Editorial

Structural Survey

ISSN: 0263-080X

Article publication date: 4 November 2013

185

Citation

Proverbs, D.G. (2013), "Editorial", Structural Survey, Vol. 31 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/SS-07-2013-0027

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited


Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Structural Survey, Volume 31, Issue 5.

It gives me great pleasure and considerable pride to provide my first editorial for Structural Survey: Journal of Building Pathology and Refurbishment. Having served on the editorial advisory board and been a regular contributor to the journal for many years, I am really looking forward to the exciting challenge of now co-editing the journal as it evolves and celebrates its 30th year of publication.

I would of course like to acknowledge the dedication and leadership provided by Professor Mike Hoxley in helping to establish and develop the journal to its current position of strength and influence. I have known Mike for many years and he will be sorely missed.

Looking to the future and working alongside Dr Mark Shelbourn and colleagues at Emerald Group Publishing, we have undertaken a detailed review and analysis of the journal. This has led to the development of new editorial objectives for the journal, which shifts our focus towards more rigorous academic content, whilst maintaining the professional relevance and currency of the journal. It has also provided an opportunity to strengthen the journals aims to support the publication of research towards meeting emerging environmental challenges associated with sustaining the modern built environment in all world regions. Our new Editorial Advisory Board means that the journal is now represented in all the major regions, allowing authors and readers to communicate with an ambassador for the journal in their region.

We hope these changes will help the journal grow from its current position of strength and continue to be the primary academic journal for research into building surveying and pathology. As a reflection of these changes, we intend to increasingly use the full title of the journal, i.e. Structural Survey: Journal of Building Pathology and Refurbishment.

This issue of the journal contains four research papers and a case study paper covering a range of interesting and diverse topics from authors located in China, Norway, Scotland and England. The Norwegian team of Risholt et al., provide a study of private homeowners and the technical condition of their homes in the context of energy-efficient measures. The study makes use of condition surveys of houses built in Norway during the 1980s to identify four different categories of homes in terms of their maintenance and repair status.

Richardson et al. examine the use of a waste marine seashell product incorporated into a concrete mix as an aggregate replacement. This laboratory-based study reveals that graded seashells can help reduce the porosity and permeability when compared to conventional aggregate. The use of shell waste products in this way can help reduce the impact of human activities by removing waste streams and improving the material properties of concrete.

Laing reports an interesting case study of the Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver which had undergone a significant restoration and conservation work. He describes the unusual way in which the building was restored and how the approach adopted was rooted in the community. The findings demonstrate how such approaches can contribute to the wider vibrancy of the city and how the lessons gained may be helpful for similar at-risk cinemas elsewhere.

Kirton et al. investigate the effect of changes of fundamental components of concrete to the heat transfer properties. Results indicate that cement type and w/c ratio affect the thermo-mechanical properties of concrete. These findings could help lead to a reduction in energy expenditure and associated CO2 emissions for buildings.

Yu et al. report a study aimed at supporting the management of quality on construction projects. They find that ontology and semantic web technologies can provide an alternative way for modelling the construction regulation constraints in a computer-interpretable way, and can be implemented for regulation-based construction quality checking.

The collection of papers in the issue, whilst covering a broad range of themes, have synergy in their relevance to developing and maintaining a more sustainable built environment, which represents a clear focus of the journal going forward.

David G. Proverbs

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