A preliminary design of janazah washing area: upholding human dignity in the last rite-diversity among different

This paper will discuss on literatures and the problems that occur to Muslim community that are dealing with the activity of washing a janazah. The objectives of this study are to perform the final religious obligation of burial, which includes washing the body, shrouding, and performing janazah prayers for a deceased Muslim and to create awareness of the Muslim community and other believers towards the importance of the duty towards a deceased Muslim and respect towards the deceased. Last but not least to upholding human dignity in the last rite and diversity among different believers. This research has been written based on library search, internet retrieval, questionnaires in order to get the information regarding to the activity. Analyses of interviews are also conducted to help in organising the research. As a result it is to conclude that by implementing a new design of wash area, it would help increase the awareness towards a deceased Muslim and respect towards the deceased in the modern Islamic community

Architectural building safety and health performance model for stratified low-cost housing: education and management tool for building managers

The safety and health performances aspects of a building are the most challenging aspect of facility management. It requires a deep understanding by the building managers on the factors that contribute to health and safety performances. This study attempted to develop an explanatory architectural safety performance model for stratified low-cost housing in Malaysia. The proposed Building Safety and Health Performance (BSHP) model was tested empirically through a survey on 308 construction practitioners using partial least squares (PLS) and structural equation modelling (SEM) tool. Statistical analysis results supports the conclusion that architecture, building services, external environment, management approaches and maintenance management have positive influence on safety and health performance of stratified low-cost housing in Malaysia. The findings provide valuable insights for construction industry to introduce BSHP model in the future where the model could be used as a guideline for training purposes of managers and better planning and implementation of building management

Maintenance management process model for school buildings: an application of IDEF0 modelling methodology

The lack of a clear understanding of the maintenance management process is one of the major sources of difficulties in the maintenance of school buildings. A clearer understanding of the maintenance management process can be achieved by constructing a process model of the existing practices using a suitable process modelling technique. The purpose of this study was to develop a process model for the management of maintenance of school buildings using the IDEF0 structured modelling technique. The modelling process is divided into three phases, (i) the information gathering phase, (ii) the model development phase and (ii) the experts' evaluation and validation phase. In the first phase, information on existing maintenance practices was obtained through questionnaires and document analysis of policies, standing orders and maintenance reports. In the second phase, a process model was drafted through an iterative process using the IDEF0 process modelling technique. In the third phase, the draft process model was submitted to three experts on maintenance management from the Ministry of Education Malaysia for evaluation and validation. A ready to implement process model for the maintenance management of school buildings was constructed upon validation by the experts

Model proses generlk pengurusan penyelenggaraan bangunan sekolah

Kajian anal isis keperluan penyelenggaraan terhadap 58 buah sekolah menengah kebangsaan melalui soal selidik dan temu bual menunjukkan 19.7% hingga 47.5% sekolah l11el11punyai komponen bangunan dalam keadaan tidak I11cmuaskan yang berpunca daripada amalan pengumsan penyelenggaraan yang reaktif dan tidak terancang. Faktor utama yang mendorong amalan tersebut adalah kurang kefahaman tentang proses pengumsan penyelenggaraan bangunan sekolah yang sangat penting dalam merancang program penyelenggaraan yang berkesan. Oleh itu, matlamat kajian ini adalah untuk menghasilkan satu model proses generik bagi membantu memperjelaskan proses pengurusan penyelenggaraan. Model proses pengumsan pcnyelenggaraan bangunan sekolah (Model Proses PPBS) telah dibangunkan dengan menggunakan sistem pemodelan integration Definition for Function lHode//ing (IDEFo), satu kaedah pemodelan berstruktur yang telah stabiI, terkenal dan mempunyai standard tersendiri. Selaras dengan keperluan kaedah pcmodelan 1DEFo ini, Model Proses PPBS telah dibangunkan melalui proses berulang, bermula dengan model kerja; diikuti dengan model draf yang dikemukakan untuk dinilai oleh tiga pakar pengurusan penyelenggaraan bangunan sekolah Kemcnterian Pendidikan Malaysia; model cadangan yang ll1engandungi maklumbalas pakar dan model terbitan iaitu model proses yang telah disahkan oleh pakar yang sall1a. Pemodelan proses yang dilakukan telah ll1enghasilkan sa111 model generik pengurusan penyelenggaraan bangunan sekolah yang mempcrjclaskan hubungkait antara item-item spesifik bagi em pat elemen utama pengurusan penyelenggaraan iaitu elemen input, mekanisma, kawalan dan output. Pemodelan proses ini juga telah ll1engambilkira keperluan penambahbaikan proses, yang dicapai melalui penilaian dan pemurnian skop tanggungjawab gum besar dan gum kanan berhubung pengurusan penyelenggaraan. HasiI ujian kebolehgunaan terhadap Model Proses prBS ke atas 6 I buah sekolah ll1enengah kebangsaan melalui soalselidik ll1enyokong ll1atlamat pembentukan Model Proses PPBS di mana (i) Model Proses PPBS membantu dalam memperjelaskan proses pengurusan penyelenggaraan bangunan sekolah dan (ii) ianya berpotensi membantu ke arah mengubah amalan semasa yang lebih bersifat reaktif kepada amalan yang lebih proaktif dan terancang pada masa akan datang. Sebagai kesimpulan, Model Proses PPBS beljaya mempcljelaskan proses pengumsan penyelenggaraan bangunan sekolah yang menyokong amalan pengumsan penyelenggaraan bangunan sekolah yang lebih berkesan di masa akan datang

the development of a newly designed building performance survey framework for energy efficient building: a review

There exists a well-known gap between occupants and building’s energy-efficient designs. A comprehensive building performance diagnostic technique, Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) may surpass the current evaluation method and reduce the gap between occupants and building’s energy-efficient design. For these reasons, the aim of this research is to develop a framework for the identification of problems in respect to energy-efficient design which affecting occupants’ comfort. The objectives of this research are to determine the energy-efficient building in Malaysia, to identify the effects of energy-efficient design problems towards occupants’ comfort, and to propose a holistic occupant survey framework for the rating of energy�efficient design problems which affecting the occupants’ comfort. This research will be conducted in energy-efficient buildings in Malaysia. A new building performance survey framework will be constructed and tested on the selected energy-efficient building. The tested result will be analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) in order to determine its reliability and validity. The research outcome shall contribute to the development of energy-efficient building through the identification of inefficient performance of the current building. Thus the newly designed building performance survey framework will be able to improve the occupants’ comfort of energy-efficient building in the future

An overview of precast concrete system for building maintenance: Malaysian perspective

Precast Concrete System which is mass produced either in factory or at site factory is widely used as building components. The components are usually designed according to the specified standard shapes and dimensions. The components will then be transported to the construction site to be placed according to the building design requirements. Previous studies indicate that without proper planning at the design, manufacturing and construction stages of the precast system, the use of precast concrete system often leads to building maintenance issues. This paper will discuss the factors that will lead to maintenance issues for building using precast concrete system. These factors will be those that need to be considered at the design, manufacturing and construction stage for the precast concrete system. Lastly, recommendations are proposed to be used by designers, contractors, manufacturers and researchers who are involved in precast concrete system

Post occupancy evaluation of energy-efficient buildings in Tropical climates – Malaysia

There exists a well-known gap between occupants and building’s energy-efficient designs. A comprehensive building performance diagnostic technique, Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) may surpass the current evaluation method by reducing the gap between occupants and building’s energy-efficient design. Due to these reasons, the aim of this research is to identify the problems with respect to energy-efficient design which affect occupants’ comfort. This research focuses on the application of energy-efficient design in office building and was conducted on energy-efficient buildings in Malaysia. A building performance survey framework, Energy-efficient Building Environmental Quality Questionnaire (EBEQ2), was used to identify the problems affecting occupants’ comfort and buildings’ Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ). The result was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). The research outcome shows that majority of occupants are not satisfied with the thermal comfort and lighting condition of the buildings. Building certified with sustainable building rating tools does not guarantee better IEQ performance. Thus continuous research is needed to ensure energy-efficient building concept is applied effectively in each type of building

An investigation on benefits and future expectation of Industrialised Building System (IBS) implementation in construction practices

Industrialised Building System (IBS) is well known in many developing countries due to the benefits that can be derived from its applications in construction projects. However, the low percentage of IBS usage may be due to lack of awareness and knowledge about IBS among many professionals. There may be factors that contribute to a lack of interest from the client towards IBS. The aim of this study is to improve the application of IBS particularly in private construction projects in Malaysia by determining the benefits and expectation on application of IBS in private construction projects. This study adopts a quantitative method using questionnaires that were sent to 35 construction firms as a sampling frame. Finally, the finding of this study hopefully could assist professional parties in construction industry in providing a better ground knowledge for improving decisions making to achieve the success of IBS construction projects implementation and also this study will achieved the project objectives in terms of predetermined objectives that are mostly within the time, specified budget and standard qualit

CO2 Emissions Forecast in Precast Concrete Production

With increasing demands regarding a detailed estimation of environmental impacts of materials in new construction projects, this research was intended to produce a forecasting model of CO2 emissions in precast concrete production using Artificial Neural Network (ANN). Due to its capability to correlate non-linear and non-unique problem, ANN has received increasing attention for forecasting applications in recent years. Prior to the model development, a set of questionnaire was distributed to several precast concrete plants all around Japan to obtain data regarding indicators which are generally influential to CO2 emissions in the production. From 107 plants, the result of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) showed that ordinary Portland cement, coarse aggregate, fine aggregate, heavy oil, kerosene, and electricity were considered to be significant indicators and further used as inputs in developing the CO2 emissions model. A three-layer perceptron with backpropagation neural network approach was proposed to train the network. The different number of hidden neurons, distribution of data sets, learning rate, and momentum were tested to minimize the error between actual and forecasted outputs. The model with 51 hidden neurons using a set of 0.1, 0.9 and 0.3 for learning rate, momentum and initial weight, respectively produced the best result. Indicated by the MAPE value which is less than 10%, this newly developed model shows an excellent accuracy for forecasting the CO2 emissions in the future. It was also validated by the result of sensitivity analysis that the developed model generated a negligible impact on the CO2 emissions due to variations of the six significant indicators

Important criteria for measuring heritage building condition

The excellence condition of a heritage building lies not only in the appearance of its individual elements, but also in the integrity of all its components, considered as unique criteria of the specific construction technology of its time and place. However, these criteria are varied and not specific. Therefore, this study aimed to identify and rank the important criteria for measuring the condition of heritage buildings in Malaysia. Data obtained through questionnaire and analyzed using Average Index (AI) in order to establish the important criteria. Samples were selected from a panel of experts in the field of heritage buildings management including industry players and academicians. The established criteria will be used as components to develop a new method of heritage building condition determination model in Malaysia