Environmental Emissions in Building Construction – Two Case Studies of Conventional and Pre-Fabricated Construction Methods in Australia

Construction industry is seen to be able to play a bigger role into a sustainable society by offering sustainable construction. As the premier construction material across the world, concrete has a major determining role on the effects, good or bad, of construction on the environment, meanwhile the formwork system is one of the important construction methods in building construction, which eventually will lead to more sustainable construction. In this context, this study focuses on the importance of the formwork system and its influence on achieving sustainable construction. The study aims to identify the basic sustainability objectives that considered responsive to formwork system. Using questionnaire survey distributed among construction experts, the economic category had been selected as the most important factor that considered respond to the formwork system, and the environmental category comes second while social comes the third. Furthermore, fifty percent of the respondents agree that type of formwork system effect on the sustainability of the construction project and about forty percent was moderate about it. Determination the objectives of sustainability that respond to the formwork system, which covers all activities and processes related to the formwork system can assist developers and others stakeholders to evaluate the performance of the system in order to make enhancement to the system.

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Comparative Evaluation of Indoor Thermal Comfort for Green and Conventional Office Buildings

Solar Energy ◽

10.1115/isec2004-65042 ◽

2004 ◽

Author(s):

Alex Nunez ◽

Moncef Krarti

Keyword(s):

Comparative Analysis ◽

Thermal Comfort ◽

Thermal Environment ◽

Green Building ◽

Mean Value ◽

Building Construction ◽

Office Buildings ◽

Indoor Thermal Environment ◽

Indoor Thermal Comfort ◽

Construction Methods

A comparative analysis was conducted between two office buildings, one constructed using green design and the other erected using traditional building construction methods. As part of the analysis, thermal comfort indicators (using the Predicted Mean Value of Fanger model) were monitored by recording equivalent temperature, air temperature, and relative humidity at each site. The study tests whether office buildings constructed using different design approaches have significantly different indoor thermal environment. The results of the comparative analysis indicate that the green building provides better thermal comfort than the conventional building.

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Exploring the Causes of Design Changes in Building Construction Projects: An Interpretive Structural Modeling Approach

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13179578 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (17) ◽

pp. 9578

Author(s):

Shahab Shoar ◽

Nicholas Chileshe

Keyword(s):

Construction Projects ◽

Structural Modeling ◽

Project Managers ◽

Building Construction ◽

Value Engineering ◽

Interpretive Structural Modeling ◽

Change Orders ◽

Construction Methods ◽

Design Changes ◽

New Construction

The purpose of this study is to investigate the mutual interactions between the causes of design changes using Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) and to classify the causes using the “Matrice d’Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliquée à un Classement” MICMAC technique. This study further identifies and proposes strategies to mitigate design change occurrence and map them onto the identified connections between the causes. To achieve these goals, critical causes of design changes were identified through a comprehensive literature review; 23 key causes were then refined according to the opinions of relevant experts involved in the Iranian building construction sector. Stakeholders associated with each cause and the management areas from which causes arise were also considered. The factors “Unfamiliarity with new construction methods”, “Design errors”, “Value engineering”, “Scope uncertainty”, “Change orders”, and “Constructability ignored in the design phase”, which are highly influenced by other factors, emerged at the highest level of the ISM diagram, and “Clients’ attitudes and experience” as the main root cause of design changes at the bottom of the diagram. The MICMAC technique results showed that consultant-related causes significantly influence other causes, and policy and client-related causes have a feedback effect on the whole system. The findings of this study provide a better insight into how various causes of design changes are connected to one another and can ultimately assist project managers of different parties, even in other countries, to choose influential strategies to mitigate design changes in building construction projects.

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Streamlining the management of payment delays: the case of Sri Lankan Government building construction projects

Journal of Financial Management of Property and Construction ◽

10.1108/jfmpc-05-2020-0041 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

B.A.K.S. Perera ◽

Kaveesha Gihani Dewagoda

Keyword(s):

Case Studies ◽

Questionnaire Survey ◽

Construction Projects ◽

Building Construction ◽

Sri Lankan ◽

Building Projects ◽

Content Type ◽

Mixed Approach ◽

Implementing Strategies ◽

Government Construction

Purpose Delayed payments have been long standing, pressing issue in construction projects, especially in Government-funded construction projects. The root causes and the consequences of delayed payments must be identified before implementing strategies to mitigate the consequences of such delayed payments. However, these causes and consequences and the parties responsible for managing the delayed payments have not been identified so far. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the management of payment delays in Government-funded construction projects. Design/methodology/approach The study used a mixed approach comprising four case studies and a questionnaire survey. The empirical data collected from the case studies and the questionnaire survey were analysed using manual content analysis and mean rating, respectively. Findings The study identified the most significant causes and the most significant consequences of delayed payments that occur in Government-funded construction projects. It also revealed the strategies that clients, consultants, contractors and other parties can adopt to mitigate the adverse consequences of such delayed payments. Originality/value This study identified the most significant causes of delayed payments in Government-funded construction projects, the most significant consequences of such delayed payments and the most suitable strategies the clients, consultants and contractors can adopt to mitigate the consequences of such delayed payments. Thus, this study supports streamlining the management of payment delays in Government construction projects and identifies the roles that different parties must play in managing payment delays in Government building projects, which is an under-researched area.

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Sustainability Indicators for Concrete Formwork System

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.525.504 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 525 ◽

pp. 504-508

Author(s):

Mohammed Taher Ahmed ◽

Rozana Zakaria ◽

Rosli Mohamad Zin ◽

Rania Hussien Ahmed

Keyword(s):

Social Factors ◽

Construction Material ◽

Social Factor ◽

Economic Factor ◽

Building Construction ◽

Sustainable Construction ◽

Sustainability Performance ◽

Construction Methods ◽

The Social ◽

Main Factors

As the premier construction material across the world, concrete has a major determining role on the effects, good or bad, of construction on the environment, meanwhile the formwork system is one of the important construction methods in building construction, which eventually will lead to more sustainable construction. This study is about the sustainability elements that respond to formwork system and their contribution to the main factors of sustainability using questionnaire survey distributed among construction experts. The economic factor had the most contribution to sustainability performance of formwork system; the environmental factors come second and at final come the social factors. Furthermore, the economic factor had seven elements effect formwork system performance and the environmental factor include six elements while social factor had only three elements.

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Assessment of embodied carbon emissions for building construction in China: Comparative case studies using alternative methods

Energy and Buildings ◽

10.1016/j.enbuild.2016.08.080 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 130 ◽

pp. 330-340 ◽

Cited By ~ 36

Author(s):

Xiaocun Zhang ◽

Fenglai Wang

Keyword(s):

Case Studies ◽

Carbon Emissions ◽

Building Construction ◽

Alternative Methods ◽

Embodied Carbon ◽

Embodied Carbon Emissions ◽

Comparative Case Studies

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Dynamic Planning of Construction Site for Linear Projects

Infrastructures ◽

10.3390/infrastructures6020021 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 21

Author(s):

Kleopatra Petroutsatou ◽

Nikolaos Apostolidis ◽

Athanasia Zarkada ◽

Aneta Ntokou

Keyword(s):

Case Studies ◽

Construction Projects ◽

The Body ◽

Construction Site ◽

Site Location ◽

Construction Sites ◽

Dynamic Planning ◽

Construction Methods ◽

The Cost ◽

The Ideal

The area of dynamic planning of construction sites is unexplored. Although there is a large amount of scientific interest in the literature in dynamic planning of construction site layouts, with different methodologies developed, studies on construction site relocation do not exist. The purpose of this study is to cover this gap in the literature and contribute to the body of knowledge by presenting for the first time a dynamic planning of a construction site and its importance in linear construction projects and to validate this methodology through real case studies. The decisive variables that determine the appropriate site locations and the costs that arise from these choices are analyzed. The choice that maximizes the production rate of the construction site and thus minimizes the costs is further investigated. An algorithm has also been developed that estimates the cost of transportation of the equipment used in the project and thus enables the investigation of the “ideal” location that minimizes this cost. The “ideal” site location is examined according to the time schedule of the project at time intervals that are determined by the work progress. The optimization algorithm aims to minimize the cost that derives from non-productive activities. The validity of the proposed model is tested in four motorway projects. A sensitivity analysis concerning different sequences in the construction methods reveals remarkable changes in cost fluctuations depending on project size. The outcomes show that for the second, third, and fourth projects, dynamic planning is demanded, and the profit gained ranges from 1 to 1.5% of total budget cost. Financing expenses could be covered by this profit. The case studies presented are derived from linear infrastructure projects that are more sensitive to this approach because of their size and their budget that both affect the results.

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