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During the last 25 years, a building cost system (BCS) has been developed in Andalusia, Spain. The first step was to generate the Andalusia construction information classification system (ACICS). Not only is ACICS valid as an estimation of cost, but it also provides a common method to manage information during the design and construction of buildings. Another important innovation is that this BCS defines the cost structure which distinguishes between direct and indirect cost and thereby allows a clear definition of all costs for each project type. Its most extended usage is for estimating cost in building projects and it is mandatory in public developments in Andalusia. This is the first time that this system is presented internationally and compared to others. Furthermore, the latest additions to ACICS are explained, and these take into account the waste management of reused and recycled materials in the budget estimate through a new division in the classification: Waste Management. Finally, a new way to address the cost related to construction and demolition waste management is explained which increases precision and generates an estimate independent from the general budget.Cost control, cost estimation, waste, construction information classification system,

In 2008, a legal frame was established in Spain for construction and demolition waste management. The new control model, called the Alcores model, presents a waste management closed loop and was previously tested in Seville in order to demonstrate its viability. In current demolition projects, specific barriers arise which limit the frame implementation. Until recently, demolition was considered a low technical process. The contractor's main goals were quick demolition and disposal of the debris, usually uncontrolled, into landfills. No special measures for separating different material types were taken due to their incompatibility with the work time-span required. The present work establishes a simplified procedure in order to fulfill Spain's legal frame. This procedure determines the management of demolition waste quantities and costs following the Andalusia Construction Information Classification System. The procedure also generates the demolition waste management plan, which includes: previous work, waste quantification, hazardous waste inventory, waste prevention action plans, reuse, valorisation and disposal plan, separation plan, technical drawings, technical instructions, and budget. Finally, as an example, the procedure is applied to a school demolition project.

Virus machines are computational devices inspired by the movement of viruses between hosts and their capacity to replicate using the resources of the hosts. This behavior is controlled by an external graph of instructions that opens different channels of the system to make viruses capable of moving. This model of computation has been demonstrated to be as powerful as turing machines by different methods: by generating Diophantine sets, by computing partial recursive functions and by simulating register machines. It is interesting to investigate the practical use cases of this model in terms of possibilities and efficiency. In this work, we give the basic modules to create an arithmetic calculator. As a practical application, two pairing functions are calculated by means of two different virus machines. Pairing functions are important resources in the field of cryptography. The functions calculated are the Cantor pairing function and the Gödel pairing function.

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Building actors need accurate estimates in order to efficiently undertake the construction of buildings. The knowledge of real expected costs of construction works is a necessary condition for contractors to submit competitive tenders and for developers to be aware of the magnitude of their investment. In this paper, an innovative process-based model is presented, the POP model. This model aims at providing building actors with a systematized methodology to calculate building construction costs based on the planning, organization and scheduling of the expected works. Unlike the model of construction work units, the most widespread estimate model in Spain, the POP model comprises all construction costs in a direct way by identifying the production processes involved and the resources consumed, giving a new approach to the principles of the activity-based costing methodology in tune with the process-based cost models that are emerging in the international scene. Nowadays, the model is being applied in real construction works with satisfactory results of transparency, detail and adaptability. Not only reliable estimates are obtained, but also the performance of works is devised, allowing its optimization and control.

Methods to monitor the schedule and to control cost in dwelling construction projects are numerous and varied but commonly constitute an obstacle to a fast and agile response by construction managers, whose decisions require information to be comprehensive and summarized. A simple model to monitor these projects is proposed that can easily be implemented within control systems that are already in place. For the first time, process control charts are combined with cost control in dwelling construction in order to prevent overruns in terms of time and/or cost. The model facilitates the production supervision of construction contracts by regularly providing information on the work completed and the incurred cost of the production processes per period, through charting and/or summarizing this information in a manner consistent with statistical control charts. Finally, the manager can easily identify those processes which are off target by consulting control charts.