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Architecture influences people and the environment from the past, present and the future. Nevertheless architecture and design quality is viewed as subjective, and benchmarks to achieve consensus are necessary for design or evaluation of buildings. This paper establishes architectural design criteria for design quality of multi-storey housing buildings. A set of the criteria was established with literature review, an operational definition and survey on qualified persons or architects in the professional practice of architecture. The literature reviews identified seven concepts for architecture and design quality, and the operational definition translated this architectural design quality to measurable and observable cases and variables. The survey collected these variable data from a purposive sample of 95 respondents, and these data were examined by statistical analysis. The results of the descriptive statistics, inferential t-tests (p ≤ 0.05) and positive hypothesis testing verified that respondents in general agreed to these seven design concepts as architectural design criteria for design quality. These results established the first ever set of seven architectural design criteria which were ranked in descending order of significance as function, socio-culture, site context, cost, aesthetic of art, sustainability, and Feng Shui. These architectural design criteria can be applied to the design or evaluation of multi-storey housing buildings for the good of people and the environment.

One of the most significant challenges facing contemporary architectural and urban design is how it can become more sustainable. Energy consumption by housing is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and a cause of depletion of non-renewable energy sources. Of particular concern is existing stock, which has the worst performance and is hardest to improve.

One means of addressing these issues that is attracting increasing interest is the integration of embedded renewable energy technologies. This paper discusses the use of wind turbines on buildings as a response to climate change legislation. It examines the potential for embedded generation in a specific built form (existing high rise housing) and places this in the context of a particular geographical location (Glasgow, Scotland) where the existing provision is highly problematic, but which also presents significant potential. It describes findings from two projects in Glasgow, a pilot installation on a city centre multi-storey block, and subsequent feasibility study for a Housing Association managed multi-storey block and identifies the problems and opportunities that may be applied in similar projects elsewhere.

The purpose of this paper is to understand if and how industrialized house building (IHB) could support productivity developments for housebuilding on project and industry levels. The take is that fragmentation of construction is one explanation for the lack of productivity growth, and that IHB could be an integrating method of overcoming horizontal and vertical fragmentation.

Singe-factor productivity measures are calculated based on data reported by IHB companies and compared to official produced and published research data. The survey covers the years 2013–2020 for IHB companies building multi-storey houses in timber. Generalization is sought through descriptive statistics by contrasting the data samples to the used means to control vertical and horizontal fragmentation formulated as three theoretical propositions.

According to the results, IHB in timber is on average more productive than conventional housebuilding at the company level, project level, in absolute and in growth terms over the eight-year period. On the company level, the labour productivity was on average 10% higher for IHB compared to general construction and positioned between general construction and general manufacturing. On the project level, IHB displayed an average cost productivity growth of 19% for an employed prefabrication degree of about 45%.

Empirical evidence is presented quantifying so far perceived advantages of IHB. By providing analysis of actual cost and project data derived from IHB companies, the article quantifies previous research that IHB is not only about prefabrication. The observed positive productivity growth in relation to the employed prefabrication degree indicates that off-site production is not a sufficient mean for reaching high productivity and productivity growth. Instead, the capabilities to integrate the operative logic of conventional housebuilding together with logic of IHB platform development and use is a probable explanation of the observed positive productivity growth.

Cities were first formed, they have been developed and advanced together with the development of humanity and technology. The cities in urbanization process have been going through technological, economical, social and cultural changes. These changes have brought along lots of problems affecting the environment humans live in. The environmental pollution caused by increasing population and degeneration of the environmental resources, and the problems caused by local economic and social disorganization have become the basic concerns of this area. The rapid population growth affects also the cities in social, cultural and economic manners. Especially with the increasing number of multi-story structure demolished in acts of urban centers, because of new and larger settlements housing, water, general health conditions, transportation, environmental degeneration, decrease in green fields etc. like these problems have been arose. The physical structure of a city is comprised of its habitants' social, cultural, economic aspects and their interaction with each other.

In this study, in Kyrenia White Zone and Environmental Protection Area encountered in the development process like economic, ecological, environmental problems, and the green field areas that being destroyed day by day are analyzing for the city effects. While evaluating this analysis, LEED ND neighborhood scale, which is created for the advancement in urban sustainability and which is one of the environmental-performance certificate and evaluation systems have been preferred. In this study, the green fields, environmental problems, economic and ecological developments of the region were also taken into account. In order to learn the size of the development and problems, 5 regions-including environment protection region-with different aspects were chosen and a survey was conducted.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that cause housing shortage for low‐income groups in Yemen and recommend some solutions to alleviate the problem.

A questionnaire survey has been used as the tool to carry out this study. The first part of the questionnaire consisted of three groups namely: economic, administrative, and legal factors. The second part consists of suggestions on housing supply, construction methods, and materials used for low‐cost housing in Yemen. The level of importance of the categories was measured and the relative importance of weightage was ranked.

The results show that the most important economic factors causing housing shortage were poor handling of available economic resources and shortage of economic resources. The most important administrative factors causing housing shortage were lack of organization and synchronization and not conducting studies on housing. The most important legal factor causing housing shortage was lack of legalization of housing.

The findings could be used to improve housing policies and strategy in Yemen in order to decrease the housing shortage, particularly for the low‐income group.

In the construction industry, it has proven difficult to implement and realize innovation efforts, for example in the development of industrialized construction and use of platform concepts. Thus, the purpose of this study is to characterize the innovation diffusion process in the social system of a large Swedish contractor company. Specifically, the diffusion of three innovative industrialized house-building (IHB) platforms and factors affecting their adoption and implementation (particularly effects of their perceived radicality in relation to the company’s decentralized characteristics) are identified and discussed.

A case study approach was applied, using empirical material including semi-structured interviews and archival records (research reports from earlier studies at different points in time related to each innovation and annual corporate reports). The material was analyzed using Rogers’ (2003) five-stage innovation process model, acknowledging the importance of social systems’ structures.

Structural characteristics of the social system strongly affect innovation diffusion. In subsystems that had not been involved in initiation of the innovations, they were regarded as radical, which hindered their adoption and implementation.

This study builds upon the recent findings that successful innovation implementation depends on a range of contingencies in the construction context. Although the diffusion of the innovations per se has been traced over a ten-year period, generalizability is limited because the results come from one construction company.

Contractors have invested substantially in the development of industrialized construction and use of platform concepts, but less in their implementation, so they have obtained little gain. How innovations are perceived and implemented in different subsystems affects the success of their implementation in the overarching social system.

This study adheres to previous calls for more research on firm level in the complex social system of construction companies by adopting a ten-year perspective on the diffusion of innovation at a large contractor addressing in particular the impact of the innovations perceived radicality in relation to the decentralized characteristics of the company.

Digital media is reshaping architectural design by introducing new tools, methods and workflows. Among various AEC tools, Building Information Modeling (BIM) has gained popularity due to its collaboration platform enabling cross-disciplinary teamwork during whole life cycle of buildings. BIM has further transformed culture and processes associated with design, construction and operation of buildings, hence triggering new building regulations in developed countries. However, in developing countries, BIM implementation is facing several barriers, such as lack of investment in technology and training, hesitation in quitting traditional tools and practices, etc. The purpose of this paper is to highlight potentials of BIM for developing countries, which are in need of more sustainable policies for enhancing their economic and environmental performances.

Throughout the text, a literature review on BIM including its dimensions and benefits, impacts on architectural design and adoption in global and local contexts is provided. In case study, surveys and structured interviews are conducted with BIM user and non-BIM user architects throughout Pakistan. Beyond 2D/3D modeling, the use of BIM applications for sustainable design process such as scheduling (4D), cost estimation (5D), performance analysis and facilities management (6D) is investigated.

Using analytical tools of an online surveying tool and SPSS statistical software, barriers and motivations for BIM implementation in Pakistan are determined. Strategies for further BIM adoption and implementation via “education and training institutions” and “supporting organizations and institutions” are defined.

As a developing country, Pakistan shall be moving the barriers for the spread of BIM technology. Recent research covered the entire AEC sector (Masood et al., 2014; Sohu et al., 2017; Ali et al., 2018), yet this paper focuses specifically on architectural design and practice field. In order to find out experiences and expectations about BIM technology in the architecture sector, professionals are surveyed and four chief architects are interviewed. How far have Pakistani architects adopted BIM? For which project types and scales is BIM more serviceable for them? Which BIM applications are they implementing to overcome the limitations in their professional practice? In Pakistan, where sustainability, in terms of scheduling, cost estimation, performance analysis and facilities management, is an indispensible measure for local practices, has implementation of BIM technology achieved sustainability in architectural design process? What are the motivations of Pakistani architects for becoming BIM users in future?

This paper aims to investigate the impacts of introducing voids combinations on natural ventilation performance in high-rise residential building living unit.

This study was carried out through field measurement and computational fluid dynamics methods. The parameters of the study are void types and sizes, and a wind angle was used to formulate case studies.

The results indicate that the provision of a single-sided horizontal void larger by 50% increase the indoor air velocity performance up to 322.37% to 0.471 m/s in the living unit and achieves the required velocity for thermal comfort.

Passive design features are the most desirable techniques to enhance natural ventilation performance in the high-rise residential apartments for thermal comfort and indoor air quality purposes.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the ability of “adaptable buildings” to respond to future potential built environment changes in sustainable way.

A detailed literature review and a case study were undertaken to identify the life cycle changes of typical buildings over a period of more than 100 years. In total, 12 semi-structured interviews were conducted among construction industry professionals to identify how adaptable buildings enhance sustainability within the built environment. Case study data were analysed through a Morphological Analysis, and the interview data were analysed through discourse analysis.

Out of the many adaptable features, the results revealed “change of use” as the dominant trend within the buildings of the selected urban cluster. More than 60 per cent of buildings have changed their original use during their life cycle. Around 10 per cent of them have changed their use frequently (every six year) during the last 20 years thereby signalling an increase in the rate of change. The positive contribution of adaptable buildings in achieving sustainability in terms of economic, social and environmental considerations, were confirmed through the analysis of semi-structured interviews.

This paper reports a longitudinal study spanning over 100 years, exploring the extent of building adaptation within a selected cluster of Liverpool city centre, UK. The study further confirms the need to incorporate adaptability as a key criterion when designing buildings. The increased rate at which “change of use” has occurred further reinforces the need. Lack of a track record of designing for reuse makes this an interesting challenge for the construction industry, hence likely to have significant implications for policy/strategy formulation.

A scheduling method for determining the critical path in linear projects is presented, that takes into account maximum time and distance constraints in addition to the commonly used minimum time and distance constraints. The maximum constraints, though often present in the specifications of a project, are not considered during the planning procedure, since no method existed to enable scheduling with them. The proposed method builds on the concept of the maximum constraints and expands on the necessary background for their implementation into the schedule. The introduced critical path algorithm allows for grouping linear activities into four categories regarding their critical status and their ability to influence project duration. The method is applied to a low‐pressure pipeline construction project and the results are presented.