Redefining Islamic garden: comparative analysis of approaches, ideas and design framework

The term Islamic garden has been defined in various ways considering different aspects and values. These definitions draw a broader perspective to Islamic garden, a key feature of Islamic civilization throughout the history. This paper aims to analyze these views and compare them in order to reach toward a holistic definition for Islamic garden- its origin, evolution, principles and essence. Also searching for a way to revitalize the original essence and application of Islamic gardens in the contemporary societies are discussed in a brief way

Apraisal of workplace Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) in office buildings at Penang Island

As the weather is quite a big challenge to Malaysia, thus the Malaysians are tending to create the living environment as comfortable as we can.Workplace environment is very important as it ensure the health, activeness and productivity of workers who work in there.To ensure an optimum working environment, the indoor environmental quality, or frankly said, the HVAC system plays a big role.The objective if this paper is to determine the current indoor environmental quality of the selected offices in Penang Island.A few parameters were determined such as temperature, humidity, air velocity, air flor, noise level and lighting condition.Through indoor environmental quality measurement, it is found that most of the offices facing the lighting and noise problem

Engineering Sciences Технические науки Modeling of Flood Water Flow: A Review 1

Abstract. A flood is an overflow of water that submerges or drowns land. In general flooding scenario, water levels rise causing areas neighboring water bodies and some road segments in these areas to be flooded and they said two aspects of flooding interest us first, the water body floods reaches a water level higher than normal causing water to flow to the surrounding areas and second, the flowing water interacts with roads, covering road segments. The primary effects of flooding include loss of life, damage to buildings and other structures roadways, and canals. Damage to roads and transport infrastructure may make it difficult to mobilize aid to those affected or to provide emergency health treatment. One of the methods to reduce the velocity of flood water flow across road is to design obstacle objects as diffuser and places it along beside road shoulder. The velocity of water flow will depends on the diffusion pattern of water. The pattern of diffused water will depends on the design of the obstacle objects. This paper will review the impacts of flooding and modeling to protect road floodin

Review on Fire Performance of Cellular Lightweight Concrete

Structural fire damage can be identified as a common accidental disaster throughout the world which cause thousands of deaths, injuries and millions in property damage each year. Fire represents one of the most severe conditions to which structures may be subjected. Generally, structural elements will be exposed to very high temperature (1200 ℃) during a fire propagation. Fire safety of a structure is measured in terms of fire resistance, which is the duration that a structural member can exhibit resistance with respect to structural integrity, stability and heat transmission. Concrete generally provides better fire resisting characteristics compared to the other construction materials due to its low thermal conductivity, high heat capacity and slower strength degradation with temperature. Cellular lightweight concrete (CLC) is one of the novel type of concrete which can be identified as a better construction material than conventional concrete due to its numerous advantages. However, limited research work has been carried out to determine the fire performance of CLC. Fire response of structural members depends on the thermal, mechanical and deformation properties of the structural material at elevated temperatures. Even though properties at elevated temperatures for normal weight concrete is available in literature, properties of CLC at elevated temperatures (ambient to 1200 ℃) is not thoroughly investigated. Further, CLC fire rating under natural/parametric fire situations and under hydrocarbon fire situations needs to be studied. EN 1992.1.2 provides minimum thickness requirements under standard fire situations for non-loadbearing and load bearing normal weight concrete walls, but for CLC, these values are not available, hence required to be included. Also, parameters and material property limitations related to spalling effect of CLC during fire exposure has not being investigated. Moreover, residual characteristics of CLC walls after fire situations and ability to withstand a second fire situation needs to be assessed

A review on prefab industrialised building system modular construction in Malaysia: the perspective of non-structural studies

Prefab modular construction approach is a well-established volumetric structural product through off-site prefabrication at factory. Modular construction approach builds confidents to promote sustainability in construction industry development and is beneficial to the environment ecosystem. The study explored and discussed on various non-structural perspective of IBS modular construction in Malaysia. The study aims to investigate the importance of the implementation of IBS modular construction in Malaysia as rapid efficient construction process and poised to help the Malaysia construction industry grow to solve the housing demand impacts. The study presented the definition, prefabrication technology, history, benefits, barriers and issues, application and characteristics of modular construction in the Malaysian construction industry through literature review. Based on the literature reviewed, the existing IBS practices in Malaysia is still low in application and modular construction practice currently had gained popularity worldwide and been proven as rapid and efficient construction method in IBS trend. Therefore, the existing IBS practices in Malaysia must be strategized towards more efficient and rapid construction method due to its numerous benefits and characteristics. The findings of this study will contribute to the transformation of existing construction practices to modern modular construction approach and proposed the future study on modular construction in structural perspectives