Impact of occupant autonomy on satisfaction and building energy efficiency

The philosophy of building energy management is going through a paradigm change from traditional,often inefficient,user-controlled systems to one that is centrally automated with the aid of IoT-enabled technologies.In this context,occupants’perceived control and building automation may seem to be in conflict.The inquiry of this study is rooted in a proposition that while building automation and centralized control systems are assumed to provide indoor comfort and conserve energy use,limiting occupants’control over their work environment may result in dissatisfaction,and in turn decrease productivity.For assessing this hypothesis,data from the post-occupancy evaluation survey of a smart building in a university in Australia was used to analyze the relationships between perceived control,satisfaction,and perceived productivity.Using structural equation modeling,we have found a positive direct effect of occupants’perceived control on overall satisfaction with their working area.Meanwhile,perceived control exerts an influence on perceived productivity through satisfaction.Furthermore,a field experiment conducted in the same building revealed the potential impact that occupant controllability can have on energy saving.We changed the default light settings from automatic on-and-offto manual-on and automatic-off,letting occupants choose themselves whether to switch the light on or not.Interestingly,about half of the participants usually kept the lights off,preferring daylight in their rooms.This also resulted in a reduction in lighting electricity use by 17.8%without any upfront investment and major technical modification.These findings emphasize the important role of perceived control on occupant satisfaction and productivity,as well as on the energy-saving potential of the user-in-the-loop automation of buildings.

Building Sustainable Score (BSS)—A Hybrid Process Approach for Sustainable Building Assessment in China

Sustainable building in China has gained attention both domestically and abroad. Despite the fast increase in sustainable assessment tools developed locally or adopted from overseas, there are still criticisms about the current situation of weak implementation and lack of comprehensive consideration. The lack of consideration of economic and social aspects or building performance on whole building life cycle all lead to departure from the true meaning of sustainable development. And lack of participation on the part of stakeholders makes it too theoretical to be carried out. This research aims to develop a model to address this problem. This research started with review of current sustainable assessment tools applied in China. As the assessment indicators have clear regional disparities, and almost no current tool considers all three pillars of environmental, economic and social in building life cycle. An industry survey was therefore designed for generation of indicators at different building stages, and personal interviews relevant to different occupation in building industry were conducted to complement the questionnaire survey. After that, the model Building Sustainable Score (BSS) was developed based on the stakeholders’ participation. Finally, the model is verified by a case study.

Urban microclimate and energy consumption:A multi-objective parametric urban design approach for dense subtropical cities

Climate change within the urban contexts is a crisis that cities are confronting globally.This issue poses numerous negative consequences such as thermal discomfort and increased energy usage within the building sector.This is especially the case in Western Sydney,Australia,where the average maximum temperature has risen by 7—8℃ within the past 30 years.This increase in temperature is highly concerning,since this region is witnessing rapid urban and infrastructural development and is proposed as the third-largest economy of Australia.Temperature changes in this region will also result in considerably increasing the electricity used for cooling purposes.This paper presents a parametric approach driven multi-objective optimization methodology to discover optimum design solution based on the urban microclimate and cooling energy demand of multi-functional buildings within this urban context.Mitigation measures including a range of design factors at both building(typology and window to wall ratio)and urban scales(aspect ratio and urban grid rotation)are further suggested for developing context sensitive optimum urban layouts.The resultant solutions indicate an improvement in urban thermal comfort,cooling and heating energy use by up to 25.85%,72.76%,and 93.67%,respectively.

Integrating algae building technology in the built environment:A cost and benefit perspective

Energy consumption rates have been rising globally at an escalating pace since the last three decades.The exploration of new renewable and clean sources of energy globally is thus gaining prime importance.In Australia,coal is still the primary source of energy,which,during the process of energy production,generates greenhouse gases,subsequently resulting in environmental degradation.Within this context,the paper compares the economic and environmental benefits of utilizing two renewable energy production sources:algae building technology(ABT)and solar PV panels.A case study site for retrofitting a specified area on the front facade of a multi-storied building at the University of Technology Sydney,City Campus,Australia was thus chosen for the study.A cost and benefit analysis model using the following performance indicators;return on investment,payback period as well as net present value of the two systems,was thus initiated.Annual revenue generation of both systems which included tangible and intangible benefits of both systems were simultaneously calculated.The investment and operation and maintenance costs of both systems were calculated based on market research as well as quantitative data adapted from our literature review.Our conclusions show that closed tubular photobioreactor systems have more benefit than solar panel system from an environmental impact perspective considering Australia’s current struggle with water scarcity,drought,air pollution and carbon emission reduction goals.

Using Domain Ontology in a Semantic Blogging System for Construction Professionals

Smooth communication is essential for the success of construction projects. As an easy-to-use, context-rich, and high-capacity communication tool, blogging is gaining popularity in construction industry. In this paper, the features of blogging technology and how it could benefit construction organizations are presented. To further improve the effectiveness of blogging technology in information and knowledge sharing, an ontology-based semantic blogging system is proposed. Semantic blogging is an extension of conventional blogging and ontology is the key enabling technology for it. Domain-ontology-based semantic blogging site is composed of a network of concepts, which are clearly defined and interlinked according to their context and bound to certain behaviors. This paper reports how the e-Cognos ontology was implemented into a blogging system and how the system functions to process its contents. The paper concludes that using on-tology-based semantic blogging site can greatly enhance information sharing between construction professionals and it is a very promising tool for construction communities to publish and share their experience.

How do project-oriented organizations enhance innovation?An institutional theory perspective

A project-oriented organization is a hybrid form of organization where a functional hierarchy is augmented with structures to manage projects strategically across the organization.Six project-oriented organizations from diverse industries that emphasize innovation in their strategies were selected for this study.We use the three pillars of institutional theory—regulative,normative and cultural-cognitive—and institutional entrepreneurship to analyze interview data from executive and project,program and portfolio management personnel in the project-oriented organizations to investigate how innovation is facilitated through external influences and internal responses.Our findings indicate that processes and new structures provide effective ways for innovation and,while individuals are important,processes are more effective than individuals at enabling innovation.We put forward some lessons for practice that emerge directly from the findings,including suggestions on improving allocation of resources,a need to focus on processes,reconceptualization of“failure”,and dedicated investment in market knowledge,customer knowledge,performance metrics and flexible governance structures.