Brian Sloan

Flexible working in Scottish local authority property: moving on to the highest flexibility level.

Flexible working has emerged as a modern concept for managing office resources more effectively, efficiently, and economically. The highest level of flexible working environment, a non-territorial working environment, can provide the best opportunity to an organisation managing its office area more effectively. Moreover, staff can work in the most suitable place and time. However, in the context of public offices like Scottish Local Authorities, the most flexible working concept is not particularly welcomed at present. Cultural change, inadequate support services, including information and communication technology, working schemes, and alternative working policies are the main barriers. To overcome these barriers, the Authorities need to strategically provide adequate support to staff. Moreover, promoting a good perception towards flexible working culture at appropriate levels within an organisation could be the right strategy for preventing cultural change problems.

Flexible working in Scottish local authority property: Developing a combined resource management strategy

As indicated in Government reports and previous research, the traditional office environment of both central and local governments has been occupied with high occupancy cost. Flexible working supported by information and communication technology, human resource, and workspace management has emerged as a modern concept for managing office resources. Workspace management models covering both activity-based working area and portfolio flexibility are developed to assist an organisation to allocate staff and working area more flexibly and efficiently. However, public organisations like Scottish Local Authorities (SLAs) are unlikely to fully adopt commercial workspace management models. Therefore, the concept of a combined resource management strategy has been introduced to assist the Authorities in considering adoption in financial/economic terms before taking-up of flexible working in practice.

Embodied energy and carbon analysis of urban residential buildings in Malawi

The rising demand for bricks baked in wood-fuelled kilns in Malawi is raising concerns due to its contribution to fluctuations of climatic conditions locally and globally. This paper presents findings of a study to evaluate the global warming potential of urban houses built of three different building materials. The International Organization for Standardization life-cycle environmental impact assessment approach was used. To obtain lifecycle inventory, process inventory analysis was used, focusing on energy inputs and carbon outputs at the initial construction stage. A functional unit of a 1m2 wall was used for calculating energy and carbon emissions. The results demonstrate that, for individual blocks, kiln burnt bricks (KBBs) consume 0.531 GJ/m2 compared to 0.138 GJ/m2 and 0.106 GJ/m2 for stabilized soil-cement blocks (SSBs) and solid cement blocks (SCBs) respectively. Similarly, KBBs have a higher global warming potential than the SCBs and SSBs. When cement or lime joint and plaster mortars are included, the KBBs contain the highest values for the energy consumed and CO2 emitted. The results suggest the need to switch from KBBs to other energy and carbon efficient materials, as well as a call to sound sectoral policy to tackle the effects of climate change in Malawi and beyond.

In search of excellence in learning: the strategic value of computer-assisted learning (CAL)

Computer-assisted learning (CAL) was heralded in the 1970s and 1980s as the mechanism whereby educational institutions could cope cost-effectively with large numbers of students. Accordingly, many institutions brought computing into the curriculum and taught computing for its own sake. Since those early days, academic departments have shifted their emphasis away from the acquisition of computing skills to using computers as a means of demonstration and using specific software for property and construction disciplines. Even so, many departments have still to realize the potential of the computer as a mechanism for knowledge transfer. This paper discusses the possibilities of the utilization of computers as a learning environment which can enhance the learning experience for undergraduate and postgraduate students within the property and construction disciplines. It highlights current and potential future uses for CAL and seeks to encourage departments within educational establishments to adopt CAL as part ...

A perspective on the digital interactive service industry for building professionals

The digital interactive service industry has the potential to generate innovation and strategic advantage for existing business if the underlying dynamics of the emerging industry are fostered through appropriate understanding and strategic actions. This paper puts in perspective the fundamentals affecting the creation of new interactive services for building professions. The fundamentals reviewed include issues related to acquiring new skills as well as establishing market and user needs. In addition, recent advent of the industry has resulted in various new business models being utilised not only for business process improvement but also more strategically for market penetration and business expansion. Through the use of three examples viz. interactive content studio, content rights intermediary and virtual community, this paper investigates the current and potential impacts of these new models upon the businesses within the building sectors.

Century of research on property cycles: a literature review

The existence of cycles in building and property, has grown to have significant importance in the UK and internationally; whereas property markets have been characterised by boom and bust cycles with a negative impact on the national economies. As a result, property cycles became a popular research topic amongst property professionals and scholars, with a greater understanding of the cyclical behaviour of the property market being seen as a major guide to the financial success (failure) of property investments. consequently, considerable literature has accumulated over the years on the subject. This paper provides a review of this literature, mostly written in the UK and US, with international insights on the subject. This paper reviews research on the subject chronologically over a one hundred-year period. The study is designed to provide readers with a historical overview of Property cycles research by emphasising the underlying theme which dominated a particular period of this research, as well as indicating methods, data analysis techniques employed and outcomes of these studies. Its ai is to put more clarity on the subject, as well as help to navigate anyone interested in Property cycles through a considerable amount of research which has accumulated over the last century.

Cost analysis error? Exploring issues relating to whole-life cost estimation in sustainable housing

Purpose – The main purpose of the study is to promote consideration of the issues and approaches available for costing sustainable buildings with a view to minimising cost overruns, occasioned by conservative whole-life cost estimates. The paper primarily looks at the impact of adopting continuity in whole-life cost models for zero carbon houses. Design/methodology/approach – The study embraces a mathematically based risk procedure based on the binomial theorem for analysing the cost implication of the Lighthouse zero-carbon house project. A practical application of the continuous whole-life cost model is developed and results are compared with existing whole-life cost techniques using finite element methods and Monte Carlo analysis. Findings – With standard whole-life costing, discounted present-value analysis tends to underestimate the cost of a project. Adopting continuity in whole-life cost models presents a clearer picture and profile of the economic realities and decision-choices confronting clients...