POST OCCUPANCY EVALUATION (POE): A TOOL TO INVESTIGATE THE RESIDENTS’ SATISFACTION AND PERFORMANCE OF HOUSING PROJECT, CASE STUDY – KANHAPUR, INDIA

In developing countries like India, very less research has been conducted on the Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) of rural housing projects. This research aims to investigate the performance of an Eco-Village at Kanhapur, India which was designed by the Centre of Science for Villages. Research investigation was based on the occupants' views on the physical condition of their housing units and neighborhood spaces. The study aided to determine the occupants' housing satisfaction and thus evaluate the housing quality in the rural housing projects. The results revealed that, CSV, failed in achieving the residential satisfaction and the model of Eco-village collapsed. The housing project could offer them the shelter, but not the livable conditions on account of multiple reasons discussed in the paper. CSV never came back to the community to take the feedback on their living conditions and problems even after 10 years of occupancy. The study of this eco village led to the conclusion that POE can be utilized as a powerful tool to diagnose the residential satisfaction and thereby investigate the loopholes in the performance of housing projects.