Challenges of Green Office Implementation: A Case Study in Penang, Malaysia

This study was conducted in response to the lack of green office buildings in Malaysia, despite the fact that the green concept has been initiated in Malaysia for many years. The Penang State Government has taken the initiative to establish the Penang Green Council (PGC) as the first state in Malaysia, and the implementation of green offices is one of its programme initiatives. Nonetheless, green offices are still in scarcity across Penang. This study identified the challenges faced in implementing green offices. Data were collected from five green building owners using semi-structured interviews and the data were analysed using thematic analysis. The outcomes revealed that the main challenges faced by green office adoption were lack of budget, lack of awareness, lack of expertise, ownership factor, and type of building. This study offers several implications for practitioners and policy makers to improve the adoption of green office in Malaysia. The results may be applied to raise awareness amongst practitioners and office owners regarding green practices in office buildings. The study outcomes may serve as reference to policy makers on enhancing the development of green buildings.

Smart City: An Approach from the View of Smart Urban Governance

The world’s population is forecasted of having 68% to be urban residents by 2050 while urbanization in the world continues to grow. Along with that phenomenon, there is a global trend towards the creation of smart cities in many countries. Looking at the overview of studies and reports on smart cities, it can be seen that the concept of “smart city” is not clearly defined. Information and communication technology have often been being recognized by the vast majority of agencies, authorities and people when thinking about smart city but the meaning of smart city goes beyond that. Smart city concept should come with the emphasizing on the role of social resources and smart urban governance in the management of urban issues. Therefore, the "smart city" label should refer to the capacity of smart people and smart officials who create smart urban governance solutions for urban problems. The autonomy in smart cities allows its members (whether individuals or the community in general) of the city to participate in governance and management of the city and become active users and that is the picture of e-democracy. E-democracy makes it easier for stakeholders to become more involved in government work and fosters effective governance by using the IT platform of smart city. This approach will be discussed more in this paper.

The Framework of Factors for the Improvement of the Significant Clauses in the Standard Form of Contract for the IBS Construction Approach in Malaysia

The Industrialised Building System (IBS) was introduced over 10 years ago in Malaysia, with well-documented benefits and strong support from the government. Apparently, the adoption and implementation of IBS is still low and below the government target. When adopting IBS, construction players mostly face different issues and challenges, particularly on contractual aspects, which contribute to the low adoption of IBS in Malaysia. There is also a lack of provision in the significant clauses of the Malaysian standard contract form to fit the development of IBS to date. The aim of this paper is thus to establish a system of factors underpinned by Deming's Theory for the improvement of the significant clauses in the standard contract form for IBS construction in Malaysia. A multi-method approach was used to achieve its aim, including an extensive literature review, findings from the previous study via document analysis, preliminary survey, questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews. The research revealed that there are five significant clauses with important factors that can be improved in the existing Malaysian standard form of contract in relation to the IBS construction. The research also developed a framework that would be able to assist the policy and decision-makers in understanding what the improvement factors that need to be considered in the significant clauses in the standard form of contract in relation to the IBS construction. The research output (the framework) was validated by the prominent industry players on the practicality, suitability to its purposes for the related stakeholders. The developed framework would be able to accelerate the adoption of IBS construction in parallel with the initiatives (P3) in the Construction Industry Transformation Programme (CITP).

The Adoption of IOT in the Malaysian Construction Industry: Towards Construction 4.0

The construction industry is one of the most significant sectors in Malaysia, specifically in terms of its contribution to the Malaysian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and facilitation of other industries to enhance their productivity outcome by constructing buildings and facilities for them. However, the process of constructing buildings and facilities will take a long period of time if done according to conventional practices. Due to this circumstance, the establishment of the Internet of Things (IoT) in construction development is beneficial to improve productivity levels and reduce the construction time as well as the cost. Hence, this paper intends to review the adoption of IoT in Malaysia’s construction industry towards Construction 4.0. In conjunction with that, the use of IoT in terms of construction technology such as BIM, smart communication, sensor, big data, augmented reality, location services and remote operation during the construction process has made a massive impact on the monitoring of the construction process, especially in reducing the risk of construction error, defects, and avoiding construction delay. The proper adoption of IoT in the Malaysian construction industry will give a huge positive impact to the construction industry and encourage it to grow and compete with other developing countries. This paper is noteworthy to the Malaysian construction industry, especially for the key players in the construction industry to raise their awareness regarding the benefits of adopting IoT for their future projects.

Reconceptualizing the Public Spaces of New Urban Areas in Hanoi: The End or the New of Public-Making?

Public spaces are designed and managed in many different ways. In Hanoi, after the Doi moi policy in 1986, the transfer of the public spaces creation at the neighborhood-level to the private sector has prospered na-ture of public and added a large amount of public space for the city, directly impacting on citizen's daily life, creating a new trend, new concept of public spaces. This article looks forward to understanding the public spaces-making and operating in KDTMs (Khu Do Thi Moi - new urban areas) in Hanoi to answer the question of whether ‘socialization’/privatization of these public spaces will put an end to the urban public or the new means of public-making trend. Based on the comparison and literature review of studies in the world on public spaces privatization with domestic studies to see the differences in the Vietnamese context leading to differences in definitions and roles and the concept of public spaces in KDTMs of Hanoi. Through adducing and analyzing practical cases, the article also mentions the trends, the issues, the ways and the technologies of public-making and public-spaces-making in KDTMs of Hanoi. Win/loss and the relationship of the three most important influential actors in this process (municipality, KDTM owners, inhabitants/citizens) is also considered to reconceptualize the public spaces of KDTMs in Hanoi.

The Environmental Impact on Human Wellbeing: A Case Study on Residences in Quarry Area

An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is compulsory in all types of new development. EIA is important to ensure that biological diversity is maintained and that development will not have any affect on the people and other species in that area. The aim of this study is to investigate the environmental impact on human wellbeing in the vicinity of quarrying. It will increase the awareness of the local population of the important factors that might affect the quality of their lives. A set of questionnaires was distributed to the community at Bandar Saujana Putra and Taman Kajang Perdana, in Selangor. A total of 60 residents were involved in the study. The results reveal that the community was concerned about health conditions and safety. However, there is still a lack of strategies to mitigate the problem. This study provides suggestions for mitigation that could be considered by the residents to reduce the effect of poor air quality caused by incorrect control and monitoring of activities in the area. It is anticipated that this study could assist both residents and authorities in improving the quality of the air as well as the residents’ quality of life.

Transaction Cost Economics Identification in Malaysian Housing Development: A Preliminary Review

Shelter, albeit being one of the crucial physiological needs in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, is still considered as luxury needs as many people still struggle to afford a house especially in Malaysia. The issue stemmed from the mismatch between the affordability level and the housing prices. Many research delved from the demand and supply perspective to find the root cause, however, the problem still prevails. Hence, this research aimed to study the aforementioned issue from the transaction cost economics (TCE)’s perspective. TCE provides a platform to allow parties to deduce the invisible costs from transaction of activities. This can be done by determining the effectiveness of each transaction profile by enhancing the value between the two transactions, hence, lower the costs. This paper outlined a preliminary finding on TCE’s identification in typical housing development process based on RIBA Plan of Work 2013 process protocol. RIBA Plan of Work 2013 was chosen to provide a standard platform of measurement to ensure consistency in activities listed in the pre-contract and post-contract in typical housing development process. Interviews were conducted with purposive sampling with individuals working directly with housing development. The respondents were asked to verify the list of pre-determined TCEs by indicating whether those activities constitute under the TCEs components and whether activities identified as redundant or inefficient can be removed or enhanced. Analysis conducted using the frequency analysis managed to determine the most important and also the most redundant transaction cost components in a typical housing development. The findings revealed an interesting fact where the number of transaction cost components at both pre and post-contract were higher than the anticipated number attained from literature review. Higher number of identified transaction cost components indicates higher transaction cost in housing development. This further suggested that certain activities which were found redundant or inefficient can be either removed or enhanced to lower the transaction costs. The research findings provide a useful platform to further verify the TCE in housing development. The components will be quantified to ultimately develop a framework for a best practice transaction cost economics model to apprehend unaffordable housing issues. Hence, it is noteworthy that combining TCE and Lean Management theory will enhance this on-going research on identification and quantification of the transaction costs within the housing development to address matters that cause high transaction costs that subsequently increases the housing prices.

Contractors’ Perspective on the Main Factors Influencing On-Site Labour Productivity: A Focus on Malaysian Infrastructure Projects

The overall performance of construction projects has been seemingly low and has negatively affected its efficacy in fulfilling national development agenda. Infrastructure projects are complex and riddled with numerous construction risks, and often involve large financial investments as well as several resources, particularly labour. The objective of this research paper is to identify the main factors that influence labour on construction sites of infrastructure projects. In achieving this research objective, 26 factors were extracted from literature and subsequently distributed for assessment by 355 identified respondents via a questionnaire-based survey. 63 respondents, representing a response rate of 17.75%, participated in returning completed questionnaires for further analysis. The main factors that influence on–site labour productivity were identified through the use of Relative Importance Index analysis. The three most significant factors identified were co-ordination between sub-contractors, labour skill and expertise within specific job scopes, and, availability of updated construction drawings at the project sites. Several other factors were also extracted through the analysis conducted on the garnered data. These factors will collectively be able to accord contractors a better comprehension of the influencing elements that either impinge or promote labour productivity. These findings are pertinent for construction firms in the efforts to progressively increase the level of labour productivity in the Malaysian construction sector, particularly within the parameters of infrastructure projects.

Relationship between Project Managers Personality and Small Public Construction Project Success in Malaysia

In the field of project management, particularly the construction industry in Malaysia, there are two key factors in determining the progress of a project, namely technical and non-technical skills. Accordingly, this study aims to explore the personality (non-technical skills) among Malaysian project managers on the success of small public construction projects. Using the Five Factor Theory (FFT) as a basis, this study uses two sets of measuring instruments for examining project manager’s personality and project success, the Big Five Inventory (BFI) and the Project Success Achieved (PSA). The questionnaire was distributed to two major organizations in Malaysia, the Implementation Coordination Unit, Prime Minister’s Department (ICU JPM) and Ministry of Rural Development (KPLB), which involved 137 project managers. The obtained data were analyzed using PLS-SEM and results indicate that the project manager’s personality has a significant impact on the success of SPCP where Conscientiousness (CT) and Agreeableness (AG) had a more prominent influence compared to other traits. This study provides theoretically meaningful relationships and valuable insights into construction management via personality element to ensure that national development objectives are achieved.

The Revolution of Quantity Surveying Profession in Building Information Modelling (BIM) Era: The Malaysian Perspective

Building Information Modelling (BIM) has becoming the current trend in the construction industry where quantity surveying serves as important discipline. Undeniably, BIM adoption has brought many advantages due to automation of multidimensional model platform that helps Quantity Surveyors (QS) to reduce arithmetic errors and removes many tedious tasks in conventional approach such as tendering and the production of bills of quantities (BQ). BIM will soon replace the traditional measurement done by QS if the Standard Method of Measurements (SMM) could be integrated in BIM. As a result, it is concerning that unemployment of quantity surveyors might be an issue if there is no revolution or adaptation of quantity surveying practices with the blossoming of BIM implementation in Malaysia. Hence, this research is carried out to determine the new skills needed by a quantity surveyor in order to keep pace with the implementation of BIM in Malaysia. Qualitative research method is used in this study in which semi-structured interview was carried out with 20 experienced QS that applies BIM technology in their practices. Data abstracted from the transcript of interviews was then coded though NVivo 12 Pro and analyzed by using content analysis method. At the end of the study, the findings revealed that the QS must attain IT skills and BIM software knowledge to align with BIM drive. It is thus recommended that thorough provisions of integrating traditional methods of quantifying and costing building projects with cutting edge technologies must be included in BIM standard to ensure that BIM can be adopted at its best in the profession with increase performance.