Refurbishment management: challenges and opportunities

The findings from this study involving feedback from refurbishment managers and organizations identify the challenges and opportunities facing the management of refurbishment works. For refurbishment contractors, survival will be contingent upon requisite skills, knowledge and competencies of their employees, as well as innovative processes, products, services, technologies and markets. The need for a structured approach to education and training for refurbishment management is argued as a vital component for refurbishment organizations. Les resultats de cette etude, qui donne l'avis des dirigeants d'entreprises charges des travaux de renovation, identifient les defis et les possibilites se presentant pour les chantiers de renovation. Pour les entrepreneurs charges de tels travaux, la survie dependra de la qualification, des connaissances et des competences requises de leur personnel, ainsi que des procedes innovants, des produits, services et marches. La necessite d'une demarche rationnelle en matiere d'instruction et de formation propres a la gestion de chantiers de renovation est consideree comme un element essentiel pour ces entreprises du batiment.     

Living labs and vacancy in the neoliberal city

This paper evaluates smart city (SC) initiatives in the context of re-using vacant property, focusing on the role of living labs (LL). LL utilise Lo-Fi technologies to foster local digital innovation and support community-focused civic hacking, running various kinds of workshops and engaging with local citizens to co-create digital interventions and apps aimed at ‘solving’ local issues. Five approaches to LL are outlined and discussed in relation to vacancy and gentrification: pop-up initiatives, university-led activities, community organised venues/activities, citizen sensing and crowdsourcing, and tech-led regeneration initiatives. Notwithstanding the potential for generating temporary and independent spaces for transferring digital competences and increasing citizens' participation in the SC, we argue LL foster largely a form of participation framed within a model of civic stewardship for ‘smart citizens’. While presented as horizontal, open, and participative, LL and civic hacking are rooted often in pragmatic and paternalistic discourses and practices related to the production of a creative economy and a technocratic version of SC. As such, by encouraging a particular kind of re-use of vacant space, LLs are used actively to bolster the Smart City discourse, as part of the more general neoliberalization of urban political economy. We discuss these approaches and issues generally, drawing on previous fieldwork and with respect to a case study of Dublin, Ireland.     

Applications of additive manufacturing in the construction industry – A forward-looking review

Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing, fabricates components in a layerwise fashion directly from a digital file. Many of the early applications of AM technologies have been in the aerospace, automotive, and healthcare industries. Building on the advances in AM in these industries, there are several experimental applications of AM in the construction sector. Early investigations suggest that use of AM technologies for construction have the potential to decrease labor costs, reduce material waste, and create customized complex geometries that are difficult to achieve using conventional construction techniques. However, these initial investigations do not cover the full range of potential applications for construction or exploit the rapidly maturing AM technologies for a variety of material types. This paper provides an up-to-date review of AM as it relates to the construction industry, identifies the trend of AM processes and materials being used, and discusses related methods of implementing AM and potential advancements in applications of AM. Examples of potential advancements include use of multi-materials (e.g., use of high-performance materials only in areas where they are needed), in-situ repair in locations that are difficult or dangerous for humans to access, disaster relief construction in areas with limited construction workforce and material resources, structural and non-structural elements with optimized topologies, and customized parts of high value. AM's future in the construction industry is promising, but interdisciplinary research is still needed to provide new materials, new processes, faster printing, quality assurance, and data on mechanical properties before AM can realize its full potential in infrastructure construction.     

Urban flood disaster management

Disaster management for urban areas is a growing priority owing to factors such as the relentless migration to cities, unplanned development, changing climate, and increasing operational and maintenance costs. New information and communication technologies offer improved opportunities to address these factors. This paper presents and describes the digital city concept as a means of capturing, analysing and applying (digital) information about the city area, its services, and their design and operation. In particular, the functionality of the digital city can be adapted for managing urban flood disasters. The paper highlights the need to manage the urban stormwater cycle integrated with urban planning. Urban flooding should be mitigated by having a judicious mix of both structural and nonstructural strategies, which are selected with the full participation of all stakeholders. The management of urban flooding is illustrated with application to the tropical island of St Maarten.     

Digital Cottage Industries

Mike Aling 's ProunStretcher project engages with the recent global revival of cottage industries, fuelled by the application of digital technologies, as a means to address ‘the manifold social issues present across our rural landscape-as-urban-extension’.     

Telecommunications and Spatial Restructuring: An Australian Perpective

Changes over the past twenty-five years in information and communication technology (ICT) are beginning to provide us with a clearer picture of the technical platform that will influence the shape of urban and industrial development into the 21st century. During this period we have experienced a number of key paradigm shifts in computing: from 1960s batch systems to 1970s time sharing systems to 1980s desktop systems (Newton et al. 1988). At the same time, but somewhat independently, communications were evolving from the slow speed analogue public switched telephone network which provided a measure of computer-to-computer interaction (via modems) to the newly emerging high speed broadband digital networks, networks which will provide a truly vast array of value added products and services (discussed more fully in Cavill and Fidler' paper). The dramatic price-performance improvements in these technologies and the synergy which now exists between computers and communications provides us in the 1990s with the core information infrastructure of the future: computers and the networks that interconnect them (Newton etal. 1991).     

巴拉瑞特2.0：城市历史景观数字化遗产 信息服务系统研究

巴拉瑞特是全球首个系统应用“城市历史景观”方 法指导数字化遗产保护的城市，近年来围绕城市历史景观数字 化遗产信息服务开展了卓有成效的研究和实践，具有重要探索 意义和示范性。全面解析巴拉瑞特城市历史景观数字化遗产信 息服务系统的策略、重点、方法和技术，总结了4个创新发展 趋势：1)由单向遗产信息发布向多维信息交互发展，强化人 景互动；2)由标准化信息集成向定制化信息模块发展，促进 景观价值认知；3)重视遗产信息受众数字化能力培养，推动 遗产保护决策公众参与；4)由信息服务向知识服务转化，助 力景观发展共识构建     

Fostering Urban Digital Integrated Systems: The Case of Carrè Laval,Canada

City governments are embracing digital technologies to improve hard and soft urban systems, so as to create and improve urban experiences, foster an entrepreneurial city, as well as devise novel services that can improve the livability of citizens and boost the local economy. Unlike traditional infrastructure and urban systems, which tend to be natural monopolies, data-driven digital platforms can engage multiple stakeholders simultaneously. This article, introducing the notion of hybrid urban digital integrated systems, proposes a methodology aims at the integration of digital and physical elements in urban environments. We based our discussion on the work developed by students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Senseable City Lab, which focused on the integration of the digital-technology-based solutions in Carré Laval of the city of Laval, Canada. As the result of the workshop, six projects have been developed by students, namely, “Activating Surface,” “Infinite memories,” “Fora,” “iTable,” “MinecARft,” and “Foodprint.”These designs aim at promoting civic engagement as intrinsic elements of the re-appropriation and redesign of this severely underutilized site. The human-centered designs rooted in specific context will help digital technologies embedded in the city and increase the attractiveness of the city to local and new stakeholders.     

数字家庭服务模式探讨

本文分析了数字家庭产品和服务的发展趋势,总结了目前数字家庭领域所面临的问题,并结合D—Box产品,论证并提出了一种全新数字家庭服务模式,即基于数字家庭服务平台运营商的模式。     

我国工程机械发展形态的展望

工程机械产业是我国发展比较快的产业,也是重要的装备产业.在总结我国工程机械发展的基础上,展望了我国工程机械技术和产品的发展趋势、企业资本结构和组织形态的发展趋势,为工程机械企业的发展提供借鉴.     

Infostructures: Towards a Complementary Approach for Solving Urban Challenges through Digital Technologies

Abstract

Population growth in cities has led to unprecedented pressure on urban infrastructure services, such as electricity supply and public transport. As a consequence cities need to find sustainable solutions to maintain the availability of services while keeping them economically and environmentally viable. One traditional approach is to expand infrastructure, but this can be expensive, take years from planning to realization, and be politically frought. In this paper we discuss the concept of “infostructures” as cost and time-effective complementary approaches that leverage digital layers and urban digital media channels of the cityscape. Through four case studies and their analysis we illustrate opportunities for addressing different types of “unhealthy” situations with digital technologies.     

Maintaining technology leadership through improved technologystrategy implementation

Excellent product development performance is no longer enough to maintain a leadership position in technology-driven industries. Faced with competition from new technologies and rapid introductions of new products by their competitors, leading companies are beginning to focus on improving technology management, the link between product strategy and product development. This article reviews how companies can achieve significant R&D performance improvements by implementing the technology management best practices used by leading companies to manage the development and implementation of new technologies     

Web services enhanced interoperable construction products catalogue

This paper presents a new approach to achieving interoperability between Web-based construction products catalogues. It first introduces the current development of electronic catalogues of construction products. The common system architecture of Web-based electronic products catalogues is discussed, which is followed by a discussion on construction products information standardization and the latest distributed-systems technologies for the communication and exchange of construction products information. The latter part of this paper presents a model of interoperable Web-based construction products catalogue and an implementation of Web services in E-commerce systems to enable the sharing of construction products information.     

Energy efficiency improvements through surveillance applications in industrial buildings

Presence sensors for energy control based on classic technologies to detect movement are now commonly seen in many areas of life. However, their use in structurally complex environments is not very common, due to their lack of reliability in these types of situations. Falling prices in technologies associated with surveillance applications are leading to a huge increase in their use in all types of environment, with monitoring of traffic and people the most common of these. In this work, we carry out an analysis of occupancy patterns in manufacturing industries with the aim of determining the possible energy savings that could be obtained using these new technologies. We also carry out an analysis of the possibilities of using these technologies as presence sensors, analyzing the trends and limitations associated with them.     

The Extended Workplace in a Creative Cluster: Exploring Space(s) of Digital Work in Silicon Roundabout

This paper examines the relationship between space and the digital industries through everyday work practices in Shoreditch, London. Drawing on interviews with digital workers, the paper examines how work unfolds in multiple settings and how the built environment supports these work patterns. Digital work extends from the office or the residence (the base) to multiple settings (ancillary spaces) in what can be defined as an extended workplace. The study identifies micro and macro scale characteristics of the built environment that are relevant (spatial characteristics of semi-public and public spaces, access and control, location, and attributes of the neighbourhood) expanding the understanding of why and how place matters for these industries. A typology of ancillary spaces and some reflections on policy implications are advanced.     

A service oriented framework for construction supply chain integration

The benefits of integrating and coordinating supply chain partners have been well recognized in many industries. In the construction industry, supply chain integration is technically challenging due to the high fragmentation of the industry. Information, applications, and services are loosely distributed among participants with a wide range of hardware and software capabilities. In addition, participants are often unwilling to share information because the temporary nature of construction projects often impedes the establishment of trust. A secure, modular, and flexible system that can aggregate scattered information and share that information across applications is, therefore, highly desirable. We have prototyped a service oriented, web-based system that can provide both these capabilities. Called the SC Collaborator, this system facilitates the flexible coordination of construction supply chains by leveraging web services, web portal, and open source technologies. These technologies enable the SC Collaborator system to provide an economical and customizable tool for integrating supply chain partners with a wide range of computing capabilities. This paper describes the overall architecture and the features of the system. Two example scenarios are included to demonstrate the potential of SC Collaborator in integrating and managing information from project partners. The first scenario is an e-Procurement example whereas the second is a rescheduling scenario based on the data from a completed project in Sweden.     

数字技术驱动的物业管理商业模式创新:案例及启示

基于商业模式相关的文献研究,通过对长城物业和彩生活物业两家典型企业的商业模式创新案例剖析,进行双案例对比,分析数字技术对物业公司商业模式创新的影响,揭示物业公司商业模式创新应具备的条件、技术和典型特征,总结得出物业公司商业模式创新的要义是以客户价值创造为核心,以庞大的社区客户群为基础,以物业基础服务为纽带,依托互联网、物联网、大数据等数字技术搭建网络平台,整合满足业户广泛需求的外部企业资源,构建社区商业网络生态圈。并且不同物业公司商业模式创新的要素也存在差异,主要是企业在连接客户渠道、构建伙伴关系上有所不同,进而影响企业的成本结构和收入来源。     

Cultural and creative industries and regional diversification: Does size matter?

This paper aims at analysing how the presence of workers employed in cultural and creative industries (CCIs) is related to regional specialized diversification. From a theoretical perspective, CCIs drive economic development and local innovative capacity by facilitating processes of cross-fertilization of ideas. This study estimates an entry model analysing the ability of Italian provinces to successfully create new sectoral specializations. The results indicate that the relationship between the share of employees in CCIs and the probability of creating new sectoral specializations is non-linear, highlighting the need for CCIs-led policies to achieve a certain level of critical mass to be successful.     

Survey of digital technologies in procurement of construction projects

Digital technologies are increasingly being used to support the execution of all aspects of the construction procurement process. However, there has been no systematic attempt to identify and catalogue the different digital technologies and tools available for executing construction procurement activities so as to guide those involved in procurement on the options available to support the six basic procurement activities identified in ISO 10845. The method used to identify 36 different digital technologies and tools used in construction procurement was a literature survey involving systematic identification and review of 78 articles published in 52 different sources between 1993 and 2014. The 36 digital technologies and tools identified include ten generic tools used across the procurement process. This is followed by four applications for establishing what is to be procured; four for soliciting tender offers; one for establishment of procurement strategy; two for tender evaluation, two for award of contract and thirteen for contract administration. The research shows that the majority of existing digital technologies are web-based applications that facilitate real-time communication and collaboration across construction supply chains. The effort made to map digital technologies with the ISO 10845 framework presents a useful contribution to current discourse on digital technology use in construction procurement. It seems interesting that despite the progress made in the evolution and use of digital technologies in construction, there is still no single digital technology which integrates all six construction procurement activities into a system that procurers can adopt to manage the entire construction procurement lifecycle. This should be addressed.     

A cost analysis of the lumber and plywood industries in two Pacific Northwest sub-regions

Translog cost models are used to represent production technologies for the Pacific Northwest lumber and plywood industries. Expressions for cost elasticities are obtained along with measures for derived demand, factor substitution, and biased technological change. Emphasis is placed on the behavior of costs over output, the derived demand and substitutability of inputs due to changes in factor prices and technology, and the resulting effects on product prices. Estimation results over the 1950–79 sample period suggest the presence of output economies in specific industries, a potential impact of reduced factor prices, and the lack of a consistent trend in technological change across products and regional industries.This work was partially supported by the USDA Forest Service and Wichita State University. The authors wish to thank Gerald McDougall, Dong Cho, and David Poynter for their assistance in this project.