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Despite the number of quality management procedures being currently applied, construction defects in the domestic sector are acknowledged to contribute to the energy performance gap of buildings. This paper investigates the limitations and challenges to the implementation of project quality plans (PQPs) and their impact on the achievement of expected thermal performance in the UK social housing projects.

A qualitative approach, guided by grounded theory, was used in this research. This methodology provided the structure for systematic data analysis iterations, enabling cross-case analysis. An analytic induction process was designed to seek the explanation of the targeted phenomenon and required data collection until no new ideas and concepts emerged from the research iterations. This study collected data from five social housing projects through interviews, site observations and project documentation.

Multiple limitations and challenges were identified in the implementation of PQP to deliver thermal efficient social housing. Generally, there is the need for more objective quality compliance procedures based on required evidence. When investigating the root of the challenges, it was concluded that the adoption of statutory approval as the main quality compliance procedure led to the dilution of the responsibility for prevention and appraisal of defects that compromised the effectiveness of PQP devised by housing associations (HA) and contractors.

This study identifies the shortcomings of PQP in addressing quality issues with potential to undermine the thermal performance of social housing projects. The findings could be used by HA, contractors and policymakers as steppingstones to improve the energy efficiency in the domestic sector.

The practice of the defects liability period (DLP) is a risk management strategy meant to secure durable and high-quality works. However, construction products continue to malfunction even after the expiration of DLPs. This study seeks to determine the adequacy of DLPs existing in the construction industry and propose appropriate DLPs for construction projects in the Ghanaian construction industry.

Applying quantitative research strategy, 124 questionnaires were retrieved from construction professionals surveyed. The data obtained were analysed using descriptive statistics, Cramer’s V and the significance test with the aid of Stata software.

It was found that defects start showing in both buildings and roads within 12 months after being handed over for the client’s use. The significance test and Cramer’s V analysis indicate low concordance amongst respondents that the 6–12 month DLPs existing in Ghana are adequate. It is found that the existing DLP practice does not provide sufficient security to clients.

Construction project clients will need to include the tenderer’s proposed DLP as part of the tender evaluation criteria with the objective of picking up a signal of the quality of work to be delivered.

This paper is one of the pioneering studies addressing the issue of the adequacy of DLPs in the construction industry in the Sub-Saharan Africa region. The findings trigger policy and regulatory changes in conditions guiding construction contracts procured in most developing countries that have adopted and adapted to the World Bank Public Procurement Guidelines.

Operation and maintenance (O&M) processes projects such as identification, assessment, planning and execution, embody a variety of standards such as technical (method of statement), environmental, economic (campus development) and social (health and wellbeing). Because these standards have proven to be challenging to integrate, local governments are increasingly experimenting with social innovation (SI) as a bottom-up form of standard integration. This study aims to apply the concept of SI to the O&M processes of facilities management at polytechnics in Malaysia to identify problems with conventional working practices in this area and to recommend potential solutions.

The paper reviews evidence that conventional working methods generate significant problems related to paper-based forms, improper database management and flawed decision-making processes. Because of the lack knowledge about different ways of how standard integration is achieved, the comparison of three polytechnic institutions which are Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and Southern Polytechnic College of Engineering and Engineering Technology (SPCEET) in USA as well as Seberang Perai Polytechnic, Pulau Pinang (PSP) in Malaysia shares the ambition to realise standard integration of O&M through SI.

The findings reveal that SI leads to four ways of standard integration: computerised maintenance management system, online customer complaint, electronic form and relational database. Application of the concept of SI reveals the need for more sophisticated management solutions in the O&M processes of facilities management.

These standard integration arrangements unfortunately seem to mainly contribute to greater alignment between standard rather than true standard integration. The concept of SI will guide future improvements and developments in maintenance management systems to fulfil requirements in this area.

This study draws on neoclassical and behavioural economics theories to provide an empirical insight into the effect of knowledge, costs, and social norms on damp-proofing residential buildings in Ghana.

This study used the quantitative approach involving survey data. A sample size of 242 participants was involved in the study. Applying principal component analysis on the responses from the participants, an index for damp-proofing, cost, knowledge, and social norms was derived. After generating the indexes, the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression was applied to estimate the impact of knowledge, costs, and social norms on damp-proofing.

The results from the OLS regression revealed that knowledge has a significant positive effect on damp-proofing while costs and social norms have significant negative effect on damp-proofing in Ghana. This study, therefore, concludes that although neoclassical economic factors such as knowledge and cost affect behaviour (damp-proofing), behavioural factors such as social norms also matter.

The outcome of this study calls for policymakers to consider putting in place measures that increase knowledge and promote the use of damp-proofing techniques during the construction of buildings. In addition, the study calls for scholars to partake in collaborative research amongst disciplines such as economics, psychology, and the construction industry in order to provide more innovative solutions, the key of which is finding innovative ways to damp proof buildings.

This study is original in its context as it draws on neoclassical and behavioural economics theories to provide an empirical insight into the effect of knowledge, costs, and social norms on damp-proofing of residential buildings in Ghana. This is an area that has received less attention in the areas of building biology and building pathology globally.

The aim of this paper is to develop a framework to enhance building maintainability through facilitating early suppliers’ involvement (ESI) in the design process.

A research methodology consisting of literature review, case studies and survey questionnaire was designed to achieve the above-mentioned aim. Firstly, literature review was used to examine the concepts of building maintenance, maintainability, the design process and ESI. Secondly, three case studies were presented and analysed to investigate the role of ESI towards enhancing building maintainability during the design process. Thirdly, a survey questionnaire was carried out with a representative sample of architectural design firms (ADFs) in Egypt to investigate their perception and application of ESI towards enhancing building maintainability during the design process. Finally, the research developed a framework to facilitate ESI in the design process in ADFs in Egypt.

Through literature review, the research highlighted the relationship between ESI and enhancing building maintainability and identified the roles, benefits, challenges and that encounter ESI in ADFs, factors for suppliers selection and levels of involvement. Results of the data analysis showed that “Difficulty of trusting external parties and sharing information with transparency” was ranked the highest challenge of ESI in ADFs in Egypt, followed by “Legal competitive advantage restrictions”. Moreover, “Better estimation for operation and maintenance costs” was ranked the highest contributions of ESI towards enhancing building maintainability, followed by “Reduce the number of operation and maintenance problems or reworks”. Finally, respondents stated that “Innovation, technical expertise, and competence” was ranked the highest supplier’s selection criteria, while “paying consultation fees for offering advice and recommendations to the design team” was ranked the highest form of supplier’s remuneration.

The proposed framework contributes to the body of knowledge through proposing five functions that aimed to facilitate ESI in the design process, a research area that received scant attention in construction research. In addition, because of the conceptual nature of the framework, it has to be validated to ensure its capability to overcome the challenges of ESI as an approach for enhancing building maintainability during the design process.

This research presents a practical solution that bridges the gap between theory and practice through overcoming the challenges that obstruct suppliers from being involved in the design process as an approach for enhancing building maintainability.

This research discussed the relationship between ESI and enhancing building maintainability as well as the roles, benefits and challenges that encounter ESI in ADFs. In addition, the research investigated the levels of suppliers’ involvement, selection criteria and forms of payment. Moreover, it investigated the perception and application of ESI in ADFs in Egypt towards improving building maintainability. The research proposed a framework to facilitate the integration of suppliers in the early stages of the project life cycle. It represents a synthesis that is novel and creative in thought and adds value to the knowledge in a manner that has not previously occurred.

This paper seeks to establish design quality indicators (DQIs) that can be utilized for assessing the design of community centers, with an emphasis on the technical, functional, and behavioral performance domains.

A comprehensive literature review resulted in identifying 79 DQIs for community centers. A three round Delphi evaluation approach was utilized to rate the importance of the DQIs through their relative importance index (RII) values. The assessment of the DQIs involved a diverse group of stakeholders including facilities managers, architects/engineers (A/Es), community centers’ staff, and regular visitors of community centers.

The majority of the established DQIs were considered to be either “Very Important” or “Important”.

The established DQIs can be utilized to identify best practices in the design of community centers and benchmark the performance of different community centers.

The design quality of community centers could significantly impact the community's quality of life and user experience. The development of DQIs provides for enhanced accountability and improved service delivery for the communities they serve. This enables community centers to be more effective, efficient, and responsive to the needs of the users they support.

This study describes how maintenance capability should be created during the design and construction phases of construction projects. Purpose of the abstract to define the elements for creating the maintenance capability and the process to be used in construction life cycle projects for buildings.

An inductive and qualitative research method was used to construct the proposed process based on the literature and 18 interviews in two large construction companies.

The results indicate that the maintenance phase is usually overlooked during the design and construction phases, and capabilities are not systematically built. In particular, processes are lacking in data management, causing severe problems in maintenance.

This study presents a process including key requirements and activities for creating maintenance capability in conjunction with the design and construction phases, which is novel to the literature. The validated process can be adapted based on the needs of the construction company.

Heating, ventilating, air-conditioning and cooling (HVAC) systems are crucial in daily health-care facility services. Design-related defects can lead to maintenance issues, causing service disruptions and cost overruns. These defects can be avoided if a link between the early design stages and maintenance feedback is established. This study aims to use experts’ experience in HVAC maintenance in health-care facilities to list and evaluate the risk of each maintenance issue caused by a design defect, supported by the literature.

Following semistructured interviews with experts, 41 maintenance issues were identified as the most encountered issues. Subsequently, a survey was conducted in which 44 participants evaluated the probability and impact of each design-caused issue.

Chillers were identified as the HVAC components most prone to design defects and cost impact. However, air distribution ducts and air handling units are the most critical HVAC components for maintaining healthy conditions inside health-care facilities.

The unavailability of comprehensive data on the cost impacts of all design-related defects from multiple health-care facilities limits the ability of HVAC designers to furnish case studies and quantitative approaches.

This study helps HVAC designers acquire prior knowledge of decisions that may have led to unnecessary and avoidable maintenance. These design-related maintenance issues may cause unfavorable health and cost consequences.

This paper aims to investigate the theoretical and practical links between digital twin (DT) application in heritage facilities management (HFM) from a life cycle management perspective and to signpost the future development directions of DT in HFM.

This state-of-the-art review was conducted using a systematic literature review method. Inclusive and exclusive criteria were identified and used to retrieve relevant literature from renowned literature databases. Shortlisted publications were analysed using the VOSviewer software and then critically reviewed to reveal the status quo of research in the subject area.

The review results show that DT has been mainly adopted to support decision-making on conservation approach and method selection, performance monitoring and prediction, maintenance strategies design and development, and energy evaluation and management. Although many researchers attempted to develop DT models for part of a heritage building at component or system level and test the models using real-life cases, their works were constrained by availability of empirical data. Furthermore, data capture approaches, data acquisition methods and modelling with multi-source data are found to be the existing challenges of DT application in HFM.

In a broader sense, this study contributes to the field of engineering, construction and architectural management by providing an overview of how DT has been applied to support management activities throughout the building life cycle. For the HFM practice, a DT-cum-heritage building information modelling (HBIM) framework was developed to illustrate how DT can be integrated with HBIM to facilitate future DT application in HFM. The overall implication of this study is that it reveals the potential of heritage DT in facilitating HFM in the urban development context.

The aim of the research presented in this paper is to provide information on the common problems of healthy homes in the context of architectural design deficiencies. Especially because determining the status of a healthy house is particularly challenging if the design is poor.

Qualitative methods, i.e. interviews, site visits and graphic elicitation diagramming were used in two different stages of data collection. They were then analysed using thematic analysis.

The findings show that the architectural elements can have positive or negative effects on the health and safe environments. The quantity of doors and the use of transparent glass have largely contributed to the thermal transmission and increased indoor temperatures. The roof aluminium sheets and absence of vents inhibited indoor heat loss. This has led to discomfort and overuse of air-conditioning units, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic where most households stayed/worked from home. The inappropriate height of the ceiling and roof made it challenging for maintenance purpose, reducing safety levels, which could result in physical injuries.

The concept of healthy homes is not new. Studies have been conducted in Western countries and in the field of healthcare. However, there is lack of study in built environment particularly in developing countries and inadequate inter-disciplinary and empirical research to connect the healthcare field. The pervasive and recurring design deficiencies in the construction industry remain a source of unhealthy homes, which must be addressed. Future investigations are necessary to expand the conclusions that can be drawn from this paper for health equity within the society and nation.