An-Najah Staff

Housing is considered the most important challenge facing the Palestinian National Authority, where the housing problem in Palestine is increasing day after day in light of the steady rise in population and returnees in the face of limited land and high prices of them, rising construction costs and relatively low income level. Success in providing affordable housing depends on several factors including the reduction of construction costs, which in turn depends on the construction techniques. Construction technique is a key tool to reduce the cost of the buildings but the reduction in cost should not be on the account of the efficiency of construction, durability, and resistance to natural and geological factors, and other than that the idea of getting the house of a low-cost, regardless of the expected age and quality of construction is a short sighted idea and a cheap solution in the present but a complex problem in the future. Therefore, there is a great need for a decision making process to select the optimum technique during the preliminary engineering study to reach to cut down the construction cost with the higher efficiency of the housing unit. The aim of this study, is to improve the level of housing projects in Palestine through the selection of the proper construction techniques in terms of cost and quality in order to obtain affordable quality housing, by making (1) Review of construction techniques currently used in Palestine. (2) Determining the Criteria that influence the decision making for selecting an optimum technique and its importance to the decision-maker. (3) Providing a mechanism to evaluate the construction techniques and to be judged on by referring it to the decision criteria. Both qualitative and quantitative research methodology were utilized in this study. Eighty one questionnaires were distributed to selected local building contractors registered and classified at the Palestinian Contractors Union as first category, and fifty six responses were received. The response rate was sixty nine percent. The result of the study revealed that the construction technique currently used in Palestinian housing projects are achieving the efficiency and quality of construction required, but are not satisfactory in terms of achieving cheaper housing construction or in cutting down the production cost. Therefore, some adjustments have been made to the technique in order to exit the technique that achieves cost reduction while maintaining the efficiency required.