User Involvement: Effective Performance in Sustainable Social Housing

Abstract In the development of sustainable social housing, the residents, operating staff, and administrative staff - as users - face challenges in relation to a lack of involvement. The aim of this research is to contribute with results regarding these challenges. These contributions to the discussion are based on the results of a qualitative evaluation of sustainable social housing. The results suggest that it can be an advantage to utilise user experiences in the development of future sustainable social housing with a view to strengthening the user involvement process. The argument is that a greater degree of user involvement respects people’s experiences as being a contribution to the development of new projects. In addition, the research suggests that the early involvement of residents, operating staff, and administrative staff can strengthen the sense of project ownership and community, as well as the project’s social sustainability. It is claimed that user involvement can promote social sustainability, which is a significant factor, since the intention behind a project’s sustainability is that the residents will later have ownership and an interest in ensuring that it works in accordance with its intentions.