Editorial

Citation

Lai, J.H.K. (2015), "Editorial", Facilities, Vol. 33 No. 9/10. https://doi.org/10.1108/F-04-2015-0029

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Facilities, Volume 33, Issue 9/10

This issue of the journal covers six articles, with their topics ranging from sustainability and smartness of buildings to design for facilities in and around buildings.

Prepared by Conejos, Langston and Smith, the first article in the sustainability area is based on a study that compares the adaptSTAR model with the adaptive reuse potential (ARP) model – both of which aim to determine adaptive reuse potential of built assets. Under the study, successful adaptive reuse projects were analysed to test a multi-criteria decision-making model for new design projects. It was found that the adaptSTAR and ARP models are positively correlated.

Intended to capture the perspectives of construction professionals into a classified taxonomy of characteristics of smart buildings, Mangano, Arditi and DeMarco conducted a questionnaire survey on the professionals in the USA. Based on 120 responses, the authors analyzed the data collected using the Kruskal-Wallis test and developed a Smartness Index for capturing the level of smartness of a building.

A Swedish case study covering 18 single-occupancy offices, which is reported by Maleetipwan-Mattsson and Laike, aims to determine the optimal office lighting use for achieving energy saving and visual comfort. Besides logging data on occupancy and use of luminaires, a questionnaire was used to solicit occupants’ perceptions of the lighting in their offices. Among the major findings, combining dimming controls with manual on/off controls is effective if occupants generally sit in their offices most of the daytime. Individuals’ behavioural patterns and perceived lighting quality should be considered in selecting lighting controls.

An article on design for outdoor facilities is by Siu and Wong from Hong Kong. Through a review of the relevant literature and documentation, interviews with government officers and different user groups, and field observations in the urban areas, the authors found that the street furniture in Hong Kong is not adaptable to changes, and it can easily cause safety and management problems. Six principles are proposed for flexible street furniture design: custom in use, multifunctional use, effective response to changing circumstances, convenience for management, universality in use and sustainability in use.

A team comprising Rinkoo, Singh, Mishra, Vashishta, Chandra and Singh contributes an article on design for operation theatres. Aimed at measuring staff satisfaction with some furnished Modular Operation Theatres (MOTs), a questionnaire was used to collect data, and three groups of staff, namely, surgeons, anaesthetists and nurses, were sampled. The findings suggest that effectively designed MOT is an initiative that may contribute towards the satisfaction of staff working in OTs, leading to better overall performance of the facilities there.

The final article of this issue is also in the area of facilities design. Written by Rashid, the article is a review of research studies on nursing unit layouts published over a long period – from 1956 to 2014. Grounded on a framework of three primary dimensions – technical, psychological and social, the review shows that many of the previous studies are oriented in either one or a combination of the three dimensions. Issues such as patient and family behaviour and perception, and social and psychosocial factors in relation to unit layouts, which have not been sufficiently studied, warrant attention in future research.

Joseph H.K. Lai - Co-Editor