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The indoor environmental factors considered in higher educational building must be determined in order to meet the user's requirement. Disruption of indoor environment may constitute to reduce occupants' efficiencies and their learning process and activities. But the question is, how to ensure that the provision of indoor environmental aspects achieves high satisfaction to the building user. Therefore, POE (post occupancy evaluation) is a prominent tool that indicates satisfaction and comfort level needs by the building occupants as lessons learned to identify problems in the indoor environment. The information of the building's condition is gained by reviewing what the occupants' feelings are and how they response to their needs by using and occupying the building. With relation to the title, the main aim of this study is to determine the occupants' satisfaction levels and the probability of learning process, which can be affected due to poor environmental conditions, based on analytical study on concept and process of POE. A survey on occupants' satisfaction of 100 students in University Technology of MARA, Perak, Malaysia, has revealed that there is significance of providing good quality of indoor environmental conditions, that will affect the learning process of the students. It is concluded that POE is effective to be used in evaluating performance of environmental conditions in a building, especially to apply the relative impact of aspects towards the design of future buildings. By introducing POE in evaluating environmental conditions in higher educational buildings, it is hoped that it helps to move the industry towards sustainable, healthy and comfortable learning areas. (Contains 1 table and 5 figures.)

The core business of hotels lies in the hotel buildings design and its service operation. As the hotels are concentrating more on aesthetics values as one aspect of perceived experiential value, a careful selection of materials is urgently needed for hotel sectors. It is important to identify the crucial criteria in choosing building materials towards the hotel's operational sustainability. Thus, this paper aims to analyze the significance level building materials criteria (BMC) towards hotel's operational sustainability. A quantitative approach was adopted via questionnaire surveys to 116 operation and maintenance manager that worked in 29 green rated hotels throughout Malaysia. The data is analysed using SmartPLS 4, a software with graphical user interface for variance-based structural equation modeling (SEM) using the partial least squares (PLS) path modeling method. Results from the SEM-PLS has supported three (3) hypothesis, that confirmed the manufacturers criteria, health criteria and resource management criteria, as the BMC variables has significance relationship towards hotel's operational sustainability. This study significantly helps the developers, hoteliers, stakeholders, consultants, and designers to be aware of the applicability and suitability to be used in their projects. The findings provide practical insights for hotel operators and managers, offering guidance on selecting building materials aligned with sustainability goals. This operational focus can aid hotels in making informed decisions that enhance their overall sustainability performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrialised Building System (IBS) is known as a construction system that consists of a combination of components manufactured either on-site or off-site then positioned and assembled into structures. Among the benefits of IBS construction includes labour cost reduction, support desirable environment, maximize efficient use of resources and waste minimisation towards sustainable construction. However, Malaysian construction industry still has a low take-up rate on IBS construction. Hence, to promote the project’s viability via IBS, ideally, the benefits of IBS are more reliable to be presented in tangible (monetary) value and intangible (non-monetary) basis rather than descriptive benefits. Therefore, Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) can be used in order to identify the soft issue or non-direct cost and elicits more transparency in IBS projects. This paper presents the conceptual review of the fundamental theory of CBA on the measurement of cost and benefits that can be converted as a weighing impact for an IBS project. An initial conceptual model known as CBA-IBS model is proposed as an approach that a decision maker can use to find the balance between the amount of effort invested in the initial cost of IBS construction and the realised revenues This study concluded that CBA is able to highlight the viability of IBS for construction in more comprehensive criteria of monetary and non-monetary benefits. This paper is a review of previous studies on monetary and non-monetary indicators of CBA that suit with IBS project. The study is supported by existing literature, primarily in the most recent research, which supports the indicators of CBA. From the literature reviews, sets of monetary and non-monetary indicators of CBA that related to IBS is obtained. The result of this study will provide novel ideas to optimize sustainable construction and prolong sustainability in design, financial, buildability, operation, life-cycle and environmental aspects. CBA-IBS model will be introduced as a theoretical basis for decision-makers in adopting IBS for their construction projects.

Urbanisation inevitably shows a positive sign in increasing the economic reputation of a country. Nevertheless, it has led to several problems including the deficit in green spaces and destruction of the natural environment, therefore green building is introduced as an alternative to overcome crucial environmental issues. Numerous approaches were also adopted to reduce other environmental issues such as urban heat island, air pollution and lack of green spaces. One of the sustainable approaches that help to minimise the environmental problems is by using the means of vegetation or plant material on rooftops or also known as the green roof. The implementation of the green roof on top of buildings is becoming a trend in the urban cities as it provides numerous benefits to the green development. The green roof is also part of criteria in green building and among the benefits, implementing green roofs will reduce heat flux, optimise energy efficiency and improve stormwater management. However, despite the benefits, enhancement on the green roof installation and maintenance consideration are two factors which are still largely unexplored as the main significant factor in the viability of the green roof installation. Hence, this paper is aimed to determine the vital criteria of maintenance and its ranking towards the establishment of best practice maintenance for the green roof, by focusing on high-rise residential. Questionnaires were distributed by email and through an online survey to 30 maintenance managers of green roof of high-rise residential in Kuala Lumpur and the samples are drawn by using purposive sampling technique. The results showed that the most significant maintenance criteria of the green roof are drainage, followed by waterproofing, irrigation, water retention, and roof slab. The outcome of this study has provided a significant contribution to the current maintenance practice of green roof by prioritising the criteria of maintenance and key address of green roof, where it may help to standardise the maintenance practice of the green roof in the tropical climate of Malaysia.

The indoor environmental factors considered in office building must be determined in order to meet user's requirement. Disruption of indoor environment may constitute to reduce occupants' efficiency and work productivity. Therefore, Post-occupancy Evaluation (POE) is a prominent tool that able to indicate satisfaction and comfort level needs by building occupants as lessons learned to identify problems in indoor environment. By using occupants as benchmark of evaluation, the potential of improving the indoor environment in buildings is enormous. With relation to the title, the main purpose of this study is to provide recommendation to improve quality of indoor environment in office building, by analytical study on the level of effort and phases of conducting POE and determining occupant's satisfaction level. The survey used in conjunction with physical measurements to determine how environmental factors affect occupants' perceived comfort and productivity levels, and a benchmarking example of using the survey to establish how new buildings are meeting a client's design objectives. It is recommended that the application of POE is prioritized as strategic level decision making and emphasized as continuous activity in environmental evaluation. Keywords: Post Occupancy Evaluation, Office Buildings, Indoor Environment, Comfort Level, 1. Introduction In the current situation where people concerns about sustainability environment, building occupants seek to obtain comfort and efficiency in their office. Occupants demand to have priority in terms [...]

The need to optimize the performance of buildings has increased consequently due to the expansive supply of facilities in higher education building (HEB). Proper performance assessment as a proactive measure may help university building in achieving performance optimization. However, the current maintenance programs or performance evaluation in the HEB is a systemic and cyclic process where maintenance is considered as an operational issue and not as opposed to a strategic issue. Hence, this paper proposed a Building Performance Risk Rating Tool (BPRT) as an improved measure for building performance evaluation by addressing the users' risk in health and safety aspects. The BPRT is developed from the result of a rating index using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. 12 facilities management (FM) experts and practitioners were involved in the rating process. The subjective weightings are analysed using the AHP computer software, the Expert Choice 11. The establishment of the BPRT was introduced as an aid of improvement towards the current performance assessment of HEB by emerging the concept of building performance and risk into a numerical strategic approach

Generally, building is a structure that provides basic shelter for the humans to conduct general activities. In common prose, the purpose of buildings is to provide humans a comfortable working and living space and protected from the extremes of climate. However, a building usage is depends on the lifespan and the change of rate effected on their impact on efficiency of use. Hence, more attention needs to be emphasized on the performance of buildings as the changes are not static over time. This paper highlights the concept and requirements in evaluating building performance. Exploration on the concept of building performance is also addressed on the purposes of building performance and the link of performance towards the end-users and incorporating their feedback. It concludes that obtaining users’ feedback is vital in building performance and the requirements of assessment must outline the performance criteria and mandates in such building.

The delivery performance of the low cost housing is questioned since the occupants are prone towards safety hazards in the housing complex, such as structural instability and falling building fragments. Without defining the occupants’ requirements for the development of low cost housing, the prevailing safety factors are hard to be determined. This paper explores the rationale of safety performance assessment in the low cost housing by considering the occupants’ participation to achieve a better safety provision during occupancy period. Questionnaire survey was distributed to 380 occupants of the low cost housing in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, Malaysia. The result shows that 80.8% of the respondents had expressed their dissatisfaction with the safety performance of the lift. By referring to the mode of ranking level, the most significant aspect rated by the respondents is Building Safety Features, with 51.6% respondents. The attained aspects can be fundamental parameters which can be considered in the future development of low cost housing.

The implementation of green roofs on the top of buildings is becoming a trend in urban cities as they provide numerous benefits for green development growth. In Malaysia, numerous approaches towards sustainable development have been adopted in order to overcome crucial environmental issues such as urban heat islands, air pollution and lack of green spaces. One of the sustainable approaches that helps to minimize such problems is the use of vegetation or plant material on rooftops, also known as green roofs. Among the benefits of implementing green roofs or buildings are reducing heat flux, optimizing energy efficiency, and improving storm water management. Despite the benefits of green roof installation, the maintenance consideration is still largely unexplored and is a significant factor in the viability of green roof installation. Therefore, this paper aims to identify the significant criteria for green roof maintenance practice in Malaysia, as an added value to the existing practice that has previously been more concerned with design and benefit considerations. The literature findings reveal that there are generally 20 criteria related to such maintenance. Out of these, six are identified as the most significant factors in the best practice of green roof maintenance, being appropriate and important for the Malaysian tropical climate. The findings can serve as added value to existing practice, which has previously been more concerned with design and benefit. Therefore, they will also help to improve current green roof maintenance undertaken by building operators and maintenance managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aspects in a completed residence or house should able to enhance the quality of a building as well as to provide safety to the occupants. It has become increasingly important to evaluate housing property for many reasons. The attempt to enhance the aspect of safety planning in developing low cost houses is still neglected and one of the reasons that may contribute to this factor is due to the low price value. Hence, this paper emphasizes the application of Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) that incorporates participation from the occupants as a tool to assess the safety performance of the Malaysian low-cost housing. The main aim of this study is to develop a framework of POE integrated with safety elements for Malaysian LCH. The inspection survey and occupants' satisfaction survey were carried out to 24 low-cost housing projects located in the federal territory of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The correlation result revealed that all attributes between the safety performance and the occupants' satisfaction had a significant relationship. This also manifests the occupants' feedbacks which were fed into the assessment of the housing safety performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]