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Loose-leaf for updating. ; "H-08-3." ; Cover title. ; Mode of access: Internet.

The construction industry remains a key pillar of the German economy. According to the latest construction volume calculations by DIW Berlin, the value of construction in 2014 and 2015 is forecast to grow far more rapidly than the economy as a whole: by a price-adjusted 3.3 percent and 2.1 percent in 2014 and 2015, respectively. Currently, new residential construction is an important engine for growth with the construction volume in this sector estimated to increase by almost 12 percent in 2014, in nominal terms. However, 2014 will also mark significant growth in construction on existing buildings. In addition to gains in residential construction, more positive developments are also currently being observed in commercial and public construction, following declines in these sectors in recent years. However, although residential construction is stable, the high growth rates observed in 2014 are unlikely to continue into 2015. Fears that construction price increases would be (too) strong, precisely in this sector, are not supported by the national average. However, the dynamic growth of new construction is expected to tail off appreciably. Moreover, largely as a result of the gloomy economic outlook, the commercial construction sector is also likely to record only moderate growth in construction volume. The highest increases for 2015 are expected in the public construction sector- although the investment program announced by the government is in fact likely to have very little impact, even if further relevant measures are implemented throughout the year.

This article will review recent case law and legislative enactments in Virginia of significance to Virginia's contractors, subcontractors, material suppliers and design professionals. The article will also discuss the growing sustainable or "green" building trend in Virginia and elsewhere and the potential issues that this relatively new phenomenon will raise.

Philip Davenport and Helen Durham, 2013, Federation Press, 3rd ed, ppi-xiv, 1-338, index, case table, legislation table, glossary of terms, ISBN978-1-86287-912-6, Price AUD85.00

Semnan is a city in semnan province, northern Iran with a population estimated at 119,778 inhabitants. It is the provincial capital of semnan province. Iran is a developing country and construction is a basic factor of developing too. Hence, Semnan city needs to a special programming for construction of buildings, structures and infrastructures. Semnan municipality tries to begin this program. In addition to, city has some historical monuments which can be interesting for tourists. Hence, Semnan inhabitants can benefit from tourist industry. Optimization of Energy in construction industry is another activity of this municipality and the inhabitants who execute these regulations receive some discounts. Many parts of Iran such as semnan are located in highly seismic zones and structures must be constructed safe e.g., according to recent seismic codes. In this paper opportunities of IT in construction industry of Iran are investigated in three categories. Pre-construction phase, construction phase and earthquake disaster mitigation are studied. Studies show that information technology can be used in these items for reducing the losses and increasing the benefits. Both government and private sectors must contribute to this strategic project for obtaining the best result.

The life of a building does not begin at the creation of the new; it starts with the subtraction of the old. As the pace of technological development accelerates, buildings are erected and demolished at an unprecedented rate. Cities use their urban artifacts like skyscrapers, to portray economic and political prowess. For example, the ghost cities of China are relics of a burst financial bubble while Venezuelan ruling party elites name business towers after themselves as a show of power and prosperity. Many parts of the world today are now overbuilt with artifacts that decline into obsolescence. Demolition procedures erase the failures and mistakes of our architectural predecessors. When Pruit Igoe was demolished, the incident marked not only the collapse of a housing complex but also represented the end of modernist deign. Now, more than ever, architecture needs to understand demolition and the subtractive procedures as both a tool to reduce overproduction in the world, and as a technique for space-making. Bernard Tsuchumi once state: "there is no space without even, no architecture without program". This thesis contends that a series of programmed demolition events within the Torre David will reclaim an urban space lost to overproduction. In 1990, David Brillembourg was commissioned to build the Torre David, in the business district of downtown Caracas but construction came to a standstill in 1994 due to the financial collapse. Famously FOX News has given the Torre David, the ignoble nom-de-plume "the world's tallest slum". Over time, up to 85 families occupied the abandoned buildings and made it their home. As of July 2014, the Venezuelan government launched "Operation Zamora 2014" to relocate these families in prepare for building demolition. This thesis proposes three possible scenarios for the demolition of obsolescent towers. The first and second scenarios propose are standard demolition procedures while the third scenario inserts speculative design and planning into the typically staid demolition process. Each scenario crafts different temporal frames. Scenario one creates an urban spectacle through implosive demolition over the time span of 20 minutes. Scenario two aims to create a sustainable and low uimpact demolition process over the course of 2 years. Scenario three utilizes five programmed events that are incorporated into the existing routines of the occupants of the Torre David to generate a new method for building demolition. Each of these five events modify common methods of subtraction and carving by incorporating unique specificities generated by each device use for demolition. Together the five events would complete the process of demolition of the Torre David and frame a rubble landscape in downtown Caracas.

Due to the complexity, high risk, and conservative character of the construction industry, many technologies do not become widely adopted. Even though vendors make determined efforts to overcome this and disseminate their technologies, the customers' decision making processes for adopting construction technologies at the organisational level largely remain unknown. This thesis investigates the extremely complex issues related to the current practices of technology adoption in construction. It tests the hypothesis that construction companies follow a specific logical process linked to need, project objectives, characteristics of the adopting organisation, and the characteristics of the new technology to be adopted. The study explores how construction companies make the decision to uptake a new technology by focusing on customer and vendor activities, their interactions, contributing factors, and people involved in the process.Over a period of four years, seven technology exhibitions were visited to immerse the author in the customer-vendor market community and collect substantial first-hand data regarding the strategies of the vendors. This was coupled with conducting 147 semi-structured interviews spread across Australia and North America. The credibility of the results is increased by providing detailed descriptions of the process. Finally, key factors and individuals involved in the process were identified and ranked using the Analytical Hierarchy Process.The major original contributions of this thesis are the Construction Technology Adoption Framework (CTAF) and the recognition of the vendor dissemination strategy spectrum. CTAF is a framework that delineates the stages of the process that customer organisations use when deciding to adopt a new technology and the parallel vendor activities. It is extensively validated by thematic analysis of the interviews and factor analysis. The vendor dissemination strategy spectrum consists of five classes of patterns of vendor activities that relate to the technology type being sold and the size of the vendor. The thesis offers a framework covering the key factors that vary across this spectrum: Physical appearance, Interpersonal relationship, and Technology demonstration (PIT). It is extensively validated by both fuzzy and hard cluster analysis methods. The thesis also introduces the Downtime, Interpersonal relationship, and Technology operation quality (DIT) framework, and a study of the customer organisation factors relevant to technology adoption. The DIT framework delineates the implementation factors that are important in making new technology decisions. The customer organisation factors include the personnel roles in the organisation, the effect of organisational structure, and the effect of attitude to technology. These contributions are cross validated between customer and vendor responses and between Australia and North America. The significance of these contributions is that they enable vendors to understand how to match their dissemination strategies with customer expectations in each stage of the technology adoption process. It also provides a benchmark for new construction companies to use the current best practice in decision making. Understanding the CTAF decision framework also helps industry bodies and government organisations that seek to generally raise the use of new technology in the industry. The theoretical significance is that it unites the vendor perspective with the customer perspective and covers a wide range of construction technologies.The scope of the thesis is limited to technologies in the construction industry in developed nations. Future research is warranted to more clearly delineate any differences with developing nations or related industries.

The extent of implementation of contractual clauses related to the reduction of construction waste on construction sites has been investigated with the help of several contracts which were incorporated by different government organizations and listed out the clauses that are already mentioned in contracts. In the next process, various solutions and techniques that are being implemented in different countries to reduce construction waste have been found, and have been listed out as a reference by which it is identified whether those solutions can be included as clauses in contracts or not. Interviews with different construction companies' responsible managers were conducted and the solutions have been implemented in the research work. In the final research work, we came up with a solution that has been approved by many responsible managers, and that should be incorporated as a clause in contracts to reduce construction waste.

The construction industry plays a vital role in the physical and socio-economic development of cities. However, poor execution and frequent breakdown of construction works such as roads and houses obstruct the overall development of cities since most social and economic activities depend of these projects. This paper sought to assess the extent to which lean construction principles are utilised in construction activities in Ghana's cities and ways that these principles can be applied effectively to improve the delivery of construction works. The study concentrated in Accra, Kumasi and Sekondi-Takoradi cities whilst officials from the Metro Works Departments of the selected cities and various construction professionals constituted the target population. Questionnaire was the research instrument employed and Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficient Test was used to analyse the results.It was revealed that various lean construction principles such as value, value stream, flow, pull and perfection are poorly implemented with each of these principles having less than 50 percent rate of application. Barriers such as long lead time, poor procurement system and contracts, cultural and human factors, political influence, and lack of financial and management commitment were found to be responsible for that. To successfully apply the lean construction principles and enhance the sustainability of construction projects, measures such as benchmarking, process mapping, last planner procedures and continuous training of workers in the construction industry have been recommended.

The construction industry is one of the most important industries because of its end product, such as schools, hospitals, and roads. This industry contributes to social and economic development by providing buildings for other sectors' usage. Nevertheless, despite these contributions, the construction industry also has issues related to construction wastes, which need to be resolved. Hence, Lean Construction (LC) approach is a useful technique that traditionally converged on minimizing construction waste. LC is an approach based on lean production that emphasizes minimally invasive and maximally profitable production. This paper's primary purpose is to explore the usage of LC in the Malaysian construction industry (MCI). This paper aims to identify LC implementation issues, determine the impact of LC implementation, and recommend enhancing the LC implementation in the MCI. Data was obtained from G7 contractors registered with the Construction Industry Development Board of Malaysia (CIDB) by distributing questionnaire surveys, and the response rate was 20%. Through the descriptive analysis, it can be concluded that most of the respondents agreed with lack of knowledge was the major issue that occurred during the LC implementation in the MCI. Furthermore, the respondents agreed that LC positively impacted the LC practitioners' organization by encouraging them to undertake construction materials appropriately without wasting them and improving handling the site's resources. Based on the findings, it is recommended that the government should introduce this LC as a policy in managing a construction site, and LC practitioners should implement the best construction practices to obtain the best results. Additionally, it is also suggested that the industry educate the construction workforce on implementing this LC concept and create more ongoing seminars or training to upgrade their knowledge, skills, techniques, and processes. This research's outcomes play an essential role in reducing the gap between the theory and implementation practices of LC in the MCI. Thus, this LC is hoped that future construction projects in the MCI can produce a better quality of end products towards a better quality of life.

The presence of Chinese construction companies working in Namibia has had an impact on the Namibian construction industry and the economy of the country. This article provides an overview of current trends and legislative acts relating to the construction industry in Namibia. It also describes the effect that Chinese construction companies have had on Namibian contractors and the tender opportunities available to these local contractors, and analyses to what extent Chinese construction companies comply with the various acts relating to the construction industry; as perceived by construction industry stakeholders. A questionnaire survey was conducted among Namibian contractors and building professionals and the results revealed that Chinese construction companies dominate and have a negative effect on local Small and Micro Enterprises (SMEs). Some of the Chinese contractors are being awarded tenders without having complied with the tender regulations set by the Tender Board.

The article aims to monitor the construction development dynamics in Ukraine in recent years and substantiate its impact on the construction enterprises' financial results in general. The existing factors of development of construction in Ukraine are analyzed. The following groups: political, raw, industrial, environmental, consumer, infrastructure and investment, macroeconomic, financial, social, and innovative are identified. The influence of the factors mentioned above on the financial results of construction enterprises activity and the generating factors - income and expenses- is revealed. It was established that construction has become more active in recent years, with the highest residential and non-residential construction rates and the engineering structures construction in 2016, which were observed in Kyiv. Each year, the largest capital investments are characterized by engineering structures, in contrast to residential and non-residential buildings. The maximization of income and cost minimization make for improving the efficiency of the management of construction enterprises, which represents their ultimate goal. The conducted research gives reasons to state the significant role of the country macroeconomic environment in the construction enterprises functioning and the purport of their financial results. Construction development directions in the present conditions, the methodology, and construction enterprise accounting organization are covered.

2015 World Congress on Sustainable Technologies (WCST) ; Sustainable building construction has become essential in the construction industry with the aim of satisfying the present and future needs of construction stakeholders. Selection and procurement of appropriate materials that satisfies the principles of sustainability is paramount in construction. To this end, the traditional method of materials procurement has been found to be inefficient considering the increased innovations and diversity of materials available for construction. This paper explores the implementation of Ecommerce especially e-procurement as a strategy for improving the process of materials procurement in the South African construction industry. This study obtained data quantitatively through questionnaires administered to 150 construction professionals in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. A total of 93 responses were retrieved and analysed. Findings indicated: building cost reduction, enhanced environmental protection and enhanced implementation of government policies as benefits of sustainability in materials procurement towards sustainable building production. However, eprocurement implementation during materials procurement are hindered by (a) lack of awareness, (b) resistance to change, (c) high cost of installation and operation and (d) internet fraud. Given the benefits and impacts of e-commerce, adequate implementation of these findings should proffer a suitable strategy in addressing the challenges of materials procurement towards sustainable building construction.

This report on Construction Research and Development Performers and Funders is fifth in the series started in 1983. Previous inventories/surveys were based on activities in 1983, 1987, 1992 and 1998. This study was commissioned by the Institute for Research in Construction (IRC), National Research Council to determine trends in Construction R&D that could be used to assist the government in establishing priorities.There has been a significant reduction in the total amount of construction research and development reported in the past decade. Since 1998 the total construction R&D expenditure has reduced by about 25 per cent. When combined with the reduction of about thirteen per cent between 1992 and 1998 we have seen a cumulative reduction in construction R&D spending of over thirty-five per cent in the past decade. ; Ce rapport sur les participants et les bailleurs de fonds des domaines de la recherche et du développement en construction est le cinquième d'une série entreprise en 1983. Les enquêtes/inventaires antérieurs étaient fondés sur les activités s'étant déroulées en 1983, en 1987, en 1992 et en 1998. Cette étude a été mandatée par l'Institut de recherche en construction (IRC) du Conseil national de recherches du Canada, dans le but de déterminer quelles sont les tendances en R. et D. de la construction qui pourraient permettre afin d'aider le gouvernement à établir des priorités à cet égard. On a noté une réduction considérable du volume total de projets de R. et D. en construction qui ont été consignés durant la décennie écoulée. Depuis 1998, le montant total des dépenses de R. et D. dans cette industrie a chuté de près de 25 %. Si l'on ajoute à ce chiffre la baisse d'environ 13 % enregistrée entre 1992 et 1998, nous obtenons ainsi une réduction cumulative de plus de 35 % des dépenses consacrées à la R. et D. de ce secteur durant la dernière décennie. ; Peer reviewed: No ; NRC publication: Yes

Construction industry is second largest industry in gulf countries, that continuously rapidly growing. Similar to other countries around the world, construction industries in gulf region also facing problems due to oil industry uncertainties. Construction industry of gulf countries, construction material waste is getting higher concern. This paper aims to identify various factors in construction management causing construction material waste at Muscat, and Nizwa cities in Oman. Seventy-one (71) factors were collected from literature around the world and organized in structured questionnaire distributed amongst the construction experts focusing clients, consultants and contractors involved in the construction projects. The questionnaire was designed in such a way to collect construction waste causing factors in five major categories in (Design, Handling, Workers, Management, Procurement, and Site conditions). The collected data were analyzed by using Average Index method for each factor. Furthermore, construction material waste causing factors analyzed by individual response of client, consultant and contractor prospective. Analysis identified that 'frequent design changes'; 'wrong material storage'; 'worker's mistakes during construction'; 'poor supervision'; 'mistakes in quantity surveys'; and 'poor site conditions'; are highest significant causes in each category respectively. The result of this study is useful to create or/and improve guideline considering waste generated from construction industry, to avoid problems in looming construction. It is concluded that the government organizations or/and construction industry itself can develop or improve legislation for avoiding construction material waste.