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The purpose of this study is to identify and evaluate the primary constraints that quantity surveying firms in Nigeria encounter while integrating indoor environmental quality (IEQ) principles into building designs.

The study used a quantitative approach by administering a well-structured questionnaire to 114 quantity surveyors. The collected data were analyzed using methods such as frequencies, percentages, mean item scores, Kruskal–Wallis test and exploratory factor analysis.

The top five ranked constraints were limited access to funding or financing options, limited availability of green materials, limited availability of insurance for sustainable buildings, limited availability of sustainable design resources and limited diversity and inclusivity within the design profession. Based on the factor analysis, the study identified six clusters of constraints: structural-related constraints, technical-related constraints, financial-related constraints, capacity-related constraints, legal-related constraints and culture-related constraints.

This study has several practical implications for quantity surveying firms, policymakers and industry stakeholders involved in building design and construction in Nigeria. The findings of this study can also inform future research on the integration of IEQ principles into building designs.

By identifying and structuring the clusters of constraints faced by quantity surveying firms in Nigeria when implementing IEQ principles, this study provides a novel approach to understanding the challenges associated with IEQ implementation in the building sector. This understanding can guide policymakers, industry stakeholders and quantity surveying firms in developing effective strategies to overcome these constraints and promote IEQ principles in building design and construction.

Numerous design methods are available to facilitate digital innovation processes in user interface design. Nonetheless, little guidance exists on their appropriate selection within the design process based on specific situations. Consequently, design novices with limited design knowledge face challenges when determining suitable methods. Thus, this paper aims to support design novices by guiding the situational selection of design methods.

Our research approach includes two phases: i) we adopted a taxonomy development method to identify dimensions of design methods by reviewing 292 potential design methods and interviewing 15 experts; ii) we conducted focus groups with 25 design novices and applied fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to describe the relations between the taxonomy's dimensions.

We developed a novel taxonomy that presents a comprehensive overview of design conditions and their associated design methods in innovation processes. Thus, the taxonomy enables design novices to navigate the complexities of design methods needed to design digital innovation. We also identify configurations of these conditions that support the situational selections of design methods in digital innovation processes of user interface design.

The study’s contribution to the literature lies in the identification of both similarities and differences among design methods, as well as the investigation of sufficient condition configurations within the digital innovation processes of user interface design. The taxonomy helps design novices to navigate the design space by providing an overview of design conditions and the associations between methods and these conditions. By using the developed taxonomy, design novices can narrow down their options when selecting design methods for their specific situations.

Heterogeneous and micro-structured materials have been the object of multiscale and homogenization techniques aimed at recognizing the elastic properties of the equivalent continuum. The proposed investigation deals with the mechanical characterization of the heterogeneous material structured metamaterials through analyzing the ultimate strength using the limit analysis of the Representative Volume Element (RVE). To get the desired material strength, a novel finite element formulation based on the derivation of self-equilibrated solutions through the finite elements devoted to calculating the lower bound theorem has been implemented together with the limit analysis in Melàn’s formulation.

The finite element formulation is based on discrete mapping of Volterra dislocations in the structure using isoparametric representation. Using standard finite element techniques, the linear operator V, which relates the self-equilibrated internal solicitation to displacement-like nodal parameters, has been built through finite element discretization of displacement and strain.

The proposed work presented an elastic homogenization of the mechanical properties of an elementary cell with a geometry known in the literature, the isotropic truss. The matrix of elastic constants was calculated by subjecting the RVE to numerical load tests, simulated with a commercial FEM calculation code. This step showed the dependence of the isotropy properties, verified with Zener theory, on the density of the RVE. The isotropy condition of the material is only achieved for certain section ratios between body-centered cubic (BCC) and face-centered cubic (FCC), neglecting flexural effects at the nodes. The density that satisfies Zener’s conditions represents the isotropic geomatics of the isotropic truss.

For the isotropic case, the VFEM procedure was used to evaluate the isotropy of the limit domain and was compared with the Mises–Schleicher limit domain. The evaluation of residual ductility and dissipation energy allowed a measurement parameter for the limit anisotropy to be defined. The novelty of the proposal consisted in the formulation of both the linearized and the nonlinear limit locus of the material; hence, it furnished the starting point for further limit analysis of the structures whose elementary volume has been described through the proposed approach.

We explore the design risk factors and associated managerial practices driving collaborative risk management for design efficacy in green building projects. By illuminating project design risk as an important project risk category in its own right, the study contributes to our understanding of optimising design efficacies for collaborative project risk management.

The study comprises exploratory interviews conducted with 27 industry project practitioners involved in the design and delivery/implementation of Green Star-certified building projects in South Africa.

The findings discursively highlight seven sources of design risk. We also identify seven specific collaborative risk management practices for design efficacy emerging from a consideration of how risk environments vary in the Green Star-certified projects, each with its own project design risk implications.

The study advances our understanding of how collaborations emerging from particular relational yet context-specific practices can be optimised to strengthen project risk management.

The role of women in the architecture and design industry is aligned with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, which aims to increase the participation of women in the Saudi construction sector. Saudi female graduates from architectural and design schools are currently working in most of the mega projects underway in Riyadh; however, they face certain challenges at the beginning of their working lives due to the gap between the skills acquired during an architectural and design education and those needed for employability.

This study evaluates the employability skills of Saudi female cooperative education (COOP) students and graduates from architectural schools in Riyadh. A quantitative approach is taken, and two questionnaires are administered: one for female COOP students and graduates from the college of architecture and design in one of the private universities in Riyadh and the other for employers from different architectural firms and governmental organizations in Riyadh. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the research data.

The research findings suggest that practical experiences and on-site observation activities should be provided, and sustainability solutions and applications should be incorporated into the curriculum to bring architecture education closer to the architectural profession and highlight the role of universities in supporting graduates' skills development.

It is worth mentioning that the results of this study were based on the survey distributed to architecture and interior female students in a private university in Saudi Arabia. The number of students surveyed in this study is not large enough to generalize the survey results to the entire population of architecture and interior design students in the kingdom and in the world. The study will be extended to include more participants from male and female students in other universities in Saudi Arabia to investigate the gaps in employability skills in the field of architecture and interior design in the Kingdom.

The study has practical and policy implications for further development and upcoming challenges as the labor market seems to improve and innovate every day. The study suggests providing practical experiences and onsite observation activities and incorporating sustainability solutions and applications into the curriculum.

The originality of this study is that it focuses on the importance of some employability skills, such as research and budgeting aspects, Sustainability solutions and applications for students that have not been mentioned in the previous studies.

Under the rural revitalization, the effect of China's implementation of rural prefabricated housing is not obvious. Cost has become the biggest obstacle to its development. Therefore, it is necessary to study the factors influencing the cost of prefabricated buildings in villages and clarify the focus of cost control.

This paper focuses on the whole process of prefabricated housing construction in villages in China and uses grounded theory to identify and screen out 27 related factors that affect the construction cost of prefabricated buildings. A system dynamics model is used to dynamically analyze the influencing factors. The engineering examples in rural areas of southern Shaanxi are simulated. Finally, five key factors that influence cost are obtained. Based on this, cost control countermeasures are proposed for rural prefabricated housing in southern Shaanxi.

The results show that: the key factors affecting the cost of prefabricated buildings in villages include the selection of production methods, the degree of design standardization, the quality of construction personnel, the level of construction technology and the circulation cycle of molds. The cost of prefabricated housing in villages can be controlled through five aspects: mass production of components, design exchange and feasibility analysis, improvement of employee professionalism, strict selection of construction schemes and technologies and improvement of mold turnover rate.

The system dynamics model applied in this paper is based on the idealized state. The system boundary is narrow and has a certain subjectivity. It needs further detailed research to make it closer to the engineering practice. In addition, this paper applies the rural engineering example in southern Shaanxi to carry out a single case study, and the universality of the research results needs to be further tested. There are many village construction projects and building types, so the research results can be further enriched through large sample research.

Rural construction is an important step in the implementation of rural revitalization. Exploring the factors that affect the key costs of prefabricated buildings in villages and towns in view of the particularity of rural areas will help provide a reference for their cost control and help the rural development of prefabricated houses.

The research results of this paper can provide a reference for the development of prefabricated buildings in other rural revitalization areas.

Different from the traditional research on urban prefabricated buildings, this paper focuses on rural areas and explores the core factors affecting the cost of prefabricated buildings from the micro level. This study establishes a system dynamics model suitable for the cost control of prefabricated housing at the village level and provides methods for its cost control. Based on the identified key factors affecting costs, cost control measures were proposed for prefabricated housing tailored to the unique characteristics of villages.

Educational institutions have a special social responsibility to initiate processes of sustainability transformation in society, nevertheless, activities that effectively address students as well as employees are rather moderate. To initiate change alongside strategic and political decisions, this paper aims to present findings of a gamification intervention (hereafter referred to as climate duel), which was implemented in a field study and tested to assess its potential as a supporting and transformative approach in a university context.

A three-month field study was conducted with two universities of applied sciences. The study included an environmental impact analysis of the two participating university departments, the conception and testing of the intervention and associated surveys to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention in order to and to obtain feedback that would allow the duel to be scaled up at other universities or institutions.

Three hundred seventy-five people took part and saved 2.6 tons of greenhouse gas emissions through their participation in the climate duel and their corresponding behavioural changes. In addition, feedback from the participants yielded positive results in terms of behavioural changes and generated valuable evidence for future implementations. Nevertheless, there is still room for improvement, especially in terms of supporting communication activities that promote social relatedness to motivate each other, share experiences or deal with implementation difficulties in everyday life.

Building on the promising effects of gamification, the study is a showcase for applied science. With the possibility of testing a theory-based intervention in practice, an implementable, effective and scalable measure for universities that helps to accelerate the transformation process is available.

The design of cantilever pile walls (CPWs) presents several common challenges. These challenges include soil variability, groundwater conditions, complex loading conditions, construction considerations, structural integrity, uncertainties in design parameters and construction and monitoring costs. Accordingly, this paper is to provide a detailed literature review on the design criteria of CPWs, specifically in cohesionless soil. This study aims to present a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge in this area.

The paper uses a literature review approach to gather information on the design criteria of CPWs in cohesionless soil. It covers various aspects such as excavation support systems (ESSs), deformation behavior, design criteria, lateral earth pressure calculation theories, load distribution methods and conventional design approaches.

The review identifies and discusses common challenges associated with the design of CPWs in cohesionless soil. It highlights the uncertainties in determining load distribution and the potential for excessive wall deformations. The paper presents various approaches and methodologies proposed by researchers to address these challenges.

The paper contributes to the field of geotechnical engineering by providing a valuable resource for geotechnical engineers and researchers involved in the design and analysis of CPWs in cohesionless soil. It offers insights into the design criteria, challenges and potential solutions specific to CPWs in cohesionless soil, filling a gap in the existing knowledge base. The paper draws attention to the limitations of existing analytical methods that neglect the serviceability limit state and assume rigid plastic soil behavior, highlighting the need for improved design approaches in this context.

Exoskeletons are moving into industries with the potential to reduce muscle strains and prevent occupational injuries. Although exoskeletons have been designed and tested in laboratory settings, rare empirical studies of their application in construction have been reported. Therefore, the purpose of this study is on in a real-life setting testing the applicability of adopting exoskeletons in the construction industry.

A feasibility study of exoskeletons in construction is conducted by testing a passive exoskeleton, designed for shoulder support. Five bricklayers tested in a two-month period the exoskeleton, each wearing it for a three-day period while carrying out normal work activities. Test data in terms of interviews were collected and analyzed using qualitative content analysis.

The application of exoskeletons in construction revealed several limitations, where the two primary ones are the exoskeleton is not designed while considering the tasks of a bricklayer causing several challenges and the exoskeleton only supports a single upward motion while limiting other movements and even counteracted when a downward movement was necessary.

The identified challenges could easily have been revealed by coupling the design and testing of exoskeletons to actual application. Thus, the design approach needs to be reversed. Instead of designing an exoskeleton to support a specific body part or motion and then identifying where it is applicable, it should target specific industries and focus on the actual work and movements and the necessary support. As part of the change, the design metrics should be reevaluated to reflect the work to support.

This research investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the use of transitional spaces in a Korean academic setting, to assess the impact of the pandemic on users' utilization of transitional spaces and evaluate any changes in their usage patterns. The research explores whether transitional spaces can function as social interactive spaces, aligning with Ray Oldenburg's “third-place” theory. The focus is on South Korean academic settings, aiming to create neutral and safe zones for users.

The adopted methodology involves reviewing the literature and employing design charrette as a major data collection tool. The design charrette provided a platform for users to share insights on current transitional spaces during the pandemic and envision these spaces as future social and interactive spaces.

The design charrette participants advocated for modifying the current transitional space design to transform these spaces into shared spaces for both visitors and regular users in the future. Restricting access for external users to the main building area until necessary. The significance of site amenities in determining transitional spaces as “third-places” was emphasized. While the nature of the building, its location and transitional space amenities are crucial aspects to consider, designers may prioritize user opinions and preferences, as the success or failure of the design ultimately centers on user behaviors.

The research focused on a specific university, hindered by limited access to other institutions during the pandemic. Restrictions on external users discouraged entry without proper permission, which was challenging to obtain. The conventional design charrette outlined in the research method was impossible due to pandemic-related limitations on gathering participants in one location. Therefore, the researcher modified the design charrette method to align with strict social distancing measures.

The results of the research are not limited to academic settings, but they can be implied in other environments where social interaction spaces are required and where there is a constant flow of visitors and regular users. The design charrette can be used as a methodology for interior spaces along with large-scale projects of urban planning.

The research analyzed transitional spaces during the pandemic, suggesting redesign to serve and act as buffer zones between private and public areas and become a common social gathering place for visitors and regular users within the built environment.