A database model for container use in producing temporary housing

Humankind has existed with nature until mechanisation approach that claims the universe operates like a machine. However; industrialization, urbanization and technological developments have generated the idea that humankind can transform nature as it wants. That idea is one of the main reasons of many global problems which are arising from unconscious consumption of natural resources. The global problems resulting from that approach of humankind, the only living creature trying to adapt nature to itself instead of living in harmony with it, are pollution of natural sources, global climate change and depletion of animal and plant species. On the other hand, a substantial damage to the ecology is casued by construction sector. Ecological destruction has made it essential to create new understandings and approaches. From this point, the concept of sustainability has emerged with the thought of living with nature. This concept has enhanced as sustainable design and rapidly developing in sustainable building production and green buildings in order to minimize the effects of the construction industry on the natural environment. In the construction sector, where damage to nature is underestimated, the title of "houses" within the classification system of building types, which is defining buildings according to their functions, has been dealt as the main study area of the thesis. This is because the ratio of houses in building stock is much higher than other building types, and as a result of that, the ratio of the energy consuming for this type of building to the total energy consumption is quite high. With the literature and application sources research, conducted within the scope of the thesis, it has been determined that there are different housing production techniques and implementation approaches in sustainable housing production, such as refunctioning, the use of building materials suitable for climate and topography, the use of sustainable materials and energy and water consumption management. It is not possible to evaluate all of these approaches in detail and to reach scientifically meaningful results because of the necessity to complete the thesis work within a certain period of time. For this reason, the scope of the thesis work must had been described. In this context, the scope of the thesis study has been defined in detail as "the use of containers in the production of temporary housing in terms of sustainability" under the major heading of refunctioning, one of the sustainable housing production approaches. In line with this scope, firstly, the theses and articles which have been previously done on the use of containers in sustainable housing production have been evaluated at national and international level and the results obtained have been systematically evaluated, as the methodology of thesis study. As a result of these evaluations, the problem to be addressed in the thesis study is defined as "the description of a data base model that will assist the designer in the use of containers in sustainable housing production". In order to solve the defined problem, firstly a design matrix and the criteria of that matrix have described to form the main structure of the database model. Later, container types to be included in the database model have determined while container properties, measurements, structural and design features are taken into consideration. Secondly, the criteria related to the holhousehold types and the minimum indoor requirements have determined. Then, the classification system of the design matrix that will be using in the database, has generated. This classification system featuring the codes which are describing household types, container types, architectural container combinations and interior planning alternatives suitable for these combinations. In the later phase, the conceptional model, which is the result of all these studies, has been transformed into a relational database model using Microsoft Access Relational Database Development Platform. At the last stage of the thesis study, a sample study was conducted to demonstrate operablity of the database model and the benefits of the database model are discussed through this study.