Activities and space use for enabling local economy in coastal low income housing : towards a methodologycal approach

Many low income households are supported by Home Based Enterprises (HBE) for their income generation. However, settlements in coastal areas have physical problems related to the corrosive land and climate condition, as well as the possibilities of natural hazards such as flooding (ADB, 2003: UNHABITAT 2003). The rapid growth of cities especially in developing countries (DCs) contributes to social problems, serious burdens for human health and the environment. In order to improve the quality of human life in the coastal cities, some local governments decided to remove some settlements to the inland area such as problems in some big coastal cities in Indonesia. In many cases, many resettlements of housing failed to meet community’s and user’s requirements. To reduce and avoid sustainability problems, it is necessary to have more insight and understanding of the used of space in coastal low income housing. This paper describes user’s activities and methodological approach used in order to determine user’s requirements in coastal low income housing (LIH). Keywords: coastal settlements, low income housing, home based enterprises (HBE), user’s activities, space design.