Although a large number of studies on Building Information Modeling (BIM) have been conducted in the past decade, a lack of consensus remains among researchers and practitioners regarding the ...applications of BIM for the development of green buildings, the activity of making buildings in a way that protects the natural environment. As the usefulness of BIM has been widely recognized in the building and construction industry, there is an urgent need to establish an up-to-date synthesis on the nexus between BIM and green buildings. After an in-depth review of hundreds of journal articles published from 1999 to 2016 and 12 widely used types of BIM software, this study provides a holistic understanding and critical reflection on the nexus between BIM and green buildings, which is systematically illustrated by a “Green BIM Triangle” taxonomy. The proposed taxonomy indicates that the nexus between BIM and green buildings needs to be understood based on three dimensions, namely project phases, green attributes and BIM attributes. Following the proposed taxonomy, this paper systematically illustrated 1) the applications of BIM in supporting the design, construction, operation, and retrofitting processes of green buildings; 2) the various functions of BIM for green building analyses such as energy, emissions, and ventilation analysis; 3) the applications of BIM in supporting green building assessments (GBA); and 4) research gaps and future research directions in this area. Through critical review and synthesis of BIM and green buildings based on evidence from both academic research and industrial practices, this paper provides important guidance for building researchers and practitioners to better align BIM development with green building development in the future.
•Reviewed over 400 research articles and 14 software programs on green BIM•Proposed a taxonomy to demonstrate research landscape of green BIM•Summarized the applications of BIM in supporting green building lifecycle process•Discussed key BIM-supported functions for green building performance analysis•Analyzed the use of BIM for green building assessments (GBA)
Robotic technologies for building construction represent a significant departure from conventional construction approaches. The use of robots is likely to bring a host of opportunities that transform ...the way we design and construct buildings. To gain an improved understanding of the trend and trajectory of research on robotics application for on-site building construction, this paper provides a systematic review of 52 articles identified through the PRISMA protocol and meta-analysis. The results show that robotic technologies for on-site construction is a growing application field, where additive manufacturing (AM), automated installation system, automated robotic assembly system, autonomous robotic assembly, and robotic bricklaying seem to be most studied and have a potential to influence the development of robotics research in building construction. While most research discussed single construction activities related to vertical reinforced concrete (RC) elements, masonry walls, steel beams, curtain walls, gypsum boards, and floor tiles, only a few papers proposed an integrated robotized construction site. It is suggested that the building construction industry and research organizations could benefit from the current product and work processes that can be improved by taking some measures through innovative construction materials, improved robotics hardware, and more advanced engineering design to streamline construction workflows to achieve a complete on-site robotic system.
•A systematic review of 52 articles identified through the PRISMA protocol.•Most research focused on single construction activities.•Only a few papers suggested an integrated robotized construction site.•Degree of innovation and difficulty in implementation-linear relationship.•A need to develop an integrated robotic system for on-site building construction.
The significant share of buildings from total energy consumption across the world has been mentioned and emphasized very well by several scholars. In this regard, there have been major developments ...and improvements in the expertise of developing and designing buildings to be adequately energy efficient. However, the recent studies show that there is still a considerable deviation between the intended and actual energy consumption of the completed buildings. Hence, this exploratory study aims to discover the origin of success and failure in achieving energy efficiency in building construction projects with a life cycle perspective and based on viewpoints of key participants in the project and constructed building's operation. To do so, 21 semi-structured interviews were conducted with Finnish project professionals representing client, design/planning experts, contractors and building operation/maintenance experts. Both thematic analysis and content analysis methods were employed for analysing the obtained research data. The findings reveal a set of challenges/barriers and solutions/enablers which account for failure and success of achieving energy-efficient buildings. The obtained results contribute to the existing body of knowledge and practices on achieving energy efficiency in building construction projects.
With the development of bioinspired green solutions for sustainable construction over the past two decades, bio-cementation, which exploits the naturally occurring phenomenon of calcium carbonate ...precipitation in different environments, has drawn a lot of attention in both building construction and soil stabilization. Various types of microorganisms, along with specific enzymes derived from these microorganisms, have been utilized to harness the benefits of bio-cementation. Different application methods for incorporating this mechanism into the production process of the construction material, as well as a variety of experimental techniques for characterizing the outcomes of bio-cementation, have been developed and tested. Despite the fact that the success of bio-cementation as a sustainable method for construction has been demonstrated in a significant body of scientific literature at the laboratory scale, the expansion of this strategy to construction sites and field application remains a pending subject. The issue may be attributed to two primary challenges. Firstly, the complexity of the bio-cementation phenomenon is influenced by a variety of factors. Secondly, the extensive body of scientific literature examines various types of microorganisms under different conditions, leading to a wide range of outcomes. Hence, this study aims to examine the recent advancements in utilizing the most commonly employed microorganism, Sporosarcina pasteurii, to emphasize the significance of influential factors identified in the literature, discuss the findings that have been brought to light, and outline future research directions toward scaling up the process.
This study evaluates simultaneously the symmetries and asymmetries on the classification of barriers to circular economy (CE) adoption in the building construction industry (BCI) of developing and ...developed economies. This is crucial because the vagueness of the impacts of CE barriers in extant studies affects encyclopaedic and specific CE policy formulation. Consequently, feedbacks from 140 CE experts across 39 developing and developed economies were analysed. Fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE) method was deployed to objectively determine the significant impacts of the barriers, whereas the Mann-Whitney U test was applied to identify significant differences in experts' opinions between the two economies. The FSE results indicated that organizational, information technology, and infrastructure and logistics barriers are the most critical to global CE adoption. The Mann-Whitney U test reveals a significant difference in the experts’ perspectives between developing and developed economies on regulatory, information technology, and economic and market barriers. Therefore, they are perceived as specific barriers as they impact CE adoption in BCI differently across the two economies. However, infrastructure and logistics, and organizational barriers are classified as general barriers. The findings of this study underscored the contextuality of barriers to CE adoption in BCI and demonstrated the need for generic and specific policy development. Also, the significance indices of the classification of the barriers using FSE method serve as an allocative function that will help policymakers and stakeholders allocate requisite resources to the most profound barriers towards achieving global systemic circularity and zero construction waste.
•An international survey on barriers to CE implementation in the BCI was conducted.•Symmetries exist on three barriers groups and were labeled general barriers.•Asymmetries exits on other two barriers group and were tagged specific barriers.•The study will guide general and specific policies execution for CE adoption in the BCI.
This open access book offers a comprehensive exploration of the digital innovations that have emerged in recent years for the circular built environment. Each chapter is meticulously crafted to ...ensure that both academic readers and industry practitioners can grasp the inner workings of each digital technology, understand its relevance to the circular built environment, examine real-life implementations, and appreciate the intriguing business models behind them. Our primary objective is to blend scholarly knowledge with practical inspiration by providing real-life case studies for each innovation. The authors, who possess extensive expertise in their respective fields, have contributed chapters dedicated to digital technologies within their areas of specialization. The book is organized into three distinct parts. The first part focuses on data-driven digital technologies and delves into how their capabilities can facilitate the transition to a circular built environment. Essential aspects such as building information modeling (BIM), digital twins, geographical information systems (GIS), scanning technologies, artificial intelligence (AI), data templates, and material passports are explored as vital tools for data collection, integration, and analysis in the context of circular construction. In the second part, various digital technologies for design and fabrication are introduced. Topics covered include computational design algorithms, additive and subtractive manufacturing, robotic manufacturing, and extended reality. These discussions shed light on how these technologies can be leveraged to enhance design and fabrication processes within the circular built environment. Finally, the last part of the book presents emerging digital concepts related to business and governance. It explores the role of deconstruction and reverse logistics, blockchain technology, digital building logbooks, and innovative business models as enablers of circularity inthe built environment. The book concludes with a chapter dedicated to digital transformation and its potential to propel the built environment towards a regenerative future. In addition to the substantive content, the book features forewords and perspectives from esteemed experts, providing valuable economic and creative insights to complement its comprehensive approach.
•Ecological indicators for green building construction are constructed.•Group-frontier technologies and meta-frontier technologies are estimated.•Ecological performance at the regional and national ...levels is compared.•Regional heterogeneities are further discussed in detail.
Building construction is one of the largest final consumers of environmental resources as well as one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gas and other pollution. This paper aims to propose ecological indicators for green building construction by applying a slack-based data envelop analysis approach, in which resource conservation and environmental protection are both incorporated. We conduct an empirical analysis of ecological indicators for green building construction using China's regional panel dataset during 1995–2012, and use the analysis to further discuss the technological gaps across the regions. The findings show that: (i) half of China's provinces have a substantial potential increase of more than 60% in ecological performance for green building construction; (ii) the developed areas perform better than the developing areas; (iii) the 11th five-year plan period is a turning point for China's green building construction and development as the policies for green construction have significant effects.
A growing number of cases have proved the possibility of airborne transmission of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Ensuring an adequate ventilation rate is essential to reduce the risk of ...infection in confined spaces. In this study, we estimated the association between the infection probability and ventilation rates with the Wells-Riley equation, where the quantum generation rate (
q
) by a COVID-19 infector was obtained using a reproductive number-based fitting approach. The estimated
q
value of COVID-19 is 14–48 h
−1
. To ensure an infection probability of less than 1%, a ventilation rate larger than common values (100–350 m
3
/h per infector and 1200–4000 m
3
/h per infector for 0.25 h and 3 h of exposure, respectively) is required. If the infector and susceptible person wear masks, then the ventilation rate ensuring a less than 1% infection probability can be reduced to a quarter respectively, which is easier to achieve by the normal ventilation mode applied in typical scenarios, including offices, classrooms, buses, and aircraft cabins. Strict preventive measures (e.g., wearing masks and preventing asymptomatic infectors from entering public spaces using tests) that have been widely adopted should be effective in reducing the risk of infection in confined spaces.
Prefabricated construction has become increasingly popular over the recent years, given its benefits including higher construction speed, lower cost, and improved quality. To facilitate the ...operations of prefabricated construction, various technologies have in parallel been introduced. However, due to its project-based feature and the involvement of numerous Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), the adoption of information technologies is insufficient and varies between SMEs, thereby hindering the improvement of the efficiency of prefabricated construction. Considering these issues and aiming at realizing lean prefabricated construction, this paper proposes an integrated cloud-based Internet of Things (IoT) platform through exploiting the concept of cloud asset. Its operation model has also been worked out to enable SMEs to adopt IoT technologies economically and flexibly. Besides, to make the platform compatible and scalable on managing diverse physical assets in different companies and scenarios, a unified cloud asset data model is proposed. Furthermore, an IoT service-sharing module is developed to support different levels of service-sharing on the platform. Finally, a real-life prefabricated construction project in Hong Kong and several lab-based LEGO construction models are adopted to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed platform.
•The operation model for SMEs to economically and flexibly use IoT technologies is proposed.•A cloud-based IoT platform is established that could fulfill the diverse requirements among different prefabricated construction projects.•The compatible and scalable cloud asset data model is proposed to represent diverse physical assets.•The IoT service sharing module is developed to share diverse services among users flexibly.•A real-life case study is conducted, which shows the platform is effective on improving the leanness of prefabricated construction.
Many building projects do not meet owners' performance expectations. Integrated project delivery (IPD) has emerged as a new delivery system with the potential to provide better performance through ...more supply chain integration. However, there is a knowledge gap surrounding how project delivery systems, IPD in particular, affect supply chain relationships and potential project performance. To fill this gap, we applied a simulation method, General Performance Model (GPM), to assess the interactions between numerous project delivery variables and compare potential performance between delivery systems. This study presents a GPM analysis of a complex hospital project and based upon cross-impact assessments by owners, architects, constructors, and specialty contractors from the building industry. The results found the most influential drivers of project delivery performance to be communication, alignment of interest and objectives, team working, trust, and gain/pain sharing. The performance of the supply chain was found to drive the project delivery performance.
•The performance of the supply chain was found to drive the project delivery performance.•The owner’s strategy decisions impact the management of the supply chain relationships.•IPD has emerged as a new system with the potential to provide better performance through more supply chain integration.
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