Prioritising sustainability factors for Australian community buildings’ management using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP)

The essence of Australian community buildings’ sustainable management drives through a previously established decision-making structure with four sustainability aspects and accompanying 18 criteria. Informed decisions are supported with a decision-making model that generates sustainability impacts of building components based on this decision-making structure. Building components’ individual impacts can be assigned using a numbering scale incorporated with linguistic terms. However, similar importance given to each aspect or criterion is arguable when the combined effect is considered. Hence, they should be given different weightings and their combination with individual impacts will produce final sustainability impacts. For calculating weightings, the study uses Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), widely used technique in Multi Attribute Decision-Making (MADM). The study also conducted an industry-wide questionnaire across Australian local councils because pair-wise comparison data is essential for weighting calculation. This paper presents the survey data and analysis results that captured weightings of sustainability aspects and criteria

Re-Thinking Spatial Design in Homes to Include Means and Access Restriction with Material Impacts as Passive Suicide Prevention Methods: A Systematic Review of Design for Australian Homes

This systematic review analyses research that introduces commercial design applications that could be adopted for suicide prevention in homes. Furthermore, this literature review captures social, spatial and biophilic design methods to improve wellness in homes using environmental design psychology. Safety and human wellness frame this spatial design research that examines means and access restriction to improve home safety and prevent suicides. Suicide is a growing phenomenon that deserves specific attention to how environments can impact or restrict events. There is a substantial evidence base to evaluate suicide prevention methods used in high-risk environments of health and healing environments, workplaces and incarceration facilities. This review outlines design methods using spatial arrangement and material choices to improve human wellness in homes. The effects of biochemical reactions, such as those studied in toxicology, and stress are considered in this research to suggest material choices and applications in design to improve mental health in homes. Spatial designs for suicide prevention can guide various prevention measures, such as adopting means and access restriction and environmental design methods for wellness and considering impacts during lockdown periods. Environmental design psychology research supplies evidence for improved spatial arrangements in homes, with evidence showing that design applications can restore and improve mental health. This systematic review shows evidence for planning methods to prevent suicides considering both means and access restriction with considerable biochemical impacts from design. Design methods discovered by this systematic review will be considered for future studies and used within economic modelling to demonstrate design guidelines that improve wellbeing and support existing suicide prevention methods for Australian homes

An investigation of factors affecting BIM adoption in facility management : an institutional case in Australia

The primary objective of Building Information Modelling (BIM) is to support the whole-of-life project life-cycle. However, the adoption of this promising technology appears so far to have been limited to the design and construction phases, with little emphasis on facility management (FM). While some countries have or are developing policies on the adoption of BIM in FM, others, such as Australia, are in stasis in terms of BIM policy. The aims of this project are to investigate the current level of BIM adoption, to evaluate awareness of and willingness to adopt BIM, to identify the motivators and challenges, and to explore the strategies and potential issues of BIM adoption in FM through an institutional case study. A qualitative method was adopted, including in-depth interviews and open-ended questions to capture rich information to enable better understanding of the research question. The data were thematically analysed, revealing that the adoption of BIM by the case study institution is in its infancy. The organisation is still in the value realisation phase of the BIM-enabled FM implementation process. The external and internal motivators are outweighed by the major challenges faced by the organisation, which explains the current level of adoption

Starting suicide prevention from home by incorporating social, spatial, biophilic and value management aspects to house design

Built Environmental design has a purpose to provide environments for people to live and work, but often places a lack of contribution to promoting human wellness. Numerous research studies conducted on improving workspace, productivity and improving health and healing environments provide considerable evidence for improving the ‘home construct’ to improve user health and wellbeing. Existing design research shows benefits and methods to reduce injury and suicide events, as used in health spaces, to be considered for home designs. Considering home design aspects of, safety, security, comfort, and family in planning and construction process can provide spaces to improve health and wellbeing. This paper reviews literature on human studies, developing theory considering home design inputs to combat suicide rates in at-risk groups with focus on youth, middle age, and unemployed groups. Results of this scoping review provide comprehensive analysis for improving homes by integrating healing and productivity using design aspects, that can be considered with value management considerations. The review purpose will designate outcomes and pave a holistic strategy to prevent suicide in homes. The scoping focusses on improved architectural design information for increasing mental comfort and wellbeing, using; social, spatial & biophilic design. The strategy will contribute to addressing social and economic problems associated with suicide in built environment home designs. This suicide research will be used for public health promotion by improving benefits of mental wellbeing (management) for suicide alleviation in Australian homes

Constructing pedagogical alignment for a sustainable mindset of future-ready graduates

Increasingly universities are making sustainability a focus for their institutional activities, curricula and student learning. The complexity of addressing epistemology, methodology and pedagogy in education for sustainability has been recognised and a diversity of approaches is emerging. The Central Queensland University has aligned it strategic vision with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), striving for transformative student learning experiences. The purpose of this paper is to investigate opportunities for integration of the SDGs into construction management learning, teaching and graduate future-ready attributes. This research utilises constructive alignment as pedagogical methodology for a case study design across several units of a construction management masters degree program. The concept of a sustainable mindset, based on values, knowledge and attributes provides the investigative lens. This study seeks to expand education for sustainability in Australian Built Environment programs and to advance constructive alignment as integrative pedagogy for learning and teaching. Findings demonstrate opportunities for SDG integration into unit based learning experiences as well as making SDGs explicit from strategic plan across graduate attributes to specfic unit learning outcomes. Recommendations include a broadening from learning about sustainability content to SDG alignment with student learning experiences and support sustainable mindset development as future-ready graduate attribute

Improving safety compliance of construction workers: A conceptual framework

Construction is one of the most hazardous occupations worldwide. Among all the factors, construction workers’ safety compliance plays a decisive role in improving safety performance on site. The study applied the concept of differentiating safety compliance into deep compliance and surface compliance based on workers’ safety compliance behavior and aims at identifying the influential factors and their effects on construction workers’ deep and surface compliance, respectively. Four existing theoretical models relating to safety compliance are reviewed and analyzed, including technology acceptance theory, theory of job performance, trait activation theory, social exchange theory, and social identity theory. The key factors from these theoretical models are identified, which include perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, safety motivation, management commitment to safety, situational awareness, emotional intelligence, safety communication, and safety knowledge. Then, a conceptual framework is developed to describe the relationships among those factors and the effects of them on deep and surface compliance, respectively. This conceptual model sets a basis for the empirical study focused on safety compliance of Australian construction workers. This study also provides practical implications as understanding this framework can help construction workers achieve improved safety performance by enhancing deep compliance or avoiding surface compliance

Significance of a software interoperability matrix for architectural engineering and construction industry

Traditional project management applications are appeared working separately of their participating project teams and isolating the input of each team to both geometry and non-geometry of the project. With the introduction of Building Information Modelling (BIM), Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry expected it would be a panacea as a tool to effectively collaborate project teams and to efficiently share geometry and non-geometry data relevant to not only design and construction but also covering the whole lifecycle of the project. All these BIM functions are relied on its automation capability; in other words, BIM vision totally discourages manual processing of data. As a result, good interoperability practice needs to pass data automatically between applications of different project teams. Many international associations are working in search of full interoperability among BIM players of the project; however, the goal is yet to succeed. The current study identifies the impact due to poor interoperability between applications and takes considerable effort to minimise or eliminate if possible. Software Interoperability Matrix (SIM) is the proposed solution delivering the outcome. Action research is the methodology adopted to develop SIM, in which researchers and professionals actively participated. Major industry contribution of SIM is to realise interoperability issues between BIM players prior to the project and upon identification, precautionary measures can be taken introducing new plug-ins or completely switching to new compatible application if it is the only solution

Factors that influence Australian community buildings' sustainable management

© 2017 Emerald Publishing Limited. Purpose - Australia has a huge stock of community buildings built up over decades. Their replacements consume a large sum of money from country's economy which has called for a strategy for their sustainable management. For this, a comprehensive decision-making structure is an utmost requirement. The purpose of this paper is to capture their sustainable management from four aspects, i.e. environmental, economic, social and functional. Design/methodology/approach - The design process follows an extensive review of environmental and life cycle assessments and company context documents. Extracted factors are tailored to community buildings management following expert consultation. However, the resulted list of factors is extremely large, and "factor analysis" technique is used to group the factors. For this, an industry-wide questionnaire across Australian local councils is employed to solicit opinions of the list of factors. Findings - The analysis has pinpointed 18 key parameters (criteria) to represent all four aspects. This paper presents the preliminary findings of the factors and the analysis results based on the questionnaire responses. Practical implications - The final decision-making structure incorporates all these aspects and criteria. This can be used to develop a decision-making model which produces a sustainability index for building components. Asset managers can mainly use the sustainability index to prioritise their maintenance activities and eventually, to find out cost-optimisation options for them. Originality/value - Most notably, this is the first study to apply all four sustainability aspects (environmental, economic, social and functional) to develop a decision-making structure for Australian community buildings' sustainable management

Determining the best intervention times of whole building assets for renewals during the planned period

The objective of service life analysis is to establish and explain the performance-over-time functions, which describes how the measured values of chosen performance characteristics are expected to vary with time. Applicable to buildings, the most viable method of capturing the performance is according to their condition; furthermore, referring to the minimum acceptable condition of the given building or component. Below this level, performance is considered not to be acceptable for the intended function, although the building or component can still be functional or operational. A deterioration curve represents the condition degradation over time, which can be regarded as a performance indicator over time. Referring to the deterioration curve produced regardless of deterministic or probabilistic way, the current study conducts a theoretical investigation of best intervention periods for renewals of whole building assets. Theoretical investigation is mainly underpinned by the relevant variables of the prediction curve such as useful life, remaining useful life, planned duration, minimum acceptable condition for performance, current year and last year of the planned duration and the first and last time that the intervention can be done effectively. Given that three interventions are the maximum number of interventions expected to occur during the planned period, eight scenarios of interventions come into effect. Hence, theoretical investigation has been applied to each scenario. The study has also used actual case study data hypothetically applied them to each scenario for further clarification of theoretical findings. The outcomes essentially guide building/ facility owners and managers for better informed decision-making of their building renewals

Factors that influence Australian community buildings' sustainable management

© 2017 Emerald Publishing Limited. Purpose - Australia has a huge stock of community buildings built up over decades. Their replacements consume a large sum of money from country's economy which has called for a strategy for their sustainable management. For this, a comprehensive decision-making structure is an utmost requirement. The purpose of this paper is to capture their sustainable management from four aspects, i.e. environmental, economic, social and functional. Design/methodology/approach - The design process follows an extensive review of environmental and life cycle assessments and company context documents. Extracted factors are tailored to community buildings management following expert consultation. However, the resulted list of factors is extremely large, and "factor analysis" technique is used to group the factors. For this, an industry-wide questionnaire across Australian local councils is employed to solicit opinions of the list of factors. Findings - The analysis has pinpointed 18 key parameters (criteria) to represent all four aspects. This paper presents the preliminary findings of the factors and the analysis results based on the questionnaire responses. Practical implications - The final decision-making structure incorporates all these aspects and criteria. This can be used to develop a decision-making model which produces a sustainability index for building components. Asset managers can mainly use the sustainability index to prioritise their maintenance activities and eventually, to find out cost-optimisation options for them. Originality/value - Most notably, this is the first study to apply all four sustainability aspects (environmental, economic, social and functional) to develop a decision-making structure for Australian community buildings' sustainable management