Mike Riley

Towards sustainable construction: promotion and best practices

– The purpose of this paper is to understand what factors best promote or prevent sustainable construction practices and establish the consistency of how sustainability is measured., – A literature review considered the impact of the industry to sustainability and identified what action and initiatives are already in place. Through this, the main drivers, barriers, measures and benchmarks were identified. The opinions of building surveying professionals were sought and analysed., – The paper suggested that fiscal incentives/penalties and regulations help to drive sustainable construction. Such financial implications are consistent with “affordability” being the biggest barrier highlighted. The majority of respondents believed the industry is taking some account of sustainability issues, but identified that more needs to be done., – Sustainable development is an integral part of the lives and affects all aspects of business operations. This paper provides an in‐depth insight into the level of sustainable development within the construction industry, identifying implications for both the demand and supply side.

Assessing post occupancy evaluation in higher education facilities

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to summarise the main post occupancy evaluation (POE) techniques currently available and illustrate which method would be the most appropriate as a performance enhancement tool within higher education (HE) facilities.Design/methodology/approach – The history of, and barriers to using POE as a performance enhancement tool are analysed through an extensive literature review.Findings – Despite a historic resistance to POE by construction professionals, interest has emerged in recent years, particularly with government clients and public funded projects, with a focus on the outputs of a project as opposed to the inputs. While plenty of methods exist, only a few are specifically suited to evaluate the building performance of educational facilities to maximise student success and productivity.Research limitations/implications – Practitioners and academics who are interested in the various POE methods will find this review relevant in order to choose which method is most ap...

Prevalence of POE in UK higher education institutions

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the extent to which Post-occupancy evaluation (POE) is understood and applied within higher education institutions across the UK and identify users’ perceptions of its efficacy. Design/methodology/approach – A mixed methodology was applied to this research. Part one consisted of an online survey intended to generate an overview of the extent of POE use across the sector. The second phase, intended to develop greater insight and understanding of users’ perceptions of POE, relied upon in-depth interviews with a smaller sample drawn those who had completed the survey in part one. Findings – Differing models of POE are used within higher education institutions with varying degrees of complexity. Models exist that are based on standard structures and templates, whilst entirely bespoke options have been developed by some institutions. The work found that there is a clear preference for applying bespoke methods rather than standardised ones. Research limitations...

The building process

Lot Selection Process If needed, the Builder will assist the Client in selecting and acquiring the optimum lot based on the Client’s needs and the cost of building on the particular lot to be selected. The Builder’s advice on picking the right lot can be of great value to the Client when it comes to the cost of constructing the home on the Client’s lot, due to our knowledge of soil types, well depths, and many other contributing factors to build cost.