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Like pro-bono service of law and other professional practices, micro-credentialing has become the quasi-charity project of the rapidly commodifying higher education (HE) sector. Produced with minimum waste and expense, qualifications through micro-credentialing economises time spent and optimises efforts. As a result, these bite-size educational offerings are becoming abundant and attractive to both learners and providers. While learners learn on the job or in the job market, providers get an opportunity to package knowledge and skills. Among a plethora of courses with potential overlapping and mismatched competencies, however, a clear pathway to target a career through pastures of micro-credentialing is yet to emerge. If not, it may result in another system of skill poverty and thus alienate the essential autonomy of credential seekers. Autonomy or self-tailoring your own package of micro-credentials (MC) without a proper wayfinding system could be overwhelming, sometimes even counterproductive, if competency management is based on a one-size-fits-all model. Via a local case, this chapter reviews current MC available to capacitate a career using Construction Management (CM) as a point of departure. It aims to develop a wayfinding framework or user-friendly menu for those wanting to craft a career via a micro-credentialing ecosystem. Broadly, it investigates navigating various MC offerings equivalent to undergraduate qualifications needed to become a CM professional recognised by accreditation bodies. In the process, it systematically discourses multiple ontologies of micro-credentialing in links, lapses, overlaps, and intersections among competencies to untangle complexities and optimise opportunities. It was hoped that learners could target a career instead of matching a job profile in the micro-credentialing universe.

This paper aims to investigate the potential role of the Emergency Department (ED) layout in enhancing its functionality. It applies a performance-based building design (PBBD) approach to evaluate emergency department functionality and efficiency as the most important criterion behind the success of the hospital service.

A quantitative approach based on space syntax theory was adopted through four syntactic maps (isovist, axial, convex, and visibility graph analysis VGA), to depict three case studies in Erbil city hospitals by analyzing three different layout typologies of ED such as Podular, Ballroom and Linear through measuring wayfinding, accessibility, privacy, visibility, time spend-length of stay and corridor circulation as layout factors.

This paper provides empirical insights on how the ED layout typology factors significantly affect producing functionally efficient EDs, whereas the Ballroom ED layout typology is the most effective compared to others. Given the importance of ED in enhancing a healthy environment for patients and staff, study findings are valuable resource for health designers, who play a critical role in ensuring patients enjoy a healthy and safe environment.

This paper has attempted to identify the appropriate layout of ED for effective functional performance in hospitals. A syntactical analysis between three different ED layout typologies based on the layout variables has been analysed using the PBBD approach. There has been no attempt carried out so far to analyse the functional performance of the PBBD approach in different ED layouts using layout variables.

The purpose of this research is to identify quick, effective and affordable architectural design solutions to improve the health of patients, visitors and staff, in an underfunded community healthcare center (CHC) in Baltimore.

Both qualitative (individual and Focus group interviews) and quantitative methods (space syntax analysis and questionnaire survey) are used to assess the healing environment. The questionnaires cover interior and exterior environment related questions.

The questionnaire identifies three issues related to wayfinding, interior design, and access to natural light. The findings demonstrate that the waiting area, exam room and laboratory need to be upgraded. Incorporation of some other interior components including, wall art, plants, music, signage are also suggested by the respondents.

Very few studies in the USA have been done to understand the effects of architectural design to create a healing environment on the community scale.

The purpose of this paper is to explore library research that uses geographic information systems (GIS) as a tool to evaluate library services and resources to ascertain current trends and establish future directions for this growing research area.

The study searched full text for geographic information systems in two databases: Library and Information Science Source (LISS) and Library, Information Science and Technology Abstracts (LISTA), replicating the method used in a prior literature review. The titles and abstracts of the search results were analyzed to gather only the research that used GIS as a tool to measure and analyze library services.

This study found growth in the last decade for library research using GIS. There remain two ways the tool is primarily used: to analyze service areas and to manage facilities and collections.

The findings are relevant for library and information science researchers and practitioners because they summarize a specific area of research that has grown and changed and that still has potential to be used more widely. Using GIS in practice and research could benefit all library users and nonusers because spatial analysis facilitates more precise and informed delivery of services and resources.

The paper provides future directions for use of GIS in library research and attempts to define subdivisions within this research area to clarify the area for researchers and practitioners.

How organisations interact with and respond to environmental pressures has been a long-term interest of organisational scholars. Still, it remains an under-theorised phenomenon from a project perspective. So far, there is limited understanding of how projects, which are composed by a constellation of organisations, “respond” to institutional pressures that are exerted on them. This research takes the perspective of projects as adopters/implementers of institutional pressures and analyses how they interact with, and respond to, such pressures. More specifically, this research explores how construction projects respond to the pressure of a Building Information Modelling (BIM) mandate.

Multiple in-depth case studies were conducted to explore the practical implementation of a BIM mandate in the UK and understand how the construction projects responded to the coercive pressures to implement a new policy mandate for process digitalisation. Multiple sources were employed for data collection and the data were analysed inductively. The findings identify a hybrid response comprising four distinct ways that projects might respond to an institutional pressure.

We find that projects decouple both from the content and from the intended purpose of a policy, i.e. there are two variance of a policy-practice decoupling phenomenon in projects. The findings also reveal the underlying conditions leading to decoupling.

We advance decoupling literature so that it better applies to the temporary, distributed and interdependent work conducted via projects. Second, we define decoupling in projects as a provisional and fragmented process of wayfinding through heterogeneous institutional spaces, and discuss the potential policy-practice assemblages in projects, influenced by how, if and when project members' activities decouple from the many and often contradicting institutional pressures they face. Third, we discuss how the qualitatively different forms of decoupling that we identified in our work may act as part of a legitimation process in ambiguous situations whereby projects might share a resemblance of conformity with institutional pressures when they are de facto only partially conforming to them.

Because of the global increase of climate change effects, floods are becoming more frequent and severer, especially in urban areas of coastal cities and islands where floodplains have turned into buildings because of rapid urbanisation, leading to a higher risk of damages. Urban heritage areas should be highly considered in the time of evacuation because of the vulnerability of streets and buildings and limitations on taking counteractions. Given these limitations, this study aims to propose a network of potential evacuation routes based on spatial configuration analysis of the heritage areas.

Penang Island's heritage site, namely, George Town, located on the northwest coast of Malaysia, is chosen as the case study. By using an approach of spatial configuration analysis using space syntax techniques in addition to considering the potential starting points for evacuation and flood risk map of the area, this study analysed the area's street network values for evacuation function during flood crisis time.

Potential evacuation routes were identified for flood disasters in the George Town heritage area. Furthermore, the proposed evacuation routes were evaluated in terms of time for evacuation by metric step-depth analysis of space syntax.

A few studies have focused on practical guidelines for evacuation routes based on spatial configuration analysis, an important yet neglected approach in this regard, especially concerning urban island areas. This study can contribute to providing strategies to reduce vulnerability and casualties in urban heritage areas.

The objective of this paper is to study the efficacy of the ASPECTSS Design Index's concepts as drivers of design intervention for educational environments for students on the autism spectrum. Based on the seven principles of acoustics, spatial sequencing, escape spaces, compartmentalization, transitions, sensory zoning and safety, ASPECTSS formed the basis for a preliminary post-occupancy evaluation (POE) and survey of an existing school environment.

Concepts drawn from the review of other strategies for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) friendly design were integrated with the seven ASPECTSS principles to create a design framework and consequent design retro-fit for a Pre-K-12th grade public school for students on the autism spectrum. The following design interventions were proposed: colour-coding based navigation; acoustical treatments in key circulation spaces; introduction of transition alcoves; classroom reorganisation using compartmentalization principles and the introduction of escape spaces for de-escalation. Specifically, a classroom template of modules of ASPECTSS-compliant layouts was provided to all staff. The efficacy and impact of these interventions were assessed using a whole campus online staff survey with further probing using classroom observations and subsequent interviews.

The results show alignment between the implementation of the ASPECTSS informed design interventions and responses to nine of the Likert scale items were all significantly lower than the middle response, indicating a high degree of satisfaction from survey respondents. These questions and responses related to the colour scheme facilitating ease of navigation for visitors of the school, the acoustics of the building successfully mitigating sound magnification and subsequently student distractibility, the organisation of the classrooms enhancing learning and the de-escalation zones allowing improved management of disruptive behaviours in the classroom.

This study focuses primarily on the Autism ASPECTSS Design Index as a framework for assessing classroom efficacy. Other tools and frameworks may produce different insights. A single school site was studied. Validation of these findings in other school environments is necessary before generalising these strategies at scale. The use of qualitative tools, primarily teacher and staff surveys, provides one lens into the efficacy of these design strategies. Further research using measurable biometric indicators such as heart-rate and stress levels measured through wearable technology could provide a first step towards the triangulation of these findings.

These findings could help provide more standardised best practices for designing learning environments for autism, potentially providing supportive strategies with real impact on learning quality, skill development and knowledge acquisition in school environments. This could potentially have economic implications by supporting more efficient progress for autistic students through their school curriculum.

Similar to economic impact, if validated and generalised, these findings could help with sense of accomplishment, general mental health improvement, alleviation of family stress and potential reduction of stigma in the autism community.

There is a slowly emerging field of design guidance for autism schools, but very little empirical evidence on the measurable efficacy of these strategies. This research provides one type of such evidence, as measured by the perceived impact from the point of view of staff and teachers at the school.

Surgical services are settings where resilient performance (RP) is necessary to cope with a wide range of variabilities. Although RP can benefit from a supportive built environment (BE), prior studies have focused on the operating room, giving scant attention to support areas. This study takes a broader perspective, aiming at developing BE design knowledge supportive of RP at the surgical service as a whole.

Seven BE design prescriptions developed in a previous work in the context of internal logistics of hospitals, and thus addressing interactions between workspaces, were used as a point of departure. The prescriptions were used as a data analysis framework in a case study of the surgical service of a medium-sized private hospital. The scope of the study included surgical and support areas, in addition to workflows involving patients and family members, staff, equipment, sterile instruments and materials, supplies, and waste. Data collection included document analysis, observations, interviews, and meetings with hospital staff.

Results identified 60 examples of using the prescriptions, 77% of which were related to areas other than the operating rooms. The developed design knowledge is framed as a set of prescriptions, examples, and their association to workflows and areas, indicating where it should be applied.

The design knowledge is new in surgical services and offers guidance to both BE and logistics designers.

This study aims to explore an emerging collection of smart building technologies, known as smart workplace solutions (SWS), in the context of facilities management (FM).

This study is based on semi-structured interviews with facility managers in Finland, Norway and Sweden who have deployed SWSs in their organizations. SWS features, based on empirical data from a previous study, were also used to further analyse the interviews.

It analyses the benefits that SWSs bring from the facility management point of view. It is clear that the impetus for change and for deploying SWS in the context of FM is primarily driven by cost savings related to reductions in office space.

This research has been conducted with a focus on office buildings only. However, other building types can learn from the benefits that facility managers receive in the area of user-centred smart buildings.

SWSs are often seen as employee experience solutions that are only related to “soft” elements such as collaboration, innovation and learning. Understanding the FM business case can help make a more practical case for their deployment.

SWSs are an emerging area, and this study has collected data from facility managers who use them daily.

This study aims at identifying the key perceived environmental attributes that can influence patients’ sense of coherence (SOC) in hospital public spaces and can improve hospital quality to create a salutogenic environment.

In total, 205 patients from the two hospitals in Sari City, Iran, participated in a questionnaire survey. The data were analyzed through structural equation modeling using partial least squares to investigate the impact of environmental qualities of public spaces on patients’ SOC.

Results confirmed that public spaces’ quality is positively associated with patients’ SOC. Accessibility has the most effective role in patients’ SOC, closely followed by relationability and intelligibility indicators. Environmental comfort also influences patients’ SOC in hospital public spaces. In comparison, the quality of the visibility is less important to patients’ SOC.

Findings will help hospital managers and designers to identify influential factors to improve the quality of health-care environments. Furthermore, the study will provide a picture of patients’ views and SOC intentions regarding public spaces in health-care environments.

To the authors’ knowledge, there is a lack of studies on the relationship between hospital public spaces and users’ SOC. Thus, this study investigates the experiences and perceptions of patients toward the quality of public spaces in hospital environments in physical, social and psychological aspects to find out its effects on patients’ SOC.