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This paper explores the quality and flow of facade product information and the capabilities for avoiding the risk of facade fires early in the design process.

A qualitative case study using the process tracing method is conducted in two stages. First, a thematic analysis of reports and literature identified two categories for the problems that caused fast fire spread across the Grenfell Tower facade. This enabled classifying the identified problems into four stages of a facade life cycle: product design and manufacturing, procurement, facade design and construction. Second, the capabilities for avoiding the problems were explored by conducting in-depth interviews with 18 experts in nine countries, analyzing design processes and designers' expertise and examining the usability of three digital interfaces in providing required information for designing fire-safe facades.

The results show fundamental flaws in the quality of facade product information and usability of digital interfaces concerning fire safety. These flaws, fragmented design processes and overreliance on other specialists increase the risk of design defects that cause fast fire spread across facades.

The findings have implications for standardization of building product information, digitalization in industrialized construction and facade design management.

This research adds to the body of knowledge on sustainability in the built environment. It is the first study to highlight the fundamental problem of facade product information, which requires urgent attention in the rapid transition toward digital and industrialized construction.

In the construction industry, building facade systems are gaining significance as reflected in the number of facade product innovations available on the market. While research studies on the adoption of these facade product innovations are comparatively limited in number. An awareness of the advantages and impacts that a product innovation brings is critical in its adoption, and therefore the purpose of this paper is to develop a classification framework for the use of producers/vendors present the advantages and impacts of their innovative facade products to the architects.

The study, in addition to literature review, consisted of four main steps without distinct boundaries, namely, (1) case study sample selection regarding facade products, (2) data collection through review of published documents, analysis of the data via content analysis and generation of a preliminary framework for the evaluation of facade product innovations, (3) further data collection through semi-structured interviews and analysis of the products and (4) redefining innovation types and finalizing classification framework through assessment of new facade products.

Innovation types may vary according to the product groups under investigation and viewpoints of the classifications. Selected facade products were evaluated in terms of their specific characteristics through identified viewpoints: as a physical object and as an agent. It was revealed that assessing a product innovation in terms of changes in its structural composition and impact on other related physical objects/processes can change the type of innovation. Additionally, insights about improved characteristics specific to facade products, forms of change in these products and architects' new actions in the facade design process were obtained.

Only the products stated by the producers/vendors as being new to the Turkish market at the time they were introduced were evaluated in terms of all aspects proposed in the framework. For these products and others that were evaluated, the product data obtained from the producers/vendors have been deemed to be accurate. Research on equivalent products in the market has not been conducted.

Studies identifying innovation types in the facade industry are very rare. The proposed framework can be regarded as a detailed investigation of product innovation types in the facade industry which offers component-system level improvement/change analysis. Moreover, it can be an effective tool for producers/vendors to ensure that architects have knowledge about their innovative products and their impacts on facade design and also to facilitate the adoption of these products.

This study aims to investigate the following three issues: whether consumers process numeric information with locational cues, which locations (horizontal vs vertical) are more influential in processing numbers and whether a number-location association is weakened or strengthened when a visual reference frame moves up or down.

A field study and a series of three lab experiments were conducted to examine the location effect of numeric information on the package façade on the perceived magnitude of a number.

The authors found that a number at the right was perceived as larger than one at the left only when the number is located at the bottom. Also, placing numeric information at the bottom rather than the top of a product package façade was more powerful in processing the numeric information, but this is true only when the visual frame is set lower.

This study provides practical insights for product managers in placing core numeric information on product packaging to effectively communicate product value to consumers. Optimal locations can be deliberately considered along with types of numeric information and product categories. For healthy products that promote fewer calories, the top area of the package façade may be a better position for placing information on calories per serving to make the product more appealing to those who follow a healthy diet. Heavier, more voluminous products (e.g., refrigerator) better position their volume/weight information at the bottom than at the top or at the right of the bottom than at the left of the bottom on the product facade. Either the left side or right side of the top position may be beneficial for thinner, lightweight products (e.g., television).

The present work adds valuable empirical findings; inconsistent with past research, left-right location-number associations are not always true. People tend to associate smaller numbers with left-side locations and larger numbers with right-side locations only when the number is located at the bottom. Also, the study reported that top-small, bottom-large associations are not always true. The difference in perceived magnitude of the number between a number at the top and one at the bottom within the visual frame is significant only when the visual frame is set close to the ground.

The elevation of a residential building, or façade, affords aesthetic and functional value to tenants. Façades embody the design of the core product, i.e. the building’s unit. When carefully executed, they contribute to the attractiveness, livability and sustainability of urban areas. The purpose of this study is to show how façades influence consumer decision, and to identify the consumers affected more by façades, i.e., product design.

Hinging on notions from product design and appearance, this research underscores the ways by which façades affect potential tenants. It also proposes that personality dimensions (i.e. concern with own physical appearance and view of achievement) identify the tenants affected more by façades. A study involving 1,091 consumers was performed to test the hypotheses.

Functional and aesthetic façades facilitated the tenant decision to buy or rent a living unit in three ways: attraction, convection and conversion. Two tenant segments (performers and egotists) were the most affected by façades. Hence, key consumer segments including self-actualizers would be less influenced by product design.

Construction companies should focus on delivering functional, aesthetic and well-maintained façades to boost satisfaction and sales. They should view the resources allocated to this purpose as an investment. Certain tenants are more affected by façades. Companies should identify the consumer segments more affected by design cues to better respond to their preferences. Policymakers are encouraged to set guidelines that foster well-executed façades in urban areas.

This research underscored the ways by which the façades of residential buildings shape consumer decision. In addition, it provided a typology to help pinpoint the tenants more affected by façades. Finally, it elaborated design theories in the context of residential building façades, which can be used by future researchers to understand the role of façade in fulfilling tenants’ needs and expectations.

After reading and analyzing the case study, the students would be able to identify the main stakeholders and decision-makers and their importance and influence on the environment for a product, evaluate the value chain of the product and critical decision-makers, evaluate the various ways to avoid falling into the trap of greenwashing and examine the marketing strategy to market an environmentally friendly product.

LIKO-S is a Czech manufacturing and construction company. The company has been designing and creating intelligent solutions, such as green facades or vertical greenery systems, to save energy in building heating and cooling systems. The company launched green facades in the Czech market. However, the main obstacle was the need for supporting data to showcase the positive environmental impact of green facades. Under these circumstances, Libor Musil’s main objective was to overcome prevalent misconceptions about green facades and find a suitable market segment. The situation worried the company, as LIKO-S had heavily invested in developing and marketing the green walls. The management had to tackle this challenge as soon as possible to recover the substantial research and development and marketing investments. Furthermore, owing to lack of information, even genuinely sustainable products were seen as greenwashing. In addition, bad or wrong customer perceptions of these walls might spill over to other products, tarnishing the company’s image and threatening its survival in the domestic market. Under these circumstances, competitors might enter the Czech market, jeopardizing the company’s overall profits. Consequently, Libor was in a great dilemma about managing the financial and reputational risk of the company. Should Libor close the green walls unit, explore different markets/uses or help increase awareness among the general population about green walls by finding a suitable marketing strategy?

The case study was designed for graduate-level students in the strategic management (CSR and innovation module) courses. However, the case could also be an excellent addition to marketing courses dealing with customers’ perceptions of innovative products and strategies to improve the adoption of the product.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship

Advances in digital design tools enable exploration and generation of dynamic building facades. However, some processes are formally prescribed and manually driven to only visualize the design concepts. The purpose of this paper is to present a proactive framework for integrating parametric design thinking, paying particular attention to building facade patterning.

This work developed the PatternGen^© add-on in Autodesk® Revit which utilizes an analytical image data (AID) overlay approach as a data source to dynamically pattern the building facade. The add-on was used to manipulate the placement rules of curtain panels on facade surface geometry. As means of validating this research model, a real-life design project has been chosen to illustrate the practical application of this approach. Feedback and observations from a short end-user questionnaire assessed qualitatively the facade patterning and panelization approach.

The proposed merge (or overlay) of AID images can be used as a parametric thinking method rather than just theory to generate and articulate dynamic facade design. The facade panelization responds to an AID that resembles design-performance data (e.g. solar exposure, interior privacy importance and aesthetics).

This work identifies a form of parametric thinking defined as the expression of geometrical relationships and its configuration dependent on the AID pixel Red Green Blue color source values. In this type of thinking, it explores the impact of the digital process and parametric thinking utility when driven by an AID overlay. The framework highlighted the practical application of AID pixel approach within a digital process to benefit both designers and computational tools developer on emerging design innovations.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the sustainability conditions of primary schools in Turkey within the scope of the life cycle assessment (LCA). It is aimed to develop optimum alternatives to reduce the environmental impact of primary schools and reach environmental sustainability targets of the sustainable development goals in Turkey.

From the construction project of 103 buildings located in Istanbul, 10 case buildings with various typical plans were chosen for analysis. The results regarding their life cycle energy and carbon emission for material production, operation and maintenance stages were calculated for a lifespan of 50 years. Results were evaluated and compared within the scope of environmental sustainability. Optimum alternatives for improving the environmental sustainability and performances of selected case buildings’ facades were developed, and the life cycle energy and carbon emission for proposed conditions were calculated. The obtained results were evaluated for current and proposed conditions.

Results showed that reinforced concrete material contributes the most to the life cycle-embodied energy and CO₂ emission of buildings. Cooling load increases the life cycle operational energy (LCOE) and CO₂ emission of buildings. Using high-performance glazing significantly reduces LCOE and CO₂ emission. Recycled and fiber-based materials have significant potential for reducing life cycle-embodied energy and CO₂ emission.

This study has been developed in response to achieving sustainable development targets on public buildings in Turkey. In this regard, external walls of primary schools were analyzed within the scope of LCA and recommendations were made to contribute to the policies and regulations requested by the Government of Turkey. This study proves that alternative and novel materials have great potential for achieving sustainable public buildings. The study answers to questions about reducing the environmental impact of primary school buildings by using LCA approach with a holistic point of view.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential to use infographics to capture, represent and communicate important information to construction designers, such that it improves their ability to understand the implications of design choices for construction workers’ health and safety.

Drawing on information obtained through a photographic Q-sort, supplemented with a literature review, health and safety information related to the design of a façade was collected from subject matter experts. This information was used to develop infographics representing the subject matter knowledge. A facilitated workshop was then held with 20 design professionals to engage them in a hazard identification process using a case study scenario. The designers were provided with the infographics and asked to comment upon how the infographics changed their assessments of the health and safety risks inherent in the case study building design. A sub-set of participants was interviewed to explore their perceptions of the impact and usefulness of the inforgraphics.

Infographics were developed at different levels of detail, representing potential health and safety issues associated with the site location and surroundings, the construction site environment and the detailed façade design. Workshop participants identified a number of potential health and safety issues associated with the case study scenario. However, this number increased substantially once they had viewed the infographic. Further, the health and safety issues identified when participants had access to the infographic were more likely to be less visible issues, relating to ergonomic hazards, procurement or the organisation and sequencing of work. The workshop participants who were interviewed described how the infographics enabled them to make a more global assessment of the health and safety implications of the case study building design because it helped them to understand the design in the physical construction site context. Participants also favoured the visual nature of the infographics and suggested that this format may be particularly useful to communicate important health and safety information to novice designers with limited on-site experience.

The infographics developed in this research were relatively simple two-dimensional representations produced and presented in hard copy format. It is possible that more sophisticated forms of infographic could have produced different results. Thus, it is important that future research develops different types of infographics and rigorously evaluates their effectiveness in developing designers’ health and safety-related knowledge and improving decision making.

The results indicate that simple infographics can help design professionals to better understand the health and safety implications of design decisions in the context of the construction site environment. In particular, the infographics appear to have increased designers’ ability to recognize less visible health and safety-related issues. The designers interviewed also described the potential usefulness of the infographics in design workshops as a tool to stimulate discussion and develop a shared understanding of the health and safety aspects of a particular design decision or choice.

The value of the research lies in the development and evaluation of infographics as a tool supports the integration of health and safety into design decision making. The potential to develop these tools into digital or web-based resources is also significant.

Findings regarding the relationship between biological sex and job stress remain inconsistent. In the present chapter, we suggest that this is due to the overly simplistic and synonymous treatment of biological sex and gender. Specifically, researchers have operationalized gender as sex, neglecting the inherent complexity of the gender construct. To address this, we take a more nuanced approach and develop a theory around the effects of biological sex and gender on job stress, considering how sex, gender, sex-based prescribed gender roles and work roles interact to create role conflict. We predict that a lack of congruence between any of the aforementioned variables results in various types of role conflict, leading to stress, and requiring coping. Drawing on the literature on role conflict, emotional labor, and facades of conformity, we introduce the concept of gender façades as a coping mechanism. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

This article explores the influence of duality in institutional logics on internal accounting, with a focus on a Polish public university. More particularly, we answer the research question: how does illegitimacy risk arising from the divergent pressures of the institutional environment impact management accountings in this institution?

This paper seeks to uncover intricacies of notions of internal legitimacy façade, decoupling and counter-coupling in practice. It explores details of organizational responses involving management accounting aimed at reducing illegitimacy risk. Achieving good organizational access, the authors adopt a qualitative case study approach involving contextual appreciation/document analysis/participant observation/discussion with key actors: facilitating building upon theoretical argumentation through finding things out from the field.

The authors uncover and discuss organizational solutions and legitimizing manoeuvres applied, identifying four adaptation tactics in the struggle to support legitimacy that they term ‘ceremonial calculations’, ‘legitimacy labelling’, ‘blackboxing’ and ‘shadow management accounting’. These can be seen in relation to decoupling and counter-coupling. Ceremonial calculations supported the internal façade. Shadow management accounting supported pro-effectiveness. Legitimacy labelling and blackboxing helped bind these two organizational layers, further supporting legitimacy. In interaction the four tactics engendered what can be seen as a ‘counter-coupling’ of management accounting. The authors clarify impacts for management accounting.

The usual limitations of case research apply for generalizability. Theorizing of management accounting in relation to contradictory logics is advanced.

The article illuminates how management accounting can be understood vis-à-vis contradictory logics.

Elaboration of the tactics and their interaction is a theoretical and empirical contribution. Focus on a Polish university constitutes an empirical contribution.