Adoption of Retrofit Strategies for the Housing Sector in Northern Cyprus

This research project is undertaken in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (T.R.N.C.). The study focuses on identifying refurbishment activities capable of diagnosing and detecting the underlying problems alongside the challenges offered by the buildings’ typology in addition to identifying the correct construction materials in the refurbishment process, which allow for the maximisation of expected energy savings. The objective of the research is to investigate the occupants’ behaviour and role in the refurbishment activity by exploring how and why occupants decide to change building components and how to understand why and how occupants consider using energy-efficient measurements. The housing estates are chosen from 22 different projects in four different regions of the T.R.N.C. that include urban and suburban areas. There is, therefore, a broad representation of the common drivers in the property market, each with different levels of refurbishment activity and this is coupled with different samplings from different climatic regions within the country. The study is conducted through semi-structured interviews to identify occupants’ behaviour as it is associated with refurbishment activity. This paper presents the results of semi-structured interviews with 70 homeowners in a selected group of 22 housing estates in five different parts of the T.R.N.C. Alongside the construction process and its impact on the environment, the results point out the need for control mechanisms in the housing sector to promote and support the adoption of retrofit strategies and to minimize non-controlled refurbishment activities, in line with diagnostic information of the selected buildings. The expected solutions should be effective, environmentally acceptable and feasible, given the type of housing projects under review, with due regard for their location, the climatic conditions within which they were undertaken, the socio-economic standing of the house owners and their attitudes, local resources and legislative constraints. Furthermore, the study goes on to insist on the practical and long-term economic benefits of refurbishment under the proper conditions and why this should be fully understood by the householders.

The work presented has the outcome of the self-funded PhD doctoral research project by the lead author of the paper. Dt. Serife Gurkan provided substantial financial sources to complete this research project at the University of East London – School of Architecture, Computing and Engineering, Graduate School, London, United Kingdom and she provided financial support to the author at the time of writing this conference paper.