Trees, and their derivative products, have been used by societies around the world for thousands of years. Contemporary construction of tall buildings from timber, in whole or in part, suggests a growing interest in the potential for building with wood at a scale not previously attainable. As wood is the only significant building material that is grown, we have a natural inclination that building in wood is good for the environment. But under what conditions is this really the case? The environmental benefits of using timber are not straightforward; although it is a natural product, a large amount of energy is used to dry and process it. Much of this can come from the biomass of the tree itself, but that requires investment in plant, which is not always possible in an industry that is widely distributed among many small producers. And what should we build with wood? Are skyscrapers in timber a good use of this natural resource, or are there other aspects of civil and structural engineering, or large-scale infrastructure, that would be a better use of wood? Here, we consider a holistic picture ranging in scale from the science of the cell wall to the engineering and global policies that could maximise forestry and timber construction as a boon to both people and the planet.
Abstract The application of additive manufacturing (AM) in construction has been increasingly studied in recent years. Large robotic arm- and gantry-systems have been created to print building parts using aggregate-based materials, metals, or polymers. Significant benefits of AM are the automation of the production process, a high degree of design freedom, and the resulting potential for optimization. However, the building components and 3D-printing processes need to be modeled appropriately. In this paper, the current state of AM in construction is reviewed. AM processes and systems as well as their application in research and construction projects are presented. Moreover, digital methods for planning 3D-printed building parts and AM processes are described.
Abstract Energy saving has become a strategic goal in the whole world, that will lead to protect the environment and conserve natural resources. The energy consumption in buildings for heating and cooling is considered as one of the major sources of energy consumption in a lot of countries. Therefore, there is an ongoing search for finding the proper alternatives to preserve energy and minimize energy losses. Subsequently, heat insulators, part of building materials, are steadily getting their importance as a means of saving energy. Although, a lot of insulation materials are used commercially, this part of building construction still faces different difficulties and challenges such as the cost, thermal and mechanical properties, health problems, etc. Current insulation materials used in construction industry are generally polymer based materials such as polystyrene and polyurethane foam. Although these materials have a high performance in thermal insulation, but the environmental impacts in their production processes are significant. Consequently, the researchers find that there is a necessity to develop and come up with insulating materials that possess excellent properties and at the same time, they have less environmental impacts, and are relatively cheap. In this review paper, the researches carried out in the formulation and development of different kinds of thermal insulation in the last decades are presented. The focus was placed on researches utilized of renewable resources and wastes in thermal insulations development. In addition, the light was shed on the composites materials which was developed as a construction material with high thermal insulation capacity.
T. Akinosho, Lukumon O. Oyedele, Muhammad Bilal
et al.
Abstract The construction industry is known to be overwhelmed with resource planning, risk management and logistic challenges which often result in design defects, project delivery delays, cost overruns and contractual disputes. These challenges have instigated research in the application of advanced machine learning algorithms such as deep learning to help with diagnostic and prescriptive analysis of causes and preventive measures. However, the publicity created by tech firms like Google, Facebook and Amazon about Artificial Intelligence and applications to unstructured data is not the end of the field. There abound many applications of deep learning, particularly within the construction sector in areas such as site planning and management, health and safety and construction cost prediction, which are yet to be explored. The overall aim of this article was to review existing studies that have applied deep learning to prevalent construction challenges like structural health monitoring, construction site safety, building occupancy modelling and energy demand prediction. To the best of our knowledge, there is currently no extensive survey of the applications of deep learning techniques within the construction industry. This review would inspire future research into how best to apply image processing, computer vision, natural language processing techniques of deep learning to numerous challenges in the industry. Limitations of deep learning such as the black box challenge, ethics and GDPR, cybersecurity and cost, that can be expected by construction researchers and practitioners when adopting some of these techniques were also discussed.
Luis Alberto López Ruiz, Xavier Roca Ramón, S. G. Domingo
Abstract Construction and demolition waste (CDW) is a priority for many policies at global level. This is due to the high volume of CDW that is produced and its inadequate management. This situation leads to serious environmental effects, which are mainly associated with manufacturing processes for new building materials because of low product recovery rates. In this context, the concept of Circular Economy (CE) is a potential solution in many sectors, as it involves more efficient use of resources and energy, which leads to waste minimization and reduction of the environmental impacts of product cycles. Moreover, it represents potential economic opportunities. The main aim of this study was to identify factors that could influence the adoption of the Circular Economy concept in the construction and demolition sector. A systematic literature review was conducted to understand the main strategies involved in the development of integral circular strategies. The main contribution of this paper is a theoretical framework for the Circular Economy in the construction and demolition sector. The framework is comprised of 14 strategies within the five lifecycle stages of construction and demolition activities. Particularly, the framework emphasizes waste management and recirculation of recovered materials for their use as secondary building materials.
ABSTRACT Building envelope is a key element in providing adequate energy and thermal comfort performance to buildings. In this regard, improvement solutions are implemented in recent studies that focus on new techniques and methods. The main techniques adopted in this context are discussed to identify modern and effective methods with a particular focus on phase change materials (PCMs). Incorporating PCMs with building construction materials is a booming technology, owing to their enhancement potential of storing and releasing heat during phase transition. This work highlights the importance of PCMs in building envelope, focusing on roof and external wall applications. PCM types, general and desired properties and application area are presented and discussed. Influential parameters, incorporation techniques and methods, main numerical tools, and modelling equations are used to describe the thermal behaviour of PCM. A comprehensive assessment on the basis of recent studies has been conducted to point out the potential of PCM with the most appropriate techniques under different locations. The main findings of PCM thermal performance have been described, considering the cooling/heating load reduction, energy-saving and thermal comfort gained along with several research hiatuses for future studies.
Abstract Blockchain as an emergent decentralized digital technology has been widely explored in many sectors to remedy the deficiencies of centralized solutions It has been recognized that blockchain technology has great potential to facilitate business activities spanning the whole life cycle of a building project in the construction industry, such as better communication or understanding, documents sharing, stage transition and quality endorsement. A comprehensive review of the literature regarding the application of blockchain in the construction domain found that there are few studies and applications of blockchain in construction practices, and most of the current research involves qualitative studies only. In this paper, we aim to explore the feasibility of applying both public blockchain and private blockchain technologies in the construction industry using two industry cases. Two business process cases (i.e., Case 1 and Case 2) were selected and used to drive the blockchain-based software system architecture design. The proposed architectures were demonstrated using Hyperledger Fabric (a private, permissioned and open source blockchain platform) and Ethereum (a public blockchain platform) respectively, to reflect the different requirements of the two use cases. This pilot study also illustrates the process, benefits, and challenges of adopting private and public blockchain technologies in construction domain. This research provides insights to researchers and practitioners regarding the adoption of blockchain technology, especially in construction industry.
S. Bello, Lukumon O. Oyedele, Olúgbénga O. Akinadé
et al.
Abstract Cloud computing technologies have revolutionised several industries for several years. Although the construction industry is well placed to leverage these technologies for competitive and operational advantage, the diffusion of the technologies in the industry follows a steep curve. This study therefore highlights the current contributions and use cases of cloud computing in construction practices. As such, a systematic review was carried out using ninety-two (92) peer-reviewed publications, published between 2009 and 2019. A key highlight of the findings is that cloud computing is an innovation delivery enabler for other emerging technologies (building information modelling, internet of things, virtual reality, augmented reality, big data analytics) in the construction industry. As such, this paper brings to the fore, current and future application areas of cloud computing in the construction industry. The paper also identifies barriers to broader adoption of cloud computing in the construction industry and discusses strategies for overcoming these barriers.
Driven by the combined effects of global warming and the urban heat island (UHI) effect, building energy consumption has been rising steadily in recent years. The photovoltaic-cool roof (PVCR) system has emerged as an effective solution for urban energy conservation and carbon reduction. However, existing research on the energy-saving benefits of PVCR remains relatively limited, and none of these studies have considered the interaction between photovoltaic modules and high-reflectivity roofs (also called cool roof, CR). Therefore, field experiments were conducted to compare the thermal performance of the PVCR system against that of three conventional roof configurations, including photovoltaic roof (PVR), asphalt roof (AR), and CR. The results demonstrate that the PVCR system achieves a remarkable daytime cooling effect, with a maximum temperature reduction of 29 °C compared to the AR system, and maintains lower temperature fluctuations throughout the entire day. In addition, the findings reveal that the photovoltaic modules exhibit a lower average temperature when installed on the cool roof, with a temperature decrease of 0.15 °C relative to the asphalt roof. A numerical model incorporating the photothermal interaction between a high-reflectivity surface and PV modules was developed and validated with experimental data. The numerical model considers the interactions between the photovoltaic (PV) modules and the high reflectivity surface, including shortwave radiation reflection, longwave radiative exchange, and convective heat transfer. The sensitivity analysis indicates that a change in the spacing and height of the PV arrays from 0.3 m to 0.5 m increases the relative energy-saving efficiency of the system. The conclusions drawn in this paper can provide a reference for the application of the PVCR system in hot-summer and cold-winter areas.
The construction of mass concrete foundations for nuclear power plants faces significant challenges in controlling hydration heat and preventing early-age thermal cracking. This study develops an integrated framework combining high-fidelity thermal–mechanical simulation, real-time temperature monitoring, and construction process optimization to address these issues. Focusing on the VVER-1200 reactor raft foundation in the Xudapu NPP Phase II Project, an innovative center-to-periphery synchronous pouring method is proposed, departing from conventional inclined or layered pouring by strategically utilizing stage time lags to moderate the radial temperature gradient. Numerical simulations demonstrate that this method significantly reduces the peak temperature and thermal stress. Field validation shows that the maximum core-to-surface temperature difference is controlled within 19.8 °C, well below the critical threshold of 25 °C, and the peak concrete temperature remains at 66.7 °C, safely below the risk level for delayed ettringite formation (82–85 °C). The cracking risk coefficient K remains below 0.65, indicating a low probability of thermal cracking. Post-construction inspection confirms the absence of thermal cracks in the 5240 m<sup>3</sup> monolithic pour. The proposed methodology offers a reliable, science-based approach for thermal crack mitigation and serves as a valuable reference for similar large-scale mass concrete structures in nuclear and other critical infrastructure projects.
We present Text2MBL, a text-to-code generation framework that generates executable Building Information Modeling (BIM) code directly from textual descriptions of modular building layout (MBL) design. Unlike conventional layout generation approaches that operate in 2D space, Text2MBL produces fully parametric, semantically rich BIM layouts through on-the-fly code instantiation. To address MBLs' unique challenges due to their hierarchical three-tier structure: modules (physical building blocks), units (self-contained dwellings), and rooms (functional spaces), we developed an object-oriented code architecture and fine-tuned large language models to output structured action sequences in code format. To train and evaluate the framework, we curated a dataset of paired descriptions and ground truth layouts drawn from real-world modular housing projects. Performance was assessed using metrics for executable validity, semantic fidelity, and geometric consistency. By tightly unifying natural language understanding with BIM code generation, Text2MBL establishes a scalable pipeline from high-level conceptual design to automation-ready modular construction workflows. Our implementation is available at https://github.com/CI3LAB/Text2MBL.
Three-dimensional building generation is vital for applications in gaming, virtual reality, and digital twins, yet current methods face challenges in producing diverse, structured, and hierarchically coherent buildings. We propose BuildingBlock, a hybrid approach that integrates generative models, procedural content generation (PCG), and large language models (LLMs) to address these limitations. Specifically, our method introduces a two-phase pipeline: the Layout Generation Phase (LGP) and the Building Construction Phase (BCP). LGP reframes box-based layout generation as a point-cloud generation task, utilizing a newly constructed architectural dataset and a Transformer-based diffusion model to create globally consistent layouts. With LLMs, these layouts are extended into rule-based hierarchical designs, seamlessly incorporating component styles and spatial structures. The BCP leverages these layouts to guide PCG, enabling local-customizable, high-quality structured building generation. Experimental results demonstrate BuildingBlock's effectiveness in generating diverse and hierarchically structured buildings, achieving state-of-the-art results on multiple benchmarks, and paving the way for scalable and intuitive architectural workflows.
In this study, a performance comparison experiment with a vortex exhaust installed at the end of a ventilation device to enhance the effect induced by reducing indoor pollutants was conducted. The experiment was carried out by constructing a mock-up room with a limited indoor environment, and performances were compared based on the following two tests. First, to confirm the effect of pollutant reduction, the wind speed was measured based on the distance from each exhaust system to verify the depth and speed at which wind can flow. Pollutants were induced to the vortex exhaust, general exhaust gasses were generated, and their performances were compared. Second, Arizona dust was used to confirm the performance with regard to the removal of pollutants which existed in particulate form (PM 10), and for CO<sub>2</sub> gas, a representative gaseous pollutant was used as a reference. Based on the results, it was confirmed that installing a vortex exhaust system can allow for the generation of wind speeds that allow propagation at greater depths (>110 mm) compared to cases in which general exhaust is used; accordingly, exhaust performance can be achieved at increased depths. In addition, the experiment confirmed that vortex exhaust can improve the efficiency of simultaneous removal of PM 10 and CO<sub>2</sub> compared with general exhaust. Further, it was shown that installing a vortex exhaust system can remove PM 10 and CO<sub>2</sub> farther from the exhaust port in a shorter period than a general exhaust port. In addition, it was inferred that vortex exhaust can be utilized to prevent indoor pollutants and diseases in combination with the latest technology.
ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to gain knowledge about the coexistence of monument protection and energy in southern Germany's Old Town through resident intentions, laws, and permit decision criteria. First, there is a movement to allow rooftop PV on buildings in the Old Town. Next, there are two requirements for rooftop PV installation under the Old Town Protection Law: (1) building evaluation of monument protection and impact on surrounding buildings, etc. and (2) visibility from public spaces. It has become clear that the expansion of the interpretation of “public space” as a viewpoint is protecting historic buildings.
Architecture, Architectural engineering. Structural engineering of buildings
Verusca Soares de Souza, Helder de Padua Lima, Soraia Geraldo Rozza
et al.
ABSTRACT Objective: to describe the process of collective construction of the Continuing Health Education Center based on a survey of health workers’ needs. Method: action research conducted between 2021 and 2025, using multiple qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques. The exploratory phase identified the absolute frequency of educational needs, which were validated in a focus group, guiding educational initiatives. Concurrently, a working group held workshops/meetings to develop the documentation necessary to formalize the Continuing Health Education Center. Results: the thematic priorities for education were “humanization of care for people with mental health problems” in primary and tertiary care, and “management of situations of violence” in secondary care. Three educational initiatives were implemented: humanization for receptionists; basic life support for mid-level professionals; and patient safety for hospital professionals and patients/families receiving care. Finally, the process of establishing the center began with a workshop to develop an action plan and a monthly follow-up. However, political barriers, such as the absence of the position in the municipal organizational chart, hindered the formalization of the sector. Final considerations: the collective discussion of Continuing Health Education fostered dialogue between the different levels of care. The process of collectively building a Continuing Health Education Center is challenging. Furthermore, it requires the participation of managers, professionals, and healthcare services while overcoming organizational and political barriers.
Concrete carbonation is an important factor causing corrosion of steel reinforcement, which leads to damage to reinforced concrete structures. To address the problem of concrete carbonation depth prediction, this paper proposes a prediction model. The framework synergistically integrates Bagging and Boosting algorithms, specifically replacing the original Random Forest base learner with gradient Boosting variants (LightGBM (version 4.1.0), XGBoost (version 2.1.1), and CatBoost (version 1.2.5)). This hybrid approach exploits the strengths of all three algorithms to reduce variance and bias, and to further improve prediction accuracy, Bayesian optimization algorithms were used to fine-tune the hyperparameters, resulting in three hybrid-integrated models: Random Forest–LightGBM Fusion Framework, Random Forest–XGBoost Fusion Framework, and Random Forest–CatBoost Fusion Framework. These models were trained on a dataset containing 943 case sets and six input variables (FA, <i>t</i>, w/b, B, RH, and CO<sub>2</sub>). The models were comprehensively evaluated using the comprehensive scoring formula and Taylor diagrams. The results showed that the hybrid-integrated model outperformed the single model, with the RF–CatBoost fusion framework having the highest test set performance (R<sup>2</sup> = 0.9674, MAE = 1.4199, RMSE = 2.0648, VAF = 96.78%). In addition, the Random Forest–CatBoost Fusion Framework identified exposure <i>t</i> and CO<sub>2</sub> concentration as the most important features. This paper demonstrates the applicability of a predictive model based on the Random Forest–CatBoost Fusion Framework in predicting the depth of concrete carbonation, providing valuable insights into the durability design of concrete.
Ahmad M.Zamil, Mohammad Alhusban, Alharkan Abdulrahman
Abstract This research rigorously examines the implementation challenges of value management (VM) implementation challenges within construction projects across Jordan. This study is guided by a conceptual framework linking organisational factors to VM implementation barriers, highlighting the impact on project outcomes and providing a basis for targeted interventions in developing sustainable construction. Utilizing a comprehensive survey, insights were gathered from 103 industry experts, and the collected data were rigorously analyzed through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and partial least squares structural modeling (PLS-SEM). The analysis identified four critical constructs of VM implementation challenges: culture, awareness, resources, and policy. The analysis identified four important constructs of VM adoption challenges: culture, awareness, resources, and policy. Among these constructs, culture appeared to be the most important barrier (path-coefficient = 0.317), followed by resources (0.285), awareness (0.271), and policy (0.209). The findings not only illuminate the complex dynamics within Jordan's construction sector but also offer valuable implications for other developing nations with comparable socio-economic and environmental backgrounds, struggling with similar challenges. This study contributes substantially to enhancing the understanding among stakeholders of the barriers to effective VM implementation and proposes actionable strategies to mitigate these challenges, ultimately aiming to improve construction quality and cost-efficiency in developing contexts. However, this research is limited to Jordan; thus, future studies covering a broader geographical scope are recommended.