purpose of user convenience evaluation according to
SBToolCZ Methodology for evaluation of residential buildings
is the evaluation of a number of aspects in the field of healthy
and good-quality dwelling. It includes also the evaluation of
bicycle and pram rooms as well as basement compartments
being evaluated pursuant to storage area safety and standings
according to which the areas are given the so-called credits
based on which the user convenience is then determined.
Item
Description
Credits
Safety of storage
rooms
Individual threat of damage, theft
secured location
10
Acceptable threat of damage, theft
- individual only
5
Unsecured location without
control and possibility of control
0
Position of storage
rooms
In building – individual basement
compartments (condition is
sufficient
10
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