Preface

Abstract

The Association of Schools of Construction of Southern Africa (ASOCSA) Built Environment conference series in its 15th year of existence continues to be one of the major cutting-edge built environment conferences on the African continent. Since its inception in 2006, the blind peer reviewed conference proceedings have been referred to by both private and public sector policy and decision makers. The series produces a post-conference edition of the Journal of Construction, which is on the list of journals approved by the South African Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) for subsidy. The conference series continues to be endorsed by the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB), one of the largest global built environment research organizations and recognized by the Australian Institute of Building (AIB). The conference provides an interactive international forum and also networking opportunities among researchers, academics, administrators and practitioners, representing institutions of higher learning, government agencies, contracting organisations, consulting enterprises, financial institutions, and other construction-related organisations.The 14th Built Environment Conference held in Durban, South Africa from September 21-22, 2020 was severely impacted by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic as had been the rest of the academic world across the world with conferences either having to be cancelled or converted to virtual events. However, true to its vision and commitment to continue being a premier African built environment conference, ASOCSA and the organizers persevered under difficult and challenging circumstances to present the current version in the long-standing Built Environment series as a virtual conference to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infections to participants. Given the importance of the Built Environment series of conferences as one of the few conferences that allow South African researchers to participate in and claim subsidy from the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), cancelling it would have had a serious negative impact of the research outputs of these academics. Delivering a world-class virtual conference is novel for ASOCSA and not without its technical glitches and snags. Further, all protocols were observed by the small team of conference organizers in Durban who were together physically for the duration of the conference to ensure a hands-on quality conference without any compromise on standards. For the first time the post-conference proceedings will be SCOPUS-indexed in a separate high class publication. OBJECTIVES The 14th Built Environment Conference with its theme of Technology, Transformation and Sustainable Construction had a range of interesting and cutting edge peer-reviewed research papers addressing topical issues that affect the built environment not only in South Africa but in the regions beyond. Notwithstanding the ever-increasing challenging global economic environment with shrinking sponsorship budgets, the conference continued in the tradition of previous conferences in the series and provided an excellent virtual international forum with a clear industry development and sustainability focus. This focus provided the opportunity for researchers and practitioners from developed and developing nations to deliberate topical current issues that impact the Built Environment.List of Conference Theme And Outcomes, Technology, Transformation And Sustainable Construction, Organising Committee, Scientific and Technical Committee, Panel of Reviewers, Panel of Reviewers are available in this pdf.