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.