Correlation Analysis of Building Performance and Occupant’s Satisfaction via Post Occupancy Evaluation for Malaysia’s Public Buildings

The purpose of a building is to provide shelter for activities that carried out by the building users. The question is, does the facilities in the building perform well and appropriate to its use? The needs of occupants are affected by the building performance and on occupants’ evaluation of the buildings. Hence, Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) is introduced to empower the occupants’ opinion as the benchmark of building performance evaluation. POE comprises as one of the technique that is used to evaluate whether a building meets the user’s requirement. The broad aim of this paper is to determine the correlation of public buildings and occupant’s satisfaction; in order to seek possible opportunities for government involvement (as the building owner) and the public (as the user) to evaluate the performance criteria. By using a proposed framework of POE, the study has revealed that 74% of the aspects in building performance are in high correlation with the occupants’ satisfaction. The study concludes that the application of POE is effective and beneficial to be used by the public sector in evaluating the performance of public buildings in Malaysia.Post occupancy evaluation; Public buildings; Building performance; occupants’ satisfaction; Correlation analysis

Exploring Private Finance Initiative Implementation Issues in Malaysia Construction Projects: A Way Forward

Private Finance Initiative (PFI) was introduced in 2006 aimed at achieving value for money. Nevertheless, most of the PFI projects in Malaysia are currently facing difficulties in meeting the expectation. Therefore, a brainstorming workshop involving 69 PFI practitioners from diverse backgrounds was conducted to investigate the implementation issues at the operational level and strategies towards achieving the project goals. The results showed that skills and knowledge, procedures and implementation, challenges in project management, and conflict on documentation were among the issues debated among workshop participants.  “Loopholes” were identified to facilitate the improvement of the PFI project implementation in Malaysia. Keywords: Operational Performance; Private Finance Initiative (PFI); Issues; Strategies. eISSN: 2398-4287© 2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bsby e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v5iSI3.253

Conceptual model of cost-benefit analysis for monetary and non-monetary items in industrialised building system (IBS) project

Industrialised Building System (IBS) is known as a construction system that consists of a combination of components manufactured either on-site or off-site then positioned and assembled into structures. Among the benefits of IBS construction includes labour cost reduction, support desirable environment; maximize efficient use of resources and waste minimisation towards sustainable construction. However, the Malaysian construction industry still has a low take-up rate on IBS construction. The benefits of IBS are more reliable to be presented in a tangible (monetary) value and intangible (nonmonetary) basis rather than descriptive benefits. Hence, to promote the project's viability via IBS, Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) can be used to identify the soft issue or non-direct cost and elicits more transparency in IBS projects. This paper presents the conceptual review of the fundamental theory of CBA on the measurement of cost and benefits that can be converted as a weighing impact for an IBS project. An initial conceptual model known as CBA-IBS model is proposed as an approach that a decision maker can use to find the balance between the amount of effort invested in the initial cost of IBS construction and the realised revenues. This study concluded that CBA is able to foster the viability of IBS in more comprehensive criteria of monetary and non-monetary benefits

Green Procurement in Construction: Analysis of the Readiness Level and Key Catalyst among Construction Enablers

In the concern of sustainability and increasing awareness of environmental degradation, the Malaysian government has promoted numerous initiatives on green growth and green procurement (GP) to maintain and minimize the ecological effects in construction. However, this initiative is still in the infancy stage as to date, there is no specific guideline delineated to the construction industry, and it has yet to be enforced by the government to the construction practitioners. In construction, green procurement is a new area, and immediate actions are needed upon the principles, guidelines, and policy and implementation framework. Hence, this research aims to analyse the readiness level, barriers, and key catalysts among construction enablers towards adopting green procurement in the construction industry. Questionnaires were distributed to 102 construction enablers, focusing on quantity surveying firms in the Klang Valley area (Kuala Lumpur and Selangor), and 87 returned the responses. The analysis uses descriptive statistics via mean score, and the standard deviation was used to measure the variables and the mean's dispersion. It is revealed that the consultants are ready to adopt green procurement. However, GP's implementation's top challenges are lack of internal expertise, low awareness about green procurement, and lack of established best practices, standardized procedures and guidelines. It can be summarized that promoting GP and its implementation requires government support in policies, initiatives, and incentives. As the current practice is fragmented, ideally, GP's adoption in construction projects needs to conform to the acceptable standards that enable specific provisions to acquire eco-friendly sustainable construction

Assessing Practice and Criteria for Green Roof Maintenance on High-rise Residential Building in Malaysia

Urbanisation inevitably shows a positive sign in increasing the economic reputation of a country. Nevertheless, it has led to several problems including the deficit in green spaces and destruction of the natural environment, therefore green building is introduced as an alternative to overcome crucial environmental issues. Numerous approaches were also adopted to reduce other environmental issues such as urban heat island, air pollution and lack of green spaces. One of the sustainable approaches that help to minimise the environmental problems is by using the means of vegetation or plant material on rooftops or also known as the green roof. The implementation of the green roof on top of buildings is becoming a trend in the urban cities as it provides numerous benefits to the green development. The green roof is also part of criteria in green building and among the benefits, implementing green roofs will reduce heat flux, optimise energy efficiency and improve stormwater management. However, despite the benefits, enhancement on the green roof installation and maintenance consideration are two factors which are still largely unexplored as the main significant factor in the viability of the green roof installation. Hence, this paper is aimed to determine the vital criteria of maintenance and its ranking towards the establishment of best practice maintenance for the green roof, by focusing on high-rise residential. Questionnaires were distributed by email and through an online survey to 30 maintenance managers of green roof of high-rise residential in Kuala Lumpur and the samples are drawn by using purposive sampling technique. The results showed that the most significant maintenance criteria of the green roof are drainage, followed by waterproofing, irrigation, water retention, and roof slab. The outcome of this study has provided a significant contribution to the current maintenance practice of green roof by prioritising the criteria of maintenance and key address of green roof, where it may help to standardise the maintenance practice of the green roof in the tropical climate of Malaysia

Review of Significant Maintenance Criteria for Tropical Green Roofs in Malaysia

The implementation of green roofs on the top of buildings is becoming a trend in urban cities as they provide numerous benefits for green development growth. In Malaysia, numerous approaches towards sustainable development have been adopted in order to overcome crucial environmental issues such as urban heat islands, air pollution and lack of green spaces. One of the sustainable approaches that helps to minimize such problems is the use of vegetation or plant material on rooftops, also known as green roofs. Among the benefits of implementing green roofs or buildings are reducing heat flux, optimizing energy efficiency, and improving storm water management. Despite the benefits of green roof installation, the maintenance consideration is still largely unexplored and is a significant factor in the viability of green roof installation. Therefore, this paper aims to identify the significant criteria for green roof maintenance practice in Malaysia, as an added value to the existing practice that has previously been more concerned with design and benefit considerations. The literature findings reveal that there are generally 20 criteria related to such maintenance. Out of these, six are identified as the most significant factors in the best practice of green roof maintenance, being appropriate and important for the Malaysian tropical climate. The findings can serve as added value to existing practice, which has previously been more concerned with design and benefit. Therefore, they will also help to improve current green roof maintenance undertaken by building operators and maintenance managers

Unveiling the Impact of Sustainable Interior Design Criteria on Hotel’s Operational Performance Effectiveness and User’s Hedonic Consumption

Performance effectiveness in the hotel’s operational stage is significant for hotel industry as the industry relies on customer satisfaction towards the service. Fulfilling the customer’s satisfaction and users’ hedonic on the aesthetic appearance, interiors, room decorations, and furnishings is crucial for hotel's operational and facilities management concept. However, awareness the management of tangible interiors and aesthetic performance on sustainable interiors products are still lacking in the hotel's operational performance. This study aims to close the loop between the sustainable interior design (SID) and facilities management, by identifying the criteria of SID relating to hotel’s operational performance and user’s hedonic consumption. A semi-structured interview was carried out this study involving three professionals; architect, interior designer, GBI facilitator, in various green hotels project. The data is analysed using ATLAS.ti9© qualitative software. The findings revealed that there are seven (7) sustainable ID criteria consists of biophilic, energy efficiency, water consumption, health and social flexibility, environmental comfort, ergonomics, and green awareness. This study is significant for the hoteliers in identifying critical elements contributed to the successful performance in hotel’s operational stage using sustainable interiors.

Correlation Analysis of Building Performance and Occupant’s Satisfaction via Post Occupancy Evaluation for Malaysia’s Public Buildings

The purpose of a building is to provide shelter for activities that carried out by the building users. The question is, does the facilities in the building perform well and appropriate to its use? The needs of occupants are affected by the building performance and on occupants’ evaluation of the buildings. Hence, Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) is introduced to empower the occupants’ opinion as the benchmark of building performance evaluation. POE comprises as one of the technique that is used to evaluate whether a building meets the user’s requirement. The broad aim of this paper is to determine the correlation of public buildings and occupant’s satisfaction; in order to seek possible opportunities for government involvement (as the building owner) and the public (as the user) to evaluate the performance criteria. By using a proposed framework of POE, the study has revealed that 74% of the aspects in building performance are in high correlation with the occupants’ satisfaction. The study concludes that the application of POE is effective and beneficial to be used by the public sector in evaluating the performance of public buildings in Malaysia