Search

PurposeAugmented reality (AR) has become one of the most promising technologies in construction since it can seamlessly connect the physical construction environment and virtual contents. In view of the recent research efforts, this study attempts to summarize the latest research achievements and inform future development of AR in construction.Design/methodology/approachThe review was conducted in three steps. First, a keyword search was adopted, and 546 papers were found from Scopus and Web of Science. Second, each paper was screened based on the selection criteria, and a final set of 69 papers was obtained. Third, specific AR applications and the associated technical details were extracted from the 69 papers for further analysis.FindingsThe review shows that: (1) design assessment, process monitoring and maintenance management and operation were the most frequently cited AR applications in the design, construction, and operation stages, respectively; (2) information browser and tangible interaction were more frequently adopted than collaborative interaction and hybrid interaction; and (3) AR has been integrated with BIM, computer vision, and cloud computing for enhanced functions.Originality/valueThe contributions of this study to the body of knowledge are twofold. First, this study extends the understanding of AR applications in the construction setting. Second, this study identifies possible improvements in the design and development of AR systems in order to leverage their benefits to construction.

Design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA) has become a buzzword amid the global resurgence of prefabrication and construction industrialization. Some argued that DfMA is hardly new, as there are concepts such as buildability, lean construction, value management, and integrated project delivery in place already. Others believe that DfMA is a new direction to future construction. This paper aims to review the development of DfMA in manufacturing and its status quo in construction, and clarify its similarities and differences to other concepts. A multi-step research method is adopted in this study: First, an analytical framework is generated; Secondly, a literature review is conducted on DfMA in general, and DfMA-like concepts in the AEC industry; The third step is to compare DfMA with related concepts. This study reveals that DfMA as a philosophy is hardly new in construction, and the empirical implementation of many DfMA guidelines has begun in the AEC industry. The findings suggested that DfMA is a new and mixed ‘cocktail’ of opportunities and challenges to improve construction productivity with the advancement of construction materials, production and assembly technologies, and ever-strengthened logistics and supply chain management. This study sheds light on three research directions: DfMA implementation and guidance strategies, DfMA frameworks and blueprints, and applications in cast in-situ or intermediate prefabrication construction. Our research findings provide a synopsis of DfMA research and development in construction. This paper can also serve as a point of departure for future theoretical and empirical explorations.

Configuring a trustworthy Internet of Things (IoT)–enabled building information modeling (BIM) platform (IBP) is significant for modular construction to ensure transparency, traceability, a...

The built environment closely relates to the development of COVID-19 and post-disaster recovery. Nevertheless, few studies examine its impacts on the recovery stage and corresponding urban development strategies. This study examines the built environment’s role in Wuhan’s recovery at the city block level through a natural experiment. We first aggregated eight built environmental characteristics (BECs) of 192 city blocks from the perspectives of density, infrastructure supply, and socioeconomic environment; then, the BECs were associated with the recovery rates at the same city blocks, based on the public “COVID-19-free” reports of about 7,100 communities over the recovery stages. The results showed that three BECs, i.e., “number of nearby designated hospitals,” “green ratio,” and “housing price” had significant associations with Wuhan’s recovery when the strict control measures were implemented. At the first time of reporting, more significant associations were also found with “average building age,” “neighborhood facility development level,” and “facility management level.” In contrast, no associations were found for “controlled residential land-use intensity” and “plot ratio” throughout the stages. The findings from Wuhan’s recovery pinpointing evidence with implications in future smart and resilient urban development are as follows: the accessibility of hospitals should be comprehensive in general; and the average housing price of a city block can reflect its post-disaster recoverability compared to that of the other blocks.

A COVID-19 outbreak occurred in May 2020 in a public housing building in Hong Kong - Luk Chuen House, located in Lek Yuen Estate. The horizontal cluster linked to the index case' flat (flat 812) remains to be explained. Computational fluid dynamics simulations were conducted to obtain the wind-pressure coefficients of each external opening on the eighth floor of the building. The data were then used in a multi-zone airflow model to estimate the airflow rate and aerosol concentration in the flats and corridors on that floor. Apart from flat 812 and corridors, the virus-laden aerosol concentrations in flats 811, 813, 815, 817 and 819 (opposite to flat 812, across the corridor) were the highest on the eighth floor. When the doors of flats 813 and 817 were opened by 20%, the hourly-averaged aerosol concentrations in these two flats were at least four times as high as those in flats 811, 815 and 819 during the index case's home hours or the suspected exposure period of secondary cases. Thus, the flats across the corridor that were immediately downstream from flat 812 were at the highest exposure risk under a prevailing easterly wind, especially when their doors or windows that connected to the corridor were open. Given that the floorplan and dimension of Luk Chuen House are similar to those of many hotels, our findings provide a probable explanation for COVID-19 outbreaks in quarantine hotels. Positive pressure and sufficient ventilation in the corridor would help to minimise such cross-corridor infections.

Construction businesses expanding internationally often need to devise corporate social responsibility (CSR) as an indispensable component of their competitive strategies. Companies will cu...

Blockchain technology has been explored for governmental supervision of construction work (GSCW) due to its merits of traceability, immutability, and transparency. However, its decentralize...

PurposeThe practice of facility management (FM) has been evolving with the rapid development of pervasive sensing technologies (PSTs) such as sensors, automatic identification (auto-ID), laser scanning and photogrammetry. Despite the proliferation of research on the use of PSTs for FM, a comprehensive review of such research is missing from the literature. This study aims to cover the knowledge void by examining the status quo and challenges of the selected PSTs with a focus on FM.Design/methodology/approachThis paper reviewed 204 journal papers recounting cases of using PSTs for FM. The reviewed papers were extracted from Elsevier Scopus database using the advanced search.FindingsFindings of this study revealed that PSTs and FM applications form a many-to-many mapping, i.e. one PST could facilitate many FM applications, and one application can also be supported by various PSTs. It is also found that energy modeling and management is the most referred purpose in FM to adopt PSTs, while space management, albeit important, received the least attention. Five challenges are identified, which include high investment on PSTs, data storage problem, absence of proper data exchange protocols for data interoperability, a lack of mature data processing methods for data utilization and privacy of users.Originality/valueThis paper paints a full picture of PSTs adoption for FM. It pinpoints the promising explorations for tackling the key challenges to future development.

Prefabricated housing construction (PHC) will be widely recognized as a contributor to consumption reduction and sustainability enhancement if inherent drawbacks (e.g., fragmented management, poor connectivity) can be addressed efficiently. The promotion of advanced information and communication technologies (ICT) has triggered the evolvement of smart product-service systems (SPSS), where a smart connected product (SCP) acts as a critical role in the interconnection of physical components and specialized services for value co-creation. Hence, it is promising to realize the positive improvement of PHC based on an SPSS approach, especially during the challenging post-COVID-19 pandemic era. We developed an intelligent platform based on service-oriented manners with practical case demonstration for interactive innovation of PHC shareholders, among which prefabricated components (PC) have been defined as the SCP in PHC, and a platform-enabled approach has also been adopted in the way of SPSS. Furthermore, distributed security technology viz. blockchain along with inclusive ICT (e.g., Internet-of-Things (IoT), Cyber-Physical System (CPS), and Building Information Modeling (BIM)) are employed jointly to spark new modes of smart construction. Meanwhile, valuable exploration and open research directions are expected to facilitate the PHC supply chain to become more resilient in sustainability.

The pursuit of modern product sophistication and production efficiency has bolstered design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA) around the world. Being both a design philosophy and a method...

Many studies have been conducted to create building information models (BIMs) or city information models (CIMs) as the digital infrastructure to support various smart city programs. However, automatic generation of such models for high-density (HD) urban areas remains a challenge owing to (a) complex topographic conditions and noisy data irrelevant to the buildings, and (b) exponentially growing computational complexity when the task is reconstructing hundreds of buildings at an urban scale. This paper develops a method - multi-Source recTification of gEometric Primitives (mSTEP) - for automatic reconstruction of BIMs in HD urban areas. By retrieving building base, height, and footprint geodata from topographic maps, level of detail 1 (LoD1) BIMs representing buildings with flat roof configuration were first constructed. Geometric primitives were then detected from LiDAR point clouds and rectified using architectural knowledge about building geometries (e.g. a rooftop object would normally be in parallel with the outer edge of the roof). Finally, the rectified primitives were used to refine the LoD1 BIMs to LoD2, which show detailed geometric features of roofs and rooftop objects. A total of 1361 buildings located in a four square kilometer area of Hong Kong Island were selected as the subjects for this study. The evaluation results show that mSTEP is an efficient BIM reconstruction method that can significantly improve the level of automation and decrease the computation time. mSTEP is also well applicable to point clouds of various densities. The research is thus of profound significance; other cities and districts around the world can easily adopt mSTEP to reconstruct their own BIMs/CIMs to support their smart city programs.

The global construction industry has witnessed the prolific development of radio-frequency identification (RFID), building information modeling (BIM), and most recently, linkage of the two. However, comparatively little attention has been paid to understanding the status quo and development trajectory of such RFID-enabled BIM systems. In view of the proliferation of existing RFID, BIM, and information linkage, practitioners would benefit from guidelines for choosing systems so that their construction engineering and management (CEM) needs can be better met. Accordingly, the study described in this paper has two interconnected research aims: (1) to identify current patterns and development trends in RFID-enabled BIM systems; and (2) to develop guidelines for choosing appropriate solutions for different CEM scenarios. A review of 42 actual cases published in scholarly papers reveals that RFID, used to identify objects and improve real-time information visibility and traceability, is now increasingly linked to BIM as a central information platform. This study provides practitioners with five-step guidelines for linking RFID to BIM for various CEM needs. It also provides researchers with a point of departure for further exploration of approaches to enhancing the value of RFID, BIM, and the integration of one with the other.

It is generally accepted that the extra construction costs involved in the construction of green buildings will result in benefits including lower operation costs, higher sale/rental prices, and better sustainability performance. However, there has been little recognition of construction waste minimization (CWM) as one of the important benefits of sustainability performance as designated in green building. This paper aims to provide a better understanding of the cost benefit of green buildings with respect to CWM by using big data in the context of Hong Kong. The study is innovative in that it conducts a cost-benefit analysis specifically on CWM of green buildings by mining large-volume datasets. A surprise finding is that Hong Kong's green building rating system (GBRS), i.e. the BEAM Plus, has a negligible effect on CWM, while it generally increases construction costs by approximately 24%. Hence, the increased construction cost of green buildings cannot be offset by CWM if corresponding items in the BEAM Plus are not properly incentivized. This paper demonstrates the necessity of emphasizing CWM-related items in GBRSs and of taking appropriate measures to deal with them. It also provides better decision-support information on the increased construction costs and the attainable benefits of green building that developers may wish to consider when initiating a green building project.

Building Information Modelling (BIM) serves as a useful tool in facilitating the on-site assembly services (OAS) of prefabricated construction for its benefits of powerful management of physical and functional digital presentations. However, the benefits of using BIM in the OAS of prefabricated construction cannot be cultivated with an incomplete, inaccurate, and untimely data exchange and lack of real-time visibility and traceability. To deal with these challenges, an Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled platform is designed by integrating IoT and BIM for prefabricated public housing projects in Hong Kong. The demands of the stakeholders were analysed; then smart construction objects (SCOs) and smart gateway are defined and designed to collect real-time data throughout the working processes of on-site assembly of prefabricated construction using the radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. The captured data is uploaded to cloud in real-time to process and analyse for decision support purposes for the involved site managers and workers. Visibility and traceability functions are developed with BIM and virtual reality (VR) technologies, through which managers can supervise the construction progress and approximate cost information in a real-time manner. The IoT-enabled platform can provide various decision support tools and services to different stakeholders, for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of daily operations, decision making, collaboration, and supervision throughout on-site assembly processes of prefabricated construction.

Blockchain technology has attracted the interest of the global construction industry for its potential to enhance the transparency, traceability, and immutability of construction data and enables collaboration and trust throughout the supply chain. However, such potential cannot be achieved without blockchain “oracles” needed to bridge the on-chain (i.e., blockchain system) and off-chain (i.e., real-life physical project) worlds. This study presents an innovative solution that exploits smart construction objects (SCOs). It develops a SCOs-enabled blockchain oracles (SCOs-BOs) framework. To instantiate this framework, the system architecture of a blockchain-enabled construction supply chain management (BCSCM) system is developed and validated using a case study, whereby four primary smart contracts are examined in the context of off-site logistics and on-site assembly services. The validation results show that accurate data is retrieved against malicious data in each request, and the corresponding reputation scores are successfully recorded. The innovativeness of the research lies in two aspects. In addition to mobilizing SCOs as blockchain oracles to bridge the on-chain and off-chain worlds, it develops a decentralized SCO network to avoid the single point of failure (SPoF) problem widely existing in blockchain systems. This study contributes to existing research and practice to harness the power of blockchain in construction.

The rapidly expanding number of IoT-based camera devices makes smart work packaging (SWP) easier to access massive construction workers' personal image information for occupational health and safety (OHS) status monitoring. SWP can then transmit these personal data to the cloud for training the machine learning models and offer safety alerts or health insights. However, there are two urgently important challenges. Firstly, the machine learning model needs to aggregate the SWPs' image data from each construction worker, which may pose a risk to private data leakage without strict privacy and security agreement. In addition, the machine learning models trained on all SWPs' image data may compromise the personalization of image-based OHS status monitoring for each construction worker. To address the above issues, this study proposes a FedSWP framework, the federated transfer learning-enabled SWP for protecting the personal image information of construction workers in OHS management. FedSWP executes the gradient parameters aggregation through federated learning for the image data in each SWP and builds relatively personalized models by transfer learning. Crane operators' facial fatigue monitoring experiments are conducted and have evaluated that FedSWP can achieve accurate and personalized safety alerts and healthcare. This study paves the way for the generalization and extension of FedSWP in many construction OHS applications.

Tower crane scheduling is a classic conundrum. It is further complicated to prevent collisions and reduce idle transportation time among multiple overlapping tower cranes. Unlike previous research attempts, this study aims to provide an optimal solution to this multiple crane service scheduling problem (MCSSP). Firstly, the MCSSP was translated to a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model. Then, the model was optimized by 1) distributing the lifting requests in overlapping areas to the proper tower cranes; 2) selecting the appropriate supply location to serve each lifting request; and 3) arranging the lifting sequences of each tower crane to complete the requests. Compared with previous methods, the proposed MILP model (solved using Gurobi™) can result in the saving of 6.54%–18.07% of total operation costs meanwhile achieving the non-collision goal. The findings of this research can be deployed in optimizing efficiency and safety in the real-life scheduling of multiple overlapping tower cranes.

Prefabricated construction has been used for public rental housing in Hong Kong. In order to speed up housing delivery, Hong Kong Housing Authority (HKHA) have employed advanced technologies, including Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), in some of their pilot prefabrication-based construction projects. However, the information obtained from BIM and RFID is not well connected and shared among relevant stakeholders. This paper introduces a multi-dimensional Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled BIM platform (MITBIMP) to achieve real-time visibility and traceability in prefabricated construction. Design considerations of a RFID Gateway Operating System, visibility and traceability tools, Data Source Interoperability Services, and decision support services are specified for developing the MITBIMP. A case study from a real-life construction project in Hong Kong is used as a pilot project to demonstrate advanced decision-making by using cutting-edge concepts and technologies within the MITBIMP to providing a basis for real-time visibility and traceability of the whole processes of prefabrication-based construction.

Building Information Models (BIMs) and City Information Models (CIMs) have flourished in building and urban studies independently over the past decade. Semantic enrichment is an indispensable process that adds new semantics such as geometric, non-geometric, and topological information into existing BIMs or CIMs to enable multidisciplinary applications in fields such as construction management, geoinformatics, and urban planning. These two paths are now coming to a juncture for integration and juxtaposition. However, a critical review of the semantic enrichment of BIM and CIM is missing in the literature. This research aims to probe into semantic enrichment by comparing its similarities and differences between BIM and CIM over a ten-year time span. The research methods include establishing a uniform conceptual model, and sourcing and analyzing 44 pertinent cases in the literature. The findings plot the terminologies, methods, scopes, and trends for the semantic enrichment approaches in the two domains. With the increasing availability of data sources, algorithms, and computing power, they cross the border to enter each other’s domain. Future research will likely gain new momentums from the demands of value-added applications, development of remote sensing devices, intelligent data processing algorithms, interoperability between BIM and CIM software platforms, and emerging technologies such as big data analytics.

Those attempting to integrate building information modeling (BIM) and blockchain soon encounter the enormous challenge of information redundancy. Storage of duplicated building information in decentralized ledgers already creates redundancy, and this is exacerbated as the BIM model develops and is utilized. This paper presents a novel semantic differential transaction (SDT) approach to minimizing information redundancy in the nascent field of BIM and blockchain integration. Whereas the conventional thinking is to store an entire BIM model or its signature code in blockchain, SDT captures local model changes as SDT records and assembles them into a BIM change contract (BCC). In this way, the version history of a BIM project becomes a chain of timestamped BCCs, and stakeholders can promptly synchronize BIM changes in blockchain. We test our approach in two pilot cases. The results show that SDT captures, in near real time, sequential and simultaneous BIM changes at

The estimate of construction waste generation is the key decision-making information for policy-makers, construction managers, and the like to devise informed waste management strategies. However, estimating construction waste generated from projects is particularly onerous, as numerous factors related to design, site, and construction are largely in a fuzzy nature when the estimating job is conducted. Built upon previous studies, this paper seeks to develop a model that can be used to estimate construction waste generation based on fuzzy set theory. It follows a trilogy of methodology, including model development, sensitivity analysis, and model validation. A set of IF-THEN rules are developed based on two independent variables, built area and number of floors. A sensitive analysis was conducted to evaluate the influence of the independent variables on waste generation. The model is further calibrated and verified through a case study of 23 residential buildings constructed in the Brazilian Amazon. The model obtained an accuracy of 64.29% in the development phase and 66.67% in the validation phase, showing that the results are largely acceptable. By using this model, it is possible for a waste manager to draw up a baseline graph to indicate the volume of construction waste generation as his/her building project as it progresses. The research is also of novelty by using fuzzy set theory to deal with the fuzzy nature of waste generation in construction projects. Further studies are recommended to enhance the accuracy level of the model by engaging more factors and more quality data.

The toll-adjustment mechanism (TAM) is a hybrid of a price cap regulation mechanism and a revenue sharing mechanism. It is one solution to saving private investors from severe traffic demand risk and the government from heavy fiscal burden, while ensuring the private investor a reasonable but not excessive rate of return in a public-private partnership (PPP) concession contract. This research models TAM as a real option to assess the value of flexibility of the right (but not obligation) to toll adjustments. A hypothetical case study derived from a real-life project (the Western Harbour Crossing in Hong Kong) is illustrated in detail to demonstrate the application of the framework developed and to validate the effectiveness and robustness of the framework. Outcomes of the research can help the government to design reasonable concession contracts and help the private investors to make sound investment decisions through effective management of the traffic demand risk. Therefore, a win-win prospect can be achieved in PPP concession contracts for both parties

Prevailing facility management (FM) discourses have recognized the importance of efficient facilities to improve the quality of life and the productivity of business. Advanced technologies have elevated facilities from ‘bricks and mortar’ to ‘intelligent beings’. To date, facilities have become more anthropomorphized, imbued with cognitive capability akin to humans, e.g., able to perceive, learn, and act. However, the development of ‘cognitive FM’ remains in its infancy. This paper attempts to put forward the concept of cognitive FM by providing a working definition and articulating its key characteristics, including perception, learning, and action. An eight-layer system architecture is proposed to facilitate the implementation of cognitive FM. Following that, a demonstrative scenario called ‘Event Manager’ is utilized to showcase the potential applications of such cognitive FM. The paper contributes to the body of knowledge by advancing the stagnant FM discourses defined and subsequently confined by the smart/intelligent building language three decades ago. It opens a new avenue for both researchers and practitioners to better investigate and value FM as a cognitive system.

With the increasing complexity of architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) projects and fast track execution of project works, written documents are becoming more and more important for project coordination, communication, and works control. Finding all the relevant information from unstructured construction documents is critical to various management tasks such as work planning, progress control, and claims. A framework is proposed in this research to retrieve project-wide as-needed information from AEC documents. Through this framework, improvement in the levels of precision and recall in the information retrieval process can be made effective through the use of a project-specific term dictionary and dependency grammar parsing information of textual documents. Their effectiveness is demonstrated through a series of experimental tests conducted on a real life building redevelopment project with different information retrieval and ranking strategies. The results and findings are presented...