Making a home out of a temporary dwelling: a literature review and building transformation case studies

Abstract

Temporary transformations of vacant buildings could alleviate the shortage of housing for urgent home seekers. However, not much is known about the transformation of buildings into temporary, adequate, and affordable housing. A multidisciplinary literature review covering design, indoor environmental quality, housing, and environmental psychology, was performed to determine if such an integrative approach could shed light on a new perspective to provide housing for ‘urgent home seekers’. Subsequently, building transformation case studies were compared with the literature review findings. It is concluded that there is a gap in knowledge on how the concept of ‘home’ can be added to existing regulations in order to design and realise temporary housing that fits the needs of urgent home seekers.