Development of DASH: Design Assessment Framework for Sustainable Housing

Abstract

The idea of sustainability is based on three pillars—environmental, economic, and social—per the Brundtland report. Housing is a type of architecture with which any occupant can connect. It is a place that supports an occupant’s physical, emotional, cultural, and social needs, which support their consciousness. The methodology used here includes an extensive literature review, followed by data collection and analysis in order to understand, achieve, and balance sustainability and its metrics. We could see an evident gap in current green building rating systems regarding the inclusion of social and cultural indicators. There is an inclination for quantitative approaches, such as energy, the environment, and resources. We found that it is viable to identify, recognize, and determine social and cultural indicators that are both tangible and intangible. In most research regarding the sustainable built environment, the participation and feedback are limited to industry experts and professionals, and residents are excluded. This study attempted to fill this gap by collecting data from Indian residents, thus validating social and cultural indicators according to occupants’ needs. With the help of indicators discovered in the literature review and by strengthening them further with data collection, a holistic framework was developed to achieve sustainability for housing.