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With proper design and work planning, falls through fragile skylights are preventable. Skylights pose a hazard to workers when their work tasks for operations, maintenance and repair require them to be on roofs. The National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety produced guidelines and special alerts to address the dangers that are present around skylights, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations have prescriptive requirements for work performed around skylights, and yet incidents still occur. The purpose of this study is to investigate and raise awareness for the causality of the incidents involving skylights in the USA.

The authors investigated and analyzed 204 incidents involving skylights recorded by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to characterize their nature and to determine any correlation with the roof environment or the nature of the work performed. Using Google Earth and Google Maps roof geometry, proximity of skylights to roof edge and rooftop mechanical equipment was determined.

The majority of falls through skylights occur during roof maintenance and repair activities. Falls through skylights are underreported. Because of a general lack of good design to reduce or eliminate the risk of falling through skylights, facility managers carry the burden to properly assess work and access on roofs where fragile skylights are present.

The phenomenon of falling through skylights was made aware on a national level in the USA in 1989; however, little has been done from a design and planning perspective to reduce these incidents. This paper presents a unique perspective on the role of facility managers in understanding the hazards associated with roof maintenance near skylights.

Against the backdrop of the contribution of design to the occurrence of occupational injuries and illnesses in construction, design for occupational safety and health (DfOSH) is increasingly becoming prominent in the construction sector. To ensure that design interventions are safe for construction workers to build and maintain, design firms need to have the appropriate organisational capability in respect of DfOSH. However, empirical insight regarding the attributes that constitute DfOSH organisational capability is lacking. The purpose of this paper, which trailblases the subject of DfOSH organisational capability in construction, is to address two key questions: what organisational attributes determine DfOSH capability? What is the relative priority of the capability attributes?

The study employed three iterations of expert focus group discussion and a subsequent three-round Delphi technique accompanied by the application of voting analytic hierarchy process.

The study revealed 18 capability attributes nested within six categories, namely: competence (the competence of organisation’s design staff); strategy (the consideration of DfOSH in organisation’s vision as well as the top management commitment); corporate experience (organisation’s experience in implementing DfOSH on projects); systems (systems, processes and procedures required for implementing DfOSH); infrastructure (physical, and information and communication technology resources); and collaboration (inter- and intra-organisational collaboration to implement DfOSH on projects). Whilst these categories and their nested attributes carry varying weights of importance, collectively, the competence-related attributes are the most important, followed by strategy.

The findings should enable design firms and other key industry stakeholders (such as the clients who appoint them) to understand designers’ DfOSH capability better. Additionally, design firms should be able to prioritise efforts/investment to enhance their DfOSH capability.

Decisions made during the design stage of construction works can significantly reduce the risk of occurrence of occupational accidents, injuries and illnesses. Moreover, it has been established that design is one of the major contributors of accidents and injuries. Design for safety (DfS) studies within construction have highlighted factors affecting the implementation of DfS, among which are designer attitude; DfS knowledge/awareness and education; availability of DfS tools, including guidance; client’s influence and motivation; and legislation. The purpose of this study is to carry out an in-depth literature review of DfS studies within construction to explore the extent to which existing DfS research has looked at the above-listed DfS implementation factors.

A review of 164 journal articles related to DfS in construction (published from 1990 to 2017) within built environment, engineering and multidisciplinary safety journals was undertaken.

The findings indicate that around 60 per cent of the journal articles reviewed address designer knowledge/awareness and education issues, about 27 per cent looked at DfS implementation tools to assist designers to undertake DfS, about 23 per cent studied client influence/motivation, about 16 per cent studied designers’ attitudes towards DfS implementation and approximately 16 per cent looked at the role of legislation in DfS implementation. The literature points that client influence/motivation and legislation are very influential DfS implementation factors despite a limited number of studies in these areas.

Overall, the findings provide an indication of areas of DfS implementation, particularly client influence/motivation and legislation, where more research would be needed to promote DfS in construction to help mitigate the occurrence of accidents and injuries.

Singapore is transforming from a “garden city” to a “city‐in‐a‐garden”. Designing for safety is recognized by researchers and some governments as a best practice in facilitating eventual worker safety within the built environment. The purpose of undertaking this research was to understand and describe the status of safe design for skyrise greenery in Singapore.

A total of 41 rooftop and vertical greenery systems were observed with a focus on access, fall from height, and planting considerations.

Rooftop greenery systems in Singapore were found to be adhering to safe design principles. Vertical and ledge greenery systems, on the other hand, are newer arrangements and were found to be in need of design for safety guidance.

The results add to the body of knowledge in the area of safe design and skyrise greenery and will aid those seeking to understand from a policy and practice perspective.

Vertical greenery systems (VGS) have been a widely accepted design strategy that contributes to creating sustainable built environments. However, green building technologies (e.g. VGS) have grown in complexity which poses maintainability challenges. Designing with maintainability in mind is crucial in delivering efficient and sustainable buildings. This paper aims to assist designers and allied professionals in terms of integrating maintainability and sustainable design in developing high-rise VGS directly from its design inception.

The study is grounded on the “Green Maintainability” concept which link maintainability, sustainability and facility management right at the outset. The Green Maintainability factors are translated into critical design criteria which are used to analyze the selected instrumental case studies to evaluate the high-rise VGS performance and maintainability potential. A qualitative approach via the triangulation of data collected from relevant literatures, field surveys and walkthrough interviews is undertaken.

Findings have shown that the major VGS defects which are mostly occurring in the case studies are issues concerning fallen leaves and dirt accumulation; safety issues during cleaning and repairs; insufficient maintenance access; algae/ mould growth; withering plants; water stagnation/ ponding; poor/faulty irrigation and water dripping and unavailability of natural elements. Best practices and lessons learned revealed few design oversight and technical issues concerning high-rise VGS façade implementation. While maintenance cost, biodiversity and lack of coordination among involved professionals are the additional issues which emerged during the stakeholders’ walkthrough interviews.

Current researches conducted on the maintainability of green building technologies (e.g. high-rise VGS) are still few. This research study is the first comprehensive assessment to determine the green maintainability potential and performance of high-rise VGS in tropical conditions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate masculinity in Chinese social media marketing for global luxury fashion brands through two studies.

Study 1 compares physical characteristics of males in visually oriented US (Instagram) and Chinese (Weibo) social media posts promoting global luxury fashion magazine brands (e.g. Vogue, Cosmopolitan, GQ and Esquire). Study 2 examines the prevalence of and Chinese consumers’ responses (reposts, comments and likes) to different masculinities depicted in luxury fashion brand-sponsored Weibo posts.

Male portrayals for Chinese audiences feature more characteristics associated with emerging East Asian hybrid masculinities – “Little Fresh Meat” (LFM) and “Old Grilled Meat” (OGM) – than associated with global or regional hegemonic masculinity (i.e. the scholarly Wén and action-oriented Wu). Wén remains common in social media posts for luxury fashion goods, but LFM and OGM engender more consumer responses.

Chinese luxury fashion marketing depicts masculinity more similarly to other East Asian marketing than to Western marketing. Some luxury fashion brands are struggling for acceptance among Chinese youth. Luxury fashion marketers should incorporate hybrid rather than hegemonic masculinities to prompt more favorable responses among Chinese consumers, especially younger female target markets.

Growing female occupational and consumer power and shifting male employment from blue-collar to white-collar jobs have influenced media portrayals of masculinity. Social media marketing for luxury fashion brands demonstrates the prevalence and appeal of hybrid masculinities in China.

The equability of environment, social and economic elements becomes a major issue to be achieved as to attain sustainability in the development of a construction project. As to cater to social sustainability, the Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health in Construction Industry (Management) also known as OSHCIM has been introduced by the government to improve safety practices amongst Malaysia’s construction practitioners. The basic principle adopted in OSHCIM is Prevention through Design (PtD), which enhances the elimination of hazards during project design stages. This concept is inspired from the implementation of Construction (Design and Management) (CDM) Regulations in the United Kingdom. The concept has also been adopted and practised in many developed countries including Australia and Singapore. The aim of this study is to identify the dominant accident causes in Malaysian construction industry. In this study, the secondary data were gathered from the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) accident statistics. A content analysis and frequency distribution analysis were adopted to determine causal factors that contribute to the fatality. The findings show the existence of design-related causal factors, which is also incorporated with other causes of accidents. This is true as every accident occurs due to more than one factor. Thus, these inputs will recommend further exploration to determine the design-related causal factors. This may help the industrial players, including stakeholders, practitioners and researchers, to have more focussed efforts and resources in ensuring the success of OSHCIM’s implementation to reduce the accident statistics in Malaysia.

The uptake of Design for Safety (DfS) practices in developing countries like Ghana has been limited. This study aims to provide an in-depth understanding of the barriers across regulatory, organizational, cultural and educational dimensions that restrict DfS assimilation in the Ghanaian construction sector. Identifying the key impediments can inform policy initiatives and industry efforts to facilitate safer construction.

A postpositive philosophy underpinned the quantitative research. Multi-stage research was used. A comprehensive questionnaire survey was designed and given to six industry experts to assess clarity, relevance and effectiveness after a thorough literature review. In all, 164 professionals were reached to take part in the study using purposive sampling and consequently snowballing. “Variables” were ranked using mean score ranking and normalization techniques; exploratory factor analysis was then used to group variables into clusters.

Emergent findings revealed four distinct clusters of challenges; Design Process and Communication Challenges; Regulatory and Expertise Limitations; Planning and Education Constraints; and Attitudinal and Perception Barriers. These findings help identify targeted solutions to overcome barriers including developing robust regulatory frameworks, promoting collaboration among stakeholders and cultivating a positive safety culture.

This study provides new insights into the integration of DfS in the context of the developing construction industry in Ghana. This study expands the knowledge base to drive further research in enhancing construction safety in developing countries. Practical recommendations for overcoming these challenges are proposed.

The use of green wall technology in green buildings is a growing trend; however, more research is required about their maintainability, taking into account that maintainability at the design stage is a valuable strategy in achieving building efficiency and sustainability. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to determine the issues in operating and maintaining green walls, particularly in tropical areas like Singapore, leading to the development of a green maintainability framework.

This research uses a qualitative method that combines a thorough and systematic literature review, multiple case studies, field observation surveys and selected instrumental case studies with building plan appraisal and interviews to investigate the potential issues associated with the maintainability of green walls in tropical areas like Singapore.

The findings show that technical and environmental issues/defects are prevalent in the operation and maintainability of green wall technologies applied in green buildings located in tropical regions. Proper considerations of these findings will encourage green building designers and facilities managers to collaborate in the effective implementation of operations and maintenance of green building technologies.

This research gives new and significant information while identifying a clear knowledge gap. The paper recommends the formulation of a green maintainability framework with a set of design criteria that will serve as a benchmark in the future design of green walls. The green maintainability framework would be a valuable addition to green facilities management in ensuring the long-term maintainability and sustainability of existing and new green walls in tropical areas specifically in Singapore.