Design With, Not For, Local Community: Utilizing e-Participation Tools in the Design of Socially Sustainable Vertical Emirati Public Housing

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Thank you for the invitation. I carefully reviewed the manuscript in question, and I must say that I find it very insightful and a valuable contribution to the existing body of literature on public housing, particularly with its integration of cutting-edge technologies. I am in favor of publishing it as I believe it will interest the readership of the journal.

However, there is a significant shortcoming in the manuscript, which can be described as a lack of ‘international debate.’ The introduction section is written as if it were a case report, focusing solely on developments in the UAE and ignoring international efforts to integrate modern technologies into public housing initiatives. For the manuscript to be considered a research article, it must introduce and discuss similar or developing trends in other parts of the world. The authors should express how their case adds to, confirms, or contradicts similar studies globally. Readers need to understand how the UAE’s case contributes to the field, which requires a robust discussion of the gaps in other studies and how their case study addresses these gaps through innovation. This necessitates a comprehensive literature review and a comparative discussion.

Another confusing aspect of the study is the data collection group. As a non-Emirati reader, I didn't understand why the target group is limited to 20-30-year-old college graduates. In my opinion, public housing should target a broader and more inclusive group. However, your choice may be restricted due to legislative or marketing aspects of the UAE’s public housing authorities. Therefore, the selection of the target group should be clearly defined and explained.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

English is generally good, but can be slightly improved

Author Response

 

Comment 1: There is a significant shortcoming in the manuscript, which can be described as a lack of ‘international debate.’ The introduction section is written as if it were a case report, focusing solely on developments in the UAE and ignoring international efforts to integrate modern technologies into public housing initiatives. For the manuscript to be considered a research article, it must introduce and discuss similar or developing trends in other parts of the world. The authors should express how their case adds to, confirms, or contradicts similar studies globally. Readers need to understand how the UAE’s case contributes to the field, which requires a robust discussion of the gaps in other studies and how their case study addresses these gaps through innovation. This necessitates a comprehensive literature review and a comparative discussion.

Response:

• The Introduction Section has been revised to include relevant literature about the global experience in considering social sustainability in public vertical housing. Also, additional global literature about the principles of social sustainability in the design of vertical public housing is included in the Conceptual Framework in Section 2.1. The Results and Discussion Section illustrated how the perception of the Emirate citizens conforms or contradicts with the global experience.

Comment 2: Another confusing aspect of the study is the data collection group. As a non-Emirati reader, I didn't understand why the target group is limited to 20-30-year-old college graduates. In my opinion, public housing should target a broader and more inclusive group. However, your choice may be restricted due to legislative or marketing aspects of the UAE’s public housing authorities. Therefore, the selection of the target group should be clearly defined and explained.

Response:

• Yes, actually the UAE vertical public housing is largely different from that in other western contexts. In the UAE, the vertical public housing units are exclusively allocated for newly married young citizens who are usually fall within the age ranges of 20 to 30 years. So, the interviewed 32 participants selected from the pool of young Emirati citizens working or studying at the UAE University, including senior students and young staff who were either newly married or about to get married. Still, expanding the sample population out of the UAE University is acknowledged in the further research, which will need more time, effort, and a team of researcher to conduct this enlarged number of interviews, especially with the new employed VR-Metaverse techniques. This has been added to the text in Section 2.4.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Reviewing Manuscript buildings-3092358

 Experimental study of indoor air distribution and thermal environment in a ceiling cooling room with mixing ventilation, underfloor air distribution and stratum ventilation

 

Referee comments:

 

This work consistently studies e-participation utilizing the VR-metaverse to allow people the pre-occupancy of the models of houses and involve them in the decision for the design of vertical buildings for people in vertical

There are no issues with the methodology, the variables, or the results, all of them are consistent and are significant for this study.

Minor changes are suggested in the document.

1. Include the information of Meta Quest Pro, Prospect IrisVR, and Enscape3D: version, manufacturer, city, and country.

 

 

2. The way the interviewees were selected was adequate for representing young people about to get married from all over the Emirates.  

 

3. The sample was 50 people, and 32 agreed to participate. I consider this adequate, but this point of the work raises questions about Which could be the basis for stabilizing as “acceptable” for “this type of investigation”?

The diversity of people balances adequately the many factors to be considered, including the educational majors.

4. At the end of section 2.4, use the proper symbol for minutes “40 min”.

Which was the average time of the interview, from start to end, including the VR immersive experience.

What was the gap in time for people with and without previous experience with VR?

 

5. The interviewees probably also provided meaningful feedback about the key questions that may not have been included in this study. Do you have some examples?

 

6. Considering the size of the group for this study, the diversity of experiences among the 32 people provided valuable results. The interviewed Emirati students were about in agreement with the arguments of scholars about mix-use vertical housing aligned to social sustainability with diverse mix of key functions. For sure, this can be broad of opinions about this topic, which increase as the size of the group increases.

 

7. It was notorious the contribution of this study in including, as the second section of the results, social interaction, which is highly important for vertical building development.

 

 

8. Overall, this manuscript is excellent but notoriously has three pages of results and a similar quantity of conclusions. Only in this case, could I consider such distribution as adequate; it is like having disproportionate the spaces of a house.

 

The manuscript is appropriately prepared and the research is significant for the buildings field of study.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Author Response

Minor changes are suggested in the document. 

Comment 1: Include the information of Meta Quest Pro, Prospect IrisVR, and Enscape3D: version, manufacturer, city, and country. 

Response:

• Done and added to Section 2.2.2.

Comment 2: The way the interviewees were selected was adequate for representing young people about to get married from all over the Emirates.  

Response:

• Yes, and more explanation was provided as per the response to the second comment of the 1^st

Comment 3: The sample was 50 people, and 32 agreed to participate. I consider this adequate, but this point of the work raises questions about Which could be the basis for stabilizing as “acceptable” for “this type of investigation”?

Response:

• The meant “type of research” is that it is qualitative research that relies on in-depth investigations through prolonged interviews with the participants.

Comment 4: The diversity of people balances adequately the many factors to be considered, including the educational majors. 

Response:

• Yes

Comment 5: At the end of section 2.4, use the proper symbol for minutes “40 min”. Which was the average time of the interview, from start to end, including the VR immersive experience. What was the gap in time for people with and without previous experience with VR?

Response:

• The difference is that for some of those who have no VR experience, they felt dizzy for a while before their brain adjust to this newly VR immersive experience. As the Interviewer already led the VR-Metaverse navigation no other impact was significant.

Comment 6: The interviewees probably also provided meaningful feedback about the key questions that may not have been included in this study. Do you have some examples?

Response:

• While the concertation was on the main asked questions, the interviewees gave some feedback that asserted their main responses. Some of these quotations have been added to Section 3.

Comment 7: Considering the size of the group for this study, the diversity of experiences among the 32 people provided valuable results. The interviewed Emirati students were about in agreement with the arguments of scholars about mix-use vertical housing aligned to social sustainability with diverse mix of key functions. For sure, this can be broad of opinions about this topic, which increase as the size of the group increases. 

Response:

• Sure, and this has been highlighted in the further research limitations by the end of the Conclusion Section.

Comment 8: It was notorious the contribution of this study in including, as the second section of the results, social interaction, which is highly important for vertical building development. 

Response:

• Yes, this was one of the important results.

Comment 9: Overall, this manuscript is excellent but notoriously has three pages of results and a similar quantity of conclusions. Only in this case, could I consider such distribution as adequate; it is like having disproportionate the spaces of a house. 

Response:

• Actually, the Results and Discussions are merged to prevent prolonged and repetition of results. As for the Conclusion Section, it has two main essential segments, first is the main design measures as per the defined social sustainability principles, and second the pros and cons of the utilized e-Participation method with its incorporated advanced VR-Metaverse tools.