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This study explores the potential of computational design processes in creating contextually responsive envelopes for high-rise residential buildings in the Middle East. This includes considering both physical constraints and social preferences, with a focus on balancing sunlight exposure, privacy and views.

A two-phase simulation study analyzed various exterior envelope systems in Baghdad high-rise buildings. The first phase examined two commonly used exterior envelopes – fully glazed and window-based – to assess sunlight exposure, privacy and views. In the second phase, a multi-objective optimization process was applied to derive contextually optimized design solutions addressing the challenges identified in the first phase.

The study reveals that contextually optimized design solutions significantly improved direct sunlight exposure and privacy while maintaining satisfactory views. Although fully glazed exterior envelopes provided better-uninterrupted views, the optimized solutions offered more balanced performance across all factors, demonstrating the potential of computational design processes in creating contextually responsive building envelopes.

This paper emphasizes the importance of considering both physical and social contexts in the development of algorithms for architecture in the Middle East. This paper supports a progressive interpretation of traditional building references and demonstrates how computational design processes can create contextually responsive building envelopes that satisfy social needs and provide better-performing buildings for inhabitants.

The objective of this study is to determine how biophilic designs in study areas affect the productivity of students at the University of the Witwatersrand. The study also seeks to evaluate study areas at Wits in terms of biophilic design, determine whether biophilic design contributes to the preference of students and their study productivity.

This is a cross sectional study that used a mixed methodology. Five study areas were identified and evaluated in terms of biophilic design. At each study area, nine students participated in an open- and close-ended questionnaire regarding their perceptions on study areas and productivity.

The five study areas scored the following results according to the biophilic test: 29.09%, 34.55%, 36.36%, 80.00% and 85.45%, respectively. The students prefer to study in biophilic study areas as it prompts positive emotions and make them feel rejuvenated and energized. However, there are still students studying in the non-biophilic areas due to convenience or due to the biophilic areas that are noisy and lacks monitoring.

With the small sample size, the generalizability of the findings are limited, but does create a foundation for further research.

Universities can learn from the findings and benefit greatly from many biophilic study areas. This could also encourage architects and interior designers to include biophilic design more so in general buildings/rooms.

Study areas at the University of the Witwatersrand was evaluated in terms of biophilic design, while determining whether biophilic design contributes to the preference of students and study productivity.

Distances between contexts that a multinational enterprise (MNE) is familiar with and those that it is not familiar with do not hinder the MNE from becoming global. In this sense, distance serves as a barrier between an MNE’s global intentions and its regional realizations. (Multi)regional strategies are a possible expression of an MNE’s inability to approach distances. Considering the managerially relevant distances is essential to analyze the internationalization and the resulting (multi)regional strategies. A deeper understanding of how distance works requires linking distance to micro-foundations. Besides bounded rationality, bounded reliability opens the conceptual pathway toward a deeper understanding of internationalization and (multi)regional strategies.

Nearly 75% of EU buildings are not energy-efficient enough to meet the international climate goals, which triggers the need to develop sustainable construction techniques with high degree of resilience against climate change. In this context, a promising construction technique is represented by ventilated façades (VFs). This paper aims to propose three different VFs and the authors define a novel machine learning-based approach to evaluate and predict their energy performance under different boundary conditions, without the need for expensive on-site experimentations

The approach is based on the use of machine learning algorithms for the evaluation of different VF configurations and allows for the prediction of the temperatures in the cavities and of the heat fluxes. The authors trained different regression algorithms and obtained low prediction errors, in particular for temperatures. The authors used such models to simulate the thermo-physical behavior of the VFs and determined the most energy-efficient design variant.

The authors found that regression trees allow for an accurate simulation of the thermal behavior of VFs. The authors also studied feature weights to determine the most relevant thermo-physical parameters. Finally, the authors determined the best design variant and the optimal air velocity in the cavity.

This study is unique in four main aspects: the thermo-dynamic analysis is performed under different thermal masses, positions of the cavity and geometries; the VFs are mated with a controlled ventilation system, used to parameterize the thermodynamic behavior under stepwise variations of the air inflow; temperatures and heat fluxes are predicted through machine learning models; the best configuration is determined through simulations, with no onerous in situ experimentations needed.

We articulate cycles of creative storying and data analysis and the wonder that motivated the project by detailing our reading, thinking and writing processes to contribute to the conceptual and practical literature on collaborative writing as method.

This paper documents a process of collaborative writing as method that produced a co-written fictional narrative that evokes questions about schooling.

Our process began with world-building for our fictional future, creating characters to serve as a lens for analysis. From our discussions of the data, we crafted a plotline to present our themes in coherent story. As we explored and shared our readings, interdisciplinarity shaped our project in unique ways.

Throughout, our collaboration and fiction-writing opened spaces for wonder, interdisciplinarity and joy that may inspire other researchers to engage in collaborative and/or creative writing processes.

Adding to the rich literature of arts-based research methods, we contribute our reflections on the pragmatics of incorporating reading, writing and thinking for collaboration and creative writing as qualitative research methods for document analysis.

Using a multilevel model, this study examined how paternalistic leadership behaviors, including authoritarianism, morality and benevolence, influence followers' performance.

A sample of 556 leader–follower dyads from 66 groups in a manufacturing firm in China was collected for analysis. Descriptive statistics and multi-level regression analyses were used to analyze the data.

The results indicated that group efficacy mediates the relationship between authoritarian leadership and followers' performance and that self-efficacy mediates the relationship between benevolent leadership and followers' performance. In addition, the positive relationship between self-efficacy and followers' performance is weaker when followers exhibit higher levels of group efficacy.

The data were collected in a manufacturing firm in China, it is difficult to generalize the results to other settings.

Managers should use their abilities and skills to interpret which paternalistic leadership styles their followers prefer, so as to improve their performance.

This study developed a multilevel model to examine the mediating processes of group efficacy and self-efficacy in the effect of PL behaviors, including authoritarianism, benevolence and morality, on followers' performance.

The present research investigates the effects of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices on customer behavioural intentions (e.g. word of mouth [WOM], willingness to pay [WTP] and revisit intention [RI]) and the mediating role of customer satisfaction (CS) in the hospitality industry in Bangladesh.

The authors applied a convenience sampling approach to distribute questionnaires and collect opinions from 404 customers who stayed in Bangladesh's five- and four-star hotels. SmartPLS was applied to examine the proposed hypothesised model.

GSCM practices have positive and significant impacts on CS and behavioural intentions of customers' WOM, WTP and RI. Additionally, CS mediates the association between GSCM practices and three behavioural intentions.

To boost their hotel's financial performance, hoteliers should allocate more resources to improving environmental sustainability practices in supply chain management.

This study's novel contribution to the literature rests in the findings regarding the mediating effect of CS. This adds value to the theory of planned behaviour. Another unique contribution of this study is that it combines three behavioural intentions (willingness to pay, RI and WOM).

Fresh out of the two-century-old British legacy, Bangladesh, formerly known as East Pakistan from 1947 to 1971, was searching for a post-colonial architectural style. Colonial architecture in the region in general often imposed imported European elements, ignoring the preceding legacies of the Sultanate and the Mughals. The critical challenge was to find a balance between the prevailing high modernism in architecture and the local vernacular and climatic forces. The Pakistani government invited international architects to fill the gap left by a non-existent local architectural industry. Unfortunately, their work has rarely been properly analyzed. With selected case studies, this paper analyzes their work in an attempt to explore their contribution to creating a national architectural identity.

This study uses a case study approach with selected architectural projects from the period. It uses research tools such as systematic analysis of drawings, volumes and photographs and archival research.

The international architects took inspiration from the strong vernacular and climatic forces of the region. The resultant expressions of the two-decade-long search in their combined body of work are some of the finest examples of vernacular and climate-responsive architecture in the region. They transcended the regular international style and became context-specific and unique. The quest for East Pakistan's post-colonial architectural identity was partially met by the newly found identity through vernacular and climate-responsive adaptation in architecture.

This study explores how a unified vernacular and climate-responsive adaptations potentially shaped the post-colonial architectural identity of the region. No prior study exists on this issue for the time period.

The potential for massive economic growth exists in Samarinda City due to the intensification of activities in built-up areas. This suggests the potential for increased urban disease in the relocation of Indonesia’s new capital city to a location adjacent to Samarinda. One of the most striking impacts is the urban heat island (UHI). The increase in this phenomenon can be addressed effectively and efficiently through the provision and arrangement of appropriate vegetation-based actions. Therefore, this study aims to identify priority areas of green open space (GOS) based on UHI levels. In addition, this study also aims to present alternative mitigation measures to reduce the risk of disasters due to UHI.

A mixed-method approach was used in this research, involving an initial land surface temperature analysis to identify the UHI class. This analysis was complemented by quantitative spatial analyses, such as scoring, overlay and intersect methods, to determine the priority level class and the typology of GOS priority. A qualitative analysis was also conducted through data triangulation or comparison methods, such as examining existing land use, GOS priority maps and spatial plan policies.

The findings show that the total UHI area in Samarinda City was 6,936.4 ha in 2019 and is divided into three classifications. In Class 1, the UHI area is very dominant, reaching 87% of the total area. Meanwhile, the main results identified two priority classes of GOS in Samarinda, namely, the medium and high categories with an area of 960.43 ha and 113.57 ha, respectively. The results also showed that there were 17 typologies associated with five alternative mitigation measures: green industry, greening parking lots, improving urban green infrastructure and buildings, urban greening and mining restoration.

Specific to assessing UHI, image data were available only in medium spatial resolution, leading to a consequence of detailed accuracy. In addition, since the determination of mitigation considered local policies, the method should be used in other locations requiring adjustments to existing regulations, specifically those related to spatial planning.

This study makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the UHI phenomenon in Indonesia, especially in the urban areas of Kalimantan Island. In addition, the study presents new insights into alternative mitigation actions to reduce the risk of UHI. Innovatively, this study introduces a typology of regions associated with appropriate alternative mitigation actions, making it an important achievement for the first time in the context of this study.

Apprenticeships in England, while defined by level and typical duration, are not quantified regarding the number of learning hours required to achieve the outcomes specified, as with other regulated qualifications and accredited programmes. This paper proposes an approach to ascribe credit to apprenticeships recognising both on-and-off-the-job learning to remove some of the existing barriers to accessing higher education (HE) and the professions.

A mixed methodological approach resulting in a total learning hours/credit value was proposed.

There is significant HE-wide confusion regarding the amount of learning/training that is required to complete apprenticeships in England. Whilst sector guidance made it clear that there was no prescribed method to ascribe credit to qualifications, programmes, modules, units or apprenticeships by drawing out the core principles within current practice, a key outcome of this project was the development of a method to ascribe a credit value to apprenticeships.

There is potential to support further research into the recognition of prior learning as a specialised pedagogy and for reflecting on apprenticeship practice in other roles and sectors.

Whilst the project underpinning this paper focused on the healthcare sector, the method used to ascribe credit to the level-3 healthcare support worker apprenticeship was not sector specific and can therefore be applied to apprenticeships within other contexts providing more widespread benefits to workforce development.

Policy makers must ensure that employers and providers are clear that the minimum statutory off-the-job hours constitute an apprentice employment entitlement, which must not be conflated with total apprenticeship learning hours requirements. This recommended policy clarification could assist in simplifying the process required for ascribing credit to apprenticeships and at the same time support a move towards better and more consistent recognition of the value of apprenticeship learning.

It is a first attempt to ascribe a credit value to an apprenticeship in England for the specific purpose of facilitating progression to HE.