This study integrates ChatGPT and complex network (CN) techniques into an accident analysis framework designed to reduce manual effort in accident causation analysis. The proposed framework supports construction stakeholders in extracting causal factors (CFs) from accident reports and identifying both critical CFs and key causal paths. A multistep research design was adopted to develop and validate this novel framework for analyzing crane-related construction accident reports using ChatGPT and CN techniques. First, ChatGPT was prompted to extract CFs from a database of crane-related accident reports. Second, evaluation metrics and an expert questionnaire survey were developed to assess ChatGPT’s performance in CF extraction. Finally, CN analysis was conducted to explore the relationships among CFs and to identify critical causal paths. A total of 95 crane-related accidents from Hong Kong (2011-2020) were analyzed using the proposed framework. The critical CFs identified included: “carelessness”, “operation error”, “crane unbalanced”, “machine failure”, “parts of a crane fall”, “object strike”, “worker fall”, “trapping”, “collapse of crane”, and “load drop”. The critical path identified was: “broken/failed rope” → “load drop” → “object strike”. The primary contribution of this study lies in developing an AI-driven framework that combines the contextual understanding of ChatGPT with the structural analysis capabilities of CN methods—offering a novel and scalable approach to accident causation analysis in the construction industry. Safety managers and practitioners can leverage this framework to improve the automation, consistency, and interpretability of construction accident reporting.

This study explores the adoption of Virtual Reality (VR) in the Nigerian construction industry, with a focus on its potential benefits and associated challenges. Purposive and snowball sampling techniques were employed to select 52 construction professionals from Benin, Edo State,an emerging urban center with extensive construction activity. Adopting a quantitative approach, the research utilized a five-point Likert scale survey to assess perceptions of the benefits and barriers to VR adoption. The survey was pretested for clarity and reliability, and data were collected via the Qualtrics platform. The findings indicate that the key benefits of VR include improved task-technology alignment, enhanced workplace safety through virtual training, and more effective remote collaboration. VR was also found to enrich user experience and learning engagement by simulating high-risk scenarios to aid hazard prevention. Nevertheless, the study identifies several critical barriers to adoption, such as uncertainty regarding learning outcomes, technical disruptions, and high implementation costs. Despite these limitations, VR holds considerable promise for transforming training and professional development in the construction sector. To maximize its impact, the study recommends the development of customized training modules, technological improvements to enhance system reliability, and government support to mitigate implementation costs. Overall, VR has the potential to significantly improve training effectiveness, safety standards, and operational efficiency in the Nigerian construction industry, provided that the identified barriers are adequately addressed.

Amid growing global attention to occupational health and safety, the construction industry faces critical challenges associated with engineered stone, which emits high concentrations of respirable crystalline silica during processing and has been linked to severe lung diseases. In response, Australia enacted a comprehensive nationwide ban on engineered stone in July 2024. Drawing on media framing theory, this study analyzes public discourse and sentiment surrounding the ban by examining 7,198 comments collected from Reddit and YouTube. Through Latent Dirichlet Allocation, three dominant themes emerged: health risks and safety concerns, economic impacts and industry transition, and regulatory implementation. Sentiment analysis revealed that 55.5% of the comments expressed negative sentiment, mainly centered on economic concerns, while 21.3% were positive, emphasizing health benefits, and 23.1% were neutral. Economic impact frames predominated among negative comments, whereas health risk frames were more common in positive ones. These findings suggest that future policy communications should more effectively integrate narratives around both health protection and economic transition. This study contributes to the methodological development of sentiment analysis and offers practical insights for policy formulation and implementation.

The architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry is currently encountering numerous challenges and actively pursuing industrial upgrades through digital transformation. Digital twin (DT) technology aligns well with the industry's evolving needs due to its capabilities in data integration, intelligent decision-making, and effective management of project progress, efficiency, and quality. This study conducts a comprehensive literature review to analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) associated with DT applications in the AEC sector. Additionally, field visits and semi-structured interviews were conducted on a selected construction project where DT was implemented, allowing for an in-depth examination of both its significant benefits and potential limitations. To further evaluate and prioritize the identified SWOT factors, a SWOT-AHP analysis was performed. The results indicate that the AEC industry has a strong interest in DT's advantages, particularly its potential to enhance resource allocation and process efficiency. Furthermore, the analysis reveals that the strategic quadrilateral occupies the largest area in the fourth quadrant (0.8554), with the strategic center of gravity located at (0.2321, -0.04135), suggesting that Strengths-Threats (ST) strategies should be implemented to support the future development and adoption of DT. Based on this strategic framework, the study formulates actionable development strategies to facilitate the effective integration and widespread adoption of DT in the AEC industry.

In pursuit of proactive safety management in construction, accurate and real-time recognition of workers' cognitive states is essential for crafting targeted interventions to minimize safety risks. Unlike conventional manual and qualitative methods, electroencephalogram (EEG) offers a reliable and objective solution for cognitive state recognition. Notably, efforts that integrate EEG with deep learning have exhibited significant advancements. Nevertheless, certain constraints, such as experimental costs and limited participants, have caused a scarcity of high-quality data, which has impeded performance in recognition tasks. Although transfer learning demonstrates its capability in addressing this challenge, the lack of relevant explorations into EEG-based cognitive state recognition remains a significant research gap. Therefore, customizing pre-trained deep learning models for these tasks would be beneficial. This study aims to develop pre-trained models to advance future studies in this domain through transfer learning, encompassing: 1) extracting extensive and accurately labeled EEG data from the DEAP dataset, 2) selecting appropriate network architectures and implementing pre-trained model development, and 3) collecting EEG data for mental fatigue recognition and evaluating model effectiveness. Rigorous evaluation suggests a substantial improvement in model performance, with test accuracy increasing from 63.19% to 92.29% by leveraging the pre-trained convolutional neural networks (CNN)—long short-term memory (LSTM) model. In conclusion, this study significantly contributes to enhancing safety management for construction workers through EEG by providing validated pre-trained models to address challenges of data scarcity. Future research may advance by exploring additional network architectures, increasing sample size, and considering more specific recognition tasks for model evaluation.

This study investigates the integration of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and the Internet of Things (IoT) in construction projects to enhance efficiency, safety, and lifecycle monitoring. Despite the significant potential of BIM and IoT to facilitate the transformation of the construction industry, existing research lacks a comprehensive framework that addresses its interoperability challenges, data security concerns, and real-world implementation barriers. To address this gap, a multiple case study approach was employed, incorporating semi-structured interviews, document analysis, and real-world project evaluations. The results find that standardized protocols, data encryption, and modular IoT devices are essential for effective BIM-IoT adoption across different construction phases. The proposed framework offers a structured approach for construction teams to effectively utilize BIM and IoT, facilitating smarter and more sustainable project management. The contribution of this paper resides in the detailed analysis of the BIM-IoT applications, clearly demonstrating its advantages, such as improving building productivity and safety, and its potential to align with China's sustainable urban development goals. The study also provides a forward-looking prediction of the future development trend of BIM-IoT in China, offering valuable insights for construction project teams and decision makers. By demonstrating the structured framework and its practical application, this study provides guidance for the industry's transition to smarter and safer construction practices.

The predominance of a linear economic model and the limited integration of circular strategies in the design and execution of building projects—particularly in the construction sectors of developing countries—have resulted in ongoing pressure on natural resources, high levels of waste generation, reduced productivity, and frequent time and cost overruns. Collectively, these issues contribute to unsustainable development, adversely impacting the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainability. This study explores the perceptions of design professionals regarding the benefits, awareness, and implementation of Design for Deconstruction (DfD) within the Nigerian construction industry (NCI). Data were collected through a structured questionnaire distributed electronically to design experts in Nigeria's South-South geopolitical zone using a snowball sampling technique. With a 40.10% response rate and a reliability index above 0.800, the data were analysed using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). Findings reveal that awareness of DfD is moderate, but its adoption remains low. EFA identified five key categories of DfD benefits: (1) business benefits, (2) economic benefits, (3) environmental benefits, (4) green certification and technology integration, and (5) social benefits. PLS-SEM results show that all five categories have a positive and significant influence on the decision to adopt DfD within the NCI. This study contributes to the theoretical advancement and practical understanding of circular construction practices, particularly DfD, with implications for reducing construction waste, improving resource efficiency, and supporting the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3, 9, 11, 12, and 13.

Digital twin (DT) technology is revolutionizing the architecture, engineering, construction, and operation (AECO) industry, driven by the advancements of Construction 4.0 (C4.0). Despite this, adopting DT in the AECO sector remains limited due to various barriers. This study, driven by four research questions (RQ), aims to advance DT adoption in the AECO industry under C4.0 using an integrated approach. The degrees of influence and importance ranking of barriers are assessed through the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL). The hierarchy and causal relationships among barriers are revealed through interpretative structural modeling (ISM). Then, barriers are divided into four clusters employing the cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC) method. The paper reveals that "lack of government financial and policy support" is the most critical barrier, "lack of trust and long-term perspective in DT" is the most significant direct-influence barrier, and "immature 3D engine technology" is the most fundamental barrier. By exploring interrelationships and prioritizing barriers, the study provides insights to enhance adopting DT in the AECO industry in the context of C4.0.

Energy performance contracting (EPC) has been implemented as a turnkey solution to enhance the energy efficiency of building systems and fixtures. The two most common types of EPC-guaranteed savings contracts and shared savings contracts-are widely applied in the industry, with their selection primarily depending on stakeholders' risk tolerance and the availability of external financing. EPC involves multiple key participants, including the government, third-party financiers, building owners, and energy service companies (ESCOs). The relationships among these stakeholders vary based on the contract type: in a guaranteed savings contract, the owner has a direct financial relationship with the third-party financier, whereas in a shared savings contract, the ESCO assumes this role. This paper provides a critical review of previous studies on EPC, categorizing them into four key areas: (1) challenges in EPC adoption, (2) critical success factors, (3) diffusion strategies from different stakeholder perspectives, and (4) a stakeholder relationship framework linking key success factors and strategies. By analyzing these aspects, this review aims to inform potential investors and contractors about essential considerations for EPC implementation while examining the stakeholder dynamics within EPC projects.

Prefabricated housing (PH) is widely supported and applied in China due to its high efficiency and low carbon emissions. However, the adoption of this sustainable construction method has been slow in rural areas, hindered by economic, policy and location factors. To promote the development of low-carbon construction in rural areas and address the obstacles, this study focuses on Jiangsu province as a case study, proposing effective strategies to modernize and advance sustainable rural housing. The primary barrier to the prefabricated concrete (PC) adoption in rural Jiangsu were identified through a literature review and expert interviews. A survey was then conducted to assess the impact of these barriers, yielding 228 valid responses from industry professionals. Factor analysis was conducted using SPSS 19.0 to calculate the multi-level weights for influencing factors across dimensions. Based on these findings, key obstacles were further analyzed through strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis to develop targeted countermeasures and recommendations. The research results show that: (1) Among secondary indicators, Policy factors (weight = 0.219) and Location factors (weight = 0.215) have the most significant impact PC promotion in rural Jiangsu; (2) Among the tertiary indicators, the critical factors are "The standard system is incomplete" (weight = 0.059), "The technical system is not mature" (weight = 0.048), "Lack of specific departments for promoting and supervising at the grassroots level" (weight = 0.046); (3) Strategies such as enhancing policy alignment and market penetration, tailoring solutions to local demands, establishing a robust regulatory framework, and fostering community engagement and acceptance can effectively address the challenges of promoting PC in rural areas. This research provides actionable pathways for the advancing prefabricated housing in Jiangsu and offers valuable references for other regions seeking to promote prefabricated housing in China.

Every household uses an average of around 360 litres of water each day. About 21% of a typical gas consumption is attributed to heating the water for showers, baths, and hot water from the tap. An environmentally friendly, low-cost device called the CombiSave valve can be used to manage gas and water consumption and should be fitted to most combination boilers to automatically control the flow of water every time a hot tap is turned on. This allows the boiler to heat the water faster and only return the flow to normal once a usable temperature is reached. An experimental test was conducted in the exemplar modern house of Liverpool John Moores University in order to assess the amount of water, energy, and CO₂ reduction for varying temperatures and flow rates. The test was carried out for a duration of 9 hours during the daytime between June and October. Although the test was conducted over relatively warm months when ambient water temperatures were higher compared to winter months, results showed that good savings could be achieved through this product. The best savings for gas consumption and hence CO₂ reduction were achieved at high water pressure and low temperature setting (40 °C) of 36% compared with the case without combiSave. While water consumption was reduced by 56% at full flow rate and 45 °C. Further research is needed encompassing multiple occupied dwellings with different family sizes and testing these in extreme weather conditions to see if similar results would be reflected.

This study investigates the indoor air quality (IAQ) of restaurants in Dubai with a focus on the impact of cooking-related pollutants on the health and comfort of both employees and patrons. Recognizing the release of particulate matter (PM), carbon oxides, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) during cooking, the study highlights the importance of maintaining healthy IAQ in restaurants. The study includes a detailed case analysis, evaluating current air quality standards, identifying potential pollutants, and assessing their implications. A preliminary assessment, combined with a quantitative inspection of the kitchen and dining areas, set the foundation for a survey conducted among staff and customers. This survey identified key areas of concern and the variables essential for monitoring to maintain IAQ at optimal levels. The study measured parameters such as PM_2.5, PM₁₀, temperature, humidity, interior lighting, CO, and total VOCs using appropriate instruments. Results indicated that cooking activities contribute to elevated levels of particulate matter, suggesting a need for enhanced ventilation or air purification systems to ensure a healthy working environment. While some employees reported discomfort during working hours, customer feedback was largely positive, with around 90% expressing satisfaction with the restaurant's IAQ. The findings underscore the importance of continuous monitoring and improvement of IAQ in the hospitality industry to safeguard the well-being of both staff and patrons.

The escalating demand for energy and resources in the construction industry, together with poor energy performance of existing buildings, pose challenges for sustainability. Despite the incorporation of advanced technologies in modern construction to reduce energy consumption, a significant number of buildings are yet to adopt sustainable practices, owing to lack of awareness about potential technologies, and the considerations for selection. To this end, the current study aims to survey commercial buildings to explore the technologies implemented together with the basis that influenced the implementation. A detailed survey including semi-structured interviews with professionals engaged in the selected non-domestic buildings were conducted. The selected buildings comprise three (3) certified retrofit, eight (8) certified new and seven (7) non-certified green. The findings show that the buildings have incorporated 54 different technologies under the main sustainability criteria of water efficiency, lighting, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, indoor environmental quality, and sustainable site. Advanced technologies, such as free cooling appliances, on-site wastewater treatments, and water-efficient climate-tolerant plantings, were predominantly found in green-certified buildings, while non-certified buildings tend to adopt more universally applicable and accessible technologies, like LED lighting, compact fluorescent lamps, and low-flow plumbing fixtures. The paper presents a detailed analysis on use of technologies with different building function, green rating levels, and challenges faced. Hence, the study findings would facilitate technology adaptation for a given context by providing insights into the availability and adaptability of green retrofit technologies in the Sri Lankan context for non-domestic buildings.

Construction organizations in developing nations constantly lag in embracing changes in innovation, environmental sustainability, and safety, amongst others. Their contributions to environmental degradation, resulting in health-related consequences for construction stakeholders, are also alarming. Implementing environmental management tools such as environmental management systems (EMS) is often advocated to address the negative environmental impacts of construction organizations. Construction firms in developed nations have embraced EMS and implemented it to enhance construction business, environmental performance, and construction workers' health, while similar evidence is not recorded in developing nations. Therefore, this study investigated the barriers to EMS implementation through a survey of construction professionals in the Nigerian construction industry. 106 valid data were analyzed using factor analysis, Cronbach's alpha test, and fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE). The results of the factor analysis revealed four groups of barriers to EMS implementation, which are prioritized in the order of knowledge-related, stakeholders-related, process-related, and cultural-related barriers with FSE. The relationships between the four classes of barriers were determined using interpretive structural modelling (ISM) in which "knowledge-related barriers" are indicated as the core barrier to EMS implementation. To address the barriers to EMS implementation, organizing training, providing the needed resources for environmental education, collaborating with construction stakeholders, providing a reward system, and others were recommended. This study contributes theoretically and practically to environmental-related discourses in the construction industry. Theoretically, utilizing FSE provides an interesting insight that acknowledges the unique challenges of developing nations in the domain. Practically, this study gives an actionable focus for construction stakeholders to domesticate EMS within the local construction environment, thereby improving knowledge of the importance of environmental sustainability and pro-environmental behaviors.

Continuous improvement in industrial processes has made efficient internal material transportation critical. This study presents a decision support system for tracking internal transportation vehicles and providing effective inner logistics management. The proposed model includes a barcoding based transportation vehicle tracking system, a forecasting model for daily transportation demands of different buildings and presents a predictive demand-vehicle assignment mathematical model. Results show that the model reduces the operational costs due to vehicle search and vehicle transportation, and material damage costs due to vehicle-material mismatch at a great extent.

This study evaluates the economic efficiency and viability of optimizing hybrid renewable energy systems (HRES) for zero-energy buildings (ZEBs) in remote communities, with a specific focus on Ankara, Turkey, in response to the increasing demand for renewable energy driven by concerns over fossil fuel scarcity, environmental sustainability, and rising conventional energy costs. Using the Hybrid Optimization Model for Multiple Energy Resources (HOMER) program, known for its advanced algorithms that accurately model and optimize hybrid systems by considering factors such as weather data, load profiles, and equipment specifications, we perform a comprehensive techno-economic analysis. We explore five different HRES configurations, combining photovoltaic (PV) panels, wind turbines (WT), diesel generators (DG), and battery storage systems, to determine the most cost-effective and reliable solution for powering approximately 30 rural households. The analysis reveals that the optimal configuration includes 107 kW of PV, three 10 kW WT, a 10 kW DG, and 45 units of 7.15 kWh batteries, demonstrating a net present cost (NPC) of $568,431 and a cost of energy (COE) of $0.257/kWh. This setup achieves significant annual energy production of 165,068 kWh from PV, 96,329 kWh from WT, and 27,100 kWh from DG. This configuration maintains a high state of charge (SoC) in the battery storage, ensuring system stability and extending the battery lifespan. The system's ability to consistently meet load demands with minimal reliance on the DG highlights its superior techno-economic synergy compared to other scenarios. Sensitivity analysis reveals that a doubling of fuel prices increases COE by 14% and NPC by 13%, while a 40% reduction in PV and WT capital costs decreases COE and NPC by approximately 16% and 18%, respectively. Furthermore, declining expenses associated with PV and WT installations emphasize the ongoing affordability of renewable energy solutions. These results provide valuable insights for the deployment of cost-effective and reliable HRES in similar remote locations, contributing to the broader goal of sustainable energy solutions for ZEBs.

The state of mind is a crucial factor in thermal sensation and should be thoroughly understood in studies of thermal comfort while integrating human psychology into the literature. Fanger's predicted mean vote (PMV) and predicted percentage of dissatisfied percentage of dissatisfied (PPD) method is a cornerstone in thermal comfort research. On the other hand, the adaptive thermal comfort (ATC) model provides a broader perspective by including behavioral and psychological adjustments, along with the personal and environmental parameters outlined in Fanger's PMV/PPD method. However, literature investigates the ATC model predominantly focuses on behavioral adaptations, neglecting psychological adjustments emphasized by ASHRAE as integral to "the state of mind. Moreover, qualitative approaches dominate the literature, with limited quantitative investigations. Therefore, this paper aims to address the importance of human psychology by systematically reviewing previous field studies to elucidate the magnitude and significance of psychological adjustments to the thermal comfort. Additionally, it introduces the Turhan and Özbey coefficients, derived from a quantitative study, to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of psychological factors on thermal comfort. This work is highlighted the importance of the human psychology to achieve better indoor environmental quality in aspects of thermal comfort.

Where previously the thermal indoor climate in a Dutch office was mainly assessed on the basis of sedentary activities, one must now also take into account activities associated with a higher metabolic rate to improve health by reducing sitting. This subject is receiving attention in the Netherlands; so in the context of the Well certification of buildings for instance. Several studies show that the deviation between the PMV and the experimental results increases as the temperature and/or the activity increases. This technical note is a proposal to modify the calculation of the PMV for metabolisms up to 2.1 met, on the warm side of the thermal sensation scale, in the same way as Fanger describes in his thesis, using research results as they are currently available in the literature, excluding the adaptive thermal comfort aspect.

Utilizing recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) is important because it solves the problems of resource scarcity and pollution from urban waste. Using RAC will have a significant positive environmental impact over time. Many studies compare the environmental benefits of RAC with natural aggregate concrete (NAC) and use life cycle assessment (LCA) to analyze the benefits of RAC. However, a mature and comprehensive research system for LCA application in RAC has yet to be developed. The purpose of this study is to review the environmental impacts of RAC throughout its life cycle using the novel perspective of the four steps of LCA, identify methods to address or mitigate biases, and suggest future development directions for this technology and database improvement to provide useful references for future research. The findings show that all four stages of LCA (goal and scope definition, life cycle inventory analysis, life cycle impact assessment, and life cycle interpretation) have issues, primarily related to data measurement and selection, process step assumptions and simplifications, and algorithm limitations. We also recommend using the life cycle basic function evolution method to optimize Monte Carlo simulations, which reduces the uncertainty of LCA results. In the future outcomes of LCA ought to emphasize on the carbonation process and the analysis phase of cement's second life cycle.

The Chinese government vowed to achieve "carbon peak and carbon neutrality" on a global scale in 2020. Since the building sector emits a significant amount of greenhouse gases, achieving the "carbon peak and carbon neutrality" goal will be extremely difficult. Emissions of greenhouse gases can be greatly decreased by developing low-carbon buildings. As more and more new green building materials hit the market, China's low-carbon construction sector is growing along with the building materials market. This study does a thorough analysis of the literature on the most recent advancements in cost management related to new eco-friendly construction materials in low-carbon economies. The objective is to describe the different dimensions of information green building materials cost management, uncover the underlying themes and sub-themes within these dimensions, identify key research gaps in the current studies, and provide recommendations for future research endeavors. Through the review of the literature, the existing problems in the cost management of new green building materials are revealed. And from the improvement of new green building materials cost management way is elaborated. The conclusion of this paper is that the existing research mainly focuses on the construction of cost management systems and does not systematically study the formation process of material costs, ignoring the consideration of material research and development technology, environmental accounting disclosure and other aspects. Finally, the research project ought to prioritize material research and development, strengthening the cost accounting system, environmental cost disclosure, improving the material management system, and other areas that require in-depth investigation.

Insufficiency and near absence of green infrastructure (GI) which have been shown to offer cost-effective nature-based solutions in mitigating urban flood and managing stormwater in major cities in Nigeria have increased their vulnerability to destructive floods in recent years. This study conducted a spatial assessment of GI and its potential effectiveness on stormwater management in Ibadan, Nigeria, with the use of remotely sensed data. Change detection between 2000 and 2020 was conducted based on four land use categories (built-up, green area, bare surface, and water bodies) because it coincided the period of rapid land use changes and occurrence of devastating flooding in the city and environs. Normalized Difference Vegetative Index (NDVI) calculated from Landsat image data and Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data to determine areas liable to flooding were also assessed using geospatial analysis. The results showed that the infill development of Ibadan has drastically reduced the available GI from 37.64% in the year 2000 to 22.84% in the year 2020 while built-up areas increased from 51.97% in the year 2000 to 69.04% in the year 2020. In 2000, NDVI ranged from -0.37 to 0.02 in the inner city showing poor vegetation. By 2020 the elements of GI are mostly fragmented with small coverage and more than 70% of the area occupied by built-up areas without vegetation cover. Vegetal cover decreased with time due to increasing impervious surfaces, creating many high flood zones and stormwater. It is concluded that provision and effective management of GI in the city can serve as a valuable tool to mitigate the problems of excessive stormwater.

Vietnam battles severe air pollution and substandard infrastructure, leading to sick building syndrome (SBS), even in healthcare facilities. Enhancing indoor air quality (IAQ) in hospital design and renovations is vital for safeguarding vulnerable groups, such as patients, children, and the elderly. However, akin to other developing nations, Vietnam must address specific local challenges before devising any strategies to improve IAQ in these critical settings. In this study, we identify factors influencing the selection of methods to improve IAQ in healthcare facilities, considering Vietnam's specific conditions. 16 potential factors have been investigated and categorised into 4 influence groups based on a comprehensive literature review and validated by a survey of 160 architects, engineers, project managers, and hospital staff. We conducted an academic literature review to pinpoint these factors and propose design solutions. Additionally, we surveyed and quantified the effects from the perspective of Vietnamese healthcare experts. Based on our findings, we discussed the impact of these factors and suggested solutions for enhancing IAQ during the design and renovation phases of hospitals. The study's contribution lies in its practical insights for stakeholders seeking to improve IAQ. The outcomes of this study aim to provide a foundation for developing guidelines and standards to assess construction quality in healthcare facilities.

This paper presents a novel approach to reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions in the construction industry by integrating biophilic design and energy-based building elements. The research focuses on the implementation of natural elements such as plants, daylighting, natural ventilation, and views of nature into building design to enhance energy efficiency and decrease carbon emissions. The investigative approach of this study involves a thorough analysis of the application of natural materials like wood, stone, and wool as passive energy strategies to lessen the dependence on active heating and cooling systems. The research also scrutinizes daylighting techniques and the integration of green structures and vegetation in buildings to exploit natural solar energy. The key findings reveal that the combination of energy-based building elements with biophilic design can significantly reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions in buildings. The research underscores the importance of natural elements in building design and their substantial contribution to energy efficiency. The study concludes that the amalgamation of biophilic design principles and energy-efficient building components presents a potent solution to the challenges of energy use and carbon emissions in the construction sector. This approach transcends prior efforts in the literature by showcasing the practical application of natural elements in architectural design to attain sustainability objectives. The novelty of this work lies in its comprehensive analysis of various natural elements and their impact on energy efficiency, and the emphasis on the practical implementation of these elements in building design to achieve tangible reductions in energy consumption and carbon emissions. This research contributes to the ongoing discourse on sustainable construction practices and offers valuable insights for architects, designers, and policymakers in the field.

Over the past two decades, the field of robotics in construction has evolved into an interdisciplinary research domain that combines a multitude of pressing technologies. This work introduces an innovative review framework that assesses the interconnection between robotics in construction and automation, while also examining advancements in technologies. In this research, a novel classification framework was created and a comprehensive literature review was performed to shed light on recent developments in the field of robotic construction. The objectives are to delineate the diverse dimensions of robotics in construction, uncover the underlying themes and sub-themes within these dimensions, identify key research gaps in the current studies, and provide recommendations for future research endeavors. This paper concluded that the existing research focus primarily on technical aspects in robotics within construction, neglecting environmental considerations, while identifying a lack of long-term studies on structural performance, hindering concerns about durability. Additionally, challenges persist in integrating robotics into construction workflows without disruption, compounded by the absence of standardized practices and regulations, alongside concerns about safe human-robot interaction, affordability, and accessibility. Furthermore, inadequate training programs for workers and ethical concerns regarding job displacement, privacy, and societal impacts underscore the need for careful examination in the responsible and ethical deployment of robotics technologies. Finally, research efforts should emphasize the development of user-friendly interfaces and ergonomic designs for construction robots to enhance their usability and acceptance among workers, ultimately contributing to the successful integration of robotics into construction practices.

This research aims to determine the feasibility of converting a Grade II* listed building, built in 1667 and located within a conservation area in the UK, into an eco-home by reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions. The project explores the feasibility of facilitating a change of use from a commercial building into a residential dwelling while significantly improving the energy performance. A baseline energy performance assessment is carried out using a combination of infrared thermography, monitoring of hygrothermal conditions, and thermal modelling. Different retrofitting options are applied, and the results are compared to the standard benchmarks. Hygrothermal conditions are compared to the recommended comfort level temperatures as defined in Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) Guide A. The retrofitting options showed that the building could be modified to a level that shows a performance that is more favourable than the benchmarks in two out of the three benchmark measurements. Suggested improvements are sensitive to the status of the building, location, hygrothermal behaviour, and comfort level.

United States (US) residential buildings demonstrate great decarbonization and energy-saving potential. However, research on the carbon footprint of residential buildings at the state level, especially consumption-based emissions, is limited. Therefore, this paper aims to quantify and compare the state-level carbon emissions and energy consumption of residential buildings in the US. Specifically, state carbon emission factors of electricity are estimated using area and population-based interpolations of Emissions & Generation Resource Integrated Database (eGRID) regional carbon factors. Total carbon emissions and carbon intensity (e.g., carbon emission per household/capita) of each state are then calculated based on the 2020 Residential Energy Consumption Survey dataset. Results of state carbon footprints demonstrate regional differences and spatial patterns: Texas and California stand out as the top energy consumers and contribute to the largest amount of carbon emissions, while Missouri has the highest carbon intensity on a household/capita/housing area basis. Also, west and east coastal states (e.g., California) exhibit lower carbon intensities than central states. Sensitivity analysis concludes that highly electrified states (e.g., Florida and Hawaii) are more sensitive to the carbon emission factor of electricity generation, with sensitivity degrees over 0.97. Furthermore, correlation analysis indicates that total carbon emission and its sensitivity to electricity carbon emission factor, as well as emission intensity positively correlate with state energy profile (e.g., gas ratio). Therefore, to achieve residential building decarbonization, besides energy-conservative measures, high gas-penetration states (e.g., Illinois) need to reduce direct fossil fuel use in residential energy services; states with high carbon emission factors and electrifications, e.g., Hawaii and Missouri, need to decarbonize electricity generation by adopting renewable energy as sources. The research findings contribute to understanding the regional variations in carbon footprints and energy usage of residential buildings, facilitating the development of tailored decarbonization and energy-saving measures for targeting states in the US.

Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) is one type of wind machines, which is used nowadays to produce electricity. On the other hand, the VAWTs continue to evolve, driven by ongoing research, technological innovation, and the growing demand for clean and sustainable energy solutions. In terms of global sustainability, buildings prove to be major energy consumers. Even as technology advances to construct environmentally friendly buildings, various buildings are still contributors with high energy consumption. Novel systems are required to decrease energy consumption of today buildings. To this aim, this study offers an active solution by a renewable energy source in order to decrease energy consumption of an existing building. The novelty of the paper is designing three blades IceWind Turbine with arc angle of 112 degrees and an aspect ratio of 0.38 and integrating them to an existing building. A case building, occupied by a guard and used as a headquarters by soldiers on guard duty, in Istanbul Airport/Turkey is selected and 40 small-scale IceWind Turbines are integrated into the building via a dynamic building energy simulation tool and the results showed that total energy consumption of the case building is decreased by 9.3%. The outcome of this paper depicts that different design of the small-scale vertical wind turbines could be integrated to the building with higher energy saving potential.

European squares have represented the heritage of the European excellence and culture since ancient times. In 2026, Milan Piazzale Loreto will be transformed into one of the most important green squares in Milan. China's urbanization is proceeding at an unprecedented speed, and Shanghai, in particular, has rich and valuable practices in urban renewal. However, there are few comparative studies on the renewal projects of large city squares in Milan and Shanghai. Therefore, this article explores the importance of renewal projects of large city squares by comparatively analyzing the similarities and differences between Milan Piazzale Loreto and Shanghai Wujiaochang. The evidence of the study suggests that the renewal projects of large city squares have great influence on promoting sustainable urban prosperity and low-carbon transformation.

The risks involved in building at high levels have led to various proposals that allow building at ground level and then raising the built part to its final position. The Reverstop® system allows a simple and effective solution to this problem in light buildings. The different floors are built on the ground in reverse order, starting with the roof and they are raised with hydraulic jacks as they are being built. The main resistant element is the exterior wall, made up of aluminum or sheet steel panels. The construction of this type of structure requires solving two problems. The first is the correct design of the lifting elements and their adequate bracing, since it is the moment of greatest risk in the construction. The second is the design of the joint, it is an element of the greatest importance, since it allows the efforts to be transmitted between the floors. For this reason, it has been the subject of a special study in which different materials have been analyzed to select the most suitable one. The calculations that support the effectiveness of the solution and the experimental results obtained in the tests carried out within a research project are provided.

Currently, traditional houses are starting to be difficult to find in Indonesia. One example is Umah Pitu Ruang (UPR) which is a traditional house located in the Gayo Highland, Aceh, Indonesia. In this study, two UPRs that have different orientations were evaluated. The purpose of this study was to find out whether the daylight received in the two UPRs complies with SNI 03-6575-2001 standards and to identify how the orientation and design of the two UPRs respond to the inclusion of natural lighting and optimize it. Data collection was carried out using quantitative methods obtained from observations, measurements, and simulations. This study found that the natural lighting that enters the two UPRs does not meet the SNI 03-6575-2001 standards. The study shows that UPR with north and south orientation has a larger amount of illuminance and Daylight Factor (DF) compared with those facing east and west. However, both of the houses have a very small amount of illuminance in the bedroom, due to the very limited access from the bedroom to the outside. The study also indicates that people in the old times used their houses more for resting, while the rest of the activities were carried out outside. Therefore, the house does not comply with providing sufficient daylight during the daytime.

To address the critical challenges of manual land records and paper maps in Pakistan and similar developing countries, this research introduces a novel web-based digital cadastral land information system (DCLIS). Leveraging advanced geographic information system (GIS) capabilities, including map georeferencing, data visualization, and interactive queries, DCLIS provides a robust and accessible platform for efficient land data management. It overcomes the limitations of traditional systems by eliminating time-consuming procedures, minimizing data duplication, and ensuring data integrity through rigorous validation against field measurements (conducted on 20% of cadastral plots) and cross-checking with existing records. By empowering decision-makers in administration (improved land policy planning), land management (streamlined land ownership verification), and agriculture (precision farming, resource optimization), DCLIS facilitates efficient land resource utilization and promotes sustainable development practices. Moreover, its alignment with responsible land management and renewable energy integration contributes to the global drive towards environmental sustainability. This research bridges the digital divide in land record management and paves the way for more informed decision-making, ultimately promoting the development of sustainable land practices in Pakistan and beyond.

A detailed quantitative overview on different micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) smart glass technologies and smart glass technologies in general is given. Next, our MEMS smart glass is focused. This technology based on millions of miniaturized, tiltable, planar mirrors. Installed in windows or building facades, it allows personalized daylight steering as well as thermal and energy management in buildings via electrostatic actuation, strongly supports health and has a large potential for reducing CO₂ emissions and energy consumption of buildings, noticeably. Various results of experimental characterizations and reliability studies are summarized. Simulations of light steering are reported for different use cases involving tailored variable tilt angles of the mirrors. Ray tracing is used to visualize light steering and distribution in a model room, showing that our MEMS smart glass can generate high illuminance where necessary in workspaces. Finally, simulations of energy savings are presented using hourly resolved real weather data over up to 10 years, varying cloud coverage, daytime and seasonal varying irradiance via varying sun orbit, respective geo coordinates of different locations, energy price and others. Simulation results are depicted for four German and two international cities, varying in latitude and elevation. Huge energy saving potential of our MEMS smart glass and amortization of investment in MEMS smart glass within less than five years in the best case is reported compared to conventional window blind systems.

The cement-based materials have significant thermal properties which play a potential role in heat dissipation into the buildings. To improve thermal properties, particularly thermal conductivity, advanced materials such as phase change materials, vacuum insulation panels, and highly porous materials are employed. In this study, a biochar mixture was introduced in cementitious materials for thermal property enhancement. The biochar was prepared from the mixture of 10 wt% rice husk and 90 wt% sawdust in the absence of oxygen with the aid of muffle furnace at a temperature of 550 °C for 2 hours at a rate of 10 °C/min. The biochar dosages such as 3 wt%, 5 wt%, and 10 wt% were added with the replacement of cement in a cement paste. After 7 and 28 d, porosity, flexural strength, compressive strength, density, water absorption, and thermal conductivity were determined. The mechanical properties of samples were increased with 3 wt% biochar replacement with the cement and then decreased with 5 wt% and 10 wt%. The thermal conductivity of samples was decreased by 19-26.4% and 20.16-8.5% at 7 and 28 d respectively. The substitution of 3 wt% of biochar performed well in comparison to the control sample. Reduction of thermal conductivity of biochar-incorporated cementitious materials may be beneficial in situations where heat resistance is required due to its porous nature.

For the sake of energy and cost savings, it is sometimes necessary to maintain the indoor climate in a room at conditions that deviate from optimal thermal comfort. More important than thermal sensation is how a change in conditions will affect the thermal acceptability of a space and whether the percentage of people who are (dis)satisfied with the environment will change with regard of the acceptability. The aim of this technical note and arithmetic study is to find out to what extent the thermal indoor climate can be assessed on the basis of thermal acceptability, in addition to the thermal (dis)satisfied, by making use of research that has already been carried out. In addition to the relationship between the percentage of (dis)satisfied and acceptability, attention is paid to how this result relates to current Dutch government building regulations. The paper concerns a proposal for the assessment of thermal indoor climate based on the thermal acceptability, in addition to the thermal (dis)satisfied.

A proposed development by the City of London, at London Wall West, illustrates the intractable problems that can occur for a city seeking post-pandemic renewal whilst, at the same time, aiming to lead the way towards constructing a sustainable future. Current forecasts by the United Nations paint a gloomy picture of progress so far in meeting defined targets for combating climate change, with particular stress laid on the failure of cities to address their huge toll in generating CO₂ and Greenhouse Gas emissions. The way city policy makers of East Asia already have engaged with virtual reality, as an 'all or nothing' approach to digital transformation, offers a glimpse of how to proceed elsewhere—although, a similar policy, if applied in the West, will require that we adopt a 50/50 approach, partially physical, partly virtual, where people have choice on how much time they spend as an avatar in a metaverse. Success in developing an ecosystem of metaverses will depend on designers adopting a behavioral approach to constructing the virtual world; lessons from the past teach us that, as in the physical world, people's well-being in the metaverse will demand that we pay close attention to their environmental and psychological needs to ensure that a virtual life can be as fulfilling as life outside in the physical world. If all this can be achieved technologically, the resulting lifestyle changes, together with a requirement for less physical construction, give promise that we can get back on track in meeting the Paris Agreement target. By encompassing a radical policy of 'Building Less is More', cities, worldwide, will find a new route to zero carbon.

Urban sustainable development of cities could ameliorate many aspects such as population expansion, housing price increase, and ecological environment. For a better understanding of urban sustainability, many scholars have conducted different frameworks to make an accurate evaluation for urban planning. However, a myriad of existing research analyzes sustainable development based on separate and static indicts, which inevitably miss some important information related to interconnects between different indicators and timelines. This study, thus, proposes a comprehensive method that integrates the system dynamic and Monte Carlo sensitivity analysis to examine the interrelationships between different subsystems with a time series, in order to predict the feasibility of new policies for future development. A probabilistic system dynamics approach for policy optimization of sustainable urbanization is proposed with the consideration of dynamic changes and time flows. Several scenarios are simulated to perform and validate the proposed framework, where the comparisons from different results provide optimal strategies for urban sustainability. Some interesting findings can be drawn: (1) the social system is more sensitive to policy change, typically for transport connections and traffic saturation flow respects; (2) policies A1, B1, and B2 are encouraged to implement, as these regulations will boost the urban development; (3) the proposed hybrid method can be used to analyze the variables with a dynamic and long-term urban system.

High expectations from employers and complex communication between stakeholders in the construction industry, resulted in fundamental changes during the design and construction process. Excellence in communication and coordination is required between stakeholders and automated interdisciplinary change management to meet needs and expectations in the construction industry. Building Information Modeling (BIM) offers numerous benefits, including reducing construction time, cost, and risk while improving project quality, communication, and coordination. However, there are still significant barriers to BIM implementation. Since Iran is in the early stages of BIM implementation, a roadmap for adopting BIM in Iran's construction industry is designed for the first time to exploit BIM benefits in this paper. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with professionals to structure the roadmap. In addition, online interviews were carried out with 16 experts. Furthermore, a Delphi-based approach was employed to reach consensus. The roadmap consists of six main pillars with 53 activities designed to create a matured BIM plan based on local culture and needs. And the roadmap begins with assigning a strong leadership to lead the process. The industry is expected to be motivated to adopt BIM as it learns the benefits associated with BIM. Then, it continues with developing related best practices, rules and regulations. In the third stage, the roadmap encourages the industry to provide the required education and training. In the next pillar, the roadmap follows the establishment and development by defining a contractual platform. In the fifth pillar, the quality of BIM and its results will be measured and compared with expectations and pre-defined goals. Eventually, the government will provide a continuous BIM implementation. The study is expected to facilitate BIM implementation in the Iran construction industry which will improve the quality of Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) practices. It will help to culminate tangible and intangible project deliverable by reducing time, cost, risks and improving overall quality. Therefore, all stakeholders satisfy the final outcome beside resolving conflicts and interferences.

The residential sector is responsible for the consumption of 46% of the building's total primary energy consumption in Jordan. The Jordanian housing stock will need to be significantly improved to meet the government's commitment to reduce national emissions by 2050. This research aims to examine the available statistical data on residential buildings, to help better understand the current state of housing stock in Jordan and pave the way to generate a national housing stock model, as well as to identify opportunities in improving the energy efficiency of these buildings. The study synthesized data from the Department of Statistics housing survey and the Jordan Green Building Council survey to investigate the Jordanian national housing stock. The aggregated data was examined using a descriptive statistical analysis method. The data was then merged to provide aggregated datasets with detailed building characteristics.The study successfully characterized residential buildings archetypes and identified a range of typical thermal performance-related building characteristics (e.g., envelope properties, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, lighting systems, etc.). The findings of the statistical analysis can be useful for policymakers in Jordan to gain insights into the current state of the housing stock, identify trends and patterns, and make informed decisions and initiatives such as the improvement of regulatory building code requirements for energy efficiency.

In terms of global sustainable development, buildings are one of the largest energy consumers. Although technology advancements actively assist in constructing environmentally friendly buildings, educational buildings still consume a large amount of energy. On the other hand, establishing high-quality school structures is vital to give a high-quality education to future generations. Thermally comfortable zones aid physical and mental well-being of students. To this aim, this study considers evaluating the possibility of improving energy efficiency and thermal comfort in educational buildings by making minor changes to the architecture rather than reconstructing. As a case study, a university building in a temperate climate zone is selected. Seven different retrofitting strategies including changing the window and frame types, adding a Trombe wall, replacing insulation materials, adding solar collectors, decreasing set temperature and airtightness and modification on lighting system are simulated in a dynamic building energy simulation tool. The results showed that adding rock wool insulating material reduced student discomfort hours by 17%. Furthermore, using a solar collector was the most expensive choice.

Buildings are a huge carbon emitter. Efforts are being made to cut both embodied and operational carbon emissions to reduce the impact on the built environment. This study aims to compare the Life Cycle Carbon Footprint (LCCF) and Life Cycle Cost (LCC) of two alternatives: refurbishment and radical replacement of an existing community centre building in Liverpool to identify options that could achieve significant CO₂ emission reductions in an economically viable way. The calculation methods are standardised by the United Kingdom's Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors to overcome the limitations of life cycle analysis undertaken in previous research. This refers to the Inventory of Carbon and Energy database from which embodied calculation factors were extracted to get the greenhouse gases. While the operational emissions data were obtained from a thermal simulation through Integrated Environmental Solutions software. The results of this study showed that the refurbishment scenario is the best option since it emits 50% less greenhouse gas and reaches 64% lower costs compared to the new build case throughout the building's life cycle. Such that the LCCF of the refurbishment scenario was 215,084.36 kgCO₂ e/m² and its LCC £ 88,135.32, while the replacement scenario achieved 429,397.44 kgCO₂ e/m² and £ 246,213.59. It can be deducted that to reach significant reductions in carbon emissions rates with a lower economic impact, refurbishment is preferable to demolition and new construction, even if the building shows several damages and defects, which suggests that the UK government should incentivise and encourage re-use for faster environmental rehabilitation.

Finite Element Method (FEM) is widely employed for solids and multiphysics problems analysis in practically all engineering and science fields. Yet, when it comes to Topology Optimization (TO), significant issues arise concerning the geometry, hence the mesh, and non-stationary condition. Contrarily to broader Finite Element Modelling, FEM for TO has much less bibliographic support and research. Herein we depict, apply and discuss the major challenges and options concerning modelling with finite elements within TO problems. It is shown that, for the optimisation of a steel connection part, mesh refinement is critical for effective yet computationally efficient analysis. Moreover, a case-based and user-friendly approach, in the form of a tutorial article, is proposed to address the practical FE meshing for TO.

There is a high proportion of migrants in the construction industry; however, little is known of the factors that increase the risk of mental health difficulties among this group and in particular in Australia. Research studies on the mental health of migrant construction workers in Australia were searched in Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed and Google Scholar. The literature search found seven studies, of which five included a subgroup of migrant construction workers or stakeholders in the field and two studies sampled specifically from this population but from higher educational backgrounds. Three of the studies used cross-sectional surveys and the other four used qualitative interviews in combination with either other qualitative techniques or a literature review. The limited evidence suggests that migrant construction workers living in Australia are likely to experience psychological distress in the context of adverse working conditions, financial hardships and interpersonal stressors. Common methodological limitations of the literature reviewed for this paper were a lack of comparison groups, combined samples of workers from different occupations, limited use of standardized measures of psychological distress and a focus mainly on occupational factors. Implications include operationalizing interventions in a manner that is accessible to migrants and their culture. The review stresses that more research is required in this field sampling specifically from the migrant construction workers population, using comparison groups, prospective designs, and qualitative methods to help better understand the unique experiences of mental ill-health in this group.

Studies have shown that view to greenery and other natural landscape elements may have a beneficial restorative effect on urban residents, and the effect may be evaluated by the Visible Green Index (VGI) which refers to the proportion of green landscape represented by plants and waterscape in people's vision. This article proposes a method based on Sightline Sampling Algorithm (SSA) that can quickly calculate the VGI distribution in urban space. This method is operated on a voxel model, scans the distribution of plants around the viewpoint by constructing sampling sightline rays to quickly obtain the corresponding VGI information. Parametric analysis shows that for optimized combinations of voxel size and sampling size, the method can quickly calculate VGI at continuous locations with a fairly satisfactory accuracy. As a case study, the distributions of VGI in three campuses of a university in Shanghai, China is examined using the SSA method. The result shows that the method can evaluate the existing green view levels. Potential areas for improvement, i.e. high pedestrian density while poor green view percentages are identified, and the improved VGI distribution with renovation design scheme is predicted. The VGI method can be a potential tool to support architects and landscape designers in analyzing green visual quality and assessing the restorative benefits of urban landscape design.

A recently proposed direct Displacement-based procedure of nonlinear static (pushover) analysis on multi-storey reinforced concrete (r/c) buildings is verified here against the results of nonlinear response history analysis. An asymmetric, regular in elevation, torsionally flexible, multi-storey r/c building designed according to Eurocode EN 1998 is investigated. Taking fully into account the inelastic torsion and the higher mode effects, as well as the P-Delta effects, the proposed procedure applies a pattern of seismic floor enforced-displacements along the "Capable Near Collapse Principal Axes of the building", aiming at the Near Collapse state. The envelope of the results of sixteen final non-linear static analyses on the investigated building shows that the main aspects of the spatial seismic action effects can be safely captured by the proposed procedure, especially regarding the inelastic interstorey drift ratios, as well as the plastic mechanism of the building.

Dense buildings in modern cities make street pollutants more and more difficult to disperse, and the exposure level of urban residents to pollutants has increased significantly. This study focuses on the spatial and temporal distribution of ambient air pollution in urban streets and the relationship between street morphology and pollutant dispersion, and explores ways to reduce ambient air pollution in streets through spatial design. The study used the CityGrid urban grid data monitoring station to conduct an empirical study on an urban trunk road in Wuhan during the winter of 2020 to 2021, monitoring pollutants including NO₂, O₃, PM_2.5, and PM₁₀. The results showed that pollutant concentration changes in the near-road environment are affected by a combination of meteorological elements and traffic flow characteristics. The wind parallel to the road is more favorable to evacuate pollutants inside the street canyon, and the ambient wind above the canyon perpendicular to the road causes vortices in the canyon that cause gaseous pollutants to accumulate on the leeward side of the canyon. The distribution of particulate pollutants is mainly related to the distance of road pollutant sources. Building access ventilation can effectively evacuate street pollutants, and NO₂ and O₃ decay to stable levels in shorter distance from the road than PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ in downwind direction. The future urban street planning can effectively alleviate street pollution levels through strategies such as street canyon morphology control, green landscape facilities arrangement, increasing the building interface opening, and building bottom overhead.

The complexity of the building environment directly affects the spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) inside the building. Therefore, the paper systematically reviewed the effective and feasible measures, designs and relevant epidemic prevention guidelines formed in the field of epidemic prevention during the period of COVID-19, as well as the excellent research and projects around the world. The study found that most of the people infected with COVID-19 were infected indoors, but the current building design was not included in the scope of epidemic prevention design, not effectively resist the spread of infectious diseases, and there is no standard guideline for epidemic prevention building design so far. Therefore, it is necessary to formulate building epidemic prevention standards, and by considering the epidemic prevention design in the architectural planning and design stage, the use of building epidemic prevention products, healthy wind environment design, etc. to establish a healthy building environment can effectively reduce the risk of epidemic transmission inside the building. However, due to insufficient epidemiological data and pathological research on the risk of epidemic transmission among residents, further research on the standards for epidemic prevention and quantitative risk assessment methods of building is limited.

Architectural form design is crucial to building indoor and outdoor natural ventilation, and elevated building design is one of the methods for improving the outdoor wind environment. Through Integrating computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation with architectural design, an informed decision for architectural design is provided for better architectural design schemes. CFD simulation was used to explore the impacts of elevated heights on the XJTLU Central Building's wind environment at the pedestrian height around the building. Results show that the elevated design of the building has a good effect on improving the wind environment at the pedestrian height of 1.5 m around the building. For this study case and similar height buildings, the elevated design can increase the wind speed of the 1.5 m pedestrian height in the windward area of the building when the elevated height is 2.4～3.0 m. When the elevated design height is above 3.0 m, the elevated design has little impact on the 1.5 m height wind speed at the windward area of the building. On this basis, the impact of various building heights and elevated widths on the pedestrian height wind speeds were explored. Results show that when the building height is between 24 and 72 m, increasing the building height can increase the wind speed at pedestrian height in the high wind speed area of the windward area, and gradually reduce the wind speed of the pedestrian height in the low wind speed at the windward area of the building. When the total height of the building and the elevated height is unchanged, results show that increasing the elevated width of the building can increase the pedestrian height wind speeds in the high wind speed area of the windward area and has no significant impact on the pedestrian height wind field distribution in the low wind speed area of the windward area.

The objective of this paper is to quantify the slippage and rotation in the connections of a double fixed corrugated web beam. Two types of connections between the component parts of the built-up beam were used, i.e. Metal Inert Gas (MIG) brazing and spot welding, which offer different rigidities and bearing capacities for the built-up beams. Experimental tests were conducted on three MIG brazed and two spot welded specimens, respectively. The test setup consisted of a six-point bending configuration which is equivalent to a uniform distributed load applied to the beam. The load was applied from a 500kN actuator through a leverage system that allowed the distribution of the force. An out-of-plane structure prevented the beam from lateral torsional buckling. The testing exhibited relatively large slippage and deformation in the bolted connections and in the supporting device, respectively. However, the high rigidity of the beam maintained the mid-span deflection in the serviceability limit state limits. The built-up corrugated web beams made of cold-formed steel profiles represent an efficient and suitable structural solution for buildings. Nevertheless, experimental research due to inevitable slippage and the endplate deformation must be performed to characterize the connection.