The construction industry is in a point of transition. With the continued onset of global urban expansion and renewal, construction sites where space is a finite, vital resource requiring effective management, are now the norm within the industry. In order to effectively manage this limited space and the key resources within, it is essential to identify the issues and the strategies, to be adopted. The objective of this research and thesis is to identify, clarify and tabulate the various personnel, plant and material management factors and their resulting effects on confined site construction. This is achieved by means of interviews, case studies, focus group analysis, linked to an industry survey. Through the use of cognitive mapping, means testing, regression modelling, factor analysis, system dynamics and structural equation modelling of the collaborated data, the personnel, plant and material knowledge areas are highlighted along with their associated attributes. Results show that the top three personnel management issues and strategies are "Adverse Health & Safety Environment", "Restricted Space Hinders Productivity", "Challenging Surrounding Environment" and "Effective Communication & Coordination, "Implement Health & Safety Protocol", "Early Contractor Involvement" respectively. Contrary to this, research has documented that the top three critical factors in the management of plant and materials, both with respect to issues and strategi.es are; "Safely Store Plant & Materials", "Contractor Spatial Conflict", "Increased Management Facilitation" and "Efficient Delivery Requirements", "Implement Site Safety Management Plans" "Effective Stakeholder Communication" respectively. Finally, the top three strategies in the management of the external environment are; "Regular External Stakeholder Communication", "Reduce Infrastructure Congestion" and "Reduce Visual/Functional Impact". It is highlighted that through effective management of the identified principle knowledge areas identified coupled with implementing the various strategies highlighted; successful management of a confined construction site can be achieved.

This research has investigated the management of the concept and schematic design stages with particular reference to brief development, the exchange of design and cost information between the client and designers, and the impact of early design decisions on construction. A critical review of current practice by both literature review and case study revealed that early stage design often failed to meet the expectation of clients leading to frequent redesign and inaccurate cost advice. Poor communication of information between all parties was primarily to blame. This led to the research combining the three elements, design, cost, and risk and developing a Scheme Design Process Model (SDPM) based on ADePT principles to provide designers for the first time the opportunity to: • Accurately and systematically, plan ahead for the work required during the scheme design stage. • Identify conflicts that lead to iterative problems. • Mitigate iterative problems by identifying and recording the design risks source. • Qualify the accuracy of the cost advice based on the progress of the design. • Ensure closer cross-disciplinary cooperation. • Reduce overall project timescale. The research identified that a generic programme of work can now be produced that includes all major elements for the multi-disciplinary design team. The research provides a contribution to the design-modelling database by introducing and demonstrating flexibility between design stages. In addition to the SDPM the research has also addressed accountability within the decision making process by demonstrating QFD techniques that can be applied at various stages of early design.

The aim of this doctoral research project is to investigate the link between the construction quality of retrofitted external wall insulation (EWI) and the resulting impact on energy performance of existing dwellings in Swansea. Four contributions to knowledge are documented. The first is a methodology for simultaneously obtaining empirical data about the construction quality and energy performance of dwellings receiving retrofitted EWI. The findings demonstrate the value of assessing the construction quality of retrofitted EWI alongside energy performance. The appraisal of energy performance alone could have indicated misleading results due to the omission to identify latent factors, such as thermal bridging, which were identified whilst assessing the construction quality of the retrofitted EWI. The second contribution is a methodology for assessing the construction quality of retrofitted EWI, which can be used as part of the quality control process for future installations. Through the collection and analysis of triangulated field observations of photographs, as-built technical details and qualitative external thermographic surveys, the findings indicate that this methodology provides robust results for assessing the design and execution of retrofitted EWI. The third contribution is baseline energy performance data for traditional dwellings in south west Wales. The data documenting these results are set out for each case study dwelling, which includes energy consumption and carbon emissions, together with the dwelling type, tenure and number of occupants. The fourth and final contribution is a EWI retrofit case study of traditional dwellings in south west Wales. This is the culmination of the entire doctoral research project, which as a whole does not currently exist in the literature. Collectively, all the individual case studies make up the overall case study documenting the construction quality and energy performance of traditional dwellings in Swansea, which have received retrofitted EWI through phase one of the Welsh Government’s Arbed scheme.

No description available.

No description available.

The construction industry is very much fragmented and the concept of interoperability and integrated model based engineering is now becoming an industrial need, to address the difficulties of information exchange at all stages and between all parties involved in the construction life cycle. The lAI's IFC (common building information model standard) is now maturing in supporting the various phases of the construction life cycle. In addition, the industry is beginning to use geographic information systems (GISs) in various stages of the construction life cycle. Geospatial representations of building information models can be required when working with geographic information systems in the construction life cycle. On the other hand, geographic information systems are commonly used information systems to plan and manage the urban built environment. Some urban management tasks such as disaster management, delivery of goods and services, detailed cityscape visualisation require a high amount of geometrical and non-geometrical information about buildings. In fact, the lack of integration between Building Information Models and the Geospatial Information Domain, creates a technological barrier to, automation of some industrial processes in construction life cycle and urban management domains. In order to find a solution to this integration problem, this study aimed to assess the applicability and benefits of an implementation of a building information model in geospatial context. In light of the aim, the research assesses how a technological innovation (an implementation of a building information model in a geospatial context) can improve the process in related areas of the construction life cycle and urban management domains. The research started with a background literature review that is concerned with the trends and visions of construction information technology, in order to determine the main research directions. Major industrial trends and visions of, computer integrated construction were investigated and, building and geospatial information modelling are selected as two main research directions. The next phase of the background study aimed to investigate the building information modelling knowledge domain. In this context Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data (STEP), STEP based methods for information exchange, file and database implementations of STEP, STEP based building information modelling efforts, the structure of industry standard building information model- Industry Foundation Classes (IFC)-, several industrial projects that implement IFC model are investigated. The final stage of the background study investigated the modelling and management of geospatial information. This stage of the research started with investigating the role of geospatial information in construction and urban management knowledge domains. The research continued with investigating the geospatial data modelling efforts in two and three dimensions, and also looked at the use of three dimensional geospatial

by Thomas J. Allen and Alan R. Fusfeld. / Leaf number 17 omitted in paging. The research reported in this paper was supported by grants from the Office of Science Information Service, National Science Foundation and the General Electric Foundation. / Bibliography: leaf [40-41].

Στην παρούσα μελέτη περίπτωσης ερευνήσαμε τους τρόπους με τους οποίους οι εκπαιδευόμενοι του παραρτήματος του Σχολείου Δεύτερης Ευκαιρίας Πάτρας (2012 – 2013), το οποίο λειτουργεί στο Κατάστημα Κράτησης Πάτρας, συμμετέχουν στη διαμόρφωση της γνώσης, που έχουν τη δυνατότητα να συγκροτήσουν, αλλά και τους παράγοντες που οριοθετούν αυτή τη διαδικασία, και κατ' επέκταση το περιεχόμενο αυτής της γνώσης. Επιπλέον, κρίναμε σκόπιμη και τη διερεύνηση της επίδρασης της λειτουργίας του παραρτήματος του Σχολείου Δεύτερης Ευκαιρίας Πάτρας (2012 – 2013) στο πειθαρχικό έργο του Καταστήματος Κράτησης Πάτρας. Για την επίτευξη του ερευνητικού μας σκοπού, πραγματοποιήσαμε 15 ημιδομημένες συνεντεύξεις με τους εκπαιδευόμενους, που φοιτούσαν στο συγκεκριμένο ΣΔΕ την περίοδο διεξαγωγής της έρευνας, την προϊσταμένη του ΣΔΕ και την υπεύθυνη του Καταστήματος Κράτησης για την εκπαίδευση των κρατουμένων. Στο περιεχόμενο των συνεντεύξεων πραγματοποιήθηκε ποιοτική ανάλυση περιεχομένου. Η ανάλυση έδειξε ότι οι εκπαιδευόμενοι του ΣΔΕ συμμετέχουν στη διαμόρφωση της γνώσης, που έχουν τη δυνατότητα να συγκροτήσουν, μέσα από μία σειρά τρόπων. Ωστόσο, η διαδικασία αυτή φάνηκε να οριοθετείται από ορισμένους περιορισμούς και απαγορεύσεις που επιβάλλονται στους εκπαιδευόμενους, κυρίως από το πλαίσιο της φυλακής. Τέλος, κατά τη λειτουργία του ΣΔΕ, διαπιστώθηκε η εφαρμογή ενός αριθμού πειθαρχικών τεχνικών, οι οποίες επιδρούν θετικά στο πειθαρχικό έργο της φυλακής. / In this present case study we researched the ways in which the students of the department of the Second Chance School of Patras (2012-2013), which operates in the Prison of Patras, participate in the formation of knowledge and have the capability of composing, also the factors which limit this process as well as the content of knowledge. Furthermore, we decided that it was also necessary to research the effects of the operation of the department of the Second Chance School of Patras (2012-2013) on the disciplinary work of the Prison of Patras. To achieve the goal of our research we took 15 semi-structured interviews from the students who attended the Second Chance School at the time the research was conducted, the Head Director of the Second Chance School and the Head Manager of Education of the Prison of Patras. We analyzed the content of the research in detail. The analysis conveyed that the students of Second Chance School took part in the formation of knowledge which they have the capability of obtaining in a variety of ways. However, the procedure seemed to be limited by certain limits and prohibitions which are imposed on the students basically from the framework of the prison. Finally, during the operation of Second Chance School a number of disciplinary techniques were established which had a positive effect on the disciplinary work of the prison.