Search results

Properly allocating an organization's activities within a building is vital to reducing the relational complexity arising from process–environment interactions. Multiple relationships are mapped, and certain interferences are only identified after these have been processed. The method/software employed for this task is Mapping Activity Environment Allocation (MAEA). However, data input and interpretation of results depend on the usability conditions of the organization's agents. This paper presents MAEA's usability test results.

Test sessions and interviews were carried out with seven agents registered at a University Hospital. Participants were instructed to think aloud during its use, and immediately afterward, responded to semi-structured interviews. Test sessions were audio recorded and screen captured.

Participants found the software easy to use and pointed out valuable implications for professional and academic use. In addition to relationship, priority and parallelism data, customized visualizations were created, including organizational charts, flowcharts and activity flow routes on the floor plan.

MAEA's simplicity allows non-designers to conduct evidence-based assessments and decisions. It allows designers to test their proposals during the programming and outline proposal stages.

A more detailed definition of design requirements from the beginning increases the conditions to successfully achieve project goals.

The ability to map the allocation of activity-spaces in the pre-design phase of building architecture allows for early identification of interactions, aiding in the development of more robust project requirements during programming.

This paper aims to identify the pre-design critical success factors CSFs pertaining to different types of construction projects in the rapidly growing city of Dubai, by adopting one of the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) tools, analytic hierarchy process (AHP).

A mapping process was utilized to filter and categorize CSFs gathered from a literature review. A total of 5 main and 27 sub-main criteria were derived following RIBA's Plan of Work 2020 (Royal Institute of British Architects). A questionnaire was distributed among experts in the construction industry to assess the development in vicinity of the Sheikh Zayed Road (SZR). An analysis was conducted to prioritize the CSFs as per experts' judgment.

According to the experts' combined judgment, CSFs linked to client requirements (CR) are the most significant at 22.9% priority weight. Overall project review (OPR), project team (PT), project preparation (PP), previous projects feedback and experience (PPF) success factors achieved 21.4, 19.5, 18.9 and 17.2%, respectively. Within CR, sub-CSFs of client consultation and acceptance (CCA), responsibly matrix for stakeholders (RM), client track record (CTR) and client level of service (CLS) were prioritized by the experts.

This work was carried out by respondents based in UAE only, and focused on one urban stretch of Dubai, this could be replicated by employing experts from other countries and other case study areas within Dubai.

This study would significantly have an impact on the education of current and future project managers, planners, engineers, architects and, most importantly, decision-makers on helpful pre-design strategies for enhancing their project success. This research could assist, direct and educate management, as the management provides/manages the necessary resources for projects. Furthermore, management also has the authority to choose project leaders/consultants that will make the project successful.

Consolidating Dubai's phenomenal growth requires prioritizing socio-economic strategies in future development projects at the pre-design and pre-construction stage, which will improve the city's business environment and the quality of life for Dubai's residents. This opens up fresh possibilities over the next few years for integrating robust procedures for successful execution, monitoring and evaluation of future construction developments from the outset.

Although many studies have identified various factors as important for successful building projects, few appear to have done a complete analysis using pre-design criteria to systematically categorize professional views on the relative relevance of CSFs. There is a lack in research examining the factors that led to Dubai's successful construction projects. This study attempts to bridge this gap and provide a prioritized framework reference model to assist project/asset managers and decision-makers.

This study uses computer-aided design to improve the ecological and environmental sustainability of early-stage landscape designs. Urban expansion on open land and natural habitats has led to a decline in biodiversity and increased climate change impacts, affecting urban inhabitants' quality of life and well-being. While sustainability indicators have been employed to assess the performance of buildings and neighbourhoods, landscape designs' ecological and environmental sustainability has received comparatively less attention, particularly in early-design stages where applying sustainability approaches is impactful.

The authors propose a computation framework for evaluating key landscape sustainability indicators and providing real-time feedback to designers. The method integrates spatial indicators with widely recognized sustainability rating system credits. A specialized tool was developed for measuring biomass optimization, precipitation management and urban heat mitigation, and a proof-of-concept experiment tested the tool's effectiveness on three Mediterranean neighbourhood-level designs.

The results show a clear connection between the applied design strategy to the indicator behaviour. This connection enhances the ability to establish sustainability benchmarks for different types of landscape developments using parametric design.

The study allows non-expert designers to measure and embed landscape sustainability early in the design stages, thus lowering the entry level for incorporating biodiversity enhancement and climate mitigation approaches.

This study expands the parametric vocabulary for measuring landscape sustainability by introducing spatial ecosystem services and architectural sustainability indicators on a unified platform, enabling the integration of critical climate and biodiversity-loss solutions earlier in the development process.

This study examined the factors impeding the implementation of micro-credentials and accepting it as a credible source of earning professional qualifications and certifications necessary for pursuing higher education or other career goals.

The factors were identified by reflecting on the recent literature and Internet resources coupled with in-depth brainstorming with experts in the field of micro-credentials including educators, learners and employers. Two ranking methods, namely Preference Ranking for Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE) and multi-objective optimization based on ratio analysis (MOORA), are used together to rank the major challenges.

The results of this study present that lack of clear definitions, ambiguous course descriptions, lack of accreditation and quality assurance, unclear remuneration policies, lack of coordination between learning hours and learning outcomes, the inadequate volume of learning, and lack of acceptance by individuals and organizations are the top-ranked and the most significant barriers in the implementation of micro-credentials.

The findings can be used by educational institutions, organizations and policymakers to better understand the issues and develop strategies to address them, making micro-credentials a more recognized form of education and qualifications.

The novelty of this study is to identify the primary factors influencing the implementation of micro-credentials from the educators', students' and employers' perspectives and to prioritize those using ranking methods such as PROMETHEE and MOORA.

This study aims to formulate a user-friendly pre-design model that could be a decision support tool for green wall systems to assist designers in selecting an optimal green wall system aligned with specified performance criteria while concurrently addressing project requirements linked to social and economic parameters. This approach seeks to enhance overall project satisfaction for the designer and the owner.

A correlation between the green wall context and design requirements and its performance on the buildings have been defined by considering its social and economic parameters, which represented the owner preferences to ensure the most satisfaction from installation as it achieves the required performance that is defined by the designer such as maximizing thermal insulation, improving indoor air quality, reducing the needed heating and cooling loads, etc. and also to achieve the satisfaction in social and economic requirements defined by the owner such as system installation cost, system maintenance cost, adding beauty value, etc.

The research developed an easy pre-design model to be a tool for green wall system decision-making for the most suitable system, which contains three main steps: the first one is defining the required performance of the green wall (designer requirements), the second step is limiting the context of the project which is made by designer and the owner requirements and finally the third step is choosing the system components that ensures achieving the requirements of both owners and designer, related to the building and climate context.

The added value lies in developing a green wall decision-making tool, essentially a pre-design model. This model considers the correlation between the project’s context, encompassing climate and building conditions. It provides a structured approach for decision-making in the early stages of green wall design. It offers valuable insights into the optimal choices related to system type, installation methods and plant characteristics. This enhanced decision-making tool contributes to more informed and efficient design processes, considering each project’s specific needs and conditions.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) programs are traditionally delivered in-person and full-time (40 h per week) for 10 weeks during the summer. However, this type of format has the potential to limit broader student participation. This study aims to compare learning assessment data between a traditional NSF REU (10 weeks of summer, full-time, in-person) to an alternative NSF REU delivered virtually, part-time and over 10 months as a result of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

A retrospective pre-then-post survey was completed to assess perceived learning gains for each REU program. Three learning gains categories were assessed: entrepreneurial competencies, career goals and research skill development. T-tests were used to evaluate a difference in means between pre and post.

Findings show the greatest quantity of learning gains within the alternative program delivery. Moreover, a larger quantity of learning gains was perceived within the first semester of the alternative program delivery compared to the second semester.

The authors propose the NSF should be intentional about trying new approaches to REU programs delivery, including duration and format, as a way to broaden participation in engineering.

This study is original in that it is the first of its kind to assess an alternative REU program delivery (allowed only because of the COVID-19 pandemic) in comparison to traditional REU program delivery.

The aim of the research is to determine the influence of photovoltaic (PV) installation and the share of façade glazing on the energy profile of nursery buildings in the Baltic Sea region, as well as defining the most favorable configuration in terms of energy efficiency.

The article provides comparative calculations of energy performance indicators (Ep, Ed, Eu) and CO₂ emissions (mCO₂) made for the defined model of the nursery. It includes calculations concerning energy performance of the building, depending on its PV power (0–60 kWp), PV efficiency (100 and 85%) and façade glazing ratio (GR = 25%, 50% and 75%).

The results of the research indicate that an increase in the PV power exerts proportional impact on the reduction of the Ep and Ed indicators, as well as on the CO₂ emissions. Only low GR values (25%) reduce the Eu indicator significantly. Decrease in high range of GR values (over 50%) does not provide proportional effects. In the variant: 60 kWp (100% efficiency) with GR = 25%, the biggest share (99.5%) of RES was obtained. This proves that the concept of energy independent nursery buildings is feasible and reasonable in the examined location.

Designing buildings towards environmental neutrality requires laborious pre-design conceptual work before developing the right solutions. The set of results of the relationship between the variables of the building's envelope, energy performance indicators and the required involvement of active RES installations to achieve high energy performance of a building presented in the article is valuable. It allows for a preliminary decision of the direction of the design solutions selection in the design process of public utility buildings, such as nurseries. Thus, it may significantly shorten the pre-design analysis process for the location of the southern part of the Baltic Sea region.

The novelty of the paper relies on examining the dependences between PV power and façade glazing ratio in terms of their influence on energy profile of nursery buildings.

This study discusses the tracking trajectory issue of the exoskeleton under the bounded disturbance and designs an useful tracking trajectory control method to solve it. By using the proposed control method, the tracking error can be successfully convergence to the assigned boundary. Meanwhile, the chattering effect caused by the actuators is already reduced, and the tracking performance of the pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs) elbow exoskeleton is improved effectively.

A prescribed performance sliding mode control method was developed in this study to fulfill the joint position tracking trajectory task on the elbow exoskeleton driven by two PAMs. In terms of the control structure, a dynamic model was built by conforming to the adaptive law to compensate for the time variety and uncertainty exhibited by the system. Subsequently, a super-twisting algorithm-based second-order sliding mode control method was subjected to the exoskeleton under the boundedness of external disturbance. Moreover, the prescribed performance control method exhibits a smooth prescribed function with an error transformation function to ensure the tracking error can be finally convergent to the pre-designed requirement.

From the theoretical perspective, the stability of the control method was verified through Lyapunov synthesis. On that basis, the tracking performance of the proposed control method was confirmed through the simulation and the manikin model experiment.

As revealed by the results of this study, the proposed control method sufficiently applies to the PAMs elbow exoskeleton for tracking trajectory, which means it has potential application in the actual robot-assisted passive rehabilitation tasks.

This article sets out to show how principles and questions about method that underlie a way of interpreting the discipline of conservation and restoration can find results in research and studies, aiming at achieving even conscious reuse process. The occasion is the very recent research performed on the former Church of Saints Gerolamo and Francesco Saverio in Genoa, Italy, the Jesuit church annexed to the 17th-century College of the order. It is a small Baroque jewel in the heart of the ancient city, former University Library and actually abandoned, forgotten for years, inaccessible and awaiting a new use.

The two-year work carried out on the monumental building was conducted according to a study and research methodology developed and refined over the years within the activities of the School of Specialisation in Architectural Heritage and Landscape of the University of Genoa. It is a multidisciplinary and rigorous approach, which aims to train high-level professionals, up-to-date and aware of the multiple problems that interventions on existing buildings, especially of a monumental nature, involve.

The biennal study has been carried out within the activities of the Post-Graduate Programme in Architectural Heritage and Landscape of the University of Genoa. The work methodology faces the challenges of the contemporary complexity, raised by the progressive broadening of the concept of cultural “heritage” and by the problems of its conservation, its active safeguard and its reuse: safety in respect of seismic risk, fire and hydro geological instability, universal accessibility – cognitive, physical and alternative – resource efficiency, comfort and savings in energy consumption, sustainability, communication and involvement of local communities and stakeholders.

The goals of the work were the following: understanding of the architectural heritage, through the correlated study of its geometries, elements and construction materials, surfaces, structures, spaces and functions; understanding of the transformations that the building has undergone over time, relating the results of historical reconstructions from indirect sources and those of direct archaeological analysis; assessment of the state of conservation of the building recognising phenomena of deterioration, damage, faults and deficits that affect materials, construction elements, systems and structures; identification of the causes and extent of damage, faults and deficits, assessing the vulnerability and level of exposure of the asset to the aggression of environmental factors and related risks; evaluation of the compatibility between the characteristics of the available spaces, the primary needs of conservation, the instance of regeneration and possible new uses; the definition of criteria and guidelines for establishing the planning of conservation, restoration and redevelopment interventions.

The purpose of this study is to explore the paranormal tourist experience on ghost tours, taking into account the participants’ perceptions and their prior knowledge of the paranormal, in order to determine the principal components of the future of paranormal tourist experience.

The study is divided into two phases. The first phase is based on participant observation during a ghost tour. The second phase is based on a previously published framework for paranormal tourism. It introduces a qualitative adaptation of the orchestra model to look in-depth at how experiences with paranormal tours might shape the future of tourism as a major subtype.

Paranormal tourism has external (situational-enchantment, historical, mystical, ghostly and unsolved mysteries) and internal (affective, cognitive, sensory, behavior and relationship) components that are inter-linked. Future paranormal tourist experiences (FPTEs) must be focused on enhancing these aspects in order to offer an immersive experience.

Consequently, this paper proposes the FPTE model.