Architecture Commons^™

Implementation Of 3d Integration Model For Project Delivery Success: Case Study, Amir Naser Ghanbaripour, Craig Langston, Ariyan Yousefi

Amir Ghanbaripour

The means for assessing what constitutes successful project delivery is a controversial topic in the literature, with many approaches and frameworks in play. This paper extends an existing three-dimensional (3D) integration model to include an assessment of triple-bottom-line (TBL) performance and applies it, for the first time, to a real-life case study. A subway station megaproject in Tehran, Iran, one of the busiest cities in the world, is retrospectively tested to evaluate its success. The new subway system is an important infrastructure project in Iran, and no research to date has evaluated its delivery from a project-management perspective. This paper …

Umass Amherst Green Building Guidelines 2013, Ludmilla Pavlova-Gillham, Ted Mendoza, Ezra Small, Patricia O'Flaherty, Nariman Mostafavi, Mohamed Farzinmoghadam, Somayeh Tabatabaee Pozveh

Ludmilla D Pavlova

Facilities & Campus Services, Sustainable UMass and Campus Planning support sustainability and energy conservation initiatives by providing in-house resources to campus staff as well as designers and contractors working with the University. The UMass Amherst Green Building Guidelines provide a framework for approaching new construction and major renovation projects at UMass Amherst that are undergoing LEED certification by focusing the conversation on green building aspects that are most important to the campus. They are intended to be the beginning of a dynamic conversation between designers, environmental consultants and constructors, university stakeholders, and users of new high performance buildings.

The Productivity Puzzle: Is It Just About The Data?, Rick Best

Rick Best

Measuring construction industry productivity at any level above that of site activities such as bricklaying or plastering remains a vexed question. A variety of methods have been developed and tested but results are often far from consistent with different methods that appear equally valid in theory producing quite different results. A recent study conducted in Australia demonstrated the application of different methods that produced some similar results but with some care required in the analysis of the outcomes. Another example showed large variations in results following the application of a similar method to different yet apparently equally valid datasets. Analysis …

An Investigation Into Psychological Stress Detection And Management In Organisations Operating In Project And Construction Management, Alan Patching, Rick Best

Rick Best

While psychologists remain divided whether ‘workplace stress’ is caused by workplace experiences or other factors, it’s commonly accepted that, regardless of cause, people experiencing stress can demonstrate decreased workplace performance. From a human performance and productivity perspective, from whence stress arises is somewhat irrelevant–the relevant fact is that it’s far more important to have systems and procedures in place to contribute to avoidance of undue work environment caused stress. It is also important to identify when an employee is exhibiting signs of stress than it is to focus only on remedial measures for when stress effects have already taken their …

Using Purchasing Power Parity To Assess Construction Productivity, Rick Best

Rick Best

For many reasons comparing construction productivity between countries is a difficult task. One key problem is that of converting construction costs to a common currency. This problem can be overcome relatively simply by using a basket of construction materials and labour, termed a BLOC (Basket of Locally Obtained Commodities), as a unit of construction cost. Average BLOC costs in each location are calculated from data obtained from a number of sources (quantity surveyors, estimators). Typical building costs obtained from published construction cost data are expressed in BLOC equivalents. Lower BLOC equivalents represent higher productivity as other inputs (largely materials) are …

Assessing Landscape Construction Course In Landscape Architecture Program, Hazreena Hussein, Shahida Shamsuddin, Ozanul Ezree Othman

Hazreena Hussein

A landscape construction course that incorporates a variety of student centered teaching methods including case studies, small group projects and tutorials were created to help students further their problem solving, decision making and critical thinking skills. By incorporating principles from Bloom's Taxonomy in the course, students will move from lower to higher order thinking skills and gain knowledge and understanding within a given tutorials across the topics taught during the semester. Thus, the aim of this paper is to illustrate how Landscape Architectural educators could teach landscape construction course and assess the students learning outcome in sustainable development of the …

Building Capability For Disaster Resilience, Lynn Crawford, Craig Langston, Bhishna Bajracharya

Lynn Crawford

All levels of government recognise the widespread devastation of communities by natural or other disasters. They have responded with emergency management arrangements and policies to enhance government and community capacity to anticipate, withstand and recover from disastrous events. Although the construction industry has a significant role to play, particularly in recovery and reconstruction, it has not generally been considered as a key stakeholder in building capability for disaster resilience. One barrier to more active involvement of the construction industry in disaster response and management is that traditional methods of construction project management have been criticised as too time consuming and …

Building Capability For Disaster Resilience, Lynn Crawford, Craig Langston, Bhishna Bajracharya

Craig Langston

All levels of government recognise the widespread devastation of communities by natural or other disasters. They have responded with emergency management arrangements and policies to enhance government and community capacity to anticipate, withstand and recover from disastrous events. Although the construction industry has a significant role to play, particularly in recovery and reconstruction, it has not generally been considered as a key stakeholder in building capability for disaster resilience. One barrier to more active involvement of the construction industry in disaster response and management is that traditional methods of construction project management have been criticised as too time consuming and …

Development Of A Field Procedure To Measure The Airtightness Of Wall Construction Elements Of Houses, Grenville K. Yuill, David Yuill

David Yuill