The direct cost of rework in the construction industry accounts for 12.4% of total contract value. Considering the annual turnover of Australian construction industry was $43.5 billion in 1996, the cost of the rework may be about $5.4 billion per annum. Although defects represent a large cost, few participants in the construction process have a clear understanding of why rework exists, or how to tackle the problem. Construction managers tend to ‘bury’ the errors on site without determining the causes and effects of those errors. Unlike the manufacturing industry, quality management is not applied consistently in the construction industry; as a result, rework is accepted as an inevitable part of the construction process. This study benchmarks the cost of rework in Australian house construction based on a database on building defects supplied by a government insurance organization and interviews with construction contractors. The results show that type of construction, size of the contacting organization and the use of quality assurance systems effect the cost of rework.
South Africa and many other developing countries throughout the world are facing serious public housing challenges. The public housing backlog has reached crisis proportions and these countries are struggling to meet the increasing demands for public housing. This paper attempts to provide an overview of the global models, approaches and trends regarding the development of public housing policies. The paper looks at the development of public housing policy in selected parts of the world, namely the United States of America (USA), Great Britain, Germany and South Africa. The primary reason for selecting these countries is to analyze how their respective public housing policies were developed. Similarities and differences in housing policies in the developed and developing countries are then used as pointers for the developing countries.
In the U.K. there is a housing crisis: this paper presents a new research study taking place at the University of Salford dedicated to the systemic seamless delivery of sustainable housing: ‘G-Tech’. There has been much research in this area but with very little uptake of outcomes from industry, which is what this study aims to counter. The study considers all the relevant drivers such as government policy, an ageing population, demand, regional growth, sustainability and global warming with the intention to provide a systemic multi-level, multi actor innovation framework providing a full ‘service’ from the concept of need through to demolition and reuse. One of the studies main objectives is to alter stakeholder mindsets, remove the barriers and encourage greater adoption of the sustainable dwelling. The study will align sustainable homes to meet all the requirements set out by the triple bottom line of sustainability encompassing social, economical and environmental issues. Copyright © 2010 IAHS.
Restoration of old buildings is becoming increasingly important in the logic of encouraging the conservation of architectural heritage. This means that the number of scientific studies involving pathology and restoration is also growing in particularly those related with rising damp. If we analyze the pathologies observed in old buildings systematically, we find that rising damp is an important problem. We have recently proceed to the experimental validation, in laboratory, of a new treatment technique for rising damp in old buildings which consists in ventilating the base of the walls resorting to a natural ventilation proceeding or to a hydro regulated mechanical system. At this moment we are caring out the experimental validation in real old buildings. The experimental validation as been followed with different sensibility studies based in numerical simulations using 2D computational programs. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of numerical simulations that have been carried out with the main goal of analysing the influence of the thickness and the properties of the materials of the walls in the new treatment technique for rising damp: ventilation of the wall bases. Copyright © 2010 IAHS.
With the scarcity of land supply, complex high-rise buildings of more than 50 storeys are not uncommon in property developments in Hong Kong in the last ten years. Large and deluxe commercial complex, shopping malls or resident clubhouses are usually built below the tower blocks aiming at maximizing the investment returns and maintaining the cutting edge in the competitive property market from the mindset of developers. Consequently, different structural layouts have to be devised for the upper and lower structures in order to meet the functional requirements. Transfer plates are often employed to separate and transfer the loadings of the tower blocks to the podium structures. Building developments are becoming more complex in terms of technology applied, scale of investment and tight construction schedule. This induces new challenges for construction management and there are needs to refine the complexity of building projects to facilitate construction planning. In this study, the characteristics of building projects are reviewed and studied by using factor analysis. The analysis attempts to re-group the project data into meaningful factors. These variables have been used in previous relevant researches and are analyzed with subjective measurements. On the contrary, an objective approach is used in this research. This study aims at exploring their contributions and interrelationship, and hence classifying and defining the project natures by using the factors devised. The proposed approach in defining building projects enables construction planners to distinguish the differences between building projects from the view of production processes and to improve resources allocation. Copyright © 2010 IAHS.
