LibGuides: Advanced Reading: Architecture & Construction

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Navarro-Astor, Elena, Marisa Román-Onsalo, and Margarita Infante-Perea. "Women's Career Development in the Construction Industry Across 15 Years: Main Barriers." Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, vol. 15, no. 2, 2017, pp. 199-221. ProQuest Purpose - Through a systematic literature review covering 15 years, this paper aims to identify and annotate the barriers that hinder the career development of women working in the construction industry. Furthermore, it describes publication trends that have contributed to the evolution of the topic. Design/methodology/approach - A systematic literature review of credible sources in different databases has been carried out for the period from 2000 to 2015. By means of thematic analysis, a data set of 60 articles has been analysed. Findings - The topic has been and still is of interest to the research community. Women who work in the construction industry in different countries confront numerous career barriers, the more frequent being the difficulty of balancing work and family, and the lack of professionalism in human resource management.
Zhang, Lei, et al. "Experimental Study on the Impact of Mass Moisture Content on the Evaporative Cooling Effect of Porous Face Brick." Energy Efficiency, vol. 9, no. 2, 2016, pp. 511-523. ProQuest Porous face bricks on the outside of a building wall exhibit evaporative cooling after absorbing water. Thus, these bricks are promising for use as a passive energy-saving building technology. Artificial watering is an effective method to ensure a sufficient water supply for effective evaporative cooling. However, improper watering measures may result in the waste of water resources while failing to achieve the evaporative cooling effect. In this paper, studies were conducted on a composite wall composed of a facing layer and a base layer as follows. (1) The mass moisture content variations in the porous face brick with respect to soaking time were measured, and the feasibility of using this type of face brick as an evaporative cooling carrier was investigated. (2) The relationship between mass moisture content and the evaporation capacity of the porous face brick was determined under stable conditions. A critical mass moisture content for the porous face brick was determined through analysis of the measurement data. (3) A field measurement was performed to verify the feasibility of using the critical mass moisture content as a criterion for watering. The results indicate that the temperature and heat flows at the inner and outer surfaces of the composite wall were reduced significantly. However, when the mass moisture content exceeded the critical mass moisture content, the evaporative cooling capability tended to stabilize with further watering. Therefore, the critical mass moisture content of the porous face brick can be used as a criterion for watering to conserve water while facilitating the evaporative cooling effect.
Adesi, M., D. Owusu-Manu, and E. Badu. "Rethinking Methodology in Project Management Consulting Context." International Journal of Construction Project Management, vol. 7, no. 2, 2015, pp. 79-100. ProQuest In project management consulting practice, methodologies are crucial for successful delivery. Whiles many works exist in literature on research methodology, literature on project management consulting methodology is dearth. An amalgamation of both research methodology and project consulting methodology is scarce in terms of extant literature. The primary aim of this paper was to systematically review existing literature from methodological dimension of research with emphasis on methodologies adopted by world class consulting companies in order to draw inferences, synthesis and analysis to drive the development of consulting methodologies for project management. Methodologically, this study adopted the axiological philosophy by dwelling on induction and inference through systematic review of extant literature on consulting methodology and action research. In this direction, this paper reviewed papers published in peer reviewed journals and works related to methodologies adopted by top consulting firms. The study found that consulting research is the driver for developing a vibrant consulting industry. Theoretically, the hypothesis formulated and the future research identified has the potential of initiating further research works towards methodology development for project management consulting practice. Practically, it can be deduced that methodologies are blueprint for consulting firms and research is the foundation for developing pragmatic consulting methodologies. By implication, this paper provides the understanding of elements required for developing project management consulting methodologies.
de, Andrade R., Ariovaldo Denis Granja, and Doris C.C.K. Kowaltowski. "Cost Reallocation in Social Housing Projects Considering the Desired Values of End-Users." Built Environment Project and Asset Management, vol. 4, no. 4, 2014, pp. 352-367. ProQuest Purpose - Challenges in social housing projects (SHP) in Brazil are mainly related to design and construction quality and cost constraints. Value delivery to end-users must be a goal, however, jointly considered with the restrictions of such developments. In the SHP context, tight cost constraints frequently have a negative impact on delivering value to end-users. The purpose of this paper is to put forward the proposition that value enhancement can be achieved by reallocating costs to better meet the attributes most valued by end-users, without increasing initial project costs.
Pucko, Zoran, Natasa Suman, and Uros Klansek. "Building Information Modeling Based Time and Cost Planning in Construction Projects." Organization, Technology & Management in Construction, vol. 6, no. 1, 2014. ProQuest This paper presents time and cost planning in construction projects using building information modeling (BIM) approach. The BIM technique can be incorporated into the time and cost planning process through several steps. At the beginning, a 3D model of the construction object is developed using an adequate modeling application. After that, the 3D model is imported into suitable BIM construction management software. Thereupon, the project costs are estimated on the basis of quantities of required resources, consumptions, production rates and unit costs. The project activities are then defined and linked to the construction elements of the 3D model as well as updated with allocated resources and costs. The activities with established durations are mutually connected together into a project network plan by taking into account relevant precedence relationships. The project duration is automatically determined from the generated network plan. Finally, the BIM model of the construction object is completed by upgrading the 3D model with defined scheduling and cost data. An application example is presented in the paper to demonstrate the advantages of BIM implementation in architecture, engineering and construction industry.
Zhou, Ao, Kwun-Wah Wong, and Denvid Lau. "Thermal Insulating Concrete Wall Panel Design for Sustainable Built Environment." The Scientific World Journal, 2014. ProQuest Air-conditioning system plays a significant role in providing users a thermally comfortable indoor environment, which is a necessity in modern buildings. In order to save the vast energy consumed by air-conditioning system, the building envelopes in envelope-load dominated buildings should be well designed such that the unwanted heat gain and loss with environment can be minimized. In this paper, a new design of concrete wall panel that enhances thermal insulation of buildings by adding a gypsum layer inside concrete is presented. Experiments have been conducted for monitoring the temperature variation in both proposed sandwich wall panel and conventional concrete wall panel under a heat radiation source. For further understanding the thermal effect of such sandwich wall panel design from building scale, two three-story building models adopting different wall panel designs are constructed for evaluating the temperature distribution of entire buildings using finite element method. Both the experimental and simulation results have shown that the gypsum layer improves the thermal insulation performance by retarding the heat transfer across the building envelopes.