Architecture Commons^™

Making Better Decisions About Built Assets: Learning By Doing, Craig Langston

Craig Langston

Climate change presents significant challenges to society (e.g. Stern, 2006; Bouwer and Aerts, 2006). Many have concluded that climate change is the most important problem facing humankind, and indeed other life on Earth. The construction industry, which contributes 5-10% of national GDP globally, has a prominent role to play in meeting this challenge given that the built environment demands 40-50% of global resources and generates a proportional amount of waste (Langston and Ding, 2001). Climate change adaptation is about human response to this challenge, thus mitigating the impacts of a changing climate (Burton et al., 2005).

Mcda And Assessing Sustainability, Craig Langston

Craig Langston

Extract: Multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) is a contemporary alternative social cost-benefit analysis as a means of evaluating sustainable development. It avoids the problem of converting social and environmental performance into monetary terms simply so it can be combined with tangible costs and benefits and included in a discounted cash flow.

Critical Success Factors For Building Maintenance Business: A Hong Kong Case Study, Yongtao Tan, Li-Yen Shen, Craig Langston

Craig Langston

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present the critical success factors (CSFs) for engaging in the building maintenance business in Hong Kong where maintenance is a major market sector. Design/methodology/approach - In this study, CSFs are identified for the business of building maintenance based on data collected from a questionnaire survey and interviews. Findings - A total of 12 CSFs are identified, such as client's satisfaction, certification of company, reliability of service, quality of service, and company reputation, and most are related to two principal factors, namely maintenance service and organization, and project management. Originality/value - This …

Construction Efficiency: A Tale Of Two Developed Countries, Craig Langston

Craig Langston

Purpose - The measurement of construction performance is a vexed problem. Despite much research effort, there remains little agreement over what to measure and how to measure it. The problem is made even more complicated by the desire to benchmark national industry performance against that of other countries. As clearly construction cost forms part of the analysis, the mere adjustment of cost data to an "international currency" has undermined past attempts to draw any meaningful conclusions. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach - This paper introduces a new method for comparing international construction efficiency, tested on a data …

Adaptive Reuse Of Traditional Chinese Shophouses In Government-Led Urban Renewal Projects In Hong Kong, Esther Yung, Craig Langston, Edwin Chan

Craig Langston

Conservationists and government authorities acknowledge that adaptive reuse of historic buildings contributes to urban sustainability. Traditional Chinese shophouses are a major historic building typology found in the old districts of Asian cities. In Hong Kong, the few remaining shophouses are generally deteriorating and are increasingly under threat of demolition for urban renewal. However, adaptive reuse of these buildings has created many social concerns. In light of these concerns, evaluating adaptive reuse potential needs to incorporate a much broader sustainability framework than simply physical building conditions. This study examines the extent to which obsolescence, heritage value and redevelopment pressures have affected …

Designing For Future Adaptive Reuse, Craig Langston

Craig Langston

Extract: Existing buildings that are either obsolete or rapidly approaching disuse and potential demolition are a 'mine' of raw materials for new projects, a concept described by Chusid (1993) as 'urban ore'.

Participatory Project Management For Improved Disaster Resilience, Lynn Crawford, Craig Langston, Bhishna Bajracharya

Craig Langston

Purpose – Disaster response and recovery is implemented through multiple projects with traditional project management approaches criticised as too time consuming and inflexible in circumstances of high uncertainty, requiring rapid reaction for multiple stakeholders. This research aims to understand the role of project and stakeholder management in the management of disasters as an opening for identifying improved disaster resilience opportunities using participatory project management approaches. Design/methodology/approach – Using the 2011 Queensland floods as a case study, the positioning of project management in disaster management discourse was investigated through summative content analysis. Findings – Results demonstrate that project and stakeholder engagement …

A Fuzzy Approach For Adaptive Reuse Selection Of Industrial Buildings In Hong Kong, Yongtao Tan, Li-Yin Shen, Craig Langston

Craig Langston

With rapid economic development and restructuring, there are an increasing number of aged or obsolete buildings in large cities, such as Hong Kong. Adaptive reuse of these buildings provides an alternative for property stakeholders towards more sustainable practices instead of redevelopment or destruction. Adaptive reuse can also make great contributions to sustainable development by reducing construction waste and saving natural resources. As a result of industrial restructuring, manufacturing plants were migrated from Hong Kong to Mainland China during the 1980s and 1990s. Many industrial buildings then became vacant or under-utilised. Adaptive reuse of these industrial buildings is considered a viable …

Identifiying Adaptive Reuse Potential, Craig Langston

Craig Langston

How to adapt existing building stock is a problem being addressed by local and state governments worldwide. In most developed countries we now spend more on building adaptation than on new construction and there is an urgent need for greater knowledge and awareness of what happens to commercial buildings over time.

Sustainable Building Adaptation: innovations in decision-making is a significant contribution to understanding best practice in sustainable adaptations to existing commercial buildings by offering new knowledge-based theoretical and practical insights. Models used are grounded in results of case studies conducted within three collaborative construction project team settings in Australia and …