Developing occupant archetypes within urban low-income housing: A case study in Mumbai, India

Abstract

Rapid urbanization pressure and poverty have created a push for affordable housing within the global south. The design of affordable housing can have consequences on the thermal (dis)comfort and behaviour of the occupants, hence requiring an occupant-centric approach to ensure sustainability. This paper investigates occupant behaviour within the urban poor households of Mumbai, India and its impact on their thermal comfort and energy use. This study is a first-of-itskind attempt to explore the socio-demographic characteristics and energy-related behaviour of low-income occupants within Indian context. Three occupant archetypes-Indifferent Consumers; Considerate Savers; and Conscious Conventionals were identified from the behavioral and psychographic characteristics gathered through a transverse field survey. A two-step clustering approach was adopted for occupant segmentation that highlighted considerable diversity in occupants' adaptation measures, energy knowledge, energy habits, and their pro-environmental behaviour within similar socio-economic group. Building energy simulation of the representative archetype behaviour estimated up to 37% variations for air-conditioned and up to 8% variation for fan-assisted naturally ventilated housing units during peak summer months. The results from this study establish the significance of occupant factors in shaping energy demand and thermal comfort within low-income housing and pave way for developing occupant-centric building design 2 strategies to serve this marginalized population. The developed low-income occupant archetypes would be useful for architects and energy modelers to generate realistic energy use profiles and improve building performance simulation results.

Socio-Economic Drivers of Community Acceptance of Sustainable Social Housing: Evidence from Mumbai

“…The previous study has pointed out that the lack of basic literacy, education and levels of empowerment of the community affected residents' capability and mentality to maintain and operate the building in Indian affordable housing as the designers would have expected [43]. Households' adaptive actions such as window opening, energy knowledge related to electricity-related expenditure, and energy habits in operating household devices are observed as important variables influencing actions within low-income social housing in Mumbai [18]. Energy and water access and housing design also affect women's practices indoors (e.g., cleaning, cooking and childrearing), creating undesirable impacts such as higher energy intensity, reduced social interaction and loss of women's social capital [17].…”

“…Slums have consistently proliferated despite several successive slum rehabilitation policies [15]. The slum rehabilitation process in Mumbai and its outcomes have been the centre of multiple studies, looking at various approaches; policymaking [15,16], gender and energy [17] and building performance [18], to mention a few. Several studies focusing on residential occupant behaviour and perception of technology exist in the current literature, with a particular focus on indoor air quality and thermal comfort [19][20][21][22].…”

“…Socio-economic characteristics of the households are considered a determiner of our perceptions and behaviour toward environmental attitudes [59]. A behavioural study of residents from slum rehabilitation housing provides valuable insights into the occupant behaviour diversity in energy use and perceived comfort within a similar socio-economic structure [18].…”