Building Technology

Off-site, modular construction strategies are gaining market share at an accelerating pace, providing owners with lower cost, faster options for delivering new facilities. The “State-of-the-Art of Modular Construction Symposium” was designed to provide you with a snapshot of the cutting edge of modular building design, component manufacturing, and construction techniques and to help stimulate a dialogue among the stakeholders to the modular process. At the Symposium you could meet owners who envision modular as a solution to the increasing costs of construction and construction managers looking to modular to help address the very serious problem of a rapidly shrinking pool of craftsmen. You also had the opportunity to discuss cutting-edge design and manufacturing approaches, plus technologies such as 3D printing
that can truly transform modular construction to dramatically increase its speed, precision, and quality. As an academic, I could uncover research questions that, when successfully addressed, will provide the information, materials, and manufacturing technologies needed to further improve the modular construction techniques and management processes. Additionally, this meeting was an opportunity to form new relationships among the modular industry, owners, and academia.
We are very happy for all the participation in this noteworthy event and look forward to continuing our discussions after the Symposium.

Understanding the process of domestic retrofit is important for learning and innovation. This is particularly the case for
low carbon retrofits such as those undertaken under the UK’s Retrofit for the Future (RftF) programme, with its aim to
achieve an overall 80% carbon reduction by 2050. Current post-occupancy evaluation (POE) research has both
theoretical and methodological limitations with implications for technical and behavioural research in the built
environment. Drawing on relevant ideas and concepts from social practice theory and science and technology studies,
principally prefiguration (constraints/enablement), black-boxing, heating and cooling practices, this paper
demonstrates how the relationship between buildings and people could be reconceptualized as mutually constitutive
and co-evolving through a process of ‘interactive adaptation’. The concept of ‘interactive adaptation’ is explored
through a novel approach to integrating physical and social data collected from a sample of dwellings selected from
the RftF programme. Analysis yields insights into the influences and pathways of interactive adaptation resulting
from retrofit technology and practices. The implications of these insights for policy-makers, the research community
and practitioners are discussed: end-use energy demand policy needs to be informed by a socio-technical approach.

Türkiye toplumunun cumhuriyetin ilanı ile birlikte aradığı yeni kimlik arayışı mimariye de yansımıştır. Cumhuriyet döneminde Sedad Hakkı Eldem ve Emin Onat'ın önderliğinde gelişen II. Ulusal Mimarlık akımı ile plan tipinde ve yapı elemanlarında standardizasyon, yerli malzeme ve yerli iş gücü kavramları ortaya çıkmıştır. Eldem'in II. Ulusal Mimarlık Akımı'nın ışığında, Geleneksel Türk Evi üzerine sağlamış olduğu edinimin bir yorumu olarak ortaya koyduğu projelerden birisi Zeyrek Sosyal Sigortalar Kurumu kompleksidir. Unkapanı ile Saraçhane'yi birbirine bağlayan cadde üzerinde bulunan Zeyrek SSK binaları, Zeyrek yokuşunun alt kotuna kadar küçülerek alçalan 5 ayrı kütleden oluşmaktadır. Kullanılan standart söve, pencere, cephe kaplaması ve saçaklar yapıya karakteristik özellik katmaktadır. Betonarme karkas sistemle oluşturulmuş bu yapı, belirgin ve standart akslarla oluşturulmuş bir strüktürel sisteme sahiptir. Bina kompleksinin öne çıkan karakteristik özelliklerinden olan çift çıkmalar, döşeme üzerine yerleştirilen prefabrike betonarme söveler ile desteklenmektedir. Böylelikle bu yapı manzumesi, Geleneksel Türk Sivil Mimarisi öğelerinin dönemin inşaat teknikleriyle yeni bir ifadesi olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır. Bu çalışmanın amacı 1964'ten beri ayakta olan Zeyrek SSK kompleksinin strüktürel incelemesini yapmak ve yapısal elemanlarının güncel durumunu tespit etmektir. Bu kapsamda: (i)Yapıyla ilgili çeşitli kaynaklar süperpoze edilerek kısmi olarak tekrar projelendirilmiş ve modellenmiştir. (ii) Yapı elemanlarına ve strüktüre dair olası hasarlar yerinde gözlemlenerek tespit edilmiştir. (iii) Yapının taşıyıcı sisteminin güncel deprem yönetmeliğine uygun olmayan tarafları ortaya konmuştur. Bunların sonucunda elde edilen verilerle konstrüksiyonel sürdürülebilirliğin; doğru detaylandırma, uygun malzeme seçimi ve düzgün işçilik ile sağlanabileceği kanısına varılmıştır.

ABSTRACT After proclamation of republic, New idendity which Turkey's society seeking was also reflected in architecture. During the Republican period, Sedad Hakkı Eldem and Emin Onat leading the II. National Architecture Movement, emerged concepts of standardization, local materials and local labor within plan type and building elements. Zeyrek Social Security Institution Complex is one of the project designed by Eldem under the light of this movement is an interpretation of his repertuar on traditional Turkish houses. Zeyrek SSI Complex, located on the street connecting Unkapanı and Sarachane, is composed by 5 different masses that descend to the lower elevation of the Zeyrek slope. The standard posts, windows, facade cladding and eaves used in the building contribute characteristic features to the structure. This building, which has been constructed with reinforced concrete frame system, has a structural system which is formed with explicit and standard axis. The prominent characteristic features of the building complex are the double protrusions supported by prefabricated reinforced concrete posts placed on the slabs. Thus, this building complex emerges as a new expression of traditional Turkish civil architecture elements built with the construction techniques of the period. The main goal of this study is to conduct a structural analysis of Zeyrek SSI complex which has been standing since 1964 and to determine the current status of its structural elements. In this context: (i) Various references related to the structure were superposed and partially re-drawed and remodelled. (ii) Possible damage to the building elements and the structure were determined by observing them on site. (iii) The parts of the structural system of the building which do not comply with the current earthquake regulations have been revealed. As the result of these data, main factors of the constructional sustainability are correct detailing, proper material selection and smooth workmanship.

Waste in the construction industry has been the subject of several research projects around the world in recent years. Researchers implement different methods to reduce the amount of waste in the construction industry. One of the effective methods for reducing waste is the application of lean approaches. Lean construction is a result of the introduction of a new form of production management. Although lean construction is still evolving, its generic principles, techniques and tools can already be applied. Waste reduction is one of the basic concepts of lean thinking. In general, project managers tend to conceptualize 'waste' as physical construction waste, but lean thinking believes that there are noticeable wastes hidden in construction processes (such as non–value–adding activities and waiting time). We aim at examining the ability of lean construction principles to reduce construction process waste through a case study (reinforcement process). Computer simulation is utilized to reveal the results of lean principles application prior to real implementation. Results show that different kinds of waste in a construction process can be reduced via adopting lean construction principles using computer simulation.

Purpose – Building information modelling (BIM) in facilities management (FM) applications is an emerging area of research based on the theoretical proposition that BIM information, generated and captured during the lifecycle of a facility, can improve its management. Using this proposition as a starting point, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the value of BIM and the challenges affecting its adoption in FM applications.

Design/methodology/approach – Two inter-related research methods are utilised. The literature is utilised to identify the application areas, value and challenges of BIM in FM. Due to the lack of case studies identified in the literature review, and to provide empirical evidence of the value and challenges of BIM in FM, a case study of Northumbria University’s city campus, is used to empirically explore the value and challenges of BIM in FM.

Findings – The results demonstrated that BIM value in FM stems from improvement to current manual processes of information handover; improvement to the accuracy of FM data, improvement to the accessibility of FM data and efficiency increase in work order execution. The main challenges were the lack of methodologies that demonstrate the tangible benefits of BIM in FM, the limited knowledge of implementation requirement including BIM for FM modelling requirements, the interoperability between BIM and FM technologies, the presence of disparate operational systems managing the same building and finally, the shortage of BIM skills in the FM industry.

Originality/value – There is lack of real-life cases on BIM in FM especially for existing assets despite new constructions representing only 1-2 per cent of the total building stock in a typical year. The originality of this paper stems from both adding a real-life case study of BIM in FM and providing empirical evidence of both the value and challenges of BIM in FM applications.

Keywords Information technology, BIM, Information management, Facilities management,
Asset management, Facilities management (premises), Information exchange