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Buildings and their construction activities consume a significant proportion of mineral resources excavated from nature and contribute a large percentage of CO₂ in the atmosphere. As a way of improving the sustainability of building construction and operation, various sustainable design appraisal standards have been developed across nations. Albeit criticism of the appraisal standards, evidence shows that increasing sustainability of the built environment has been engendered by such appraisal tools as Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), Code for Sustainable Homes (CfSH), Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and Comprehensive Assessment System for Built Environment Efficacy, among others. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of the appraisal standards in engendering whole lifecycle environmental sustainability of the built environment.

In order to evaluate the adequacy of sustainability scores assigned to various lifecycle stages of buildings in the appraisal standards, four case studies of a block of classroom were modelled. Using Revit as a modelling platform, stage by stage lifecycle environmental impacts of the building were simulated through Green Building Studio and ATHENA Impact estimator. The resulting environmental impacts were then compared against the assessment score associated with each stage of building lifecycle in BREAAM and CfSH.

Results show that albeit the consensus that the appraisal standards engender sustainability practices in the AEC industry, total scores assigned to impacts at each stage of building lifecycle is disproportionate to the simulated whole-life environmental impacts associated with the stages in some instances.

As the study reveals both strengths and weaknesses in the existing sustainability appraisal standards, measures through which they can be tailored to resource efficiency and lifecycle environmental sustainability of the built environment are suggested.

To foster effective implementation of building information modelling (BIM), it is guided by standards and protocols that require files naming in a format, containing a string of letters and digits in a tightly defined manner, which is perceived to be time-consuming, error-prone and serves as a barrier to BIM adoption. This paper aims to present a BIM-based plug-in solution (Auto-BIMName) that facilitates automated naming in compliance with BIM standards.

The Auto-BIMName portal has an information management system (IMS) for generating a master information delivery plan (MIDP), which serves as pre-requisites to effective file naming. Once the naming schema is implemented through text input controls for a project name, volume, level and number, the Revit plugin communicates with its IMS to fetch the name string or concatenate the string in line with the ISO 19650 convention, where the IMS is unused. The system was validated through a simulated collaborative project.

System testing and evaluation confirmed that the Auto-BIMName will ease the process of file naming, thereby facilitating collaboration efficiency, naming consistency across project teams and lifecycle stages, ease of file naming, time-saving and inducement for BIM implementation, etc. By linking information from MIDP in the BIM execution plan, the platform enhanced information management processes and improved coordination across project teams and lifecycle stages.

Apart from demonstrating how the automated naming platform enhances project performance, information management and coordination, the paper provides a practical demonstration of how the construction industry will benefit from enhanced digitalisation and process automation.

Clients in Nigeria have continuously questioned the quality of services being rendered by architectural firms in building projects. This study aims to investigate the areas of service responsible for determining client satisfaction.

The study uses questionnaire for data collection on perceived service quality and indicators of clients’ satisfaction.

The results of descriptive statistics suggest that efficient analysis and compliance with client brief along with buildability, flexibility and comprehensiveness of the design are the main technical determinants of clients’ satisfaction. Management measures for engendering clients’ satisfaction include team communication and collaboration as well as regular site visits when required. The study established a significant relationship between the perceived service quality and client satisfaction. At technical level, economical design and compliance with budget, buildability, optimal and error-free design and timely delivery have significant correlation with the perception of service quality, which could engender client satisfaction. At management level, collaboration and coordination, integrity and trust, regular site visits and project management knowledge and skills had significant relationships with perceived service quality.

To improve overall client satisfaction, architects are expected to focus on these factors in the process of service delivery. Architects’ expertise and skills can be further harnessed through continuous training and understanding of the project environment.

In the past decade, transforming key processes and activities towards a more digital nature has been the focus of most industries to exploit the associated advantages. Despite that, organisations in the construction sector are lagging the list of early adopters. The slow rate of a fundamental digital transformation is being linked to the challenges facing an effective leadership. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to shed light on the barriers to digital leadership enactment in the construction industry. Limited research has empirically analysed and discussed these barriers to explain the low transformation rate in the existing body of knowledge.

This paper empirically investigates the perspectives of construction industry professionals acquiring various roles in the industry. This study captured the views of 38 participants, adopting a qualitative methodological approach to detail the barriers and explain the slow digital transformation rate.

Findings are grouped into five themes: leadership characteristics, management and organisational issues, resource constraints, technological issues and risk perceptions. The findings are helpful to business leaders, researchers, trainers and educators to develop measures to encourage leaders in the industry to be at the forefront of digital transformation in their organisations.

Literature, however, is discreet in reflecting the challenges and barriers facing today's leadership in facilitating digital transformation among construction stakeholders. This paper provides insights into the variables that may be undermining wider digital adoption across the construction sector's organisations.

This study aims to investigate the various competencies a graduate should hold to prepare them for graduate building surveying roles from employers’ perspective.

This study uses a sequential exploratory mixed-method approach by informing a quantitative study with the finding from a qualitative study.

Based on exploratory factor analysis, the study found that 13 essential competencies are valued by the employers when recruiting building surveying graduates, as they are requisites for effective job performance. Personal management skills, technical surveying knowledge and knowledge of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyor standards are the essential competencies based on the level of variance extracted by the three components. Other competency categories include client management skills, being goal-driven and self-motivated, optimistic personality traits, strong mental resilience, building maintenance and management knowledge and time management skills, among others that are explained in the paper.

The essential competencies were dependent on maintaining a balance between knowledge, skills and personality-based competencies. Measures and approaches for gaining the essential competencies, as well as their level of significance, are further discussed. The study will be of significant benefits to employers of graduate building surveyors, academic institutions that are seeking to improve their graduate employability, as well as students who are preparing for the world of work.

This study explored use of big data analytics (BDA) to analyse data of a large number of construction firms to develop a construction business failure prediction model (CB-FPM). Careful analysis of literature revealed financial ratios as the best form of variable for this problem. Because of MapReduce’s unsuitability for iteration problems involved in developing CB-FPMs, various BDA initiatives for iteration problems were identified. A BDA framework for developing CB-FPM was proposed. It was validated by using 150,000 datacells of 30,000 construction firms, artificial neural network, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, Apache Spark and the R software. The BDA CB-FPM was developed in eight seconds while the same process without BDA was aborted after nine hours without success. This shows the issue of not wanting to use large dataset to develop CB-FPM due to tedious duration is resolvable by applying BDA technique. The BDA CB-FPM largely outperformed an ordinary CB-FPM developed with a dataset of 200 construction firms, proving that use of larger sample size with the aid of BDA, leads to better performing CB-FPMs. The high financial and social cost associated with misclassifications (i.e. model error) thus makes adoption of BDA CB-FPMs very important for, among others, financiers, clients and policy makers.

Master information delivery plan (MIDP) is a key requirement for building information modelling (BIM) execution plan (BEP) that enlists all information deliverables in BIM-based project, containing information about what would be prepared, when, by who, as well as the procedures and protocols to be used. In a well-conceived BEP, the MIDP facilitates collaboration among stakeholders. However, current approaches to generating MIDP are manual, making it tedious, error-prone and inconsistent, thereby limiting some expected benefits of BIM implementation. The purpose of this study is to automate the MIDP and demonstrate a collaborative BIM system that overcomes the problems associated with the traditional approach.

A BIM cloud-based system (named Auto-BIMApp) involving naming that automated MIDP generation is presented. A participatory action research methodology involving academia and industry stakeholders is followed to design and validate the Auto-BIMApp.

A mixed-method experiment is conducted to compare the proposed automated generation of MIDP using Auto-BIMApp with the traditional practice of using spreadsheets. The quantitative results show over 500% increased work efficiency, with improved and error-free collaboration among team members through Auto-BIMApp. Moreover, the responses from the participants using Auto-BIMApp during the experiment shows positive feedback in term of ease of use and automated functionalities of the Auto-BIMApp.

The replacement of traditional practices to a complete automated collaborative system for the generation of MIDP, with substantial productivity improvement, brings novelty to the present research. The Auto-BIMApp involve multidimensional information, multiple platforms, multiple types and levels of users, and generates three different representations of MIDP.

Although there has been a surge in the adoption of building information modelling (BIM) in the construction industry, the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are still struggling and perceive its adoption as risky. The SMEs in developing economies are especially on the disadvantaged side of the digital divide. Extant studies have focused on large firms and there are scanty studies on the influence of the external environments on BIM adoption in SMEs. Thus, this study espouses institutional theory (INT) to examine the influence of coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures on BIM awareness and adoption in SMEs.

A quantitative approach was employed, and data were collected from the Nigerian construction SMEs via an empirical questionnaire survey using a sequential stratified and convenient sampling method. Hypothesized relationships between the coercive, mimetic, and normative pressure and BIM in SMEs were empirically tested using the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique and the model was validated with the “PLSpredict” procedure.

The results revealed that coercive and mimetic pressures significantly influence BIM adoption in SMEs while normative pressures have the strongest influence on BIM in SMEs. Also, BIM awareness is an important predictor of BIM adoption. The findings also shed light on the influence of firmographics on BIM awareness and adoption in Nigerian SMEs.

The study empirically validates the applicability of INT and highlights that BIM adoption is not only influenced by internal responses to the need for efficiency but also by external pressures. It implies a clear need for intentional isomorphic pressures in driving BIM adoption in SMEs. The study employs the INT to explain a phenomenon that has not been theoretically explored in the context of SMEs in developing economies. Lastly, the study provided valuable insights into driving BIM adoption, together with the effective practical implications for implementation and potential research areas for further studies.

Health and safety is an important issue in workplaces, and despite safety procedures becoming more strict, serious accidents are still happening within the UK construction sector. This demonstrates poor performance in the implementation of safety procedures on construction sites. One of the key challenges is the unwillingness of the site workforce, especially the subcontracted operatives, to adhere to safety provisions on construction sites. As such, this study investigates the strategies for enhancing safe behaviour amongst subcontracted operatives in the UK construction industry.

The study used exploratory sequential mixed method research, involving interviews and questionnaires as means of data collection, and thematic analysis, reliability analysis and exploratory factor analysis as methods of data analysis.

The study suggests that various carrot and stick measures are expected to be put in place as part of the strategies for enhancing safe behaviour amongst subcontracted operatives. These include adequate enforcement of safety practices by the management, operative engagement and motivation, commendation and rewards, site safety targets, leadership style and motivation.

Application of the suggested measures could enhance safety on construction sites, as it provides practical measures and solutions for inculcating safety behaviours amongst the site operatives who are most likely to be the victims of site accidents.

The increasing awareness of stress as an issue in the construction industry, and the increased realisation of the more effective approach of preventing stress as opposed to treating mental health, has placed a great responsibility on industries that rely heavily on the performance of their workforce. In line with this, this paper aims to investigate the causes of stress and the best strategies for improving professional resilience and stress management proficiency in the construction industry.

Using exploratory sequential mixed method research design, the top factors that cause stress, mitigate stress and build resilience are identified and discussed.

The findings show thematic similarities in the causes of stress, by displaying a reoccurring theme relating to the quality and lack of information, as well as poor communication among the construction professionals. This implies that poor collaboration and “over-the-wall syndrome” of the construction industry does not only contribute to defective output and reworks, it also has significant impacts on the health and well-being of the professionals. Recommendations are made on how to mitigate stress in the industry, by addressing its root-causes and implementing the identified mitigation strategies. This includes a realistic approach to budgeting and project duration, as well as improved communication and collaboration.

Finding of this study could help in mitigating stress and mental health concerns that are currently plaguing the construction industry.