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Across the world, many universities are dealing with a pressure on resources, caused by both organisational developments and ageing campuses. Space utilization studies have a strategic role, providing information on how space is being used, thereby informing decisions about the type and scale of facilities that are needed.

This study reports on the space use measurements conducted at TU Delft over the past five years, complemented by their use to make decisions about the university's real estate portfolio.

The education spaces of the university are found to perform well in terms of frequency rates and can be improved in terms of occupancy rates. The information helped to support short- and long-term decision-making. The study places of the university have a satisfactory occupancy in some types of study places, while in others there is room for improvement. More research is needed here to understand the relationship between space norms and space use.

The space utilization studies have supported discussions with the student council and decision makers on which interventions are required and which current facilities meet students' needs best.

Not much space utilisation studies are reported in the academic literature, and those that do have several limitations. This study may serve as a best practice for benchmarking by other universities and as evidence in other research for the planned and actual use of university facilities.

The use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in the Netherlands is increasing. Studies show that BIM is mainly used in the lifecycle stages of initiation, development and realisation. Owners and operators are presumably yet to discover the added value of BIM for maintenance and information management within their organisations. The purpose of this paper is to investigate information management during the operations stage from the viewpoint of owners and determines the added value of BIM within this growing field of construction.

This research is based on a literature review, explorative interviews and process modelling. In total, 21 semi-structured interviews were conducted among public real estate and infrastructure owners and operators, software companies, service providers and contractors.

This paper provides empirical insights into the sources of inefficiency and ineffectiveness in the activities of Dutch semi-public and public clients. It finds that the current added value of BIM in the operations stage is marginal. The main reasons for this are a lack of alignment between the supply of and demand for information and the context-dependent role of information.

The authors propose a structured approach that supports client organisations in establishing greater alignment between the supply of and demand for information, and a less context-dependent role for information during the operations stage.

In contrast to previous studies, this paper offers a new perspective on BIM in the operations stage, a growing field of interest in practice and science.

This paper aims to report an analysis of the graphical representations of 14 corporate real estate (CRE) models. It does this to establish the systematic, metatheoretical requirements for modelling CRE alignment which to date have been disguised in a multitude of models.

This meta study of CRE alignment models used a qualitative hermeneutic method to inductively develop understanding of the models’ constituent parts. Several iterations of graphical and textual analysis were required to do this. Further deductive analysis sought to understand the individual models relative to this new understanding.

The analysis showed that a total of 12 components have been used to model CRE alignment. These are divided into four Building Blocks: understanding corporate strategy; understanding real estate performance; making real estate strategy; and implementing real estate strategy. While every model’s representation contained the four Building Blocks, few models contained all 12 components, though all contained at least seven. Completeness of representation in this study should not be inferred as equating to effectiveness as an alignment process. Various feedback mechanisms were also evident between the components.

The analysis provides the most complete map of the modelling requirements for CRE alignment. It differs from previous theoretical work on alignment by synthesising a metatheory of alignment representation. By providing a more coherent theory by which to model CRE alignment the metatheory provides a consistent basis on which to investigate and theorise aspects of CRE alignment.

The purpose of this research is to investigate a new approach with its supporting building information modelling (BIM) + augmented reality (AR) tool to enhance architectural visualisation in building life cycle. Traditional approaches to visualise architectural design concentrate on static pictures or three-dimensional (3D) scale models which cause problems, such as expensive design evolution, lack of stakeholders’ communication and limited reusability. The 3D animated fly-throughs still occur on a computer screen in two-dimensions and seem cold and mechanical, unless done with advanced production software.

The method of this research included case study and interview. It was, first, stated, from the building process perspective, how the BIM + AR for Architectural Visualisation System (BAAVS) was realised by integrating two types of visualisation techniques: BIM and AR, and four stages of building life cycle. Then the paper demonstrated four case studies to validate the BAAVS. Finally, four interviews were made with each case manager and team members to collect feedback on utilising BAAVS technology. Questions were asked in the areas of benefits, drawbacks and technical limitations with respect to BAAVS.

Feedback from the stakeholders involved in the four cases indicated that BAAVS was useful and efficient to visualise architectural design and communicate with each other.

This paper demonstrates BAAVS that integrated BIM and AR into architectural visualisation. The system supports an innovative performance that allows: designers to put virtual building scheme in physical environment; owners to gain an immersive and interactive experience; and property sellers to communicate with customers efficiently.

This paper aims to explore the meaning of smart office environments from a user perspective by investigating user preferences and expectations.

Eleven semi-structured interviews with the users after moving into a smart office building of a Dutch Municipality and an observation as complementary data were conducted. The data were analysed based on the grounded theory and thematic analysis, combining a reflexive approach to the literature review.

Two main themes were revealed addressing user expectations and preferences for smart office environments: “enhanced interaction” with the social and physical office environment and “sense-making” of the smart concept (or smartness). Within these themes, basic and smart office aspects were identified and classified based on their association with smart office concepts or technology.

The findings reveal the meaning of the smart office concepts from a user perspective by highlighting the importance of user experience on enhanced interaction and sense-making of the smart office concept, equipped with basic and smart aspects.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to qualitatively examine drivers underlying the meaning of smart office concepts from a user point of view. Organisations, environmental psychologists, designers and managers can use the findings of this study to develop guidelines for a successful smart office design.