Architecture, Building and Planning - Research Publications

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    Usefulness of data analytics in Smart Villages development
    Doloi, H ; Doloi, H ; Bora, A (Smart Villages Lab, The University of Melbounre, 2022-12-20)
    With over 40% global population still live in rural with many under extreme poor conditions, effective management of resources for supporting the development is crucial. One of the key considerations in effective management is need-based and context specific intervention planning incorporating bottom-up information flow. Traditional top-down approaches in planning and development are considered not only wasteful but also irrelevant for transforming rural communities keeping the value, culture, heritage at the core of the development cycle. In the bottom up planning, empirical data at the grassroots level activities play a pivotal role. In this research, significance of the data-driven planning coupled with the strong data-analytics is demonstrated as one of the most critical elements supporting the planning and development of rural communities under the auspice of Smart Villages. Based on a case study conducted across 37 villages in the river island Majuli in Assam located in the north eastern part of India, the research highlights the functionalities and efficacies of a Smart Data Platform used for evaluating real-time data analytics and supporting context specific planning and development of a large area comprising 2300 plus households. The concept is further highlighted to signify the need for central data-centric Research and Development center for supporting policy making within the public governance.
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    Barbara van den Broek. Contributions to the Disciplines of Landscape Architecture, Town Planning and Architecture
    Saniga, A ; Wilson, A ; Kroll, D ; Curry, J ; Nolan, M (SAHANZ, 2022)
    Barbara van den Broek (1932-2001) trained as an architect in Auckland, New Zealand before moving to Brisbane with her husband and fellow architect Joop, where they established an architectural practice. van den Broek went on to run an office as a sole practitioner and took on architecture and landscape architecture projects. Over the course of her career she completed post-graduate diplomas in Town and Country Planning, Landscape Architecture and Education, and a Master of Science – Environmental Studies, and collaborated on a number of key projects in Queensland and Papua New Guinea (PNG). Our paper will build an account of her career. In assessing the significance of her contribution to landscape architecture, planning and architecture in Australasia, it will bring a number of other spheres into the frame: conservation and Australia’s environment movement; landscape design and the bush garden; and van den Broek’s personal development that included artistic expression, single parenthood, teaching, and the navigation of male-dominated professional environments to develop a practice that contributed to town planning projects in cities across Australia, and made significant contributions to landscape projects in Queensland and PNG.
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    Reducing rework to enhance the sustainability of building projects
    Vaz-Serra, P ; Hui, KP ; Mendis, P ; Aye, L ; Dissanayake, R ; Gajanayake, P (Graduate Associate Professionals, 2022-12-16)
    One of the definitions of rework is reported to be ‘the unnecessary effort of re-doing a process or activity that was incorrectly implemented the first time’. Construction rework contributes to time and cost overruns in building projects. The costs of rework in building projects can be calculated using different ways looking at construction contract value or based only in construction direct costs, excluding items like profits, overheads, and other management costs. This research looked at a Total Field Rework Factor (TFRF) indicator based on direct costs suggested Construction Industry Institute (CII). Looking at 437 different projects, the value of TFRF was 7.4% in average, with a maximum of 17.5% in nine Design and Construct projects. Minimising rework is a part of the quality management process, and every sustainable building project must consider it. This article aims to identify new management process to help reducing building construction rework making a contribution to improve the sustainability of the project. We reviewed and analysed the applicability and implication of Knowledge Management techniques and Lean principles specific to building construction projects. We also discuss the potential interventions in the building construction industry and practical implementations to enhance the sustainability of the buildings.
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    Designing for Extreme Weather impacts on Buildings
    Jensen, C ; Petruzzi, R (The Architectural Science Association (ANZAScA), 2022)
    In line with climate projections, extreme weather events have increased in Australian cities both in number and severity. Such events include heavy rainfall along the east coast, cyclone events along the north-west coastline and in far north Queensland, bushfires in the southeast and heatwaves across the continent. Current scientific modelling provides medium to high confidence that the effects of climate change will exacerbate these events even further. Much of the impact of these events is on private dwellings, in many cases in coastal, rural, or remote regions. Contemporary residential built environmental sustainability design in Australia commonly employs mitigation strategies seeking to reduce the potential impacts of long-term climate change, with regular reference to predictions of increased temperatures and sea level rise. However, extreme weather events are occurring now, and regulations and voluntary rating tools should be proactively addressing these critical issues. Despite extensive work on preparedness for extreme weather by researchers and Governments, practical design guidance is minimal with adaptation strategies relying on generic regulations and standards creating challenges for providing appropriate, cost-effective solutions specific to each different project location. This research reviews the regulatory and voluntary mechanisms currently in place in Australia that address extreme weather and highlights the gaps in design guidance and site-specific adaptation strategies to reduce impact of extreme weather on Australian houses.
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    Digitization of Construction Claim Management: The Case of Additional Cost Claims
    Ali, B ; Aibinu, A ; Paton-Cole, V (Deakin University, 2021)
    Claims management is recognized as a complex phenomenon that often leads to disputes between contracting parties. A contractor can claim for many reasons including additional cost. Additional cost claims allow the contractor to recover cost occurred due to several reasons such as delays and/or disruptions, variations and escalations, which evidently result from events beyond the conditions of contract and control of contractors. However, the submission and evaluation of such claims is a challenging task for construction stakeholders because of the existing issues in the management of these claims using traditional approaches. Hence, there is a need realized by industry practitioners for shifting the traditional claim management process of these claims to a digital environment. This need can be fulfilled by a forthcoming Information and Communications Technology (ICT) platform such as Building Information Modeling (BIM). Therefore, in this research effort has been made to utilize BIM for effective management of claims for an additional cost that frequently occur in construction projects. To start with, issues in traditional claims management process of construction cost claims are identified, which is followed by development of a framework for a new system named as BIM - Based Cost Claims Management System (B-CCMS). Grounded on the Application Programming Interface (API) provided by one of the BIM software (Autodesk Revit), a plugin named B-CCMS is proposed for working of the developed system. The proposed system is expected to solve the identified issues in the management of additional cost claims, especially those related to documentation, time, resources, cost, presentation and impact. This will result in quick and transparent settlement of additional cost claims making it less prone to disputes between contracting parties.
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    Incentivization of Sustainable Waste Management Solutions for Commercial Construction in Australia
    Lans, PVD ; Jensen, C ; Oraee, M ; Perera, S ; Hardie, M (Western Sydney University, 2022)
    The construction industry has one of the highest waste intensities in Australia. While currently there are barriers to the implementation of sustainable waste management (WM) practices, there is a lack of viable solutions to overcome these barriers. This research aims at examining the main barriers and issues to the implementation of sustainable WM in the Australian commercial construction industry with a focus on incentivization as a possible solution. To this end, a qualitative approach through interviewing experts in the field is adopted to explore new ideas around possible solutions to the issue. Thus, 13 online semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts in the Australian construction industry and the findings show that participants are willing to use more sustainable WM practices, however, the barriers are too substantial. The findings also indicate solutions such as influencing WM practices by stakeholders (client, government, and industry regulators) through financial incentives, mandating measurable and relevant KPIs, amending existing legislations, implementing stewardship programs, conducting audits on waste contractors to improve the waste reporting reliability, and creating separate waste streams to foster a Circular Economy. This study benefits researchers and practitioners by shifting their focus more towards solutions around the incentivization of head contractors (HC) towards sustainable WM practices.
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    The Embodied Energy Assessment of Various Building Assemblies in Residential Building Construction
    Rauf, A ; Attoye, D ; Crawford, R ; Ahmed, S ; Azhar, S ; Saul, A ; Mahaffy, K (CITC Global, 2022)
    Energy consumption in the construction and building industry is associated with significant depletion of natural resources, release of greenhouse gases emissions and related environmental impacts worldwide. An understanding of the direct and indirect, operational, and embodied, as well as life cycle consumption patterns due to building architecture plays a major role in reducing the negative impact of buildings. A review of existing literature shows that there is much less research on the impact of embodied energy and there is a need to provide a clear basis to substantiate its veracity. Previous studies on embodied energy have mainly focused on the overall embodied energy of different building types. However, there is limited focus on the embodied energy associated with various assemblies in a building. In efforts to reduce the embodied energy of buildings, it is important to understand the energy associated with various assemblies in a building. Therefore, this research was conducted to investigate the life cycle embodied energy (LCEE) consumed by various building assemblies in a residential building to provide relatable data for professionals. The findings indicate two levels of interest; firstly, life cycle embodied energy of the case study was found to be 13096.47 GJ with the initial embodied energy being 7390.5 GJ (56%) and the recurrent embodied energy was 5690.01 GJ (43%). Secondly, the study presents the embodied energy impacts of various building assemblies and revealed that while the wall assembly was highest, responsible for 25% of the LCEE, the floors contributed 18% and the roof, 6%. The study reveals the significance of embodied energy consciousness in envelope design, as well as the design and specification of building assemblies.
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    Physical environment as a factor in schools’ performance and efficiency: A review of previous research
    Vaz-Serra, P ; Dangol, N ; Dharmapuri Tirumala, R ; Tiwari, P ; Izadpanahi, P ; Glusac, T (Architectural Science Association (ANZAScA), 2022-12-02)
    The physical environment can considerably influence the efficiency and functionalities of facilities and spaces. Some recent studies examining schools’ efficiency consider several factors such as human capital, parents' socioeconomic background, perceptions of teachers and parents towards schools, and financial status. However, very few studies have investigated the influences of schools' physical environment and facilities on their efficiency and students’ academic performance. This research aims to review the recent studies on factors influencing schools’ efficiency and student academic performance, and the importance accorded to physical environment. The research database, Scopus, is searched using combinations of relevant keywords and various studies that identify the influencing factors. A preliminary analysis of most of these studies indicates that the physical environment's influence on school performance appears peripheral. However, it was identified that physical environment, facilities, and services influence students’ academic performance directly and indirectly. One of the limitations highlighted was that many of the studies, which include the physical environment factors in examining schools’ efficiency, were based on a single country. The studies were mainly focused on the USA, and only a handful was based on Australia and the rest of the world. This paper identifies the need for more such studies that can contribute to bridging the knowledge on the efficiency drivers of the schools. A better understanding of the drivers for better school performance is needed to lead to an efficient allocation of funding, particularly for public schools in Australia.
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    Trends in residential sustainability measures in the state of Victoria
    Crawford, R ; Paton-Cole, V ; Turnbull, R ; Fitzgerald, E ; Michalewicz, A ; Garber, J (IOP Publishing Ltd, 2022)
    Buildings require a significant quantity of energy and water during their operation. Solar water heaters and rainwater tanks have become increasingly common to reduce the demand for fossil-fuel based energy and mains water within buildings. Since 2006, the Victorian Building Authority has required either a rainwater tank or solar water heater to be installed in any new house built in Victoria, Australia. This research analyses the trend in adoption of these two systems using data from building permits issued from 2006 to 2019. This shows that despite an initial preference for rainwater tanks, solar water heaters have been the preferred choice. This preference was found to be greatest for projects costing from $200k-$600k and for allotment areas smaller than 500 m2. Preference for rainwater tanks tended to increase in line with an increase in project cost and allotment area, and this preference was found to be most common in metropolitan areas. This study provides insight into the opportunities for further adoption of solar water heaters and rainwater tanks, including using information at the LGA level to develop specific business opportunities or to inform policy, such as alternative water efficiency solutions for households where allotment area may limit rainwater tank adoption.
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    Trends in Residential Building Materials in the State of Victoria
    Paton-Cole, V ; Crawford, R ; Turnbull, R ; Fitzgerald, E ; Michalewicz, A ; Garber, J (IOP Publishing Ltd, 2022)
    As the population in Victoria continues to grow, there has been a corresponding increase in building approvals across the State. Houses characterised as low-rise residential buildings often take the largest share of these approvals, with incessant residential building activities being driven by record low interest rates. Low-rise residential buildings comprise various building forms that use a number of specified construction materials to construct the building envelope and other structural and non-structural elements. As materials used for constructing residential building envelopes continue to evolve, these materials must be fit for purpose, and satisfy design criteria and performance requirements, while being aesthetically pleasing. This research analyses the trend in construction materials used in building envelopes of low-rise residential buildings using data from building permits issued between 1996 to 2019. The trend analysis shows that traditional double brick wall systems and suspended timber floors have reduced in popularity for houses built in the 21st century. The analysis also shows that brick veneer wall cladding systems built over slab-on-ground footings is the dominant construction form while the roof cladding material is influenced by geographical location. Insights from the data analysis indicate very little innovation has emerged in materials for residential building envelopes despite its crucial role in providing thermal comfort for inhabitants. Results from this research will serve as a basis to provide quantitative assessment of the trend in materials resource; provide insights about the impact of new building envelope products on existing industries; and perspectives on materials for future building envelopes.