Search results

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the current market development of Energy Performance Contracting (EnPC) in Hong Kong and Taiwan, focussing on four key aspects: first, the potential building energy retrofits as an investment for future savings; second, the motivations for building owners toward the use of EnPC; third, the reasons for building owners not using EnPC; and fourth, the different approaches of Hong Kong and Taiwanese governments toward the promotion of EnPC.

A dual-questionnaire survey was conducted both in Hong Kong and Taiwan, where the same set of questionnaire was sent to the key personnel of the energy services companies (ESCOs) in both regions as identified from the latest member lists of representative trade associations, supplement with 11 structured interviews.

Apart from explainable differences, the results show the top rankings by the respondents of Hong Kong and Taiwan as follows: “Potential retrofit works” including lighting replacement with efficient fluorescent and light emitting diode lamps and improvement of air-con system. “EnPC Motivations” including owners’ lack of upfront capital and use of energy savings for other purposes may yield better returns; ESCOs’ provision of turnkey services. “Reasons not considering EnPC” including worry about its complexities; lack of familiarity with EnPC and long payback periods. As for promotional efforts for EnPC, the Taiwan government has taken more initiatives to foster its use both technically and financially.

This study identifies market-related motivators and deterrents as experienced by ESCOs in implementing EnPC projects in two developed Asian economies.

This study provides insightful information for the stakeholders about the latest market development of EnPC in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Index by subjects, compiled by K.G.B. Bakewell covering the following journals: Facilities Volumes 8‐18; Journal of Property Investment & Finance Volumes 8‐18; Property Management Volumes 8‐18; Structural Survey Volumes 8‐18.

The purpose of this paper is to present a pedagogical practice in the project-based assessment of architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) students’ interdisciplinary building design work adopting BIM. This pedagogical practice emphasizes the impacts of BIM, as the digital collaboration platform, on the cross-disciplinary teamwork design through information sharing. This study also focuses on collecting students’ perceptions of building information modeling (BIM) effects in integrated project design. Challenges in BIM adoption from AEC students’ perspective were identified and discussed, and could spark further research needs.

Based on a thorough review of previous pedagogical practices of applying BIM in multiple AEC disciplines, this study adopted a case study of the Solar Decathlon (SD) residential building design as the group project for AEC students to deliver the design work and construction planning. In total 13 different teams within the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, each group consisting of final year undergraduate students with backgrounds in architecture, civil engineering, and architectural environmental engineering, worked to deliver the detailed design of the solar-powered residential house meeting pre-specified project objectives in terms of architectural esthetics, structural integrity, energy efficiency, prefabrication construction techniques and other issues such as budget and scheduling. Each team presented the cross-disciplinary design plan with cost estimate and construction scheduling together within group reports. This pedagogical study collected students’ reflective thinking on how BIM affected their design work, and compared their feedback on BIM to that from AEC industry professionals in previous studies.

The case study of the SD building project showed the capacity of BIM in enabling interdisciplinary collaboration through information exchange and in enhancing communication across different AEC fields. More sustainable design options were considered in the early architectural design stages through the cross-disciplinary cooperation between architecture and building services engineering. BIM motivated AEC student teams to have a more comprehensive design and construction plan by considering multiple criteria including energy efficiency, budget, and construction activities. Students’ reflections indicated both positive effects of BIM (e.g. facilitating information sharing) as well as challenges for further BIM implementation, for example, such as some architecture students’ resistance to BIM, and the lack of existing family types in the BIM library, etc.

Some limitations of the current BIM pedagogy were identified through the student group work. For example, students revealed the problem of interoperability between BIM (i.e. Autodesk Revit) and building energy simulation tools. To further integrate the university education and AEC industry practice, future BIM pedagogical work could recruit professionals and project stakeholders in the adopted case studies, for the purpose of providing professional advice on improving the constructability of the BIM-based design from student work.

To further integrate the university education and AEC industry practice, future BIM pedagogical work could recruit professionals and project stakeholders in the adopted case study, for the purpose of providing professional advice in improving the constructability of the BIM-based design from student work.

This work provides insights into the information technology applied in the AEC interdisciplinary pedagogy. Students gained the experience of a project-based collaboration and were equipped with BIM capabilities for future employment within the AEC job market. The integrated design approach was embedded throughout the team project process. Overall, this BIM pedagogical practice emphasized the link between academic activities and real-world industrial practice. The pedagogical experience gained in this BIM course could be expanded to future BIM education and research in other themes such as interoperability of building information exchange among different digital tools.

Building information modeling (BIM) is most often used for the construction of new buildings. By using BIM in such projects, collaboration among stakeholders in an architecture, engineering and construction project is improved. To even further improve collaboration, there is a move toward the production and usage of BIM standards in various countries. These are typically national documents, including guides, protocols, and mandatory regulations, that introduce guidelines about what information should be exchanged at what time between which partners and in what formats. If a nation or a construction team agrees on these guidelines, improved collaboration can come about on top of the collaboration benefits induced by the mere usage of BIM. This scenario might also be targeted for interventions in existing buildings. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

In this paper, the authors investigate the general content and usage of existing BIM standards for new constructions, describing specifications about BIM deliverable documents, modeling, and collaboration procedures. The authors suggest to what extent the content in the BIM standards can also be used for interventions in existing buildings. These suggestions rely heavily on literature study, supported by on-site use case experiences.

From this research, the authors can conclude that the existing standards give a solid basis for BIM collaboration in existing building interventions, but that they need to be extended in order to be of better use in any intervention project in an existing building. This extension should happen at: data modeling level: other kinds of data formats need to be considered, coming from terrestrial laser scanning and automatic digital photogrammetry tools; at data exchange level: exchange requirements should take explicit statements about modeling tolerances and levels of (un)certainty; and at process modeling level: business process models should include information exchange processes from the very start of the building survey (BIM→facility management→BIM or regular audit).

BIM environments are not often used to document existing buildings or interventions in existing buildings. The authors propose to improve the situation by using BIM standards and/or guidelines, and the authors give an initial overview of components that should be included in such a standard and/or guideline.

Despite several research efforts tackling construction project risks globally, tertiary education building projects are not devoid of experiencing risks with cascading effects on projects. In the past decades, there has been increasing application of linear assessments of risks in construction risk management practices. However, this study aims to assess the influence of risk factors on the success of tertiary education building projects using a structural equation modelling approach. This study will further reinforce the risk factors that require attention because risk factors are not linear but interdependent.

A quantitative research method was undertaken in this study, where data collection was achieved via a structured questionnaire survey. In total, 452 questionnaires were administered to client representatives, consultants and contractors involved in executing tertiary education building projects across five public tertiary education institutions in Ondo State, Nigeria. Of 452 questionnaires, 279 were found usable for the analysis, implying a response rate of 61.73%. The Cronbach α test, average variances extracted and composite reliabilities values show high reliability and internal consistency of the instrument used for data gathering. Furthermore, the study adopted percentile, mean, correlation, regression analysis and structural equation modelling for analyzing the data collected upon which the study’s inferences were based.

The study found that three out of six criteria for measuring the success of tertiary education building projects were significantly affected by risk factors while using the structural equation modelling technique. With this non-linear method of assessment, completion to time was significantly impacted by environmental risk factors. In addition, safety performance was also significantly influenced by logistic, environmental and legal risk factors; furthermore, logistics, design and environmental risks significantly affected profit. However, completion to cost, standard/quality and end-user satisfaction was not significantly affected by the risk factors in tertiary education building projects.

The quantitative data used for the analysis are limited to the tertiary education building projects from selected five tertiary education institutions in Ondo State; therefore, the results do not indicate all tertiary institutions in Nigeria. In addition, the findings are based on building projects that were procured through a competitive tendering arrangement only and thus considered a limitation for this study.

Not all the risks significantly influence the tertiary education building projects. Therefore, risk factors with a significant effect on the success indicators of tertiary education building projects should be prioritized for a successful project. While risk factors have not affected the completion to cost per se, the study implies that the resultant effect of risks on other success indicators could have a cascading effect on these projects in terms of cost and time overruns. These results may assist during the project risk management while also addressing complexity and uncertainty to avoid chaos in a tertiary education building projects.

The study found significant construction risk factors impacting the success of tertiary education building projects using a non-linear methodology, an extension beyond the usual linear method of assessment of risk impacts on the project performance.

Compiled by K.G.B. Bakewell covering the following journals published by MCB University Press: Facilities Volumes 8‐18; Journal of Property Investment & Finance Volumes 8‐18; Property Management Volumes 8‐18; Structural Survey Volumes 8‐18.

This paper intends to review and assess the factors influencing adaptive reuse of commercial projects, throughout their life cycle, in Saudi Arabia.

A mixed approach of literature review, pilot-testing and questionnaire survey was utilized to identify and assess the factors affecting adaptive reuse of commercial projects. Thirty-eight factors were identified and categorized under four groups, corresponding to the key phases of the project life cycle. The questionnaire survey was administered to a targeted group of 90 architecture/engineering, construction and facilities management (AEC/FM) practitioners of building adaptive reuse, in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. The relative importance index (RII) for each factor was calculated. Three levels of agreement, based on the ranking of the factors, among the respondents were determined.

The most important factors affecting adaptive reuse of commercial projects are: structural integrity of the building, municipal approval for the land use change, enforcement of safety procedures at the project site, compliance with health and safety measures and accuracy and completeness of the contract documents. A high level of agreement was observed among the three groups of respondents, on the ranking of the factors.

This research expands the body of knowledge, through providing AEC/FM practitioners, with the type, importance and ranking of the influential factors on adaptive reuse of commercial projects, throughout their life cycle.

This paper aims to investigate the level of awareness about, adoption of and willingness to adopt light steel (LS) for building projects. It also assessed the benefits, challenges and solutions to the challenges of adopting LS for building projects.

The quantitative (questionnaire) research method was used for the study. The research design was survey in nature. The whole-population cluster sampling technique was adopted. The clusters were the LS buildings from two (Western Cape and Gauteng) out of the eight provinces in South Africa. The respondents were the construction organizations that have executed LS building projects in the selected provinces. Hence, 56 firms filled and returned the questionnaire. Data analysis was done with frequency, mean scores, t-test and analysis of variance (normality of data distribution assumed).

Results indicated that, out of the 29 areas of application of LS identified in literature, respondents were aware of 11 areas, adopted LS for seven areas and were willing to adopt LS for six areas. Respondents also noted that 18 of the 25 identified benefits of LS were relevant to South Africa. Despite the benefits, few developers embrace it, it is a threat to suppliers’ and contractors’ businesses and it delays building approval due to low awareness.

The implication of the results is that there is low awareness about, adoption of and willingness to adopt LS for building projects in South Africa, and this may be due to the identified challenges. To boost the awareness about, adoption of and willingness to adopt LS, LS technologies need to be imported, LS warehouses should be provided in all cities and it must be ensured that LS building projects are cheaper than conventional buildings.

The value of the study is that the adoption of LS for building projects will improve the capacity of sustainable development.

The Chinese civilization is an important part of the history of mankind. The purpose of this paper is to show that there are project management lessons to be learned from Chinese history, including that relating to the management of the building process in ancient China.

Through a review of the literature, this paper discusses the key management and economic practices in the building process of ancient China and highlights these practices from an important document, the Yingzao Fashi or (“Treatise on Architectural Methods”), that was compared with the modern‐day project management framework.

This paper explains the official systems instituted for public projects; the management of labour, design and planning of construction works; quantity surveying practices; the use, control and recycling of building materials; and inspection of building elements in ancient China.

The study suggests that lessons in the principles of construction project management in ancient China bear many similarities with the nine areas of modern‐day project management body of knowledge relating to integration, scope, time, cost, quality, human resource, communications, risk, and procurement management. An area for future research would be to compare the Yingzao Fashi with modern‐day codes of practice for building works to determine which of its “ancient” provisions relating to quality management are still relevant today.

It was found that much emphasis was placed by the ancient Chinese on the quality aspects of prominent building projects. This is one facet from which modern‐day project managers and clients can draw lessons.

Compiled by K.G.B. Bakewell covering the following journals published by MCB University Press: Facilities Volumes 8‐18; Journal of Property Investment & Finance Volumes 8‐18; Property Management Volumes 8‐18; Structural Survey Volumes 8‐18.