Design of Sustainable Modular Wooden Booths Inspired by Revitalization of Croatian Traditional Construction and New User Needs Due to COVID-19 Pandemic

The paper presents the results of the first phase of the student project CROSTAND2, whose main goal is to revitalize the traditional construction techniques of vernacular architecture in the Republic of Croatia by developing modern sustainable prefabricated modular wooden buildings/public booths in accordance with users’ needs and habits. To incorporate conceptual design, the literature on Croatian construction and wood protection, prefabricated modular construction, and public urban spaces was analyzed and field research was conducted. Photo documentation was also collected in the village of Donja Kupčina, Zagreb County, Croatia. An online survey questionnaire on socializing habits in public spaces, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, additionally analyzed new requirements for user-centered design. The obtained results, as well as results from previous project research, were used as a basis and inspiration for the design of a conceptual modular building inspired by traditional wooden joints, modular construction, and the emerging needs of users to socialize safely in a healthy environment. Conceptual solutions for a sustainable modular prefabricated wooden building for public use, intended for public urban and rural areas, have been proposed. Such constructions would ensure the sustainability of enjoying the natural environment for personal, tourist, and commercial purposes with the perpetuation of Croatian heritage building traditions.

Measuring the Construction Project Resilience from the Perspective of Employee Behaviors

The increasing developmental potentiality for the construction industry brings the huge challenge to make up the limitation of traditional construction project management mode when adapting to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Due to the high energy and resource consumption for the construction projects, there are a large number of uncertainties and disturbances in achieving resilient urban infrastructure. Studying construction project resilience (CPR) is imperative. However, prior studies preferred to measure resilience by systemic indicators, which are complex and unfriendly. Studying CPR from the perspective of employee behavior (EB) remains rare. Hence, this study proposed a social network analysis (SNA) methodology to overcome the research gap. Firstly, six EBs are identified by the systematic literature review (SLR). Then, the critical employees (CEs) and their interrelationships are investigated to form the social network. Six SNA parameters including density, degree centrality, betweenness centrality, efficiency, constraint, and cliques are selected to model the EBs, namely PMT cohesion, the identity of the project culture, formal behavior between employees, collaboration efficacy, informal social constraints, and reciprocity and mutual trust. Finally, the value of CPR is obtained and the strategies for improving the CPR are proposed from four characteristics: robustness, redundancy, rapidity, and resourcefulness. The findings provided a simple and effective techniques to measure the CPR and could benefit the project manager to improve the CPR by exerting accurate strategies to the EBs in poor performance.

Effects on Global Forests and Wood Product Markets of Increased Demand for Mass Timber

This study evaluated the effects on forest resources and forest product markets of three contrasting mass timber demand scenarios (Conservative, Optimistic, and Extreme), up to 2060, in twelve selected countries in Asia, Europe, North America, and South America. Analyses were carried out by utilizing the FOrest Resource Outlook Model, a partial market equilibrium model of the global forest sector. The findings suggest increases in global softwood lumber production of 8, 23, and 53 million m3 per year by 2060, under the Conservative, Optimistic, and Extreme scenarios, respectively, leading to world price increases of 2%, 7%, and 23%, respectively. This projected price increase is relative to the projected price in the reference scenario, altering prices, production, consumption, trade of forest products, timber harvest, forest growth, and forest stock in individual countries. An increase in softwood lumber prices due to increased mass timber demand would lead to the reduced consumption of softwood lumber for traditional end-use (e.g., light-frame construction), suggesting a likely strong market competition for softwood lumber between the mass timber and traditional construction industries. In contrast, the projected effect on global forest stock was relatively small based on the relatively fast projected biomass growth in stands assumed to be regenerated after harvest.

Sustainable Construction: Improving Productivity through Lean Construction

The objective of this article is to improve building productivity, evolving from traditional construction to industrial construction. The methodology used here consists of analysing the use of materials, the construction design, the design of the spatial distribution programme, the use of auxiliary means and resources and the application of lean tools in construction. The results achieved here include a complete building system that integrates the design, project and execution, wherein the construction process is improved and inconsistencies in the final project are reduced. With the application of an industrial manufacturing methodology, the productivity in construction is improved, reducing costs, materials, execution times and waste. These productivity improvements result in construction being more sustainable. As a conclusion of the previous analysis, the elements that must be integrated into a complete building project and the need to incorporate industrial manufacturing into construction processes in order to achieve sustainable architecture are established.

Blockchain and Information Integration: Applications in New Zealand’s Prefabrication Supply Chain

New Zealand’s rising demand for new and affordable homes is driving innovative and effective methods for project delivery. Prefabrication or off-site construction is considered an innovative approach to project delivery that eliminates the limitations of traditional construction methods. However, the prefabrication industry struggles with several challenges, including poor coordination and low supply chain integration amongst its partner organisations. There has been previous literature on improving the prefabrication supply chain integration, but few studies about the role of technology in this sector. Therefore, this article provides intuitions into the applicability and benefits of advanced technologies, namely blockchain, for improving supply chain integration in the context of prefabrication in New Zealand. A questionnaire survey was used to identify the channels used for information exchange between clients and contractors. Moreover, the questionnaire ascertained the positive effects of blockchain on enhancing supply chain integration between the two partners. Blockchain has proven to be a secure information integration instrument that can improve the integration of the prefabrication supply chain by fostering collaboration between organisations.

The objects and effects of non-party intervention before the International Court of Justice

The International Court of Justice recognized the legitimacy of ‘non-party intervention’ under Article 62 of the Statute in its 1990 landmark decision on Nicaragua’s intervention in the Land, Island and Maritime Frontier Dispute (El Salvador v. Honduras). Such form of intervention ‘is not intended to enable a third State to tack on a new case, to become a new party, and so have its own claims adjudicated by the Court’. Its purpose is ‘protecting a State’s “interest of a legal nature” that might be affected by a decision in an existing case’. Whereas non-party intervention under Article 62 now forms part of the law in action within the Court’s system, its precise features and regime remain uncertain. Doubts concern the identification of its precise objects and the potential binding effects for a non-party intervener of the judgment issued between the original parties. The present article explores these issues in the light of the Court’s case law and state practice. It demonstrates that non-party intervention can have various potential objects, depending on how the intervener intends to influence the future judgment between the original parties. Building on the identification of these objects, it then questions the traditional construction denying any binding effect of the decision for a non-party intervener and argues that a judgment issued following intervention is binding as between the original parties and the intervener in so far as this judgment, whether expressly or by implication, decides issues related to the object of intervention.

Investigation of heat loss of nodal connections of structures of energy -efficient "green" buildings

The construction industry is the main consumer of natural resources, characterized by significant consumption of non-renewable resources and the impact on environmental pollution. Up to 50% of carbon dioxide emissions are accounted for by the construction industry. In addition, the main feature of the traditional construction industry is the overuse of energy, which affects the process of global warming and climate change. Energy is consumed in the extraction of raw materials, production and transportation of materials, in the process of construction, operation, repair and liquidation of buildings. Awareness of global environmental problems has led to a rethinking of the process of design, construction, operation and disposal of buildings in the European Union, the United States, Canada and others and the emergence of the concept of sustainable development and "green" construction. In this aspect, the main criteria for designing buildings are to minimize the impact on the environment, as well as reduce energy costs, reduce waste and harmful emissions. The solution of the above problems, taking into account national specifics, can be achieved by developing typical resource- and energy-efficient, cost-effective design solutions for load-bearing and enclosing elements and their joints using environmentally friendly materials of local origin (wood and materials based on it, clay materials, straw, reeds, etc.

Prefabricated Futures: Adaptable and productive construction methods for New Zealand dwellings

<p>The traditional construction method of the New Zealand home has remained largely unchanged over the last century. These housing solutions that have supported our nation no longer suffice and the ‘young home owner’ is becoming a distant dream. New Zealand needs homes, and fast. Specialised trades create fragmentation in construction. This results in inefficient processes that divide the stages of constructing a home. What lacks in these instances is accessibility to design. Architects tend to focus on one-off, bespoke builds, whilst transportable home companies create generic, minimum spec designs. It can be argued that current prefabricated solutions are not complete, requiring sub-trades and work onsite that causes delays and construction related setbacks. Investigation into a key historic precedent has driven this research. This demonstrates that attempts have been made to change the housing model in New Zealand with some success. The precedent aligns with past notions in considering core parts of the home as products. This can create efficiencies in construction. The current demand for housing provides the perfect opportunity to reboot the method in which we build. This thesis questions how offsite panel assemblies can create a complete prefabricated housing product and improve construction efficiencies. This will still offer architectural choice. BIM (Building Information Modelling) and parameter driven design are used as a vehicle to demonstrate how more efficient, more collaborative and more controlled design approaches can be developed in order to create a complete construction package. Design-led research involving constant scale model testing and development led to my prefabricated wall panel design. Named the LapLock panel, I have developed a complete wall, floor and roof panel product system. Designed to be fully fabricated from structure to claddings and services in factory. This produces ruthless efficiencies onsite. The work utilises BIM in the form of Revit and takes advantage of parameter driven families to allow for fast manipulation and output of drawings for panels. A constant conversation between analogue and digital tools (in the form of physical scale models and Revit) strengthened the understandings of the limitations throughout the research. This thesis offers a new way of considering how New Zealand builds homes. By introducing adaptable and efficient panels that are complete on arrival to site, the Laplock solution provides accessible architectural choice to clients. This future-proofs the construction of the New Zealand home.</p>