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This paper aims to provide architecture, engineering, construction and facilities management (AEC/FM) practitioners with a guiding tool for overcoming the challenges affecting their performance in adaptive reuse project.

Literature review was conducted to comprehend the challenges affecting the AEC/FM performance during the implementation of adaptive reuse projects. A case study was conducted on an adaptively reused building, located in Saudi Arabia. The case study building was converted from a bookstore into an amusement center. Document review of the as-built drawings, and a structured interview with the project manager were conducted. The study concluded with the development of AEC/FM practical guidelines, pertaining to the different involved domains.

This study indicated that the potential challenges are interrelated among the three domains. These challenges pertained to the spatial, legislative, technical, administrative and operational aspects. The findings emphasized the vital role of the integration among the AEC/FM domains, at the early project planning phases. Based on the findings, three sets of AEC/FM guidelines were developed.

Theoretically, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that provides a case-specific investigation of the challenges affecting the AEC/FM performance in adaptive reuse projects.

The developed practical guidelines could potentially enhance the AEC/FM performance in future adaptive reuse projects.

This study contributes to the practice of adaptive reuse projects through providing practical guidelines for mitigating the challenges that affect the AEC/FM performance in these projects.

This paper investigates the current practices of adaptive reuse projects, within the context of architecture, engineering, construction and facilities management (ACE/FM) industries.

A mixed research methodology, combining qualitative and quantitative techniques, was followed. Literature review was performed to comprehend various aspects pertaining to building adaptive reuse. Three questionnaire surveys were administered on 90 AEC/FM practitioners, to investigate the current practices of adaptive reuse projects in Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire surveys were directed to 30 architects/engineers (A/Es), 30 contractors and 30 facilities managers, respectively, through face-to-face interviews. The qualitative and quantitative findings of each questionnaire survey were analyzed. Recommendations were proposed for each of the professional domains, to enhance the overall AEC/FM performance in future adaptive reuse projects.

The findings pointed out the necessity of accurately planning and designing the adaptive reuse in accordance with the spatial, technical, legislative, economic and functional considerations. The findings revealed the significance of contractors' role in conducting effective supervision over the managerial and technical processes during the implementation of the change of use. It also indicated the importance of the facilities managers' role in performing all daily operational activities, to maintain satisfactory performance of the adaptively reused buildings.

This paper contributes to the relevant literature to the building adaptation, through investigating the perspectives of AEC/FM practitioners on adaptive reuse projects. The findings would enable AEC/FM practitioners to improve their professional practices in future adaptive reuse projects, in an integrated manner.

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 present a generic lifecycle framework model for guiding architects, engineers, contractors and facilities managers (AEC/FM) practitioners on the effective implementation of adaptive reuse projects.

A mixed approach of qualitative and quantitative techniques was followed in the development of the framework model. A literature review was conducted to comprehend the processes involved in adaptive reuse projects. In total, 90 AEC/FM practitioners were surveyed to identify the current practices in these projects. A generic framework model was then developed to standardize the processes involved, using integration definition for function modeling process modeling methodology. Face-to-face interviews with a targeted group of 30 AEC/FM practitioners were conducted, to validate the developed framework model, by assessing the importance and the frequency of implementing each function in the developed framework model.

The framework model consisted of four sequential processes, namely, assess the feasibility of the adaptive reuse project, design the adaptive reuse project, construct the adaptive reuse project and operate and maintain the adaptive reuse project. The validation confirmed the importance of all the framework functions and the frequency of their implementation.

This research contributes to the literature and the AEC/FM professions, through developing a lifecycle and knowledge-oriented framework model for building adaptive reuse. The framework presents clear documentation of adaptive reuse processes. Thus, it holds the potential of endeavoring on adaptive reuse projects to be more efficient.

This study presents findings of post-occupancy evaluation (POE), through a performance assessment, on a polyclinic, as a health-care facility, in Saudi Arabia.

Review of the literature is conducted to identify the recent publications, on conducting POE, and performance indicators (PIs) assessing performance of health-care facilities. This research uses a triangulated approach by adopting several qualitative and quantitative methods, on a case study. The approach comprised conducting investigative walkthrough to assess the case study facility, interviews with group of occupants to assess its satisfaction levels. The findings were presented to a focus group, where a plan of recommendations was raised to improve the performance of the case study facility.

A total of 24 PIs were identified, and clustered, mainly under: “Thermal comfort”, “Natural lighting”, “Artificial lighting” and others. The case study has proven a satisfactory performance to the evaluated indicators. However, observations of performance snags were identified that formulated conclusions, related to: “Improvements to air temperature performance in summer season”, “Need of control on natural lighting due to glare”, “Accommodating an over demand for car parking spaces”, Need for development of systems dedicated for collection of occupants satisfaction” and “Enhancing circulation”.

There is a gap identified, through the literature review on availability of systematic conduct of POE, especially in health-care facilities. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge and professional practice, as a guiding systematic scheme, for the conduct of POE, which can be followed and expanded upon by future research.

This research presents the applicable international fire code requirements for educational facilities, in a comprehensive manner, and the findings of a case study to assess the level of compliance with these requirements.

A review of literature, fire codes and standards was conducted to identify the various sources of fire hazards in educational facilities and the required prevention measures. Accordingly, a code-compliance worksheet for assessing the fire prevention measures was developed. The worksheet included 34 prevention measures. It was implemented in a pharmacy college building, as a case study, to assess the compliance level with the code requirements. Recommendations were developed to improve the level of fire prevention in the case study facility.

The implemented worksheet facilitated identifying all the shortcomings in the prevention measures, in a methodological manner. These shortcomings included exceeded travel distance, absence of assembly point, inactive record keeping of fire inspection and maintenance works, deterioration of some extension cords and switches, alteration of some emergency doors, storage of combustibles in some electrical rooms and obstructions of the fire apparatus access road.

The research provides an assessment tool for fire prevention in educational facilities, which can be used by professionals for a code-compliant inspection. The findings of the case study as an example serve to expand the inspectors' observational significance while reducing subjectivity.

This research contributes to the educational facilities' context of health and safety domain in the literature. The research classifies the required fire prevention measures for an educational facility, according to the international applicable codes and standards. The case study demonstrates an applicable methodology for assessing the fire prevention measures and requirements.

The application of circular building adaptability (CBA) in adaptive reuse becomes an effective action for resource efficiency, long-lasting usability of the built environment and the sped-up transition to a circular economy (CE). This paper aims to explore to which extent CBA-related strategies are applied in adaptive reuse projects, considering enablers and obstacles.

A stepwise theory-practice-oriented approach was followed. Multiple-case studies of five circular adaptive reuse projects in The Netherlands were investigated, using archival research and in-depth interviews. A cross-case analysis of the findings was deductively conducted, to find and replicate common patterns.

The study revealed that configuration flexibility, product dismantlability and material reversibility were applied across the case studies, whereas functional convertibility and building maintainability were less applied. Low cost of material reuse, collaboration among team members and organisational motivation were frequently observed enabling factors. Lack of information, technical complexities, lack of circularity expertise and infeasibility of innovative circular solutions were frequently observed obstacles to applying CBA.

This paper provides practitioners with a set of CBA strategies that have been applied in the real world, facilitating the application of CBA in future adaptive reuse projects. Moreover, this set of strategies provides policymakers with tools for developing supportive regulations or amending existing regulations for facilitating CE through adaptive reuse.

This study provides empirical evidence on the application of CBA in different real-life contexts. It provides scholars and practitioners with a starting point for further developing guiding or decision-making tools for CBA in adaptive reuse.

Adaptability is an inherent quality in building circularity, as adaptability can physically facilitate the reversibility of materials in a closed-reversible chain, also called “loops”. Nevertheless, positioning adaptability in circularity-oriented models could overlook some of the contextual considerations that contribute to the utility for the built environment. This paper reconceptualises building adaptability to incorporate circularity, in order to facilitate for the resource loops whilst preserving the long-lasting functionality in buildings.

An integrative literature review on adaptability and circularity of buildings was conducted using systematic search approach. From the initial database of 4631 publications, 104 publications were included for the final analysis. A comparative analysis of definitions and determinants of both concepts was conducted to reconceptualise circular building adaptability.

The findings of the literature study show that incorporating circularity and adaptability is possible through 10 design and operation determinants, namely configuration flexibility, product dismantlability, asset multi-usability, design regularity, functional convertibility, material reversibility, building maintainability, resource recovery, volume scalability, and asset refit-ability. The study concludes that considering the defined determinants in a holistic manner could simultaneously facilitate: building resilience to contextual changes, creation of asset value, and elimination of waste generation.

This paper expands the relevant bodies of literature by providing a novel way of perceiving building adaptability, incorporating circularity. The practical value of this paper lies in the discussion of potential strategies that can be proactively or reactively employed to operationalise circular building adaptability.

The purpose of this paper is to examine numerically the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) free convection and thermal radiation heat transfer of single walled carbon nanotubes-water nanofluid within T-inverted shaped corrugated cavity comprising porous media including uniform heat source/sink for solar energy power plants applications.

The two-dimensional numerical simulation is performed by drawing on Comsol Multiphysics program, based on the finite element process.

The important results obtained show that increasing numbers of Rayleigh and Darcy and the parameter of radiation enhance the flow of convection heat. Furthermore, by increasing the corrugation height, the convection flow increases, but it decreases with the multiplication of the corrugation height. The use of a flat cavity provides better output than a corrugated cavity.

The role of surface corrugation parameters on the efficiency of free convection and heat transfer of thermal radiation within the porous media containing the T-inverted corrugated cavity including uniform heat source/sink under the impact of Lorentz forces has never been explored. A contrast is also established between a flat cavity and a corrugated one.

This study investigates the impact of three parameters such as: number of LED chips, pitch and LED power on the junction temperature of LEDs using a best heat sink configuration selected according to a lower temperature. This study provides valuable insights into how to design LED arrays with lower junction temperatures.

To determine the best configuration of a heat sink, a numerical study was conducted in Comsol Multiphysics on 10 different configurations. The configuration with the lowest junction temperature was selected for further analysis. The number of LED chips, pitch and LED power were then varied to determine the optimal configuration for this heat sink. A general equation for the average LED temperature as a function of these three factors was derived using Minitab software.

Among 10 configurations of the rectangular heat sink, we deduce that the best configuration corresponds to the first design having 1 mm of width, 0.5 mm of height and 45 mm of length. The average temperature for this design is 50.5 C. For the power of LED equal to 50 W–200 W, the average temperature of this LED drops when the number of LED chips reduces and the pitch size decreases. Indeed, the best array-LED corresponds to 64 LED chips and a pitch size of 0.5 mm. In addition, a generalization equation for average temperature is determined as a function of the number of LED chips, pitch and power of LED which are key factors for reducing the Junction temperature.

The study is original in its focus on three factors that have not been studied together in previous research. A numerical simulation method is used to investigate the impact of the three factors, which is more accurate and reliable than experimental methods. The study considers a wide range of values for the three factors, which allows for a more comprehensive understanding of their impact. It derives a general equation for the average temperature of the LED, which can be used to design LED arrays with desired junction temperatures.