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This study aims to evaluate the quality of an on-campus medical facility at a leading university.

Published literature was consulted to review knowledge areas on the usability and quality performance requirements of healthcare facilities. Quality indicators were, thus, developed from the extant literature and verified by a walkthrough of a case study medical facility. Then, a quality assessment survey was developed and administered to obtain feedback from users of the medical facility. Additionally, a focus group meeting was conducted to obtain more qualitative feedback on the issues identified through the questionnaire survey.

The results show that users were generally satisfied with the identified evaluation categories, indicating moderate quality. Potential quality issues related to the exterior and interior finishes, furniture and the indoor air were noted through focus group meetings. The study proposed a number of recommendations to enhance the design quality of the medical center.

The importance of this study is evident in the fact that the quality of healthcare facilities has a direct link to the performance and overall well-being of its intended users, as well as the overall success of its host organization. The study demonstrates the value of users' feedback on the quality of a built facility. It re-emphasizes the point that buildings can only be judged to be of high quality if the users' are highly satisfied.

This study aims to present the design quality assessment of facilities on a university campus in Saudi Arabia.

Forty-nine standardized design quality indicators (DQIs) have been adopted for the study. These were classified into relevant categories including: “Indoor Environment, Safety and Maintenance,” “Furniture, Utilities and Spaces” and “Privacy, Appearance and Surrounding Areas.” A web-based survey was used to obtain responses from 207 respondents. The survey was designed based on a Likert scale of satisfaction and was analyzed to obtain the satisfaction indices (SI) as well as Design Quality Scores (DQS).

Occupants were dissatisfied the “level of noise generated from within the space,” “amount of natural light from daylighting systems” and “ease of control of air ventilation systems” among others. The DQS revealed that residential buildings had the highest design quality in terms of “Indoor Environment, Safety, and Maintenance” and “Privacy, Appearance and Surrounding Areas.” Administrative buildings had the best design quality in terms of “furniture, utilities and spaces.” Academic buildings had the lowest design quality in terms of “Indoor Environment, Safety and Maintenance” and “Privacy, Appearance and Surrounding Areas.”

Ultimately, the study demonstrated how the adoption of a standard set of DQIs could facilitate the standardization of design quality evaluation in the property sector as well as identify best practices through comparison and benchmarking.

The purpose of this paper is to present the post-occupancy evaluation (POE) of academic and research laboratory facilities. This is based on the premise that the performance of such facilities is directly connected to the productivity, health and wellbeing of its users.

The paper was carried out in two phases, first, the performance requirements for academic and laboratory facilities were identified through the extant literature. Furthermore, a questionnaire survey was developed to carry out a POE of existing academic and research laboratory facilities in a university campus in Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire was designed using a Likert scale of one to five. Finally, the satisfaction index was computed, and rates of satisfaction with the various performance requirements were determined.

The paper resulted into 74 performance requirements grouped into three categories. The respondents showed general satisfaction with most of the performance requirements. However, dissatisfaction was observed in performance requirements related to technical features and the availability of sustainability features. Such findings suggest the growing importance of such technical and sustainable features in modern-day laboratories.

Though few studies have employed POE in assessing the performance of academic facilities, there is still a gap regarding its application to the laboratory facilities. Thus, the originality of this study is evident in its presentation of a set of performance requirements and its further application as a case study.

This study aims to develop a set of design quality indicators (DQIs) suitable for the design and evaluation of public schools in terms of their technical, functional and behavioral performance.

The methodology entailed the review of literature on the design quality of school buildings to identify potential DQIs. Subsequently, the eighty four DQIs were validated through a three-round Delphi evaluation process, with 35 participants in the first round and 28 participants in the second and third rounds. The participants consisted of architects, facility managers, administrators, teachers and students. The results of the Delphi survey were analyzed based on the relative importance index, which was further rated according to the levels of importance.

The findings from this process revealed that most of the DQIs were categorized as extremely important and very important.

The design quality of school buildings is crucial to the success of a community’s social life and educational process. However, the lack of a set of DQIs has hindered the potential to benchmark similar facilities and derived lesson learned. The value of the DQIs is in its potential application as a design tool for proposed school buildings, as well as for facility audit of existing school buildings.

This paper aims to present an assessment of user satisfaction of an innovative workplace design, otherwise known as flexible workplaces.

The study first sought to establish the level of flexibility of the workplace through the identification of flexibility criteria presented in a checklist format. In total, 29 criteria were identified and subsequently assigned weights by ten professionals. These professionals further assessed a case study office building through a walkthrough exercise to determine its level of flexibility. Furthermore, a post occupancy evaluation (POE) was conducted to assess the level of users’ satisfaction with functional performance elements. Questionnaire surveys were administered to 142 users, with a 63 per cent response rate. The feedback was analyzed and presented using the mean satisfaction index approach.

The results showed that the total flexibility achieved by the facility is 67.63 per cent, which is considered to be “averagely flexible”. The POE results also showed that users were strongly dissatisfied (SD) with the “adequate number of enclosed offices,” which is one of the corner-stones of flexibility where open-plan offices are strongly encouraged. Users expressed dissatisfaction with other issues, while their overall satisfaction with the facility was noted.

This study is based on the premise that innovative workplace facilities will only fulfill its intended objectives if designers consider the satisfaction of its users. The study makes a specific contribution in the assessment of workplace flexibility and occupants’ satisfaction of flexible workplaces. This will be of significant value to facility managers, designers and space planners involved in the design and management of workplace facilities.

The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a theoretical calculation for the emergency evacuation of an auditorium facility managed by a university in Saudi Arabia.

The authors reviewed the published literature to identify the sources of fire incidence, guidelines for means of escape in assembly occupancies and human behavior in fire emergencies. The theoretical method of the SFPE handbook to estimate the required evacuation time was subsequently applied to a case study of an auditorium facility managed by a university located in Saudi Arabia. Finally, the authors developed recommendations for the performance-based fire safety evacuation of the auditorium facility under review.

The study showed that a total of 6 minutes 39 seconds is needed to evacuate the whole auditorium. However, reviewed literature for assembly occupancies requires between 4 minutes 30 seconds and 6 minutes 24 seconds for total evacuation. Though, the calculated evacuation time is close to generally acceptable limits. It was noted that overcrowding and bottlenecks may be formed in some of the exit routes.

This paper will stimulate and increase research and industry concern for performance-based design of assembly-type facilities. This will be of significant value to designers, engineers, facilities managers, and owners in ensuring the safety of occupants in assembly-type facilities.

University research and academic laboratory facilities are key elements in the support of a successful education and research experience. World-class universities consider the functionality of these facilities as a matter of high priority. The functionality of research and academic laboratory facilities is strongly linked to the productivity of students, teachers and researchers who use these facilities. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the functional performance of eight university laboratories using the space syntax approach.

The methodology involved the measurements and drawing of as-built floor plans of selected academic and research laboratories. The main benchmarks involved in measuring the functional efficiency, such as mean depth (MD) of space and real relative asymmetry (RRA), were analyzed using the A-graph software and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.

The results show that “Type D” (chemistry teaching laboratory) and “Type C” (concrete teaching/research laboratory) laboratories have the tendency to be more accessible, efficient and flexible compared to the other laboratory layouts with MD and RRA values of 5.947 and 3.472, and 4.287 and 1.674, respectively.

This study shows that the functional efficiency of academic and research laboratories can be influenced by the spatial configuration of the space, as presented by the space syntax theory. Space syntax benchmark elements, such as MD, RRA, R and H*, can be used to compare various spatial arrangements, and the results can inform decisions on ways to re-arrange the space for optimum efficiency.

It is hoped that the idea of space syntax theory in the evaluation of the functional efficiency of laboratory facilities, illustrated in this research, is of significant contribution to the enhancement of the research and educational experience of concerned stakeholders in teaching and research environments.

The purpose of this paper is to present the development and implementation of a qualitative, code-compliance framework for property managers of student housing facilities.

The paper identified the fire safety code requirements for student housing facilities and arranged these requirements in the form of a checklist, which was further validated by professional experts. Additionally, the paper presented an IDEF₀ (Integrated Definition for Function Modeling) framework model that illustrates a stepwise process for the deployment of the checklist. A case study was conducted on three similar student housing facilities in a university campus to demonstrate the application of the framework. Furthermore, the findings from the case study were reported along with recommendations to improve the degree of compliance with the requirements of fire safety codes.

The developed framework was validated by professional experts and through a case study. Fire safety provisions were mostly found to be adequate in the case study building. The authors proposed several actions to improve the current status of fire safety in the building.

The paper serves to disseminate awareness about the occurrence of fires, their severe consequences and precautionary measures in student housing facilities. It also provides a standardized checklist for ease of use by property managers who may be unable to understand the technical terminologies found in fire safety codes and standards. Thus, the developed framework is of tangible value to property managers, building specialists and student housing administrators.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a comprehensive list of key performance indicators (KPIs) that can be employed in determining the functional performance of academic and research laboratory facilities.

The study employed a two-phase approach. First, a thorough literature review was conducted to identify potential KPIs specific to the performance of laboratory facilities. This was followed by an assessment of the KPIs by 12 respondents including 6 professionals and 6 users. The KPIs were arranged in the form of a questionnaire survey containing response columns for agree/disagree, and importance rating scales for evaluation. The relative importance index values were also computed.

The result of the study was a comprehensive list of 161 KPIs classified into nine categories including: space, access/circulation, utilities and waste, environmental conditions, furniture, appearance/finishes/image, communications, storage within the space and special building features. These KPIs were perceived to be at varying levels of importance by the respondents.

Though previous studies developed KPIs for the performance of facilities, these KPIs are not universal. Thus, the originality of this study is in its identification of a comprehensive set of KPIs unique to the design, evaluation and management of research and academic laboratory facilities.

The purpose of this paper is to present an assessment of the challenges to the implementation of building management systems (BMS) in Saudi Arabia, during the life cycle of building projects.

Review of literature and interviews were conducted with professionals to identify and synthesize the challenges to the implementation of BMS in Saudi Arabia. This formed the basis of three questionnaire surveys that were designed utilizing a five-point Likert scale, and consisted of 32 challenges. The surveys were assessed by representatives of architectural/engineering (A/E) firms, BMS installation sub-contractors and facilities managers to calculate the effect index of each challenge.

The top influential challenges pertaining to the briefing and design phase includes “inappropriate selection of the BMS,” “inappropriate selection of the A/E team”; installation and final acceptance phase includes “inappropriate selection of sub-contractors to install the BMS” and “inappropriate selection of the BMS suppliers,” operation and maintenance phase includes “inadequate initial training for the BMS facility personnel,” “poor operation and maintenance activities.”

The paper is of practical benefit to stakeholders in the building industry, as it allows for the development of an effective BMS implementation plan.

The study increases the level of awareness in the building industry about the challenges that influence the implementation of BMS.