Determination of strategic adaptation actions for public housing in Singapore

Although building adaptation finds it significant in combating building deterioration and delivering building sustainability, what level of adaptation a building shall receive always seems puzzling to property portfolio managers. This research aims to provide policy makers with a theoretical approach to choose strategically desired adaptation actions for buildings. Personal interviews with policy makers in Singapore public housing sector gave rise to the construction of an Attribute-Action database; this database was used to derive an Attribute-Action Matrix, which consists of a set of preference values for each adaptation action (i.e. retaining, renovating and rebuilding). This approach was then applied to a real public residential building in Singapore. The results show that the total preference values for the actions of retaining, renovating and rebuilding are 157.849, 111.609, and 90.575, respectively; the action of retaining with minor maintenance of building facades is found to be the most desired adaptation strategy for the case building, because compared with the other two, retaining has the maximum total preference value. The presented approach would therefore extend the understanding of how strategic adaptation actions can be made for existing buildings that require adaptation. Lessons learnt in Singapore public housing context may be useful for many other cities in face of similar problems.