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Innovation implementation within an organization has always been associated with barriers from all aspects. As a key innovation in the building industry, Building Information Modeling (BIM) has been adopted rapidly in the design and construction process. Facilities management (FM) which contributed far more values than design and construction however did not seems to catch up with this trend. High cost, poor technology and other factors inherent within organizations were mostly mentioned in research papers and industry to be the key obstacles. This paper aimed to explore and identify the key organizational barriers of the implementation process of BIM in FM. Three case studies on large FM organizations in Hong Kong were reported through in-depth interviews. Two FM software providers were also interviewed to have a comprehensive understanding of BIM in FM interfacing technology. Before the data collection process, two theoretical models were built to guide the data collection and analysis process. The first model was based on the information flow during the BIM in FM implementation process whilst the second model was about the required conditions for such process. FM managers from three leading organizations in BIM implementation in Hong Kong were interviewed. Some published documents from the targeted organizations were reviewed to facilitate the research findings. Soft system analysis was adopted to analyze the barriers which impeded the implementation of BIM in FM. A cross case study was also conducted to strengthen the findings from the three case studies. Two overseas software providers with successful BIM in FM experiences were also interviewed. The technology of BIM in FM is found to be ready for importing the construction stage information to FM software packages. The additional functions based on BIM in FM, however, are still not readily available in the market. The fragmentation between the project and facilities management teams was found to be the most significant barriers for BIM implementation. To overcome such barriers, organizations may consider establishing a coordination platform between the project management team and FM team. It could be the most efficient way when the fragmented organizational structure was not possible to be changed in a short time. A company-wide BIM standard would also be useful to help during the coordination process. / published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Master / Master of Philosophy

The institution of property rights, as an important category of constraints or restrictions on human behaviour, provides rules of competition, and delineates the social and legal relationship between a resource owner and the others throughout the world. Forms of ownership rights to resources affect the efficiency of their use. The consensus is that in a real world with significant transactions costs and scarce resources, private property right systems lead to more efficient resource allocation than the others do. Previous studies about economic implications of non-exclusive resources have focused on the problems of resource misallocations. A few studies also worked on the effects that alternate property rights structures have on the prices and variations in prices of non-exclusive resources. However, the economic analysis of property rights attribute of natural resources used as building materials, such as natural sand and wood, is still an unexplored research area. The objective of the whole research is to empirically verify Angello and Donnelley's (1975) property rights thesis, as reinterpreted by Lai (1993a) and Lai and Yu (1995), that the variations in prices of non-exclusive resources are much greater than those under more exclusive ownership; and to identify, alternatively, the factors that might have affected ownership rights, inferred from changes in the variations in prices of the resources. In this thesis, published historical data of natural sand, Total declared costs of new buildings completed, Gross & Usable floor area, Gross value of construction work, and published government data of prices for selected buildings materials, namely Portland cement, sand, hardwood, and plywood, were used. The prices of captured and cultured shrimps, which are collected from super market and street market by the author, were also checked and used. These resources are subject to different degrees of access restrictions and, hence, are good candidates for testing the hypotheses. Basically, the hypotheses formulated in this research are strongly supported. The main findings are that the variations in prices of non-exclusive resources are greater than those of exclusive resources; for the same resource, the price ratios of exclusive resource and non-exclusive resource would fall over time. This is an original contribution to the theory of property rights. The originality of this dissertation lies in its exploration of the economic relationship between property rights ownership and selected building materials, as well as in the application of variances to the research of building materials. This is a novel contribution to research on Hong Kong’s sustainable development as she heavily relies on the real estate market for economic development. / published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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Because of changing patterns of demand and advances in supporting technologies, distance education is a growing market in the higher education sector. Assuring and maintaining its quality is an important issue for those who deliver it. This requires the development of pedagogical design. The knowledge of how student learn is the basis to develop the theories of teaching. However, distance students' learning activities are invisible to the instructors and researchers, particularly those based in a comprehensive learning environment, such as a University. This has caused difficulties in improving pedagogy in distance education. This study aims to contribute new knowledge to deal with this dilemma: it is limited in scope to postgraduate level and the selected educational field is Built Environment studies. To do this requires a deep understanding of what distance education is, what main theories of pedagogy have been developed and applied, and how students learn within a distance learning environment in the selected field. By answering these questions, the key issues of understanding the distance learning experience can be identified, explored and tested. To achieve these objectives, a mixed methods strategy has been designed. The key elements of the distance learning experience are considered, starting with an instrumental case study and continuing with a questionnaire survey. The case study provided in-depth knowledge on how students learn in the distance learning environment. Based on the case study, it was proposed that metacognition is the key to distance learning success, and an understanding of how students use learning strategy is the way to obtain the required knowledge for pedagogical development in this particular educational field. The outcomes of the case study produced a model of the distance learning experience and further research focused on the issue of learning strategies. A questionnaire survey produced 151 valid responses. The findings include both qualitative and quantitative data in regard to what and how learning strategies were developed by the participants. Through cluster analysis of learning strategies, evaluation of the correlations of relevant learning experience, comparing the means of the main factors, and comprehensive analysis, the outcomes of this thesis provide new knowledge of learning strategies for distance education. In addition, based on the discussions around the purpose and effectiveness of learning strategy, student demands for relevant knowledge and the influences of multiple factors, this thesis argues that developed metacognitive capability can, in fact, be a positive advantage of distance learners over their conventional counterparts, provoking a change in perspective on distance learning and recommendations for pedagogical change.

Standing column wells (SCWs) have the potential to deliver much higher rates of heat transfer to geothermal heating and cooling systems in buildings via heat pumps than conventional vertical borehole heat exchange arrays. Its open-end column design with porous casing along the borehole (depending on the formation) encourages the flow of groundwater from the rock’s porous matrix into the well or the opposite way according to the hydraulic gradients. This approach induces a further heat transfer mechanism in addition to the conduction: it is advection. Advection induced by the groundwater movement due to the hydraulic gradient and the action of the well pump causes warmer water (in winter) and cooler (in summer) to be drawn into the well thus increasing heat transfer capacity. This is beneficial for SCWs to offer much higher heat transfer performance than other conventional approaches. The development of a numerical model for clusters of standing column wells is described in this thesis. The model is three-dimensional, dynamic and solves the governing equations using a finite volume discretisation scheme with a fully implicit algorithm. The slower acting field equations are solved using a wider time interval than that used for the faster acting well equations and the two sets of equations are coupled through the field equation source terms. A groundwater bleed feature is incorporated. The model has been validated thermally and hydraulically using existing field data. Two test cases have been applied to reveal the advantages of using SCWs in UK conditions, competing with the conventional closed-loop system of vertical borehole heat exchangers. The results of the applications suggest that SCWs can deliver substantially higher rates of heat transfer than conventional closed-loop borehole heat exchanger arrays, typically up to 250Wm-1, especially when groundwater bleed is operational. The results also confirm that a bleeding operation can offer up to 2.2K improvement (reduction) in the outlet well water temperature in summer and (increase) in the well water temperature in winter. Investigation results on borehole diameter confirm that a larger well borehole diameter would offer improved heat transfer performance in some cases, according to the relative change of the heat transfer coefficient. Analysis of borehole to borehole spacing seems to suggest that 5m is the most effective spacing of the three different spacing choices for this type of application. The results also show that SCW installation in London Clay performs less well than Magnesian Limestone and Old Red Sandstone; the latter two seem to be appropriate formation types to work with this type of application. The advantage of adopting multiple well arrangements (SCW clusters) over the use of single wells has also been confirmed. The important practical consequence of this is that far less geotechnical drilling is needed as the required borehole depth reduces substantially under multiple well arrangements. The results gathered from three different buildings also reveal that the balance between heating and cooling demands appears to have less impact on the mean formation temperature change than the large cooling application, which is beneficial to maintain a steady system performance over a long period of time. The results also suggest that the impact on the rock formation was very dominant in the first few years but it declined towards the end of the 5 year analysis period used in this work. The results from the CO2 emission analysis demonstrate that an annual carbon emission reduction of up to 46% can be achieved by using the geothermal system with SCWs instead of the conventional system consisting of a gas-fired condensing boiler and a conventional aircooled chiller. They also confirm that the balance between heating and cooling demands has a substantial impact on the carbon saving delivered by this technology.

M. Tech. Construction Management / Access to housing and safe accommodation is an integral part of South African government's commitment to poverty relief and the improvement of well being of people. The delivery of low and middle income residential houses has nevertheless not kept up with the growing number of households making up an increasingly impoverished urban housing backlog in South Africa. Beneficiaries are often unhappy about the quality of the structures they have received. The aim of this research study is to assess the factors contributing to poor quality management practices in low-cost housing projects delivery.

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Detta examensarbete behandlar området stålfiberarmerad betongplatta. Istället för att använda en traditionellt armerad betongplatta undersöks möjligheten att använda sig av den alternativa tekniken stålfiberarmerad betong. Stålfiberarmerad betong består av vanlig betong med iblandning av stålfibrer vilket ger den unika egenskaper. Rapporten utgörs av en jämförelse mellan en traditionellt armerad betongplatta gentemot en stålfiberarmerad betongplatta. I jämförelsen används ett referensobjekt som är den nya Konsumbutiken i Sunne där traditionell grundläggning med nätarmering använts. Detta alternativ jämförs med en teoretisk framtagen konstruktionslösning där fiberbetong används. Studien behandlar aspekterna dimensionering, genomförande, tid, ekonomi och arbetsmiljö. Målet med studien är att se vilket grundläggningsalternativ som hade varit mest fördelaktigt. Resultatet som framkommit i denna studie visar att grundläggningsalternativet stålfiberarmerad platta på mark hade varit ett bättre alternativ i det givna fallet. Dimensioneringsmässigt leder den nya lösningen till en slankare konstruktion, enklare genomförande och bättre arbetsmiljö på grund av minskat armeringsarbete. Ekonomiskt blir det stålfiberarmerade alternativet billigare och även tidsbesparande. / This report manages the topic of steel fiber reinforced concrete slab. In this study we examine the possibility to use steel fiber reinforced concrete instead of traditional mesh reinforced concrete for the foundation. Steel fiber reinforced concrete consists of ordinary concrete mixed with steel fibers, which give it unique characteristics. The report is based on a comparison between a traditional mesh reinforced concrete slab and a steel fiber reinforced concrete slab. A reference object has been selected for the study. The reference object is a new supermarket named Konsum in Sunne, Sweden, where traditional mesh reinforced concrete has been used for the foundation. This foundation is compared to a theoretically produced steel fiber reinforced concrete slab. The comparison is based on the following subjects: design, implementation, time, economy and working conditions. The purpose of this report is to determine which alternative is the most advantageous. The result of this study shows that the steel fiber reinforced concrete alternative would have been a better solution for this foundation. The steel fiber reinforced alternative leads to a slimmer construction, easier implementation and better working conditions due to a smaller amount of reinforcing work. Financially, the steel fiber reinforced alternative is cheaper and leads to a shorter construction time.

I arbetet görs en jämförelse mellan platsbyggda- och prefabricerade våtrum. Jämförelsen görs utifrån kriterierna ekonomi, kvalité och miljöpåverkan.