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In New Zealand, building information modelling (BIM) prevalence is still in its early stages and faces many challenges. This research aims to develop a BIM adoption framework to determine the key factors affecting the success of a BIM project.

Both primary and secondary data were employed in this research, including 21 semi-structured interviews and industry guidelines from the three most well-known global building excellence models (BEMs). The data were analysed through content analysis due to its recognised benefits as a transparent and reliable approach.

Leadership, clients and other stakeholders, strategic planning, people, resources, process and results were identified as seven main categories along with 39 indicators in the BIM adoption framework. Based on the interviewees' perspectives, leadership is considered the most significant category, impacting all of the remaining categories.

Using the developed framework will enhance comprehension of BIM, offering directives for those embracing BIM. This will aid construction stakeholders in being better equipped for BIM projects. Having a skilled BIM manager can lead to the success of construction projects.

This research contributed to the existing body of knowledge by providing the categories with specific factors that assist BIM practitioners in assessing their BIM performance for further BIM practice improvement.

Given the distinct and unique climates in these countries, research conducted in other parts of the world may not be directly applicable. Therefore, it is crucial to conduct research tailored to the specific climatic conditions of Australia and New Zealand to ensure accuracy and relevance.

Given population growth, urban expansions and predicted climate change, researchers should provide a deeper understanding of microclimatic conditions and outdoor thermal comfort in Australia and New Zealand. The study’s objectives can be classified into three categories: (1) to analyze previous research works on urban microclimate and outdoor thermal comfort in Australia and New Zealand; (2) to highlight the gaps in urban microclimate studies and (3) to provide a summary of recommendations for the neglected but critical aspects of urban microclimate.

The findings of this study indicate that, despite the various climate challenges in these countries, there has been limited investigation. According to the selected papers, Melbourne has the highest number of microclimatic studies among various cities. It is a significant area for past researchers to examine people’s thermal perceptions in residential areas during the summer through field measurements and surveys. An obvious gap in previous research is investigating the impacts of various urban contexts on microclimatic conditions through software simulations over the course of a year and considering the predicted future climate changes in these countries.

This paper aims to review existing studies in these countries, provide a foundation for future research, identify research gaps and highlight areas requiring further investigation.

This paper aims to investigate the optimization of window and shading designs to reduce the building energy consumption of a standard office room while improving occupants' comfort in Tehran and Auckland.

The NSGA-II algorithm, as a multi-objective optimization method, is applied in this study. First, a comparison of the effects of each variable on all objectives in both cities is conducted. Afterwards, the optimal solutions and the most undesirable scenarios for each city are presented for architects and decision-makers to select or avoid.

The results indicate that, in both cities, the number of slats and their distance from the wall are the most influential variables for shading configurations. Additionally, occupants' thermal comfort in Auckland is much better than in Tehran, while the latter city can receive more daylight. Furthermore, the annual energy use in Tehran can be significantly reduced by using a proper shading device and window-to-wall ratio (WWR), while building energy consumption, especially heating, is negligible in Auckland.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that compares the differences in window and shading design between two cities, Tehran and Auckland, with similar latitudes but located in different hemispheres. The outcomes of this study can benefit two groups: firstly, architects and decision-makers can choose an appropriate WWR and shading to enhance building energy efficiency and occupants' comfort. Secondly, researchers who want to study window and shading systems can implement this approach for different climates.

This study aims to identify the primary research areas of modern methods of construction (MMC) along with its current trends and developments.

A combination of bibliometric and qualitative analysis is adopted to examine 1,957 MMC articles in the Scopus database. With the support of CiteSpace 6.1.R6, the clusters, leading authors, journals, institutions and countries in the field of MMC are examined.

Offsite construction, inter-modular connections, augmenting output, prefabricated concrete beams and earthquake-resilient prefabricated beam–column steel joints are the top five research areas in MMC. Among them, offsite construction and inter-modular connections are significantly focused, with many research articles. The potential for collaboration, among prominent authors such as Wang, J., Liu, Y. and Wang, Y., explains the recent rapid growth of the MMC field of research. With a total of 225 articles, Engineering Structures is the journal that has published the most articles on MMC. China is the leading country in this field, and the Ministry of Education China is the top institution in MMC.

The findings of this study bear significant implications for stakeholders in academia and industry alike. In academia, these insights allow researchers to identify research gaps and foster collaboration, steering efforts toward innovative and impactful outcomes. For industries using MMC practices, the clarity provided on MMC techniques facilitates the efficient adoption of best practices, thereby promoting collaboration, innovation and global problem-solving within the construction field.

To maximise acoustic comfort in a classroom, the acoustic conditions of the space should be variable. So, the optimal acoustic state also changes when the classroom changes from a study environment into a lecture environment. Passive Variable Acoustic Technology (PVAT) alters a room’s Reverberation Time (RT) by changing the total sound absorption in a room. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the improvements to classroom acoustic comfort when using PVAT.

The study is conducted in an existing tertiary classroom at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. The PVAT is prototyped, and the RTs are measured according to international standards before and after classroom installation. The acoustic measurement method used is a cost-effective application tool where pre- and post-conditions are of primary concern.

PVAT is found to offer statistically significant improvements in RT, but the key benefits are realised in its’ ability to vary RT for different classroom situations. It is predicted that the RT recommendations for two room types outlined in the acoustic standard AS/NZS 2107:2016 are satisfied when using PVAT in a single classroom space. By optimising RT, the acoustic comfort during both study and lecture is significantly improved.

When PVAT is combined with an intelligent system – Intelligent Passive Room Acoustic Technology (IPRAT) – it can detect sound waves in real time to identify the optimal RT. This paper details a pilot case study that works towards quantifying the benefits of IPRAT, by prototyping and testing the PVAT component of the system.

1. A pilot case study outlines the development and test of a variable acoustic prototype in a tertiary classroom

2. A method is adopted to measure acoustic conditions, using three under-researched Android applications

3. The benefits of PVAT are realised in its ability to vary RT by adjusting the prototypes’ sound absorption

4. By using PVAT in a single space, the recommended RTs for two room types outlined in the acoustic standard AS/NZS 2107:2016 can be satisfied

5. The improvements in acoustic comfort due to PVAT are statistically significant

A pilot case study outlines the development and test of a variable acoustic prototype in a tertiary classroom

A method is adopted to measure acoustic conditions, using three under-researched Android applications

The benefits of PVAT are realised in its ability to vary RT by adjusting the prototypes’ sound absorption

By using PVAT in a single space, the recommended RTs for two room types outlined in the acoustic standard AS/NZS 2107:2016 can be satisfied

The improvements in acoustic comfort due to PVAT are statistically significant

Passive design strategies contribute to improving indoor comfort conditions and reducing buildings' energy consumption. For several years, courtyards have received wide attention from researchers because of their significant role in reducing energy demand. However, the abundance of multi-story buildings and the courtyards' incompatibility with them, the courtyard is currently limited. Therefore, it is necessary to search for alternatives. This paper aims to bridge the gaps in previous limited studies considering skycourt as a passive alternative on the vertical plane of the facades in contrast to the courtyard.

This research presents an overview and a bibliometric analysis of the evolution of the courtyard to the skycourt via VOSviewer software and the bibliometrix R package.

The research provided various concepts related to skycourt as a promising passive design strategy, which can be suitable for multi-story buildings, starting with its evolution, characteristics, configurations, benefits, and challenges.

The findings can urge designers, researchers and policymakers to incorporate such an important passive alternative.

Researchers, instructors, educational specialists, faculty members, and decision-makers can provide design motivation for skycourt in buildings, in addition to achieving awareness about skycourt and its significant benefits and its role as an important passive design strategy.

The research highlights the possibilities of the skycourt and its role as a passive design element as an extension of the courtyard in addition to identifying design indicators that help designers determine the appropriate designs.

In Hong Kong, over 20,000 private residential buildings will be 50 plus years old by 2039. However, building maintenance has not been owners’ popular interest because of the high cost as well as the complexities in justifying whether the quantities and prices of the maintenance works are reasonable. This paper therefore aims to validate the practicality of adopting Scan-to-BIM: Terrestrial Laser Scan (TLS) and Building Information Modelling (BIM) to perform quantity take-offs (QTO) for estimating building maintenance costs.

A 64-year-old tenement building was selected to conduct a case study. In this instance, the building had undergone a Scan-to-BIM survey approach to generate QTO for the bills of quantities for external painting works. The Scan-to-BIM approach includes site visit, positioning of scanning equipment, assignment of circular scan routes, point cloud registration and identification of residual error. After that, time, cost and quality data were logged into contrast with QTO on as-built plans for external wall plastering works.

The “time”, “cost” and “quality” of the Scan-to BIM practice were then examined and compared with the prevailing practices of manual measurements on as-built drawings. As noted from the results, the initial cost of Scan-to BIM is high, owing to the cost of equipment, software and capable available operators. However, the authors identified that the time and cost can be significantly minimised by developing and implementing efficient practices such as preparing a detailed scan plan, equipping modeller with quantity surveying knowledge, using automated object recognition and 5D BIM software packages such as Vico Office and CostX.

The upshot is that Scan-to-BIM could be one of the measures to advance the clarity in the QTO and estimated price of the maintenance projects.

The practicability of Scan-to-BIM has received limited attention on existing building maintenance project. The Scan-to-BIM approach was examined using a case building of a 64-year-old tenement building. The approach demonstrated in this research study is promised to advance the clarity in the QTO and estimated price of maintenance project.

Architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) is an important industry worldwide and one of the largest economic sectors in several developing countries, particularly in Iran. The Iranian AEC sector suffers from low productivity and needs to adopt building information modeling (BIM) to reduce inefficiencies. Therefore, this paper was conducted to identify the BIM barriers and propose practical solutions to overcome them in Iran.

A comprehensive literature review, two rounds of the Delphi technique and semi-structured interviews with 12 Iranian experts in the AEC sector were conducted. The data were analyzed using the mean score, standard deviation and nonparametric tests.

The present study identified 26 BIM barriers in the Iranian AEC community and provided practical strategies for improving BIM adoption. The identified barriers were categorized into six main groups including source barriers, financial barriers, unawareness barriers, organizational barriers, regulatory barriers and market-demand barriers. The main three BIM barriers in Iran were the lack of government intervention, change-resistant and the gap between industry and academia. Kruskal–Wallis tests revealed that there are no statistically significant differences in perceptions of BIM barriers between respondents. The Mann–Whitney test indicated that there is no statistically significant difference in perceptions between engineers and architects except for one.

There are few studies on BIM adoption across developing countries, particularly in Iran. Moreover, the results can also be used in other developing nations with similar conditions.

The present study investigates human behavioral and emotional experiences based on human-built environment interaction with a specific interest in urban graffiti displaying fear and pleasure-inducing facial expressions. Regarding human behavioral and emotional experience, two questions are asked for the outcome of human responses and two hypotheses are formulated. H1 is based on the behavioral experience and posits that the urban graffiti displaying fear and pleasure-inducing facial expressions elicit specified behavioral fear and pleasure responses. H2 is based on emotional experience and states that the urban graffiti displaying fear and pleasure-inducing facial expressions elicit specified emotional fear and pleasure responses.

The research design is developed as a multi-method approach, applying a lab-based experimental strategy (N:39). The research equipment includes a mobile electroencephalogram (EEG) and a Virtual Reality (VR) headset. The behavioral and emotional human responses concerning the representational features of urban graffiti are assessed objectively by measuring physiological variables, EEG signals and subjectively by behavioral variables, systematic behavioral observation and self-report variables, Self-assessment Manikin (SAM) questionnaire. Additionally, correlational analyses between behavioral and emotional results are performed.

The findings of behavioral and emotional evaluations and correlational results show that specialized fear and pleasure response patterns occur due to the affective characteristics of the urban graffiti's representational features, supporting our hypotheses. As a result, the characteristics of behavioral fear and pleasure response and emotional fear and pleasure response are identified.

The present paper contributes to the literature on human-built environment interactions by using physiological, behavioral and self-report measurements as indicators of human behavioral and emotional experiences. Additionally, the literature on urban graffiti is expanded by studying the representational features of urban graffiti as a parameter of investigating human experience in the built environment.

This study aims to build on a contextualised approach for revealing the particularities of social sustainability indicators on the building scale within the particular context of Jordan, focusing on the buildings of the Dahiyat Al Hussein suburb.

This study relied on a review of the relevant previous research as well as global, regional and local rating tools, followed by working with a diversified participant base comprising experts as well as users through Delphi rounds and analytic hierarchy process-based assessments.

This study resulted in several key indicators that were classified into three main categories: environmental friendliness, comfort and convenience and social blend. It resembled a step on the path towards the standardisation of context-specific social sustainability indicators, an effort that would be further supported by future research addressing other development within Jordan.

The sustainability debate has, for long, acquired the undivided attention of its key stakeholders. With the continuous rise of global attention, the conceptualisation of sustainability has grown more specialised in both function and scale, and sustainable measures have been developed at the macro and micro levels. With the further spread of the concept, recognition of its contextual differences between various countries became more vivid, where the social dimension attains particular importance.