Search results

Using building information modelling (BIM) technology, a conventional structure in this study was converted into a green building to measure its energy usage and CO2 emissions.

Digital images of the existing building conditions were captured using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), and were fed into Meshroom to generate the building’s geometry for 3D parametric model development. The model for the existing conventional building was created and converted to an energy model and exported to gbXML in Autodesk Revit for a whole building analysis which was carried out in the Green Building Studio (GBS). In the GBS, the conventional building was retrofitted into a green building to explore their energy consumption and CO2 emission.

By comparing the green building model to the conventional building model, the research found that the green building model saved 25% more energy while emitting 46.8% less CO2.

The study concluded that green building reduces energy consumption, thereby reducing the emission of CO2 into the environment. It is recommended that buildings should be simulated at the design stage to know their energy consumption and carbon emission performance before construction.

Occupant satisfaction, operation cost and environmental safety are essential for sustainable or green buildings. Green buildings increase the standard of living and enhance indoor air quality.

This investigation aided in a pool of information on how to use BIM methodology to retrofit existing conventional buildings into green buildings, showing how green buildings save the environment as compared to conventional buildings.

The process of predicting construction costs and forecasting price fluctuations is a significant and challenging undertaking for project managers. This study aims to develop a construction cost index (CCI) for Jordan’s construction industry using fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) and predict future CCI values using traditional and machine learning (ML) techniques.

The most influential cost items were selected by conducting a literature review and confirmatory expert interviews. The cost items’ weights were calculated using FAHP to develop the CCI formula.

The results showed that the random forest model had the lowest mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of 1.09%, followed by Extreme Gradient Boosting and K-nearest neighbours with MAPEs of 1.41% and 1.46%, respectively.

The novelty of this study lies within the use of FAHP to address the ambiguity of the impact of various cost items on CCI. The developed CCI equation and ML models are expected to significantly benefit construction managers, investors and policymakers in making informed decisions by enhancing their understanding of cost trends in the construction industry.

This study examines the influence of quality culture (QC) on university performance (UP) within the higher education (HE) context of Saudi Arabia, exploring the mediating roles of transformational (TFL) and transactional leadership (TNL) styles.

The study utilizes a cross-sectional survey approach, collecting data through online surveys from administrators representing public and private universities in Saudi Arabia. Data analysis is conducted using PLS-SEM.

The findings indicate that QC exerts a notable direct influence on UP, along with an indirect effect mediated by TFL and TNL. Additionally, the influences of TFL and TNL on UP are statistically significant. However, the effect of TNL on UP and its role as a mediator in the QC-UP relationship demonstrate partial significance.

This study enriches the theoretical comprehension of quality assurance in HE by incorporating QC as a dynamic capability within Dynamic Capability Theory and TL and TFL as valuable resources within Resource-Based View theory. However, limitations such as a cross-sectional design and reliance on input solely from university administrators must be acknowledged.

The study offers practical insights for policymakers, administrators, and quality managers, emphasizing the economic benefits of robust QC in universities. It highlights QC's impact on policy, curriculum development, and public trust, advocating tailored strategies to improve efficiency and collaboration, crucial for overcoming bureaucratic barriers, especially in public universities.

The originality of this study lies in introducing TFL and TNL as mediators between QC and UP within a university setting.

Life experience in hot and arid areas of Iran has proved that in the transitional seasons (spring and autumn) in which the climate is not too hot, passive cooling systems such as windcatchers (baadgir) have functioned well. This paper intends to investigate the efficiency of a single-side windcatcher as a passive cooling strategy; the case study is the Bina House windcatcher, located in Khousf town, near Birjand city, Iran.

To achieve the aim, air temperature, relative humidity, wind data and mean radiant temperature were measured by the related tools over five days from September 23 to October 23. Then, the thermal performance of the windcatcher was examined by analyzing the effects of all these factors on human thermal comfort. Quantitative assessment of the indoor environment was estimated using DesignBuilder and its computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool, a thermal comfort simulation method to compare the cooling potential of the windcatcher. Windcatcher performance was then compared with two other common cooling systems in the area: single-side window, and evaporative cooler.

The results showed that both windcatcher and evaporative cooler can provide thermal comfort for Khousf residents in the transitional seasons; but the difference is that an evaporative cooler needs to consume water and electricity power, while a windcatcher is a passive cooling system that uses clean energy of wind.

The present study, by quantitative study of single-side windcatchers in a desert region, measured the climatic factors of a historical house and compared it with thermal comfort criteria. Therefore, the results of field measurements were analyzed, and the efficiency of the windcatcher was compared with two other cooling systems, namely single-side ventilation and evaporative cooler, in the two seasons of summer and autumn (transition seasons).