Online platform for home design and project management in modular construction

The construction industry is currently facing the challenges of intensifying global competition, increasing market volatility, increasing product differentiation, and shortening product life cycles. In this context, versatile production concepts with modular structures promise a better adaptation to these dynamic boundary conditions in terms of quantity production, product variety, and manufacturing location. Modular construction has significant advantages over traditional on-site construction in terms of material efficiency, safety, and sustainability. Therefore, specialized software for building design is one of the critical aspects of modular construction. This work presents the development of an online platform for the design of buildings using modular construction. The main features of this platform are the 2D home design with 3D visualization, using BIM approaches, the validation of architectural rules and system limits taking into consideration the design and legal framework, and the management of orders and workflows for sustainable construction. The validation of architecture rules and system limits allows the use of the platform by final clients to design their houses and obtain the budget and the construction viability based on modular construction. After, an architect can assume the final design and legal approvement of the project.This work was supported by FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia under Projects UIDB/05757/2020, funded by Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior and Fundo Social Europeu through The Programa Operacional Regional Norte and NORTE-01-0247-FEDER-113482, funded by Compete 2020.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Networking historic environmental standards to address modern challenges for sustainable conservation in HBIM

Awareness of the logic and context of original (and subsequent) design priorities is critical to informing decisions relating to valorisation, repair, refurbishment, energy retrofit or re-use of built heritage. A key benefit of collating data through HBIM should be to assist others facing similar challenges. Here, examples for sharing understanding of how components belong to a system are outlined in the context of a newly completed dataset of public library buildings in the UK funded by Andrew Carnegie, predominantly built between 1900 and 1914. Demands for functionality and economy of public library buildings coupled with the emergent standardisation of building components at the time provide a specific condition with potential for further iteration to other buildings of the period or related typologies. The work highlights the urgency of providing cost-efficient knowledge sharing structures in an era of altered priorities with respect to energy use for modern heritage. We propose the means for mapping common features to network knowledge amongst stakeholders through relevant open source pathways. The results demonstrate that integrating geographic approaches to knowledge sharing in HBIM with environmental considerations also supports wider questions of risk management related to the stewardship of historic buildings in the context of climate change

Networking historic environmental standards to address modern challenges for sustainable conservation in HBIM

Awareness of the logic and context of original (and subsequent) design priorities is critical to informing decisions relating to valorisation, repair, refurbishment, energy retrofit or re-use of built heritage. A key benefit of collating data through Historic Building Information Modelling (HBIM) should be to assist others facing similar challenges. Here, examples for sharing understanding of how components belong to a system are outlined in the context of a newly completed dataset of public library buildings in the UK funded by Andrew Carnegie, predominantly built between 1900 and 1914. Demands for the functionality and economy of public library buildings, coupled with the emergent standardisation of building components at the time, provide a specific condition with potential for further iteration to other buildings of the period or related typologies. The work highlights the urgency of providing cost-efficient knowledge sharing structures in an era of altered priorities with respect to energy use for modern heritage. We propose the means for mapping common features to network knowledge amongst stakeholders through relevant open source pathways. The results demonstrate that integrating geographic approaches to knowledge sharing in HBIM with environmental considerations also supports wider questions of risk management related to the stewardship of historic buildings in the context of climate change

Existing healthcare facilities, refurbishment, and energy simulation

In recent years, various experts and organisations have emphasised the need to improve existing facilities to meet targets imposed by government related to energy consumption and carbon emissions. Demolishing existing facilities and constructing new facilities is not always the best solution to achieve government targets and modernise existing healthcare facilities. Also, the National Health Service’s (NHS) focus on new construction in the past has contributed towards the deterioration of existing building stock up to certain extent. Research in the area of refurbishment of existing hospitals has been neglected despite the fact that existing facilities still account for a major proportion of NHS healthcare building stock. To accomplish the research aim and goals, a mixed methodology was used which include a literature review, web‐based case studies, questionnaire survey, interviews and site visits to hospitals. A brief study of healthcare refurbishment indicates that a specific framework for existing buildings is required because their characteristics are different to new facilities. The function of this particular framework should be to integrate modelling and assessment tools, and to reduce existing building energy consumption throughout the life‐cycle

Design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA) enablers for offsite interior design and construction

Interior design and construction (IDC) is a sophisticated and often prolonged process that delivers a building to occupation. Traditional practice is rather unproductive, involving the work of several different trades crowded in situ and delivered sequentially one after another. To enhance productivity in IDC, offsite practice is receiving increasing attention as a process innovation along with Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA), an emerging concept in the industry. This paper aims to investigate offsite IDC practice and develop a set of DfMA enablers for better achieving this building process. It undertakes a literature review, case study, and 18 semi-structured interviews. To support the offsite IDC and its production line, standardized procedure, automated machinery, and supply chain, 10 DfMA enablers are adopted, such as early collaboration, design standardization and simplification, and light material selection. These findings indicate a paradigm shift not only in interior design methodology but also in IDC professional practice process. This research enriches the literature on DfMA and IDC, in particular their synergy, and offers a new model for interior designers and offsite IDC practitioners

EMPLOYING THE BIM-BASED APPROACH TO ANALYZE AND IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF DETAIL CONSTRUCTION COST ESTIMATION ACCORDING TO NRM 2 AND SMPI

Construction projects have become increasingly complicated and challenging to manage in recent years, especially in analyzing the quantity and cost estimation of construction work to get accurate results and overrun costs. The interdependence among different work items involved, such as architects, civil and electrical works, is one of the fundamental reasons. Besides that, the differences in standards used in analyzing the quantity and unit cost per work item made it more complicated. This study analyzed the existing modeling based on the measurement rules and unit cost standards to analyze the problem which has been explained above. Understanding the items was considered when examining the walls quantity to avoid missing information. In addition, measurement rules standards are utilized to calculate QTO, including NRM 2 standards from the UK and SMPI standards from Indonesia, to calculate the cost based on Indonesia standard SNI-AHSP. Furthermore, using visual programming Dynamo to analyze the quantity of wall works based on the required data, extract the data/information needed to calculate the cost based on unit cost standard, and check if the walls intersect with other elements to avoid excess quantity. Finally, using BIM technology based on standard measurement rules and overlapping element analysis to calculate the quantity and cost produced accurate quantity results and obtained the maximum cost detail per work item. Moreover, generate the information about the analysis results by utilizing the intelligent module to present the required information of the wall works, which improves the inadequacy of BIM. Indeed, it could save more time than calculating them manually and reduce human errors

Integrated Open Source Design for Architecture in High Density Housing Practice

High-density housing can be interpreted as collections of individual units, which inevitably results in the dilemma between the global standardization designed by architects and local customization implemented by users. However, it is impossible to reflect the users’ various needs in the conceptual design stage for high-density housing because of the economic, industrial and time constrains. In response to this challenge, this research paper outlines a different high-density housing design approach that can adopt users’ individual customization in the conceptual design stage during the housing design practice. Hence, the design process would be an open-ended evolutionary and transparent process rather than deterministic executions as we have now in most high-density cities, such as Hong Kong. In order to overcome the deficiency in addressing future uncertainties of different users and address the issues of one-off developments without iterating users’ feedback in the housing practice, this essay proposes IOSDA (integrated open source design for architecture) for the design practice of high-density housing, through collective data and parametric connectivity between users and architects. IOSDA reflects a different design attitude towards the future, i.e., to shift from architects’ heroic prediction of the future to collective engagement of the present with more robust capacities for new possibilities.published_or_final_versio

Integrated open source architectural design for high density housing with computational control and management engineering the paradoxes of chinese housing architecture

Session V (Room D): Methodology IHousing is a collection of individual units based on negotiation between global standardization by the designers and local customization by the users after occupation. Due to the economic, industrial and time constrains, it is impossible to reflect users’ different needs in the design stage for high density housing. In response to this challenge, this research paper argues that the high density housing design can adopt the individual customization by the users in the design stage without paying significantly extra cost, hence the design process could be an open-ended evolutionary and transparent process rather than deterministic execution. To overcome the deficiency in addressing the future uncertainty by different users and the one-off development without the interactive mechanism for users’ feedback in the sub-sequential housing design and procurement, This essay proposes Integrated Open Source Design for Architecture (IOSDA) for housing design practice based on collective data and parametric connectivity between the end users and the designers, discussing how to integrate top-down mechanism with designer’s empirical inputs and the bottom-up ecosystems with users’ participation in high density housing design. IOSDA reflects a different attitude to design the future, which shifts from heroic prediction of the future to engaging the present grassroots, from board proactive reaction to the capacities for new possibilities.postprin

Quality management framework for housing construction in a design-build project delivery system : a BIM-UAV approach

Quality management in project administration can affect the costs and schedule of a project considerably. The immediate notable result of unacceptable quality in a construction project is the “dissatisfied client.” which can be interpreted as “customer loss”. Additionally, defective work is a synonym for problems such as dispute, because items of non-compliance with early agreements can be considered the main factor in triggering claims by the client. The integrated use of two modern technologies, namely Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) is proposed in this study to support project quality management (PQM). This study aims to develop the theoretical underpinnings to provide a quality management framework, formed by BIM-UAV, for housing projects in design-build (D&B) contracts. For this purpose, in the first step the causes of client dissatisfaction rooted in quality concerns were identified in two phases of design and construction. The next step was dedicated to the mapping of BIM-UAV capacities to address the identified causes of dissatisfaction of the client. In the final step, expert opinion was obtained to integrate the BIM-UAV capacities to the quality management framework. The findings and main contribution of this study to the body of knowledge is a guide for design-builders to implement BIM-UAV as an innovative quality management solution to improve their services and to gain the maximum level of client satisfaction, focusing on house building

Association of Architecture Schools in Australasia

"Techniques and Technologies: Transfer and Transformation", proceedings of the 2007 AASA Conference held September 27-29, 2007, at the School of Architecture, UTS