This thesis primarily deals with the adaptation of a theory from one context and its application in another context. In this case the "building systems integration theory" which has been introduced in the context of buildings, in the book Building Systems Integration Handbook (Rush, 1986), is adapted to the context of architectural organizations. The hypothesis of this research is that "building system integration principles can be applied to architectural business organizations." Building system integration theory defines four fundamental systems within buildings and five levels of integration ranging from unified to remote. It further defines an abstract two dimensional diagrammatic language that is referred to as a "ball diagram" for portraying the system integration within a building. Using the building system as an analogue to organizational structure, I have redefined the five levels of integration in the vocabulary of an organization and formulated seven systems in an organization on the basis of my literature review. I surveyed five prominent architectural firms in Texas (three Matrix organizations, and two Studio organizations) and discussed their project handling methods with their principals in charge, with the intention of investigating the degree of contact between personnel, their meeting patterns, and the reporting structure. This has helped me to identify the levels of integration between systems in each organization and eventually represent the working process of these firms using the diagrammatic language introduced in BSIH. The resulting diagrams, which primarily represent the production/ delivery segment of the organizations, reveal organizational structures during the project cycle as well as certain characteristics of a Matrix or Studio. Due to the limited scope of the survey done initially, some shortcomings were noticed in the diagramming method including the absence of any representation of the client and the user in the diagrams. Despite certain shortcomings owing to the scale of the investigation, it is felt that the diagramming method portrayed here is a novel yet effective idea to represent organizations and the levels of integration between systems in an organization that contributes to the production of a cohesive organizational design theory.

This thesis primarily deals with the adaptation of a theory from one context and its application in another context. In this case the "building systems integration theory" which has been introduced in the context of buildings, in the book Building Systems Integration Handbook (Rush, 1986), is adapted to the context of architectural organizations. The hypothesis of this research is that "building system integration principles can be applied to architectural business organizations." Building system integration theory defines four fundamental systems within buildings and five levels of integration ranging from unified to remote. It further defines an abstract two dimensional diagrammatic language that is referred to as a "ball diagram" for portraying the system integration within a building. Using the building system as an analogue to organizational structure, I have redefined the five levels of integration in the vocabulary of an organization and formulated seven systems in an organization on the basis of my literature review. I surveyed five prominent architectural firms in Texas (three Matrix organizations, and two Studio organizations) and discussed their project handling methods with their principals in charge, with the intention of investigating the degree of contact between personnel, their meeting patterns, and the reporting structure. This has helped me to identify the levels of integration between systems in each organization and eventually represent the working process of these firms using the diagrammatic language introduced in BSIH. The resulting diagrams, which primarily represent the production/ delivery segment of the organizations, reveal organizational structures during the project cycle as well as certain characteristics of a Matrix or Studio. Due to the limited scope of the survey done initially, some shortcomings were noticed in the diagramming method including the absence of any representation of the client and the user in the diagrams. Despite certain shortcomings owing to the scale of the investigation, it is felt that the diagramming method portrayed here is a novel yet effective idea to represent organizations and the levels of integration between systems in an organization that contributes to the production of a cohesive organizational design theory.

The U.S. Army Medical Department (AMEDD) has used the interstitial building system (IBS) as a design component for some of the hospitals in its healthcare infrastructure portfolio. Department of Defense (DoD) leadership is aware of increases in healthcare costs and understands the importance of safely reducing costs, which may be possible through design initiatives. An analysis was performed on facility maintenance metrics for ten different U.S. Army hospitals, including IBS design and conventional / non-interstitial building system (NIBS) design. Statistical analysis indicated a significant difference in cost and time data between IBS and NIBS for most of the building systems considered (HVAC, electrical, plumbing, and interior). Scheduled maintenance for the plumbing building system was not found to have a significant difference in costs; scheduled maintenance for the HVAC and plumbing building system was not found to have a significant difference in time expended. The data in this study showed that facility maintenance cost and time were generally lower for IBS than NIBS. Time spent (and associated cost) for scheduled maintenance of the electrical and plumbing building systems were slightly higher in IBS, though not significantly higher for plumbing. It may be easier to reach the plumbing and electrical building systems due to the greater accessibility afforded by IBS design. While a cost premium is estimated for integrating IBS design, the savings provided by life cycle facility maintenance is estimated to be up to three and a half times the initial cost premium.

This dissertation studies the viability of one alternative building system as an option to conventional low-income housing. The need for research in this regard has been expressed by various government committees and commissions of inquiry, as well as by the private sector, to be of vital importance in facing the future housing challenge in southern Africa. The study is largely confined to black housing. The search for a form of shelter which combines traditional black low-technology and innovative Wes tern high-technology in a successful marriage, brings the geodesic dome to light. The conclusion reached is that in economic, technical and cultural terms, the dome compares favourably with conventional low-income housing. The social acceptance of the structure is a topic of research beyond the scope of this study.

The project explores the possibilities for more sustainable urban development by studying the impact of construction sites on the living environment and public space. The project is focused on the area of Flemingsberg, which in the coming years will be in an extensive development period with a lot of planned new construction and infrastructure. The transformation is planned to last until at least 2050, and for residents and visitors to the area, this means a major intervention in the living environment. Where cranes, fences and excavated materials define the cityscape. To create a bridge through time, the project proposes built interventions for meeting places and focus on the existing needs in the area.The project thus surveys Flemingsberg in depth while trying to create architectural solutions that can be applied in similar situations where large building areas affect the living environment for a long time. All as part of a more socially sustainable urban development.

The project explores the possibilities for more sustainable urban development by studying the impact of construction sites on the living environment and public space. The project is focused on the area of Flemingsberg, which in the coming years will be in an extensive development period with a lot of planned new construction and infrastructure. The transformation is planned to last until at least 2050, and for residents and visitors to the area, this means a major intervention in the living environment. Where cranes, fences and excavated materials define the cityscape. To create a bridge through time, the project proposes built interventions for meeting places and focus on the existing needs in the area.The project thus surveys Flemingsberg in depth while trying to create architectural solutions that can be applied in similar situations where large building areas affect the living environment for a long time. All as part of a more socially sustainable urban development.

Cold-formed steel structures have been in service for many years and are used as shelters for both domestic and industrial purposes. To produce an economical product, manufacturers have typically based their designs on the simple portal frame concept. As there is almost a direct relationship between overall cost and the weight of steel in a portal frame structure, it is of great importance to provide a structure with the minimum amount of steel whilst providing structural adequacy. Portal frame sheds have been refined continuously for many years, with only minimal amounts of savings in steel. Therefore, to provide even greater savings in steel, an innovative building system is required. Modern Garages Australia (MGA) is one of the leading cold-formed steel shed manufacturers in Queensland. MGA has recently developed such an innovative building system that has significant economic savings when compared with portal frame structures. The MGA building system has two key differences to that of the conventional portal frame system. These differences are that the MGA system has no conventional frames or framing system, and it has no purlins or girts. This results in the MGA system being completely fabricated from thin cladding, which significantly reduces the quantity of steel. However, the key problem with this building system is that the load paths and structural behaviour are unknown, and therefore the structure cannot be analysed using conventional methods. Therefore, the objectives of this research were to first investigate the structural behaviour of this new building system and its adequacy for an ultimate design wind speed of 41 m/s using full scale testing. The next objectives were to use finite element analysis to optimise the original MGA building system so that it is adequate for an ultimate design wind speed of 41 m/s, and to develop a new improved cold-formed steel building system that has greater structural efficiency than the original MGA building system. This thesis presents the details of the innovative MGA building system, full scale test setup, testing program, finite element analysis of the MGA building system and the results. Details and results from the optimisation of the MGA building system, and the development of a new improved cold-formed steel building system are also presented. The full scale experimental investigation considered the required loadings of cross wind, longitudinal wind and live load test cases and simulated them on the test structure accurately using an innovative load simulation system. The wind loads were calculated for a 41 m/s ultimate design wind speed. Full scale test program included both non-destructive and destructive tests. The finite element analyses contained in this thesis have considered cross wind, longitudinal wind and live load cases, as well as the destructive load case of the MGA building system. A number of different model types were created and their results were compared with the experimental results. In general, two main model types were created. The first type consisted of a 'strip' of the MGA building system (Strip model) and the second modelled the full structure (Full model). Both of these model types were further divided into models which contained no contact surfaces and those which contained contact surfaces to simulate the interfaces between the various components such as the brackets and cladding. The experimental test results showed that the MGA test structure is not suitable for an ultimate design wind speed of 41 m/s. This conclusion is a result of a number of observed failures that occurred during the extensive testing program. These failures included local buckling, crushing failures, and distortional buckling of the cladding panels. Extremely large deflections were also observed. It was calculated that for the MGA building system to be adequate for the design wind speed of 41 m/s, a cladding thickness of 0.8 mm was required. This also agreed well with the finite element analysis results which concluded that a cladding thickness of 0.8 mm was required. In order to avoid the increased use of steel in the building system, a new improved cold-formed steel building system was developed and its details are provided in this thesis. A finite element model of this new improved cold-formed steel building system was created and the results showed that the new building system was able to achieve a load step equivalent to an ultimate design wind speed of 50.4 m/s and was approximately 250% stiffer than the original MGA building system, without any increase in the overall weight of the building system. It is recommended that this new improved cold-formed steel building system be further developed with the aid of finite element modelling and be tested using a similar full scale testing program that was used for the original MGA building system.

This report was done on behalf of Uppsala municipality with the aim to investigate how much the CO2-equivalent emissions differ between different building systems during the construction phase, considering the different choice of material used in the frames. Several multi-family houses with different building systems were therefore studied and compared by using previous LCA from collected climate reports regarding each construction project. Different scenarios of the residential development in Uppsala until year 2050, including multi- and single-family houses, were further on brought forward. The impact that the choice of material had on the climate was then studied by comparing the scenarios with the climate goals set up by Uppsala municipality regarding the construction sector. This was discussed in order to investigate whether Uppsala municipality would reach the climate goals or not. The conclusion of the study is that the building systems with wooden frames in general release less CO2-equivalent emissions than the ones with concrete frames. One of the reasons for this is that the production of the materials has different amounts of waste and the fact that concrete consists of cement, which causes a lot of emissions during the production of the material. Another part of the report was to investigate if climate improved concrete could decrease the CO2-equivalent emissions from building systems with concrete frames. This was done by doing a case-study, where parts of the concrete frame for one of the building systems were replaced, which resulted in a small decrease of the emissions. It is however, in a larger perspective, important to reduce the emissions as much as possible and there is still room to continue the improvement of concrete.

Our urban environment is in constant flux, cities are ever-changing ecosystems that expand, contract, evolve & adapt. However, the way that we have been building our environment has seldom reflected that on the building scale. New neighbourhoods emerge, buildings are torn down and new ones replace them, but in the world that we live today where resources are becoming more scarce and global climate change is upon us, it is time to rethink how we design buildings today with the future in mind. My project’s goal is to design a wood construction system & building, with a focus on enabling mobility, adaptability, reuse, easy assemblage & disassemble, while fostering a sense of permanence so the user feels rooted at home.While concrete has allowed us to push the limits of what we can build, I believe that wood construction R & D has gotten far enough to have similar qualities but store carbon at the same time as being a renewable resource if managed & used responsibly. In my project, I used the method of prefabricating & separating each system on its own layer to allow for longevity, easy replacement & flexibility.

Sapa är en av de största tillverkarna i världen av aluminiumprofiler. Sapa Building System AB är ett dotterbolag till Sapa group och är en av de största leverantörerna i Europa på byggsystem. Några av deras produkter är bakdörrarna RD 3010 och RD 3020 för lastbilar, släp och trailers som från början var ämnade som sidodörrar. Som bakdörrar är de överdimensionerade då sidodörrar hade högre hållfasthetskrav. I dagens läge väger och kostar de mer än nödvändigt där av önskar Sapa Building System AB en nyutveckling av bakdörrarna. Målet är att omkonstruera bakdörrarna RD 3010 och RD 3020 så att de blir lättare, smidigare och billigare genom att konstruera en ny kantskoning till Sapa Building System AB:s befintliga aluminiumlämprofiler. Arbetet har resulterat i att ritningsunderlag för nya profiler har tagits fram där man valt att limma ihop dörrarnas delar istället för att nita. Detta kan i sin tur leda till att kostnad, vikt och ledtid reduceras. / Sapa is one of the three largest manufactures of aluminum profiles in the world. Sapa Building System AB is a subsidiary to Sapa group and is one of the largest suppliers of building systems in Europe. Some of their products are the rear doors RD 3010 and RD 3020 for trucks and trailers which were from the beginning meant as side doors. As rear doors they are over dimensioned because side doors have higher requirements. As there are no requirements today they weigh and cost more than necessary. Sapa Building System AB wants a new development of the rear doors. The purpose with this work is to develop new aluminum profiles for the company’s rear doors so that cost, weight and assembly time is lowered. One of the reasons that Sapa Building System AB could offer this thesis was that they considered it may be profitable to have outsiders develop their products, someone that does not have the “sapa-way-thinking” in their mind. A person that has a different perspective and a different angle of approach of the problem and can provide innovative solutions. The goal is to reconstruct the rear doors RD 3010 and RD 3020 so that they will be lighter, easier to handle and cheaper by developing a new frame for the existing aluminum profiles that Sapa Building System AB has today. As a result drawings for new profiles has been made where the doors is assembled with glue instead of using rivets. This may lead to a reduction of price, weight and assembly time.