ZEMCH 2015 - International Conference Proceedings | Page 312

gerian cities. It is important to indicate that all of the three developments are originally designed
using a standard unit type.

Figure 1: Housing typology: detached, semi-attached and attached units and their resulting open
space (relative scale).

Study Procedure
A pilot study was first carried out within six houses in order to test the adequacy and pertinence
of the research tools and highlighted a number of non-exploitable parameters. First, non-owners occupants were excluded as their interaction with the open space and vegetation is often
limited to basic maintenance. Second, houses undergoing any form of construction (completion
or extension), where the open space is often used as construction materials storage, were also
omitted from the study. Finally, optimum visit and interview time was found to be between 4:00
and 5:00pm on weekdays, when occupants are home and willing to participate. The latter limited
the field investigation to one unit per day.
The main study was conducted from April to June, corresponding to the spring season where
vegetation density and quality may be assessed at its optimal bloom condition. Thirty five homes
out of the fifty targeted were accessible, but only thirty units had a complete evaluation including
architectural surveys, pictures taken and interviews with the owners. The final corpus consisted
of ten houses for each spatial layout typology. The house footprint, the open space and the green
space were accurately measured, pictures of the green spaces and the open space were taken
and annotated on the original site layout. Each surveyed unit was fully documented on a pre-prepared form that included the original house layout as retrieved from the municipal archives, the
surveyed house footprint, thus highlighting any building addition as well as the green space and
its vegetation content. Figure 2 illustrates the documented format of each surveyed unit.

Results and Discussion
The greenery within the open space of the house was investigated in terms of its physical and
spatial characteristics. The spatial distribution of the green space in relation to the paved or mineral space and to the building footprint was checked, alongside the intrinsic quality of the forms,
content and treatment of the green and mineral spaces. The analysis of the results was threefold;
first the green and open space is assessed and compared between the three different typologies
in terms of its spatial and physical characteristics. Second, the impact of any building extension
on the green space is evaluated and finally, the impact of the plot size on the amount of greenery
is checked.

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ZEMCH 2015 | International Conference | Bari - Lecce, Italy