Affordable Housing Materials&Techniques for Urban Poors

Affordable housing projects are characterized by an increasing demand mainly due to urbanization. The selection of building materials should meet the needs of local conditions to improve quality of life for the most needed ones by building new structures and/or by improving existing structures. This dissertation is a study on the use of building materials and engineering design in affordable housing projects in Maharashtra India. A field study was carried out in Dhule town between July and November 2012, comprising on-site and literature investigations in addition to interviews with key persons such as engineers from MHADA, who are involved in construction of affordable housing projects. Although this study attempts to cover most of the factors influencing the use of building materials& construction methods& techniques, the focus has been to investigate the impact of processed building materials for building construction& development of affordable housing model for urban areas.