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The ageing of rural Chinese populations is challenging health and social policy, driving growth in rural nursing homes. Living environment plays a role in enhancing elderly quality of life (QoL), however, the impact of the built environment and care services are under-studied. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of the built environment and care services on the QoL of elderly people within rural nursing homes in China.

A total of 242 residents of nursing home were surveyed, of which 76 percent were male and 24 percent were female. In total, 25.6 percent were aged between 60 and 69, 40.1 percent between 70 and 79, 31 percent between 80 and 89, and 3.3 percent were 90 or above. Quantitative data were analyzed through factor analysis, reliability test and multiple regression modeling.

The authors identified six built environment factors (room distance, space, barrier-free design, indoor environment, fire safety, and support facilities) and three services factors (i.e. daily care services, cleaning services, and healthcare services). QoL was measured over four dimensions: QoL, physical health, psychological health, and social relationships. Elderly QoL could be accurately predicted from room distance, space, barrier-free design, indoor environment, daily care services, and cleaning services.

Interventions in design of the built environment and the provision of care services are proposed, including dimensions of living space, heating, and provisions for qualified care providers.

This paper provides a clear picture about elderly special requirements on their built environment and healthcare services, helping architects, engineers and facilities managers understand elderly needs and improve built environment during design and operation stages.

Aging-friendly environments have been encouraged to develop at the city level, district level and community level in China. In the process of rapid urbanization, the state of aging-friendly communities in old and new neighborhoods is disparate. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to investigate aging-friendly communities and identify the disparities in old and new neighborhoods.

A total of 1,172 elderly respondents completed the survey. Of these, 576 seniors lived in an old community developed before 2000, and 596 lived in a new community developed after 2000. In total, 17 physical environment factors and 10 social environment factors were identified.

The results indicated that public spaces, facilities and transportation in old neighborhoods were inferior to those in new neighborhoods. Most social environment factors in new neighborhoods achieved higher satisfaction levels than those in old neighborhoods. The satisfaction levels of aging-friendly community factors in both old and new neighborhoods were below the expectation levels of elders.

In order to improve physical aging-friendly environments in old neighborhoods, it is suggested that full use is made of school facilities and the renovation of old buildings. The locations of public transportation stations in new neighborhoods are recommended to be revised within 5-min walking distances of senior residents. Both old and new neighborhoods are encouraged to improve social aging-friendly environments by increasing the coverage of medical services and creating multiple approaches to recreation activities.

These findings have empirical significance for urban planners and policy makers, in regard to identifying disparities between old and new neighborhoods, and understanding the equitable allocation and distribution of urban resources.

China is experiencing tremendous changes of rapid urbanization and aging society. The development of age-friendly communities (AFCs) has been encouraged for improving health and well-being of older adults. Hence, this study aimed to deepen the understanding of AFCs in China and to investigate the integrated relationships between AFCs and the quality of life (QoL) of older adults, using a large-scale questionnaire survey.

A questionnaire survey was conducted in Hefei, China, to investigate the complicated relationships between the components of AFCs and the QoL of older adults. Ultimately, 1,383 valid questionnaires were collected from senior respondents aged more than 60 years. Several statistical methods, including reliability analysis, correlation analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM), were adopted to develop an integrated model for AFC components and the QoL of older adults.

Six AFC components and four older adults' QoL factors were identified. The SEM results revealed integrated relationships between specific AFC components and the QoL of older adults: (1) physical QoL was affected by outdoor spaces, public transportation, housing and community and health services; (2) psychological QoL was predicted by most of the AFC components except community and health services; and (3) environmental QoL and social QoL were both influenced by outdoor spaces, communication and information and community and health services.

In order to enhance the QoL of older adults, it is suggested that outdoor spaces need to be enlarged by fully using the facilities and playgrounds of middle schools and renovating the older buildings. The locations of public transportation stations are recommended to be revised to be within a 5-minute walking distance of senior residents. Improvements to the social environment of AFCs, by increasing the coverage of medical services and creating multiple approaches to recreational activities, are encouraged.

These findings have empirical significance for urban planners and policy-makers in regard to identifying major components of AFCs and understanding the effect of those components on the QoL of older adults.

Airports are booming in China, to enlarge their capacities and stimulate economic development. Large-span spatial steel structures are commonly used in the terminal buildings of airport projects. Their advantages include prefabrication, strength, usability, adaptability and aesthetic quality. To manage large-span spatial steel structure projects, building information modeling (BIM) is recommended. Although there are plenty of studies on BIM application in steel structure projects, it is still rare to apply BIM to optimize the schedule and cost of steel structures, especially for airport projects.

This paper aims to develop a framework in which BIM and a time-cost optimization model are integrated to optimize construction costs and the duration of large-span spatial steel structure projects. A real case study was conducted to verify the feasibility of the BIM-based time-cost optimization model in an airport terminal building, which was built with a large-span spatial steel structure.

The results preliminarily support the reliability of the proposed BIM-based time-cost optimization model. The BIM-based time-cost optimization model will benefit construction planning for professionals and enrich relevant research on the application of BIM in large-span spatial steel structure projects.

The steel structure is difficult to control budgets and progress. This paper is expected to be adopted for optimizing the time and cost plans for projects involving steel structures in airport terminal buildings.

The aging population is growing rapidly, causing significant increases in the demand for public housing. Normally, the elderly rely heavily on the facilities available in their living environment to maintain their quality of life (QoL). However, most public housing is not purposely designed for the elderly, and, thus, has inappropriate facilities, which often have a negative impact upon the physical and psychological health of residents. This paper aims to investigate the relationships between the indoor facilities management (FM) of public housing and the QoL of elderly persons.

Based on an extensive literature review, a questionnaire has been designed and distributed among elderly residents of different public housing buildings. To investigate the impact of indoor FM on the QoL of the senior residents in public housing, statistical analysis methods including reliability analysis and multiple regression modeling were adopted.

The study identified 12 indoor FM factors and six QoL domains (i.e. overall QoL, physical and psychological health, independence, social relationship and living environment). The results also reveal that space planning and bathroom influence most QoL domains, including overall QoL, physical/psychological health, independence and living environment of the elderly; electricity and noise mainly affect physical health and independence, while noise is negatively related to elderly QoL; and supporting facilities (including windows and doors, indoor decoration, non-slip floors and accessibility) have a positive impact on psychological health and social relationships.

Based on the current findings, several practical recommendations are made for the designers and facilities managers, including wide corridors for individuals with wheelchairs, the installation of single-lever-type mixers to provide a stable hot water supply and a window designed to get as much natural light as possible.

This paper provides a clear picture about elderly special requirements on indoor FM and their QoL. It can assist architects, engineers and facilities managers in public housing to understand elderly needs and improve FM during design and operation stages for enhancing QoL of elderly residents in public housing buildings.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate service robots as an alternative service provider that can reduce customers’ social discomfort in hospitality service encounters. Specifically, the authors discuss when and in what scenarios service robots can alleviate such social discomfort and explain this effect from the perspective of dehumanization.

Following a social constructivist paradigm, the authors adopt a qualitative research design, gathering data through 21 semistructured interviews to explore why the presence of service employees causes customers’ social discomfort in hospitality service encounters and how service robots alleviate such discomfort.

This study’s results suggest that both the active and passive engagement of service employees are sources of customers’ social discomfort in hospitality service encounters; thus, adopting service robots can help reduce such discomfort in some scenarios. Customers’ differentiating behaviors, a downstream effect of social discomfort, are also addressed.

Service robots can reduce customers’ social discomfort in certain scenarios and influence their consumption behaviors. This finding offers actionable insights regarding the adoption of service robots in hospitality service encounters.

This research enhances the understanding of social discomfort in hospitality service encounters and expands the research on service robots. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first attempt to reveal the bright side of robots in service encounters from a dehumanization perspective.

This study aims to critically review the research on the phenomenon of discrimination in hospitality and tourism services to identify the key thematic areas, scenarios, antecedents and consequences; to provide theoretical propositions for future research; and to propose practical strategies to reduce discrimination and to improve equality in the field.

This paper adopts the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses guidelines to collect relevant academic work on discrimination in hospitality and tourism services from 1985 to 2020 and critically reviews and analyses the studies through bibliometric analysis, content analysis and critical analysis.

The findings show that the main sources of discrimination in hospitality and tourism services include sexism, racism, ethnocentrism, lookism and ego-altruism. Discrimination-related research has temporal and geographical variations. A research map is proposed to present existing knowledge of discrimination in hospitality and tourism services, which indicates that while the impacts (at the individual, organizational and institutional levels) of discrimination in hospitality and tourism services have been thoroughly researched, the nature and characteristics of the phenomenon remain context-based and poorly conceptualized.

An anti-discrimination guideline for hospitality and tourism practitioners is designed to cope with and eliminate discriminatory situations. This evidence-based guideline provides useful coping strategies based on the prevent–monitor–manage principle.

This paper is comprehensive in its scope, methodology and wide coverage of discrimination-related research in hospitality and tourism services. It is the first attempt to review this phenomenon in the existing literature and identifies the research gaps and future research agendas.

The proportion of the population aged 65 and over is rapidly rising and is expected to reach 24.3 per cent by 2031, up from 12 per cent in 2006. As a result, the Hong Kong government is facing challenges in meeting the growing demand for residential care homes. To provide a clear picture for construction professionals engaged in the future design and operation of such homes, it is first necessary to understand the opinions of end‐users in existing facilities. The paper aims to identify key facilities management (FM) components in three particular areas of residential care homes.

In order to collect data from end‐users, a questionnaire survey of 119 end‐users (both elderly residents and staff) based on post‐occupancy evaluation (POE) was used to evaluate the FM performance of the homes and establish the relationships between the comfort levels of FM components and the satisfaction of elderly residents.

The findings in the questionnaire survey indicated that all 16 key FM components were significantly related to the satisfaction with the home, while space planning, temperature, ventilation, privacy, finishes, and staff were the factors predicting satisfaction with different areas.

The paper makes a number of practical recommendations to government and construction professionals for improving the residential care environment, including a wide corridor with short distance and a low‐speed air‐conditioning machines in the common areas. In the bedroom, designers are recommended to install some partitions in terms of privacy and consider the microclimate carefully. In the bathroom, the use of lifting devices, louver doors, sufficient ventilation and a stable hot water supply are beneficial for the elderly's satisfaction.

Post‐occupancy evaluation is a commonly used tool to evaluate FM performance based on the end‐user's perspective. The study innovatively investigates the impact of different FM components on elders' satisfaction degree by application of POE.

The use of public engagement (PE) has been encouraged by the Hong Kong government in recent years, with the construction industry under particular pressure to employ it. However, society as a whole has been suffering as a result of various levels of discontent and conflict in many construction development projects. The logical paths to analyze public need and resolve conflict in the PE process are vague. Value methodology (VM), a logical method, is thus proposed as an initial framework to support PE activities in construction projects. The purpose of this paper is to enhance PE performance for the complicated construction development projects with the application of VM principles.

Based on an extensive literature review, PE logical team process factors and PE outcomes were identified. A questionnaire survey was conducted to investigate the relationships between the logical PE team decision-making process (VM application in the logical process and team behaviors) and final PE outcomes.

The results showed that the PE team process with the application of VM, especially information and analysis phases, influenced PE outcomes positively. Conflict (both destructive conflict and constructive conflict) influenced PE outcomes in different directions.

It is recommended that the information and analysis phases of VM are applied to PE process in order to achieve consensus, cultivate team spirit, improve project performance, and enhance organizational reputation.

This paper innovatively proposes the application of VM into the PE team process in order to analyze the project logically and subsequently improve holistic PE project performance and finally promote social cohesion.

The paper aims to investigate the key components of facilities management (FM) in care and attention (C & A) homes from the end users’ perspective based on a post-occupancy evaluation method. Hong Kong is a rapidly ageing society. Elderly population may reach 24.3 per cent in the next 20 years, causing an increase in the demand for care services. Therefore, it is necessary to provide sufficient and satisfactory residential C & A homes with appropriate facilities for our elderly.

To collect subjective data from end users, a questionnaire survey was conducted in 119 respondents consisting of both elderly residents and staff of the C & A homes. To further understand the actual situations, site measurements were also used to collect the objective data from the representative homes.

The results indicate that three aspects of key FM components, namely, architect, building services and supporting, all have significant relationships with the overall satisfaction. The site measurements further revealed the actual environment of the seven C & A homes, especially the contrasts between homes with highest scores (Homes E and F) and lowest scores (B and D).

To provide a clear picture to the government and construction professionals, a number of practical recommendations were proposed, such as sufficient space with single or couple bedrooms, sufficient corridor width for two people in wheelchairs and white or pink as the colour scheme in architectural aspect; sufficient lighting, central air conditioning system and adequate quantities of natural fresh air in the building service aspect; and frequently updated menus, door lock and CCTV system for supporting facilities.

This paper applied site measurement on the representative homes to cross-check the quantitative results. The findings of this study can assist architects and facilities managers in C & A homes to improve FM services during the design and operational stages for improving the satisfaction levels of elderly residents.