Sustainable redevelopment following disasters has been a main policy objective of post-disaster recovery efforts over the past few decades. Yet, nine years after the 1999 Marmara earthquake in Turkey, the redevelopment of risky housing areas is still a point of debate on the urban planning and disaster mitigation agenda. However, planning studies on mildly and moderately damaged areas located in the centre of Istanbul are ongoing. This article presents the evidence of a pilot project undertaken by Zeytinburnu Municipality, Istanbul, four years after the Marmara earthquake.(2) The aim is to generate a debate on the preconditions required for a sustainable urban regeneration approach in the post-disaster recovery phase. The results of the pilot project underline the importance of capacity building in sustaining social capital, strengthening the legal framework, restructuring planning regulations, and managing the housing redevelopment process by taking advantage of a window of opportunity afforded by the disaster recovery period.

PurposeThe objectives of this paper are to discuss the constraints stemming from the unstructured nature of the cost estimation practice in Turkey and introduce a generic computer aided building cost estimation model based on a cost significant technique for Turkish construction sector public projects in its detailed design phase.Design/methodology/approachThe research design was based on the simplified version of the bill of quantities method and a cost significant estimating model works on a cost database was suggested to overcome the problems. Underlying principles and basic steps of cost estimation based on cost significant work packages was explained by means of manual calculations.FindingsIn order to automate the manual building cost estimation process, the software based on cost significant work packages was developed.Research limitations/implicationsThe software is currently in the testing phase and is being used for educational purposes. Making use of both public sector and current market prices in the cost estimation process, increasing number of projects stored in the database for more accurate results, estimating costs of different types of projects and calculating the cost significant value factor more precisely by using statistical techniques, those being employed by global cost models are suggested for future research.Practical implicationsAs the number of the similar projects in database is increased, the accuracy of the cost estimation is also increased.Originality/valueEstimators and graduate students can use the software to estimate building cost of public housing projects in its detailed design phase.

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PurposeThe research project called “Designing a building material relational database management system for Turkish construction sector”, aims to join “supply side” and “demand side” in the same environment that works on the subject of building material information in the Turkish construction sector. The paper aims to discuss the project findings.Design/methodology/approachData were gathered from the information supplied and demanded from the points of sources, levels and frequency of updating by the help of the questionnaires conducted. The data gathered were integrated into the pre‐construction stage and used in the analysis of the process as to how this information was used by the “demand side” for building material information. IDEF‐0, a structured methodology for functional process analysis, is used to figure out building material evaluation and selection processes in the pre‐construction stage.FindingsMaterial evaluation and selection process for the pre‐construction stage is figured out. Behaviors and requirements of demand‐side and supply‐side in building material information is studied. Difficulties in supplying and presenting building material information in Turkey are evaluated.Originality/valueAlthough the subject of the paper is well‐known, Turkish practices and problems are evaluated, and an alternative model is suggested for the Turkish construction sector.

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Mediation is an alternative dispute resolution that is fast and economic, based on volunteerism and offers the parties win-win approaches and also protects relationships among the dispute parties. Also comparing with the other ADR methods, mediation is easy to apply and less formal. In this respect, this alternative dispute resolution is suitable for the construction sector. In Turkey, mediation began to spread with the adoption of the "Mediation in Legal Disputes Act and Regulations" in 2012. In 2014, Istanbul Arbitration Centre was established. This institution has a mediation service. However, this service is not as advanced or sectoral divided as the procedures of ADR institutions providing mediation services in the world. The literature on the use of mediation in the construction sector in Turkey is very limited and there is no study investigating the perspectives of Turkish construction professionals on institutions providing mediation services. This study aims to examine the structures of ADR institutions providing construction mediation services in the world and the benefits provided by these institutions throughout the mediation process. In this study, a brief explanation about structures of the chosen institutions AAA-ICDR (American Arbitration Association-International Centre for Dispute Resolution), CEDR (Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution) and JAMS (Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services), which are prominent ADR institutions providing construction mediation services will be given. After that, their mediation processes will be examined. Furthermore, the advantages and disadvantages of non-institutional and institutional mediation will be analyzed by comparing them. In the last part, a survey's result will be shared searching the answers for following points: the dispute reasons that are experienced by Turkish construction professionals, the criteria of selection of the dispute resolution methods, whether they use mediation in the construction sector, the perspectives on institutions providing mediation services and the expected services from these institutions.

Yalın düşünce, israflardan arınmayı ve maksimum değere ulaşmayı hedefleyerek, israf kavramını odak noktası almaktadır. Yalın düşüncenin ele aldığı israf kavramıyla birlikte maliyete, süreye, kaliteye etki eden israf nedenlerini yönetebilmenin bir seçenekten çok gereklilik haline geldiği düşünülmektedir. Bunun için, öncelikle bina üretim sürecindeki israfların ve nedenlerinin anlaşılması ve analiz edilmesi gerekmektedir. Bu çalışma kapsamında da, yapım sürecindeki fiziksel olmayan israflar ve sektörde en çok karşılaşılan israf nedenleri araştırılmış, tespiti yapılmıştır. Bu israf nedenlerinin maliyet, süre ve kalite israfları açısından olasılık ve etki değerlendirmeleri yapılmış, israf matrisleri oluşturularak kritik israf nedenleri analiz edilmiştir. Böylece, bir firmanın israflarını nasıl yönetmesi gerektiği konusunda öncü bir çalışma yapılması hedeflenmiştir. Çünkü, dinamik ve karmaşık bir yapısı olan inşaat sektörünün, kalite, süre ve maliyet hedeflerine ulaşabilmek için yenilikçi yönetim yaklaşımlarına ihtiyaç duyduğu; bu yönetim yaklaşımlarında da, fiziksel ve fiziksel olmayan her türlü mevcut kaynağın en iyi şekilde kullanımını sağlamanın, sektör ve küresel açıdan faydalı ve önemli olduğu düşünülmektedir.

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