Typical Building Project Research Articles

Design Decision-Making for Construction Waste Minimisation: A Systematic Literature Review

The escalating pace of construction activities has triggered a concerning surge in waste accumulation, underscoring the urgent need for the construction industry to prioritise environmental sustainability and resource conservation. Research indicates that construction waste (CW) from a typical building project can comprise a substantial 30% of the total weight of materials transported to the site. Significantly, one-third of this waste could be avoided through judicious decision-making in the design phase. While waste management during construction has gained substantial attention in the existing literature, the domain of decision-making in the design stage remains relatively unexplored. This study addresses this gap by conducting a systematic literature review (SLR) of 59 articles from 2011 to 2022. The findings emphasise the crucial role of informed decision-making processes in minimising CW during building projects. A conceptual framework emerges from the analysis, highlighting the necessity of establishing a foundation for design decision-making to tackle CW issues effectively. Collaborative networks among stakeholders and an enhanced supply chain, bolstered by robust information sharing, are identified as pivotal factors in improving CW minimisation efforts. Consequently, this study advocates for further research to expand the knowledge base in this vital area, underscoring the imperative for collective efforts in advancing sustainable practices within the construction industry.

Potential functionality and workability of blockchain within a building information modelling (BIM) environment

PurposeAlthough building information modelling (BIM) brings various benefits and open up the construction industry to many new possibilities, it is not without some challenges. Blockchain has the potential to resolve some of these problems. It has shown that blockchain and BIM can potentially work together in bringing various benefits to all project stakeholders. However, there is a lack of research and knowledge in relation to blockchain-based BIM. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to close this gap by looking into the potential functionality and workability of blockchain within a BIM environment.Design/methodology/approachA four-stage preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses systematic literature review technique has been used to review the blockchain- and BIM-related information sources published. A total of 53 journal articles, 13 books and 27 other resources including that of reports and websites have been included in this paper.FindingsBlockchain-based BIM has countless possibilities, ranging from simple tasks such as tracking of orders to automation of construction payment claims. The literatures have suggested that the several weaknesses that BIM possesses including trust issue, asset ownership issue and data reliability issue could be resolved by incorporating blockchain into its processes.Originality/valueBecause of the lack of researches on the workability of blockchain and BIM, this paper aims to close this gap by proposing a framework for the interaction between blockchain and BIM for a typical building project. This paper has reviewed a substantial amount of currently available knowledge on blockchain-based BIM and its relevancy to the construction industry. This paper believes that the information could be of use to potential BIM tools maker and the construction industry for the betterment of BIM implementation throughout a project life cycle.

A Building Project-Based Industrialized Construction Maturity Model Involving Organizational Enablers: A Multi-Case Study in China

Industrialized construction (IC) as a promising construction mode has been increasingly adopted in China due to its advantages of enhancing productivity and reducing the labor intensiveness in the construction industry. An objective and systematic evaluation of the IC mode is essential by clarifying the current weak areas in application and improving project performance. The meager existing studies have considered evaluating the IC maturity of prefabricated construction projects from the perspective of project governance. This study proposed an industrialized construction maturity model (ICMM) involving organizational enablers by employing the framework of the well-established European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) excellence model. The evaluation indicator system consisting of two parts (i.e., “enablers” and “results”) were abstracted by a literature review and expert interviews. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach was used to weight the indicators. The maturity of IC projects was rated as four levels (i.e., initial, upgraded, integrated, and optimal levels). The proposed ICMM was validated by conducting a multi-case study, four typical building projects that adopted prefabricated construction techniques in Shanghai were selected and evaluated by the proposed ICMM. Results showed that the ICMM can objectively and comprehensively realize the status quo of IC projects and help managers to identify weak areas of the current IC projects and performance improvement paths from the perspective of project governance. The ICMM was also evaluated to demonstrate its applicability and reliability through expert interviews.

Unification of the development of information models of buildings at the demolition stage

The study aims to develop standardized BIM methods for buildings that are part of the Moscow city renovation program. This problem is extremely urgent, since there are no digitized sources of typical projects of the last century, and this complicates the process of calculating the generation of construction and demolition waste and casts doubt on its accuracy. At the stage of high quality and timely dismantling phase (calculation of the weight of construction and demolition waste, scheduling of work and transportation of waste), this process can be automated using information modeling software – Autodesk Revit 2019. This will complement the existing information model by including in it one of the final stages of the building’s life cycle – dismantling, which in transparency, accessibility and completeness will not be inferior to the blocks of design, examination, construction and operation. On the basis of albums of typical building projects, you can get a lot of information to create the necessary project families and specifications, which will greatly simplify and speed up the process of developing building demolition projects in the future, since with each new project libraries of elements, materials, families will be supplemented. The article presents the process of developing a project template for the phase of the dismantling of buildings. A new project parameter has been created, assigned to each material of the project template, the necessary parametric and design characteristics have been assigned for further calculations based on the simulated building design, a design specification has been developed, on the basis of which data on the weight of construction and demolition waste can be quickly obtained, relevant checks carried out for different types of developed and basic project families.

Sprinklerilaitteiston luotettavuuden vaikutus teräsrakenteiden palomitoitukseen

Automaattiset sprinklerilaitteistot ovat tehokas keino pienentää rakennuspaloihin liit­tyviä riskejä. Ympäristöministeriön uusi asetus rakennusten paloturvallisuudesta on avannut uu­sia mahdollisuuksia sisällyttää sprinklereiden vaikutus rakennussuunnitteluun. Useissa kohteissa on voitu osoittaa, että esimerkiksi teräsosien palosuojauksen määrää voidaan vähentää merkittävästi tai jopa jättää kokonaan pois, silloin kun sprinklerijärjestelmä toimii suunnitellulla tavalla. Toimintavarmat ja palonkestävät suunnitteluratkaisut edellyttävät, että sprinklereille käytetyt luotettavuustasot sekä oletettuun palonkehitykseen perustuvat suunnittelumenetelmät ovat kattavasti perusteltuja. Tämä artikkeli esittelee tutkimuksen, jolla pyrittiin määrittämään sprinklerilaitteistojen luotettavuustasoja tyypillisissä rakennuskohteissa sekä arvioimaan mahdollisia hyötyjä voidaan saavuttaa, jos sprinklerijärjestelmän luotettavuus otetaan huomioon teräsrakenteiden rakennesuunnitteluun.

Energy Efficiency Evaluation of Different Glazing and Shading Systems in a School Building

The energy conversations methods and techniques take a significant role in the energy performance of the buildings. Façade and shading systems are in continuous development, and recent studies are showing the importance of implementation of such systems to reduce energy consumption and enhance the effectiveness of the building performance. School buildings are mostly being used during daytime, hence, require active use of sunlight. A measure that is taken on a school building envelope can prevent overheating and overcooling and reduce the heating and cooling energy consumption but at the same time can increase the lighting energy consumption vice versa. Thus, it is necessary to optimise the energy required for climatisation of a building with lighting energy demand. The main aim of the paper is to provide analysis for façade and shading systems applied to a school building and study the effectiveness of it on energy consumption and conservation. The case study for this paper is a typical building project designed to be located in Istanbul, Turkey and has a traditional façade system which is clear double layer windows without any shading devices. The analyses of the energy efficiency of these systems will be presented. The different glazing types and shading systems alternatives will show the most efficient one to be used as some optimised alternatives for the systems. Findings indicate that proper glazing and shading systems can reduce the needed energy for heating and lightening and thus total energy consumption of a school building significantly.

A framework for the utilization of Building Management System data in building information models for building design and operation

Abstract Research on digitizing the various aspects of a typical building project has been on the increase since the advent of Building Information Modelling (BIM). Most efforts build on information technology capabilities already achieved in the various professional domains associated with different stages of the building life cycle. It is predicted that BIM will help to drastically reduce errors, fast-track project delivery time and save implementation costs. As such BIM is now being utilized in the various professional domains and project stages. However, research suggests that the building operation and management stage is being left behind despite the abundance of data collected using building management systems (BMS) of varying degrees of sophistication. It is therefore important to consider exploring BIM applications that encompasses the building operation phase. This will enhance the evaluation of building performance in use and provide feedback to the design stage which could help eliminate design-related performance issues. A framework for utilizing feedback loops from building energy consumption to inform and improve design and facility management in a BIM environment is therefore proposed. A prototype illustrating the framework is implemented in. NET framework interfaced with a BIM-enabled tool and tested in the refinement of a pre-designed school using data from the operations phase of another school delivered previously. We conclude that the framework developed in this research can contribute to bridging existing gaps between the design, construction and operation phases of a building's life-cycle.

Degrees of connectivity: Systems model for upstream risk assessment and mitigation

There is growing recognition that in order to further improve safety performance, attention needs to be given beyond the immediate working conditions and worker actions. A systems approach to construction safety enables considering: multiple project elements simultaneously; connections between different elements; and all system elements affected by safety risk. This paper describes recent and current research to conceptualize a typical building project in terms of connections between workers, activities, and design elements, and to verify and analyze impacts of the design and worker interactions on worker safety. Prior research provides the basis for a network tying the design elements, construction activities, and work crews on a typical building project together along with the extent of interaction between each of the system elements in terms of safety. In conjunction with this systems approach, the researchers propose a concept for viewing and managing construction safety through four different types of connections, or ⿿degrees of connectivity,⿿ between the different workers, activities, and design elements in the system. The degrees of connectivity are defined as: interacting with the design element during its construction (DoC #1); interacting with the design element in its final form to attach another component to it (DoC #2) or by working in the vicinity of it (DoC #3); and indirectly interacting with the design element through another worker (DoC #4). To support and verify the presence of the concept in practice, the researchers conducted a survey of construction personnel. The survey results confirm that the four different degrees of connectivity are present and felt during construction operations, and indicate that attention should be given to all design elements, activities, and workers to which a worker is ⿿connected⿿. According to the survey respondents, DoC's #1 and #2 are recognized as the most widely present on construction sites. Eighty percent of the respondents believe that the design element has a moderate or greater impact on worker safety while it is being constructed. These initial research steps provide the starting point for continuing study that aims to develop and demonstrate the degrees of connectivity concept linking workers and design elements, with the goal of understanding how to design a project and work operations in order to improve safety during construction.

Integration of Building Maintenance Data in Application of Building Information Modeling (BIM)

A typical building project has a long life in the maintenance stage. Also, the cost at this stage is enormously huge compared to planning, design and construction phases. In the earlier stage, which is planning or design phase, however, many project participants put little emphasis on the maintenance information. As a result, important maintenance data is missing and erroneously feedback to the 3D/BIM model. This research provides a generic process model for maintenance information management for building facilities. The authors have identified that there exist most-frequently used information areas: checking information, material information, equipment information, supplier information, and maintenance history information. Each information area should be embedded in the BIM model in order to effectively feedback to the operation and maintenance stage in the project. Thus, the study has proposed a novel data format structure which can effectively link the 3D/BIM object with the maintenance data. The demonstration project shows how the data format structure is used. The contribution of this study is to provide guidance to a project practitioner by step-by-step approach in dealing with the significant maintenance information in the earlier stage of the construction project.

A scheme design buildability assessment model for building projects

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to depict the developmental process of a buildability assessment model for use at the scheme design stage of building projects, which have a priority requirement for functional performance rather than aesthetic performance.Design/methodology/approachFirst, major decisions made at the scheme design stage of building projects were identified through pilot interviews and a questionnaire survey on designers. Second, these decisions were rated for their relative importance towards buildability through another questionnaire survey on contractors, analysed using the reliability interval method. Based on these results, a list of buildable and non‐buildable features and their impacts is compiled by interviewing major contractors. These findings were incorporated into a modified framework of buildability assessment for complete design, substituting information available at the scheme design stage. Validation was carried out using four sample projects and feedback from practitioners.FindingsThe results obtained from the Scheme Design Buildability Assessment Model have been demonstrated as reflective of actual buildability level. Buildable and non‐buildable features, as exemplified by typical building projects in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, have been identified.Originality/valueThis is the first model which provides a tool for use by the design team to evaluate the buildability of their designs at an early stage, so that necessary improvements can be made without affecting the development program.

Benefit analysis on replacing in situ concreting with precast slabs for temporary construction works in pursuing sustainable construction practice

It is well recognised that a significant amount of solid waste is produced from construction work. The increasing generation of construction waste such as used timber formwork, obsolete concrete and packaging, has caused significant pollution to the environment and risen public concern particularly in densely populated cities, such as Hong Kong. The minimization of construction waste has therefore become a pressing issue in pursuing the practice of sustainable construction. This paper shows the betterment of replacing in situ concreting with precast slabs for temporary works to improve sustainable construction performance. Construction waste from the obsolete concrete constitutes a large part of the construction solid waste in a typical building project. The reduction on the obsolescence by using precast slabs can significantly contribute to improving sustainable construction performance. This study identifies cost saving and the betterment of environmental performance by using precast concrete slabs over the in situ concreting. The data used for analysis in the paper were collected from statistics reports and a case study in Hong Kong construction practice. From the case study results, about 43.93%, 64.01% and 70.70% of the cost of using cast in situ concreting can be saved by reusing precast slabs once for temporary works, twice and three times respectively. The findings provide evidence for promoting the use of precast slabs for temporary works, and contribute to the improvement of sustainable construction performance.