Conventional Building Construction Research Articles

Cost Control Variables in Building Construction (A case study of Ibadan North Local Government, Oyo State, Nigeria)

Cost control methodologies in structural engineering are of vital importance due to the alarming escalation of construction cost which needs to be effectively controlled. The Report introduces the concept, needs and aims of cost control. It also visualizes the terms used and those involved in cost control work. The body of the research work centre on the reasons for increasing cost and the various steps taken to control this increase. Questionnaires were designed and administered to professionals within the construction industry which were analyzed and several deductions were derived from this analysis. Conclusion finding reveals that preparation of the cost control of project is highly important as it would help professionals in the construction field to maximize fund and use it effectively during project execution. The recommendations were that, the government should enact stable policies to strengthen the value of her local currency, the construction industries and the government should embrace the use of alternatively locally sourced materials that is less cheap than conventional building construction materials, avenues for soft loans at minimal interest rates should be made available for sub-contractors by governments, Finally, the government should establish a regulatory body to carefully monitor the values of land cost at various locations in order to checkmate the excesses of the land owners that indiscriminately increase the sales of lands inappropriately that affects the total construction costs.

Modeling and validation of the thermal performance of an affordable, energy efficient, healthy dwelling unit

The thermal performance of an affordable energy-efficient single-story residential building designated as Tuskegee Healthy House (THH) was simulated by developing a computational model for the house using Visual DOE-4 commercial software. Visual DOE-4 package employs the same calculation engine of the proven DOE-2 building Energy Analysis program. The THH was built from conventional building materials and construction methods according to the southern building codes of the United States. Several energy efficiency and air quality control features were incorporated throughout the THH. The present model was validated by comparison of computed results with power consumption data available from a previous study of the same house. The experimental data were obtained for forced ventilation flow rates of 0, 28.3 L/s and 54.3 L/s. A favorable agreement between the model predictions and experimental data is observed which is indicative of the model’s accuracy. The simulations also show that the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) energy requirement for THH is reduced when forced ventilation is increased during the summer months. However, ventilation during the winter months leads to a rise in THH energy requirement.

Sustainability in industrialised architecture: closing the materials cycle

The condition of sustainability, from a physical point of view, can be defined as the closure of the material cycle. This is reached in determined systems, in the absence of residual flows, and in which resources are constantly recycled. Such systems can encounter serious obstacles in the productive model that characterises the majority of contemporary industry. The productive model, born during the Industrial Revolution, can be summarised by the following lineal sequence: extraction > manufacture > use > residue. In contrast, this research focuses on a productive model from the ecological industry, based on the example of the biosphere as a recycling machine. Requiring the elimination of the concept of residues, the system can be summarised by the following continuous cycle: recycling-manufacturing-use-recycling. The hypothesis posed is as follows: using technology presently available, represented by the lightweight modular construction that is commercialised by renting (making it possible to return the modules to the factory once their useful life is over, therefore recuperating resources), a management system capable to close the material cycle at least to 90% can be developed. (conventional building construction currently manages a recycling value of 10% of used resources).

Building Robustness Research during World War II

This study reviews research carried out in the U.K. to understand and improve the robustness of buildings when subject to blast from high explosive bombs. The work concentrates on the performance of ordinary civilian buildings, with particular emphasis on multistory buildings framed in either reinforced concrete or structural steelwork. At that time, some of the data were used to enhance conventional building construction, principally on government buildings, and some were used to aid postwar hardened building construction. The two main U.K. researchers whose work is the basis of this paper (Professor Sir Dermot Christopherson and Professor Lord Baker) identified a number of building weaknesses that led to local or progressive collapse, including connections in steel-framed buildings, as well as detailing weaknesses in reinforced concrete constructions. This paper reviews these features, as well as those that added resilience to bomb damage, with particular emphasis to the use of masonry infill panels in ...

Creating healthier buildings

Some conventional building design, construction and maintenance practices create conditions that are capable of causing illness in healthy individuals or exacerbating illness in already sensitized individuals. Staying in faulty building environments may unnecessarily prolong environmental-related illness. Physician and patient awareness of such common building failures may help to diagnose environmental triggers of current illness. Architects would benefit from collaboration with environmental physicians to understand the importance of healthier building design to building occupants. Architectural education and practice is slowly incorporating better methods, often in the context of greening and sustainability. Architects are presently being advised that the needs of approximately 15% of the general population who are significantly sensitive cannot be ignored in building design. The author reviews a number of building failures and itemizes a set of relatively simple principles and design concepts that would help create new and renovated buildings that are healthier than current buildings.

MODULAR SIZE OF CLAY‐PRODUCTS UNITS*

AbstractIn cooperation with the Modular Service Association, studies have been made during the past two years on present unit masonry sizes as used in conventional building construction and their adaptability to a coordinated system. It was found that a significant relationship exists between present unit sizes in height, thickness, and length and a 4‐in. modular dimension. There is little consistency, however, in the assembly of these units in similar or composite walls and far less in the coordination with component building materials and equipment.Recommendations are made for single masonry units based on whole multiples of four inches with consideration given to the various joint thicknesses. Methods are shown for relating unit sizes in fractional multiples of four inches plus mortar joints to the grid pattern. Suggestions for standardization of unit sizes are proposed to obtain maximum simplification and corresponding economy to meet postwar construction requirements.