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The effects of dust exposure in buildings and its health and comfort consequences continue to concern occupants, particularly those who spend most of their time indoors. This study examines the influence of building opening characteristics on surface dust loading in indoor environments to determine the dust particles' impact on different opening configurations.

Indoor Harmattan dust surface loading data were collected from Maiduguri, Northeastern Nigeria, using model rooms with six different window configurations. A simple mathematical relationship was employed to assess surface dust loading characteristics in the model rooms. The study measured dust thrice between December and February for three days (72 h). The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

The results determined the highest average surface dust loading of 12.03 g/m2 in the room with awning windows at an indoor-to-outdoor (I/O) ratio of 0.7. In contrast, the experiment in the room with a closed window recorded the lowest average surface dust loading of 5.24 g/m2 at an I/O ratio of 0.30, which is infiltration. The outcomes further indicate that the average surface dust loading varies with the building opening type and position, as higher surface dust loadings were recorded in locations closer to the openings (doors and windows), reaffirming that the dominant source of the dust particles is outdoors. According to the study, dust incursion due to infiltration accounts for 30% of the outdoor surface loading.

Thus, Harmattan dust is a serious challenge to the health, productivity and hygiene of building occupants in the study area. The built-environment professionals must use the study's outcome to optimize building openings' designs (shape, size and form) for effective indoor dust control.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the psychosocial perception of harmattan dust on building openings, health and housekeeping to determine the influence of the dust on building occupants.

Population-representative survey data were collected from Maiduguri, Northeastern Nigeria, through physical administration of questionnaires by assessing several variables. Statistical package SPSS 16.0 was used for the data analysis, which is mainly descriptive analysis in frequencies, percentages and means together with a repeated Pearson’s chi-square analysis to identify the relationship between the factors and the significance testing.

The results show that majority (94.3%) experienced dust problem in harmattan season, and a larger part (76.6%) confirmed that the dust penetrates through doors and windows. Higher percentage (91.2%) noticed that the dust particles on their floor/furniture surfaces, and on an average, people clean their houses three times daily in harmattan season. Majority (80.5%) of the respondents smell dust in the harmattan season, and greater part (77.9%) experienced health challenges in this season, of which 12.8% confirmed harmattan dust aggravates their asthma, 13.6% confirmed it causes headache, 3.1% confirmed it exacerbated pneumonia, 58.5% confirmed it causes coughing, 3.5% confirmed catarrh, 2.3% confirmed nasal/respiratory congestion, sneezing and bronchitis and 6.2% experienced eye problems. Moreover, the results indicate that number/types of openings in a building are significantly associated with factors including smelling dust in the harmattan season and health problem experienced because of dust indoors. The number of times people clean their homes/workplaces is significantly related to important variables such as experiencing dust problem in harmattan season and number/type of openings in a building. The results further established that the health problem experienced by people is significantly related to important variables including dust problem experienced in the harmattan season and type of openings in a room.

Harmattan dust is a serious challenge to health and well-being of building occupants in the study area. The built environment professionals need to optimize building openings for effective dust control indoors.

Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in buildings has an impact on people’s health, productivity and comfort. Maintaining the highest possible IEQ level in complex buildings, such as health care, is difficult due to economic and organizational constraints. This study aims to categorize the vicinities in a typical health-care facility in terms of importance and criticality in relation to the various IEQ factors, as well as to develop an IEQ assessment procedure.

A comprehensive literature review, established standards and structured interviews with industrial hygiene professionals in health-care settings were used in this study. To test the applicability of the developed IEQ assessment procedure, a pilot study was conducted in an existing health-care facility.

This study categorized health-care facilities into various vicinities and discovered three respondents group had varying IEQ perceptions (facility managers, environmental health specialists and nurses). According to the findings, indoor air quality is the most important and dominant factor influencing overall IEQ in health-care facilities. The trial application of the framework shows that much work is needed to improve the level of response and readiness of facility management and occupants to allow for the effective use of the developed procedure.

Previous research did not include a detailed categorization of vicinities in health-care buildings based on IEQ requirements. The findings of this study will help to close this knowledge gap and guide facility managers and operators in recognizing the relative importance of different IEQ factors, maintaining functional requirements and identifying priorities when developing maintenance and operational procedures and allocating resources.

The recent COVID-19 pandemic compelled people to spend most of their time at home to avoid spreading the virus, signifying staying away from offices, schools and marketplaces and where many people congregate. This situation put enormous pressure on residential buildings, which functioned as alternative spaces to schools and offices. This paper aims to investigate the impacts of home-based online classes because of the COVID-19 outbreak on residential buildings in Saudi Arabia.

This study collected population-representative survey data from 324 eligible respondents using an online questionnaire and conducts descriptive and Spearman's correlation analysis using the SPSS 28.0 program.

This study found that the use of space during COVID-19, home-based learning space comfort and home-based online learning perception affected home-based online space requirements during the school lockdowns. Higher school levels, learning space comfort levels, types of education and number of school-aged children in a house were correlated with various types of discomfort experienced during home-based online learning. Lastly, the parents' preference for their children to continue online studies was correlated with the adverse effects of online learning and the possible advantages of online learning.

Lack of studies about the impact of home-based online classes on residential space requirement and use resulted in insufficient investigation and documentation of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on home-based learning environments. This research contributes to the literature on the factors affecting spatial requirement during emergencies and how significant this relationship is.

The objectives of this paper are to present the development of an indicative multi‐phase systematic framework for performance appraisal of architectural design studio facilities, and to present the findings of the post‐occupancy conditions of an architectural design studio facility as a case study to demonstrate the applicability of the developed framework.

The authors carried out a number of activities. These include reviewing the published literature to address the significance of the architectural design studio as a resource for students majoring in architectural design, and ascertaining the significance of post‐occupancy evaluation as a performance appraisal methodology in educational facilities. On the development of the proposed framework, the authors carried out a case study in one of the studios of the Architecture Department at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The authors utilized a series of data collection methods, including photographic documentation, observations through walkthrough inspection, questionnaires and interviews.

The developed framework consists of four phases. It entails identifying the performance requirements of the architectural design studio; collecting data – through conducting walkthrough inspection, questionnaire survey and interviews – to ascertain the present performance level of the architectural design studio; analyzing the data gathered from the preceding steps and subsequent reporting of findings on the degree of user satisfaction with the architectural design studio space and facilities; and developing a plan of actions in the form of recommendations to improve the conditions of the evaluated design studio. The case study served as a validation of the developed performance appraisal framework.

The architectural design studio is known to be the place where students majoring in architectural design generate, review and display their design projects. Previous research on the performance appraisal of educational facilities indicates that the comfort of the architectural design studio space is a significant aspect to be considered and maintained for the success of the architectural education process. The paper provides a systematic approach for evaluating the major performance requirements of an architectural design studio. It is of practical value to space planners, design professionals, facility managers and administrators involved in the planning, design, operation and management of such facilities.

This paper aims to focus on deliberate actions by the building client to integrate knowledge of facilities management, in particular building operation, in design and construction of sustainable facilities. Examples of current practices are studied to answer the following questions: Which initiatives to enable operational friendly and sustainable buildings are currently used by building clients in Denmark? Which initiatives could be appropriate to use in the future, and which parties are in the best position to implement the various initiatives?

The study is a hermeneutic multi-method study, which consists of a review of former research, a case study and a survey. It starts with theoretical background based on earlier research with the aim to identify initiatives to ensure the use of operational knowledge in building design. Hereafter, the paper presents, analyses and discusses two studies: a case study of current practices at a university campus organisation and a survey of five swimming facilities. All cases are from Denmark.

In all, 31 initiatives to enable use of operational knowledge in building design were initially identified. In the case study, 11 additional initiatives were found. The case study and the survey of swimming facilities show different degrees of implementation, varying from 18 to 31 initiatives implemented. However, the studies show that introducing the initiatives is not sufficient; it takes deliberate actions to get the initiatives well implemented. Within the building client organisation, three main actors should care for implementing the initiatives: Top management, building client division and operation division.

Research-based literature on practices in relation to knowledge transfer from operation to design is limited. This paper provides insights into deliberate efforts on transferring knowledge from operation to design among Danish building clients.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the current gap existing between ethics theorization and enforcement in the Nigerian leadership system.

In an attempt to achieve the objective of the paper, some ethical issues in the Nigerian governance and the several regulatory and enforcement agencies set up to curb ethical menace were critically examined. The achievements of the bodies were also evaluated.

The paper concludes that the apparent gap which continues to exist is not a function of ethical definition but results from challenges in the enforcement which are thematically grouped under leadership, societal and individual variables.

The analysis suggests that bridging the ethical gap in Nigeria depends largely on leadership which must be by example.

This paper presents an invaluable challenge to leadership in Nigeria who must reposition their responsibility.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the development of cattle value chain can influence employment creation and income of both cattle farmers and merchants. The study focusses on cattle farmers in Lagos, Ogun and Oyo States where there are the largest cattle farms and live cattle merchants in Southern Nigeria.

It employs a research approach that uses key informant interviews and structured questionnaire in garnering needed information from cattle farms, abattoirs and merchant.

The results suggest that with some minimal supports, employment creation and income generation can be improved.

None of the reviewed empirical studies is specific to the cattle value chain in South Western Nigeria. Among other values, the study identifies employment and income opportunities in corporate and non-corporate farms in the cattle value chain in South Western Nigeria.