Low Income Housing;Affordable,Modular And Sustainable(Case Of Dar Es Salaam,Tanzania)

Affordable housing is one the global concerns.In developing countries with limited resources,low income earner’s struggle or burst a lion’s share of their income to obtain and retain decent shelter.To address this problem in Tanzania,vast traditional approaches have been employed to provide cheaper homes such as adaption of innovative materials like stabilized soil blocks,however,the housing deficit is still persistent causing informal settlements,slums,urban compression and sprawl in the outskirts of the cities.In light of the mentioned,this research purposes to explore the potential of modular construction to reduce the cost of building a house,it attempts to ascertain its merits over the conventional method,by comparing the cost,time and scope elements.And finally address the most convenient and contextual appropriate application of modular construction in Tanzania.A case study of a traditionally built affordable housing scheme is carried out to evaluate the scope,cost and schedule elements,and compared against a modular construction design model with similar parameters.As for the acceptability of this alternative method,in-depth expert interviews are conducted with themes on design,labor,materials,technology and formality related matters to establish a convenient approach for this particular setting.The main outcome of the study is that,modular construction has advantages of integrated processes thus can save building costs of up to 20%,however,factory setup,logistics and technology support structure are sensitive to lower the savings.The project schedule can be reduced up to 50% due to simultaneous offsite and onsite advancements and the quality is profound due to production within a controlled environment.The interview responses advocate for a product that is versatile,easily personalized,of locally available materials,one that require standard logistics and low technology for assembly.Based on the findings,this paper further recommends a conceptual model for a business case practice and a design book with design patterns that depict the conte xt of Tanzania.