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Many heritage-listed gaols in Australia have become obsolete in terms of their original function and were decommissioned decades ago. As a default management practice, decommissioned gaols are usually transformed into museums which are mostly empty and underused without considering other viable alternatives. This research challenges this mainstream thinking and demonstrates that among the entire stock of heritage-listed gaols in Australia, even the least ranked gaol in terms of its potential for reuse can be turned into a thriving and vibrant new function.

Hypothetically, if the least ranked Australian heritage-listed gaol in terms of its potential for reuse is in fact “reusable”, then the remaining heritage gaols have more chance of being successfully reused to accommodate a vibrant new function. To be able to test this hypothesis, first, the Adaptive Reuse Potential (ARP) model is applied to rank Australia's decommissioned heritage gaols which are spatially and structurally sound to accommodate new uses. Second, an architectural design concept was designed to adaptively reuse the lowest scored gaol (Richmond Gaol) to a boutique hotel. The conceptual design proposal was then assessed by three local heritage architecture firms to validate its applicability and viability.

The research showed that Richmond Gaol can be reused successfully to at least one function, and accordingly, the whole stock of heritage gaols can be expected to also be reused to more sustainable purposes. The research identifies several considerations for the reuse of heritage gaols in Australia: the careful intervention to their significant fabric; maintaining sufficient evidence of the gaol's original components, the importance of the new use being compatible to the gaol's morphology to ensure minimum alterations or demolitions in the significant fabric of the site; and evaluating the new use and its components to achieve financial viability.

Due to the continuing closure of Tasmania's state borders amid the spread of the COVID-19 virus, the researchers were not able to travel to Tasmania to conduct a site visit and to run the in-depth interviews with the architects in person. Most of the data of the current status of the site, its current layout, museum elements, historical data and photos were provided by Heritage Authorities in Tasmania and the Tasmanian State Library and Archive Service. Supplementary information and photos were acquired in March 2020 from visitors of the gaol who uploaded their trip images to Google maps or to their travel blogs. Topographical data of the site was gathered from Topographic Base-map of Land Information System Richmond Tasmania (2020). Due to travel restrictions, in-depth interviews with the local architects were done virtually, or over the phone in one case.

Challenges discussed in this research encourage creating nationally designed support programs to better vitalise and help preserve Australia's carceral heritage.

This research utilises architectural design in an empirical research paradigm.

Despite considerable research on the subject, there is still some misunderstanding about what characterizes successful project delivery in construction projects. Evaluating project delivery success is crucial for organizations since it enables them to prepare for future growth through more effective project management mechanisms and rank the organization's projects for continuous improvement. There is considerable disagreement over a set of success criteria that can be applied to all kinds of projects when evaluating project delivery success, making it a complicated procedure for practitioners and scholars. This research seeks to alleviate the problem by validating and testing a systematic project delivery success model (3D integration model) in the Australian construction industry. The aim is to establish a dependable approach built upon prior research and reliable in evaluating delivery success for any project type.

Based on a novel project delivery success model, this research applies a case study methodology to analyse 40 construction projects undertaken by a single Australian project management consultancy. The research utilizes a mixed-method research approach and triangulates three sets of data. First, the project delivery success (PDS) scores of the projects are calculated by the model. Second, a qualitative analysis targeting the performance of the same projects using a different system called the performance assessment review (PAR) scores was obtained. These culminate in two sets of ranking. The third step seeks validation of results from the head of the partnering organization that has undertaken the projects.

The findings of this study indicate that the 3D integration model is accurate and reliable in measuring the success of project delivery in construction projects of various sizes, locations and durations. While the model uses six key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure delivery success, it is evident that three of these may significantly improve the likelihood of PDS: value, speed and impact. Project managers should focus on these priority aspects of performance to generate better results.

Restrictions inherent to the case study approach are identified for this mixed-method multiple-case study research. There is a limitation on the sample size in this study. Despite the researcher's best efforts, no other firm was willing to share such essential data; therefore, only 40 case studies could be analysed. Nonetheless, the number of case studies met the literature's requirements for adequate units for multiple-case research. This research only looked at Australian construction projects. Thus, the conclusions may not seem applicable to other countries or industries. The authors investigated testing the PDS in the construction sector. It can assist in improving efficiency and resource optimization in this area. Nonetheless, the same technique may be used to analyse and rank the success of non-construction projects.

Despite the research conducted previously on the PDS of construction projects, there is still confusion among researchers and practitioners about what constitutes a successful project delivery. Although several studies have attempted to address this confusion, no consensus on consistent performance metrics or a practical project success model has been formed. More importantly, (1) the ability to measure success across multiple project types, (2) the use of triple bottom line (TBL) to incorporate sustainability in evaluating delivery success and (3) the use of a complexity measurement tool to adjust delivery success scores set the 3D integration model apart from others.

This research aims to develop and test a model for measuring end-user satisfaction (EUS) in a practical manner and then statistically verify its reliability and validity.

A comprehensive list of attributes using extensive literature review, focus group and brainstorming meetings were used to create a set of attributes for the model. These attributes were then used in a survey among the end-users (N = 687) of seven case studies with different characteristics (type, size and location) to assess the reliability and validity of the model. The statistical methods included reliability tests (Cronbach's alpha), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and correlation analysis), canonical discriminant analysis (CDA), item response theory (IRT) and model specification tests.

EUS must be quantified before determining a project's overall performance. The analysis of repeatability and consistency (reliability and validity) performed on case studies (data collected from the end-users) strongly suggests that the EUS model is robust for a range of project types.

Although many studies have proposed customer satisfaction models in the project success context, research on quantitative measurement tools is scarce. The paper departs from past research and develops and validates a new EUS model independent of project characteristics (while the study's limitations are acknowledged).

Innovation during project delivery is contested space. The aim in this research is to empirically explore the theory of this contested space and how project implementation can be optimized by the contractor to deliver better outcomes. It is hypothesized that project innovation has a proportional and measurable relationship to contractor success.

Based on a novel conceptual framework, this research applies a case study methodology to analyse 31 construction projects undertaken by a single Australian middle-tier contractor. Benefits from innovation are not often equitably shared. There are risks and rewards. The project innovation zone is defined as a combination of three key performance indicators – efficacy, efficiency and margin – merged into a single index that most likely shows evidence of “working smarter”.

Client–contractor project innovation (c2pi) is demonstrated to be strongly correlated with head contractor success (HCS), yielding an r² value of 71%. Innovative projects mostly show positive change in efficacy, efficiency and margin when comparing “planned” and “actual” outcomes. Across the cases studied, 35% demonstrated likely evidence of innovative delivery and 52% demonstrated evidence of success from the construction contractor's perspective.

These findings verify that, within the studied sample, the pursuit of innovation leads to projects that are likely to also have greater success for the head contractor, evidenced by the mix of five critical success factors: finishing on schedule, making profit, and having less defects, less accidents and higher quality workmanship. These outcomes arguably also apply to sub-contractors, where the head contractor assumes the role of “client”.

The purpose of this research is to identify the most impactful delay risks in Australian construction projects, including the associations amongst those risks as well as the project phases in which they are most likely present. The correlation between project and organisational characteristics with the impact of delay risks was also studied.

A questionnaire survey was used to collect data from 118 delayed construction projects in Australia. Data were analysed to rank the most impactful delay risks, their correlation to project and organisational characteristics and project phases where those risks are likely to emerge. Association rule learning was used to capture associations between the delay risks.

The top five most impactful delay risks in Australia were changes by the owner, slow decisions by the owner, preparation and approval of design drawings, underestimation of project complexity and unrealistic duration imposed to the project, respectively. There is a set of delay risks that are mutually associated with project complexity. In addition, while delay risks associated with resources most likely arise in the execution phase, stakeholder and process-related risks are more smoothly distributed along all the project phases.

This research for the first time investigated the impact of delay risks, associations amongst them and project phases in which they are likely to happen in the Australian context. Also, this research for the first time sheds light on the project phases for the individual project delay risks which aids the project managers to understand where to focus on during each phase of the project.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the interactions of factors impacting the widespread adoption of prefabricated building technologies and the intervention strategies to facilitate the development of prefabrication based on fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs).

Through in-depth interviews with six stakeholder groups, namely, the government, developers, designers, contractors, manufacturers and researchers, 13 critical factors were identified and used to construct stakeholder-grouped FCMs, which were further aggregated into a collective FCM. The complexity and density of the collective FCM and the centrality of factors in the FCM were examined. Subsequently, a series of “what-if” simulations of the collective FCM were conducted to analyze the effectiveness of different interventions in promoting prefabrication.

The results show that three factors including market demand, cost, and policies and regulations have been mentioned by all stakeholder groups. However, these factors were ranked differently by stakeholder groups, implying that different stakeholder groups perceive the barriers to prefabricated building technologies differently. FCM simulations show that strengthening policies and regulations yield the strongest overall effect stimulating prefabrication, alleviating the organizational and environmental barriers more than the technological barriers, while improving the knowledge and expertise alleviate the technological barriers more. These measures need to be accompanied by other approaches, such as reducing cost and improving quality.

It is a tough task to promote prefabrication as it is affected by numerous barriers with complex interactions, which have been overlooked by previous studies. This study clearly shows which strategy could tackle which barriers to prefabrication through the FCM simulations. This provides valuable references for the enterprises’ decision making and the governments’ policy making to facilitate the diffusion of prefabricated building technologies.

Few studies aim to analyze the interactions among the barriers to prefabrication, while this study specifically investigates this issue by illustrating the complex interactions using FCMs. Few studies also aim to identify the intervention strategies promoting prefabrication based on a quantitative approach, while this study employs FCM simulations to directly simulate the effectiveness of different strategies to facilitate prefabrication in a quantitative manner.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a model for producing an objective and holistic assessment of organisational decision-making to measure the procurement success of built facilities from the perspective of six key stakeholder groups (i.e. company, staff, customers, community, government and the environment).

This research is based on grounded theory. The methodology comprises a number of sequenced but interdependent steps. The first step involves reviewing the underpinning literature, whereas the second and third steps involve a detailed case study of actual practice and identification of stakeholder models that have been previously published, respectively. A knowledge gap is then highlighted from which a conceptual framework using a six-star rating algorithm as an integration metric is developed. The final steps seek an expert panel to validate the framework through focus group discussion ultimately leading to suggestions for further improvements.

It is found that the developed stakeholder satisfaction model is capable of assessing the sustainable procurement of built infrastructure using a generic six-star rating algorithm. The overall rating can be used to compare and rank performance across a range of portfolio assets, although some modification is required for non-built assets.

This research makes a contribution to knowledge through the presentation of a model, grounded in practice, that combines the economic, social and environmental performance of organisational decision-making from a stakeholder satisfaction perspective. It is acknowledged that there are a number of techniques that could be used to assess each stakeholder group, although the ones chosen in this research are mostly drawn from existing approaches developed and validated by others.

This paper aims to focus on the adaptive reuse of existing buildings that have become obsolete, an important strategy for sustainable development and a pertinent response to excessive resource usage resulting from typical destruction and redevelopment.

This paper looks at the validity of earlier work to model adaptive reuse potential (ARP) using a new multiple criteria decision analysis tool called iconCUR. Based on a review of 12 case studies, the paper determines the extent of agreement between ARP and iconCUR evaluations that both claim to be useful in making decisions about reuse.

The results show a high correlation between these approaches, whether based on raw scores or on relative ranking, and match expert opinion concerning appropriate actions. This work represents the culmination of a three‐year study into the strategic assessment of building adaptive reuse opportunities.

The paper provides confidence in the modelling of future interventions to revitalise existing built assets using a triple bottom line perspective.

This paper aims to make the case for the development of an adaptive reuse rating tool targeted to new building design that maximises the embedded adaptive reuse potential of these buildings later in their life, thereby adding to built environment sustainability.

This exploratory study retrospectively analyses successful adaptive reuse projects to establish and test a multi-criteria decision-making model for new design projects. This paper contains a report on the final stages of the research methodology (quantitative approach) used in the development of the adaptSTAR model that critically assesses the list of design criteria identified in the first stage of the study. Improvements to the case studies that would have further enhanced their reuse potential later in life are proposed. The results are compared to an established decision tool (adaptive reuse potential [ARP] model) to determine their level of consistency.

The findings of this research show that design criteria can be identified and weighted according to seven categories to calculate a building’s adaptive reuse star rating. Both the adaptSTAR and ARP models exhibit a strong relationship and are positively correlated.

The research demonstrates that by applying adaptSTAR to new designs, it will contribute to greater sustainability for the built environment in the long term via reducing the rate of building obsolescence.

Project cost is normally a key performance indicator for all projects, and therefore features prominently in benchmarking exercises aimed at identifying best practice. However, projects in different locations first require all costs to be expressed in equivalent units. Failing to do this leads to erroneous and unreliable results. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Applying international construction as the focus for the study, cost data from 23 cities worldwide are compared using a range of methods including currency conversion and purchasing power parity (PPP). Coefficient of variation (CoV) forms the test for identifying the method with the lowest volatility.

It is found that purchasing power is the preferable theoretical base for international cost conversion, and currency conversion (frequently used by practitioners) is not recommended. The citiBLOC PPP method has the lowest CoV across the data set and therefore more closely reflects the Law of One Price that underpins the concept of PPP.

This research highlights the importance of a valid cost conversion methodology to properly understand the comparative performance of projects. Its application to benchmarking is demonstrated using the data envelopment analysis method.