Evaluating the Utility Core in the Prefabricated Building Industry – past, present and future

Harnessing, distributing, tempering and supplying water, heat and power in a building produces its share of design, technical and coordination issues. Specifically, the relationship between hygiene and cooking functions and architecture has been underscored by even the most ancient civilizations as these services give a building its potential to serve and showcase architecture's hospitality. The relationship between services and architectural space has long challenged designers and manufacturers to streamline their piecing together. Throughout construction history and modern architecture in particular the wet service core or utility core sought to organize an efficient way of zoning services, their production and construction integration; The utility core epitomized this rationalization within a self-contained engine-like device positioned to serve the entire dwelling. This paper proposes an extensive review of literature and practical exploration in order to detect new potentials for designing integrated, technology-driven, flexible and adaptable prefabricated utility cores for today's industry. The core was intended as a hub accommodating mechanical and technological equipment; electrical services, plumbing fixtures, water supply, drain, waste, vent piping, telephone cables, and easy connections to site infrastructure. Today's techniques and building information modeling allows the core to be redefined in relation to multiple scales and various organizational possibilities with regard to space/function connections. Further an adaptable core articulated to the «open building» theoretical framework of layering systems to avoid entanglement and to maximize durability, can be part of a comprehensive strategy to enable customization. The vast amount of literature and precedents contribute to a robust historic narrative of two distinct approaches of architectural rhetoric and industrial production.  This paper will endeavor to illustrate this narrative and evaluate the potentials for achieving broader application

Mass Customization of Housing: A Framework for Harmonizing Individual Needs with Factory Produced Housing

Integrated processes for design and fabrication have guided mass customization of architectural systems and components. Providing affordable and accessible housing, a vital segment of the building industry, is a multifaceted process that witnessed various manifestations towards individualization over the past few decades. Design flexibility in housing systems is becoming a crucial aspect, informed by consumers’ lifestyles, demographic patterns, and lifecycles change at a rapid pace. As the housing market demands more personalized, efficient, and agile strategies, prefabricated building systems have always presented a viable alternative for flexibility and cus-tomization, following a rise of interest in the last decade focused on new modes of digitized design and production. This paper presents an overview and appraisal of various practices to implement customization in the housing industry, with specific focus on empowering a systemic approach. We then propose an open framework that could accommodate emergent design technologies and production protocols, with the aim of taking advantage of advanced research efforts, and coupled with current industry application

Design and delivery of national housing in the UAE: an alternative approach

The provision of national housing to citizens in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is considered a crucial topic. Over the past four decades, the process of developing national housing has emerged into multiple housing programs and schemes, all with the same aim of offering affordable and high-quality housing to citizens, in addition to meeting the needs of local families regarding spatial configurations while maintaining cultural values. However, despite all these efforts, the question has always remained: are the offered housing practices suited for family needs, socioeconomic trends, and environmental challenges? This study aims to offer an alternative approach for the design and delivery of national housing practices in the UAE. The proposed process is structured based on the following ethos: first, a conceptual approach for design flexibility toward offering customization while maintaining contextual and cultural qualities for inhabitants; second, a computational design strategy for facade optimization that illustrates the significance of incorporating environmentally conscious design strategies in response to local climatic conditions toward enhancing overall building performance; and third, a hybrid production model that relies on a prefabricated building approach that combines precast concrete systems with 3D printing technology. The efforts described in this article represent a significant phase of an ongoing research endeavor that explores how technological capacities could help rethink national housing in the UAE

A Process for Providing Environmentally Conscious Housing in the UAE

Housing has become a core theme in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Recent reports have marked a shortfall in the required supply of middle-income housing, thus suggesting significant efforts to address the current imbalance. It is believed that several reasons have contributed to the current shortage of affordable housing, including the low adoption of prefabricated construction techniques resulting in higher construction costs, as well as lower financial returns; therefore, making such developments less attractive for developers. However, there are several projects that have proven to be successful in utilizing precast concrete towards practical and economical value, in addition to providing a viable solution to meet the expectations for efficient housing delivery with regard to quantity and quality. In this research, we propose a comprehensive process that combines a design and production model to enhance the actual practices and mechanisms of the precast concrete development. This paper proposes various stages of logic design implemented in an architectural process with the aim of reaching the highest level of sustainability in UAE housing while reducing the cost of construction, and the time of delivery

From Analogue to Digital: Evolution of Building Machines Towards Reforming Production and Customization of Housing

The construction of edifices is all about lifting, moving and setting components according to predefined patterns. The magnitude of nineteenth century industrialization produced all manner of machines, lifts and earthmovers to facilitate construction, in addition to easing the pressures on manual labor. Along the same tactical interests, the Bessemer converter and gantry cranes were invented for advancing manufacturing and facilitating standardization of building parts. Robert Le Tourneaux’s Tournalayer, perhaps the most unique building machine, made it possible to mold buildings like a mega-cookie cutter by casting reinforced concrete in moveable steel formwork. The outcome of such experiments cultivated transformations in the building process, even if they were not widely utilized. Recent advancements in digital fabrication machines in the form of Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) cutting and milling tools, bricklaying drones, and large-scale 3D printing robots, coupled with computational design processes, are driving new possibilities in design and construction. Multiple levels of design variation are feasible, reforming standardized industrial models into user-centric, and contextually driven singular designs. The chapter aims to critically examine how contemporary digitally controlled building machines are part of a spectrum of devices linked to mechanization and how they present potentials for the democratization of housing provision. Accompanied by an analysis of how the fourth industrial revolution is impacting construction, we present a detailed overview of the evolution of building machines, with a specific focus on concrete casting machines used to produce dwellings. Then, we critically analyze the parallels between traditional casting equipment invented for mass production and today\u27s robotic fabrication to deliver inhabitable prototypes. As a conclusion to the chapter and an opening to further research, a generative framework that stems from linking digital design with production machines is proposed for implementing customization in the industrialized housing sector, one that has long been connoted by the lack of design personalization

Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) Improves the Metabolic and Haemostatic Disturbances in Rats with Male Hypogonadism

Objectives: The current work was designed to study the effect of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) on glucose homeostasis, liver functions and hemostatic disturbances in a rat model of bilateral orchidectomy (ORCH). Methods: 32 male rats (n = 8) were randomly assigned into 4 groups; (i) control (sham operated) group; were normal rats in which all surgical procedures were done without ORCH, (ii) Control + DHEA group: as control group but rats were treated with DHEA for 12 weeks, (iii) orchiectomized (ORCH) group: rats had bilateral orchidectomy and (iv) ORCH + DHEA group: orchiectomized rats treated with DHEA for 12 weeks. Four weeks after ORCH, DHEA treatment began and lasted for twelve weeks. By the end of the experiment, the parameters of glucose homeostasis, lipid profile, liver enzymes, bleeding and clotting times (B.T. and C.T.), prothrombin time (P.T.), activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), platelet count and aggregation, von-Willebrand factor (vWF), fibrinogen, plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI-1), fibrin degradation products (FDP), intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM-1), vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM-1), endothelin-1 were measured. Results: ORCH caused significant deteriorations in the parameters of glucose homeostasis, lipid profile, and liver functions (p p < 0.01) with significant shortening of bleeding and clotting times. DHEA replacement therapy significantly decreased glucose, insulin, PAI-1, fibrinogen, ICAM-1, and VCAM-1 when compared to ORCH rats. Conclusion: DHEA ameliorated the metabolic, hepatic, hypercoagulable, and hypofibrinolysis disturbances induced by ORCH

Global economic burden of unmet surgical need for appendicitis

Background There is a substantial gap in provision of adequate surgical care in many low- and middle-income countries. This study aimed to identify the economic burden of unmet surgical need for the common condition of appendicitis. Methods Data on the incidence of appendicitis from 170 countries and two different approaches were used to estimate numbers of patients who do not receive surgery: as a fixed proportion of the total unmet surgical need per country (approach 1); and based on country income status (approach 2). Indirect costs with current levels of access and local quality, and those if quality were at the standards of high-income countries, were estimated. A human capital approach was applied, focusing on the economic burden resulting from premature death and absenteeism. Results Excess mortality was 4185 per 100 000 cases of appendicitis using approach 1 and 3448 per 100 000 using approach 2. The economic burden of continuing current levels of access and local quality was US $92 492 million using approach 1 and$73 141 million using approach 2. The economic burden of not providing surgical care to the standards of high-income countries was $95 004 million using approach 1 and$75 666 million using approach 2. The largest share of these costs resulted from premature death (97.7 per cent) and lack of access (97.0 per cent) in contrast to lack of quality. Conclusion For a comparatively non-complex emergency condition such as appendicitis, increasing access to care should be prioritized. Although improving quality of care should not be neglected, increasing provision of care at current standards could reduce societal costs substantially