This large-scale study focuses on experienced and expected advantages and disadvantages of building information modelling (BIM) use in the Dutch construction industry, and its subsectors.In total 725 respondents participated in this interview-based study, 235 of them actually used BIM (the BIM users) and 342 knew about BIM but did not use it (the BIM non-users).The remaining 148 did not know about BIM and therefore were not able to answer the questions related to BIM and BIM-use.BIM-users were asked about experienced advantages and disadvantages, while BIM non-users were asked about expected advantages and disadvantages of BIM.Advantages and disadvantages mentioned are related to the influential unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) on the adoption and use of information and communication technology (ICT).The largest differences between expected and experienced advantages were found with the architects and contractors, while the largest differences between expected and experienced disadvantages were found with the mechanical engineers and suppliers.
In late December 2019, the outbreak of a 'viral pneumonia' called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was reported in Wuhan, China. Due to the rapid succession in the number of cases worldwide, World Health Organization (WHO) (2019-2020) declared COVID-19 as a pandemic. The exponential increase in affected people resulted in a mismatch in demand and supply, thereby escalating the burden on healthcare infrastructure. Several agencies such as WHO, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH), Joint Commission International (JCI), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), etc. have published guidance documents for codes of practice related to infection prevention and control (IPC). These documents, however, do not propose interventions related to the planning and design of hospitals. This research focuses on deriving guidelines for planning and designing district hospitals in India for improving resilience to airborne infections.
The audit delves into the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GET-Fund) building projects in the entire Savannah region of Ghana. The aim of the study is to assess the quality of the existing educational buildings completed between 2010 and 2017. In achieving the above aim, the indicative method of post occupancy audit was used to assess completed projects. It was therefore discovered from the study that factors such as 'threat of erosion (TE)', 'substructure settlement (SS)', 'cracks (C)', 'rising dampness (RD)', 'termite attack (TA)', 'roof leakages and discolorations (RL/D)' and 'gentle slope terrain/poor drainage system (GSL/D)' posed a threat to quality of the buildings. It is recommended that routine maintenance must be undertaken to reduce defects and prolong the life span of the buildings. Finally, the quality assurance practices or measures must be given diligent adherence during the design and construction phases in a bid to avert defects in future projects.
Studies identify that architectural design characteristics affecting design simplicity enhance core housing affordability. Effect of this attribute for affordability improvement, crucial in establishing design strategies for affordable low-cost urban homes, is lacking. Study examined this effect in Anambra State of Nigeria, using mixed method approach (primary data sourced from personal interviews, and questionnaire on 242 sampled residents from a 540 population. Using Kruskal-Wallis test and Spearman’s Rank-Order correlation for analysis, all prototypes were found non-affordable, with p-value of 0.000 for significant variation for affordability. Significant relationship, strong and positive (p-value, 0.000; correlation coefficient 0.778), was established between architectural design characteristics affecting design simplicity and affordability. Recommendations for improving core housing affordability include: minimal floor area for initial unit (studio apartments for households earning below N161, 000 monthly, 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom prototypes for those earning between N161, 000 and N200, 000); simple geometric plans; and local building materials for roof covering.
In circumstances of disasters like earthquakes, acts of war, etc., that may threaten the lives of people out on the streets of crowded cities around the world, 'Safe Hubs' aims to help these people as much as possible during panic events. In this way, we are able to protect and transfer them through underground tunnels into open areas outside the city's zone. The number and size of the tunnels depends on the population number and availability of underground spaces for each city. Cities like Tokyo, Los Angeles, Jakarta, and many others around the world have high-rise buildings and skyscrapers as well as remarkable ways of facing natural disasters like earthquakes. The city of Melbourne in Australia will be used in this study to implement the project. This research highlights the innovative design of 'safe hubs' as one of the effective solutions to save as many lives as possible in the crowded cities.
The role of building façades in the consumer choice process is not well understood but arguably influences consumers' first impressions of a business and the level of service provided by the professional working within. In two studies, photographs representing exteriors of two building types (purpose-built office and converted heritage house) were shown to participants who chose between them for hypothetical dental, legal, financial, and medical services and assessed them for expected comfort and quality of service. In Study 1, students preferred office buildings for all services. In Study 2, community residents also preferred office buildings for dental, financial, and medical services but not for legal services. In both studies, participants had more experience with office buildings compared to heritage houses for all four services and anticipated more comfort and service quality in offices, especially for dental, financial, and medical services compared legal services. However, more comfort was expected by those in Study 2 when considering legal services over the other three services in heritage houses. Although office buildings are commonly experienced and preferred as settings of professional practice, heritage houses can be legible as places to access comfortable, quality service.
Safety and accident issues are considered one of most important problem of the world. The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that are more significant than other factors. The study collected STATS19 accident data from the UK data service over the year 2011 to 2013. Two separate analyses have been done for roadways and for junctions of Great Britain. Depending on characteristics of data and outcome variables, different statistical models have been used in previous researches. These are: type of vehicle, gender of driver, age of driver, time of day, day of week, season of year, speed limit, light condition and weather condition. First, a preliminary analysis has been conducted by frequency distribution. Finally a multivariate analysis has been done by developing two models for roadways and for junctions. One variable shows no difference in probability on severity. Detected significant factors are: motor cycle, male driver, elderly driver age above 60 years, midnight and early morning, non-built-up areas with speed limit >40 mph, darkness without lighting, fine weather.
The purpose of this paper is to assess the level of application of the Discounted Cash Flow Models among Nigerian valuers. A questionnaire survey was conducted in 2011 where sample of estate surveying firms was drawn from Lagos and Abuja, using stratified and snowball sampling techniques. A total number of 240 questionnaires were administered out of which 161 were retrieved and analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17. The study revealed that there is very low usage of the DCF-based models by Nigerian valuers. The impression that requirement of valuation clients in Nigeria do not warrant the use of the models, the non-inclusion of the models in the country's higher educational institutions curricula, the perceived difficulty of the models and the failure of regulatory body to enforce their usage were identified as major factors hindering the adoption of these models among the surveyed respondents.
Given the significance of urbanisation and climate change, urban development ought to be examined within the context of sustainable development. The aim of this work is to present an Agent-Based Modelling (ABM) construct based on rules and data obtained from the literature. The work purposefully contrasts the literature, on urban spatial structure and travel behaviour, to the three sustainability dimensions so a more wholesome picture of sustainability is presented. The work categorises, summarises and synthesises 74 references to produce a framework, from which an Agent Based Model (ABM) is constructed to simulate critical what-if scenarios.
