Architecture Commons^™

Sustainable Campus: Engaging The Community In Sustainability, Linda Too, Bhishna Bajracharya

Linda Too

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the major factors necessary for engaging university campus community in sustainability. While general awareness in sustainability issues has improved in recent years through mass media coverage, this knowledge is not always translated into actual sustainable practice. Studies have indicated that there are many factors for engaging the community in sustainability.

Design/methodology/approach – A multi-disciplinary literature review is first undertaken to distil the drivers that enhance participation in sustainability programmes by the university community. Next, to illustrate the applicability of the factors identified in the community engagement framework, two case studies …

Measuring Good Architecture: Long Life, Loose Fit, Low Energy, Craig Langston

Craig Langston

Good architecture is something that we all seek, but which is difficult to define. Sir Alexander John Gordon, in his role as President of the Royal Institute of British Architects, defined ‘good architecture’ in 1972 as buildings that exhibit ‘long life, loose fit and low energy’. These characteristics, nicknamed by Gordon as the 3L Principle, are measurable. Furthermore, life cycle cost (LCC) provides a method for accessing the economic contribution or burden created by buildings to the society they aim to serve. Yet there is no research available to investigate the connection, if any, between 3L and LCC. It might …

Designing For Better Building Adaptability: A Comparison Of Adaptstar And Arp Models, Sheila Conejos, Craig Langston, Jim Smith

Craig Langston

Can sustainability and adaptability be integrated in a single decision tool for designing future buildings? Indeed, it is not possible to know what lies ahead for future buildings but, using current research on sustainability and the impact on natural resources and climate, it is possible to forecast the connection between built environment activity and sustainability. This paper demonstrates that the assessment of future adaptation in newly designed building is achievable by using the adaptSTAR model. This new design-rating tool, based on detailed analysis of 12 award-winning adaptive reuse projects in Australia, will assist designers in making decisions to achieve optimum …

Sustainable Campus: Engaging The Community In Sustainability, Linda Too, Bhishna Bajracharya

Bhishna Bajracharya

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the major factors necessary for engaging university campus community in sustainability. While general awareness in sustainability issues has improved in recent years through mass media coverage, this knowledge is not always translated into actual sustainable practice. Studies have indicated that there are many factors for engaging the community in sustainability.

Design/methodology/approach – A multi-disciplinary literature review is first undertaken to distil the drivers that enhance participation in sustainability programmes by the university community. Next, to illustrate the applicability of the factors identified in the community engagement framework, two case studies …

"Toxic" Workplaces: The Negative Interface Between The Physical And Social Environments, Linda Too, Michael Harvey

Linda Too

Toxic real estate has been used as a negative phrase to describe non-performing assets on a firm's balance sheet. Today there is another form of "TOXIC" real estate that needs management's attention, i.e. physical workplaces that are harmful to employees on a day-in and day-out basis. Particularly when productivity of workforce is now central to business competitiveness, it is timely to explore the interface between physical and social environments as many of the social/psychological impacts on employees have not been recognized or calibrated. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the links between physical workplace and social behaviour.

Benchmarking Public Private Partnership Environments: East Asian Comparisons, Michael Regan, Jim Smith, Peter Love

Michael Regan

The Public Private Partnerships (PPP) markets in Australia and the UK are considered to be the most sophisticated in the World and used as a model for benchmarking against other countries. In addition the global financial crisis also meant many PPP financiers became risk averse to certain projects and in particular countries. The environment for major infrastructure projects, particularly in ‘riskier’ countries, has become more difficult. Research conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit for the Asian Development Bank evaluated PPP policy and programs in a number of countries in the Asia Pacific. The study benchmarks the UK and Australian PPP …

A New Framework For Post Occupancy Evaluation Of Office Buildings, Abdullah Al-Khawaja, Craig Langston, Brian Purdey

Craig Langston

Over the last three decades there has been growing interest and attention placed on sustainability and the contribution made by the built environment. Environmental auditing applied to buildings has largely been concerned with energy/water usage and waste. This paper argues that post occupancy evaluation can be a useful tool in validating the performance of commercial office buildings in terms of key design objectives of human comfort and productivity, from the perspective of building inhabitants. A new assessment framework, with post occupancy evaluation at its heart, is developed based on a double-loop (learning) cycle for continuous process improvement founded on three …

Competition Environment, Strategy And Performance In The Hong Kong Construction Industry, Yongtao Tan, Liyin Shen, Craig Langston

Craig Langston

Given a changing competition environment, strategic management has become of essential importance to construction firms. Effective strategy enables construction firms to match their activities to the changing environment and achieve superior performance in competition. Therefore, there is a need for studying contractors’ competitive strategies. This paper does that in relation to the Hong Kong construction industry. The impact of competition environment on contractor performance, and the relationship between competitive strategy and performance are examined by a questionnaire survey. The findings show that competition environment has a great impact on contractor performance, and four generic competitive strategies have been applied by …

Modelling Built Asset Preformance In 3d Space, David Copray, Craig Langston, Jim Smith

Craig Langston

This paper describes current research into the performance ‘decay’ of built assets over time through the enumeration of physical condition, space utilization and triple bottom line reward. Applying a retrospective study of the Melbourne General Post Office (GPO) from 1841 to today, these three variables can be assessed and mapped in 3D space using Langston and Smith’s iconCUR model. An index comprising all three variables can be constructed to track the performance of this building over its life cycle to test whether traditional theoretical decay curves used in asset management have any practical value. Such an approach can be employed …

A Casual [Causal] Relationship Between Building Maintenance Market And Gdp: Hong Kong Study, Yong-Tao Tan, Liyin Shen, Craig Langston

Craig Langston

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the causal relationship between the building maintenance market and GDP in Hong Kong. Design/methodology/approach: The Granger causality test is used to investigate the lead-lag relationships between the maintenance and repair work and GDP in Hong Kong. With regression analysis, the future trend of the maintenance market is forecasted. Findings: The results show that the growth of the economy will lead to the growth of the maintenance market, not vice-versa. And the building maintenance market in Hong Kong will keep increasing with the economy growth. Originality/value: This paper shows that the growth …

Introduction, Tor Hundloe

Tor Hundloe

ExtractAsk people to think of a catchment and they tend to think of large geographical areas and extensive communities, for example the Nile River and all the people who work on and around it and benefit from it. As the Nile catchment illustrates, many large catchments extend beyond the boundaries of one nation. For some of the world’s largest river basins, not just two, but many more countries can have some or all of their territory in the basin. National boundaries dissect catchments. A variety of different land uses and human occupations make diversity the norm of catchment economies and …

The Principles Of Sustainability And Economics, Tor Hundloe

Tor Hundloe

ExtractWe have already pointed out that in 1987 the United Nations’ four- year-long investigation of environmental and development matters, the Brundtland Report, came to its conclusions and put the concept of sustainable development on the agenda of governments worldwide. Five principles underpin the concept. Two are ethical constructs, rather than being science-based. The first, and best known, is the principle of intergenerational equity. At its simplest this requires us to manage the globe’s ecosystems and economies in a manner whereby future generations will be worse off than present generations. And for those presently living in poverty, it requires much improvement …

The Value Of Water, Tor Hundloe

Tor Hundloe

ExtractOur catchment is different from those that supply towns and cities with water for residential purposes and those that supply industry (for example providing cooling for power plants). It is a simple catchment, meeting simple needs - farming, oyster growing, and residential needs for drinking and washing water. We have already explained the controversy that has arisen over the proposal to change water allocation in the catchment by constructing a large dam in a corner of the upper catchment. Rather than to go immediately to the issue of the value of water if switched between users, we take the effort …

The People And Use Of Natural Resources, Tor Hundloe, Peter Daniels, Amy White, Christine Crawford

Tor Hundloe

Extract With the brief history behind us, we now start to develop our understanding of the Little Swanport catchment as it is today. While considerable time will be spent on description, never far from our mind will be the central issues and questions we have dealt with in the lead-up to our case study. If this river basin was a nation (obviously a tiny one, in the San Marino league), what would we make of its economy and society? As a river basin, could its economy and society be improved by changing its present use of water, the resource that …

The World's Great River Basins, Tor Hundloe, Amy White

Tor Hundloe

Extract All of us live, work, and manage our affairs in what we call a nation or country. We expect to find rivers and river basins, if only the most meagre ones, in all countries. The tiniest amount of rain needs to drain somewhere - unless the soil or sand is so porous that it disappears without trace. Draining water forms a rivulet. A number of rivulets fed by the same rainfall combine to form a proto-catchment or rivulet basin. Australia is a country containing many significant river basins, one large and dominant, plus hundreds of smaller ones. Our challenge, …

Introduction To Sustainability, Tor Hundloe

Tor Hundloe

ExtractWhat do we think when using the term sustainability? If we wish to sustain the ecology, the economy, and the social relationships in a river basin, what do we mean? I imagine we think of it in terms of sustaining our particular lifestyles, assuming they are enjoyable. We think of sustaining jobs - no one wishes to worry about losing paid work. This would apply regardless of how we view our work - even work we do not enjoy is valuable because it pays the bills. We want to sustain our incomes however they are earned, as profits, as wages, …

An Introduction To The Little Swanport Catchment, Tor Hundloe

Tor Hundloe

Extract

From here on, the book deals in considerable detail with one small catchment. What goes on in the catchment is described, places of interest are identified and so are some individuals. Our research took us deep into the lives of people in a small catchment. Of course, we cannot, and do not, delve far into personal matters where they must remain personal. Our interests are the social, economic and environmental relationship in a tiny catchment. Historical facts and matters of community interest that residents shared with us, and are willing to share with the reader, are here to be …

A Short History Of The Catchment Settlement, Tor Hundloe, Michelle Wenner

Tor Hundloe

Extract

As already noted, our catchment has a human history of some significance – feeding approximately one-tenth of the Indigenous Tasmanian population for millennia. Of this we know little, and so it will remain indefinitely. There are no history books to read. However, it is for our research, at the very least, to sketch the available history of the catchment, because history does matter, and there is invariably what economists call ’path dependence’ - what occurs today can be traced to what happened yesterday, the day before and the day before that, going back to some earlier ’tipping point’ in …

Economic Values Of Nature, Tor Hundloe

Tor Hundloe

ExtractIn this and the next chapter, we take up the challenge of how we might formally link the economy to the environment. First some background which follows on from our previous discussion. It has become increasingly obvious during the past 50 years that nature is being degraded through the release of pollutants and widespread over-use of natural resources, both finite and renewable. It costs polluters nothing to use and abuse the rivers, the oceans, and the atmosphere. Thor Heyerdahl, in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean more than 60 years ago, was astounded to find large blobs of pollutants …

Practical Measurements: Water As An Ecosystem Good, Tor Hundloe

Tor Hundloe

Extract

We started with the proposition that catchments (or river basins) would form ideal national boundaries. Although a river can wind through myriad sub-ecosystems (from mountains, to grasslands, to wetlands), it is the life blood of the system, falling water, running water, underground water and evaporating water, that captures our attention and presents both the opportunities and constraints that define our natural economy. If a catchment (presumably a large one) was a nation, the first thing we would do is construct a comprehensive model of its economy. Our treasury departments, in particular, and our governments in general, could not operate …

The Catchment Regional Economy, Tor Hundloe, Peter Daniels

Tor Hundloe

Extract

A catchment’s surrounding environment is not limited to towns and cities on the periphery of the catchment. It is likely that a far wider, much larger economy is associated with the catchment community and its economy. That wider economy could be the state, province or nation in which the catchment sits. Recall our discussion of the Nile River basin - the basin is Egypt, the rest is desert. Egypt would not be a country without the Nile. The Mississippi-Missouri River basin in the United States is not all of the United States, but nevertheless a great slice of it. …

Conclusions, Christine Crawford, Tor Hundloe

Tor Hundloe

Extract We have come to understand the human-environment dynamics of a small Tasmanian catchment. Our focus throughout the extended period we spent in the field (and sitting in front of computer screens) was to explore the relationships between the use of water by farmers and the needs of oyster growers. The relationship between upstream catchment activities and the quality and quantity of water downstream (in estuaries and off-shore lagoons) is the fundamental issue in catchment management. It necessitates an analysis of the value of water in different, and often competing, uses. On the face of it, that might seem a …

World Peace, Linux And Project Management Standards, Lynn Crawford

Lynn Crawford

For over a decade a group of dedicated volunteers has been working through the Global Alliance for Project Performance Standards (GAPPS) to provide a bridge between the different standards for project management produced by both professional and commercial organizations. The GAPPS aims to provide an independent benchmark and a basis for transportability, transferability and mutual recognition of project management standards and qualifications. GAPPS is supported by government standards bodies and agencies, professional associations, corporations and academic institutions. So what is the link with world peace and Linux? Well, achieving mutual recognition of project management qualifications often seems like a desirable …

Best Industry Outcomes, Lynn Crawford, Terry Cooke-Davies

Lynn Crawford

Best practices are all around us. But, best practices for whom and under what conditions? Best Industry Outcomes answers this critical question. This is a text for both thinkers and doers those who study and those who practice project management. Project management does not exist in a one-size-fits-all world. This research examines practices in nine industries: aerospace and defense, automotive, engineering and construction, financial services, government, IT and telecommunications, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, and utilities.

Projects Success: Looking Beyond The Project Management Toolkit., Lynn Crawford

Lynn Crawford

Identification of factors that contribute to the success of projects has been a continuing interest of practitioners and a recurring theme in project management research and literature. The aim of this research is to extend the search for factors critical to success of projects, beyond the traditional project management toolkit to consider change implementation practices. Results from 160 respondents from both engineering and finance sector organizations indicate that project management, change implementation and benefits realization practices are positively correlated with perceived likelihood of project success. However, a key finding of this research is that the practices found to be most …

Promoting: Programs For And Challenges Of The Knowledge-Based Small Business, Joan Imukuka, Bhishna Bajracharya, Linda Too, Greg Hearn

Bhishna Bajracharya

ExtractSmall businesses have long been recognized for their contributions to innovation, job creation and the overall health of most economies (Audretsch, 2004; North et al., 2001; Tilley and Tonge, 2003). Government policies in most countries, therefore, often include support measures and infrastructure to help nurture small businesses, particularly in relation to their innovation-related needs (North et al., 2001). Most recently, there has been growing interest in fostering the emergence of new and innovative small businesses, especially in the high-technology and knowledge-intensive sectors (Bridge et al., 2009). The ’high technology’ and ’knowledge-intensive sectors’ are those sectors of the economy that have …

Specifying And Sourcing Materials For Best Practice Sustainable Education Facility, Rick Best

Rick Best

The new building that houses the Mirvac School of Sustainable Development at Bond University (Australia), opened in June 2008, is the first education building in Australia to receive a rating of six Green Stars under the Green Building Council of Australia's environmental rating scheme. It was awarded the RICS Sustainability prize for 2009. The building features a wide range of techniques and initiatives that combine to make the building a landmark for sustainable design and building in Australia and beyond. Central to the design is a range of technologies including extensive use of recycled materials, particularly Australian hardwood, onsite power …

Partnerships For Community Building And Governance In Master Planned Communities: A Study Of Varsity Lakes At Gold Coast, Bhishna Bajracharya, George Earl, Shahed Khan

Bhishna Bajracharya

The development and management of master planned communities (MPCs) involve achieving the twin goals of building a sense of community and creating a distinctive place identity. The roles of private, public and community sectors in realising these goals of MPCs have been evolving over time with the increasing role of developers in provision of services with the local government playing a regulatory/facilitative role and community calling for greater engagement and local control. The major objective of the paper is to critically examine the nature and outcomes of collaboration between developers, local/state governments and existing/emerging community groups in the development of …