ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a case study of a housing environment which lies in between the complete informal housing and the finished product provided by public housing. The case study discusses the transformation introduced by the users on a core housing scheme in the Tenth of Ramadan City, a newly built settlement near Cairo, Egypt. The chapter analyses the components of the users’ decision making process which resulted in the transformation of the project. It addresses the authorities’ point of view concerning the transformation outcome. The chapter also addresses the issue of users’ freedom of choice in low-income self-help housing through a case study of a core housing scheme which was implemented in one of Egypt’s New Cities; ‘the Tenth of Ramadan New City’ in the early 1980s. It examines the reasons behind the users’ choices in relation to the building of the extensions through qualitative approach rather than the quantity oriented one which was presented in the previous part.
