It is accepted that occupants who are more satisfied with their workplace's building internal environment are more productive. The main objective of the study was to measure the occupants' level of satisfaction and the perceived importance of the design or refurbishment on office conditions. The study also attempted to determine the factors affecting the occupants' satisfaction with their building or office conditions. Post-occupancy evaluations were conducted using a structured questionnaire developed by the Built Environment Research Group at the University of Manchester, UK. Our questionnaires incorporate 22 factors relating to the internal environment and rate these in terms of "user satisfaction" and "degree of importance." The questions were modified to reflect the specific setting of the study and take into consideration the local conditions and climate in Malaysia. The overall mean satisfaction of the occupants toward their office environment was 5.35. The results were measured by a single item of overall liking of office conditions in general. Occupants were more satisfied with their state of health in the workplace, but they were extremely dissatisfied with the distance away from a window. The factor analysis divided the variables into three groups, namely intrusion, air quality, and office appearance. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was then used to determine which factor had the most significant influence on occupants' satisfaction: appearance. The findings from the study suggest that continuous improvement in aspects of the building's appearance needs to be supported with effective and comprehensive maintenance to sustain the occupants' satisfaction.
Housing has always been a significant aspiration of family expression and distinctly priciest investment by household. It plays a momentous role in the country's economy and so central to the societal well-being that is emplaced in the United Nation Universal declaration of Human rights. Yet in developed and developing world alike, cities struggle to provide decent housing for lower and middle income population. The provision of affordable housing is a major policy concern around the world with Malaysia being no exception; rising income hardly keep pace with price hike of housing unit and housing interventions has majorly concentrated on demand side leading to a non-responsive supply sector. Therefore, this paper highlights affordable housing issues pertaining Malaysia. It formulates Malaysian Map of affordability and conducts an evaluation of global housing schemes to better identify policy priorities for Malaysia. It's significant to harmonize supply and demand side factors in the housing market to ensure that housing supply fits the needs of citizens based on the location, price and target group. In case of Malaysia supply oriented initiative are of urgency in short and medium run. This must be supported by long term demand side schemes in parallel. Convergence of these two factors is essential for a balanced equilibrium and obtaining affordability.
Climate change has become one of the challenges for development. The building sector represents the largest resource of greenhouse gas production. Iraq depends on fossil fuels in producing energy, electricity with a lack of energy standards. This has made Iraq one of the utmost carbon-intense economic in the world. There is a lack of studies about green building retrofitting (GBR) projects in Iraq as well as lack of awareness about the importance of this concept and its welfare regarding the reduction of the climate change crisis. The enhancement of the implementation of GBR projects in Iraq will be a promising solution to overcome the negative impact of the existing buildings. The GBR projects represent a complicated project that needs an effective project management practices. It is crucial to identify the challenges that restrict the success of these ventures. This paper provides critical success factors (CSF) that will stimulate the achievement of GBR ventures in Iraq. A questionnaire survey is conducted to collect reliable data from the experts in retrofitting projects in Basra, Iraq. Findings showed that the top five challenges in implementing GBR are; absence of government legislation, lack of awareness about benefits of GBR, low government and private sectors’ investment, incompetent team members, and lack of sustainability knowledge. Additionally, the top five CSFs are; efficient legislation, competent team members, subsidies or tax reduction, sufficient experience and competence of the project manager. This research will contribute to the improvement of project management practices in GBR projects, reduction of environmental pollution and enhancement of Iraq’s oil revenues instead of using oil as energy fuel.
Landscape projects in Malaysia have been facing prevailing issues with impact on project performance. These issues could be anticipated and addressed at an earlier stage by implementing effective risk management system. From previous studies on risk management system implementation into construction project as suggested by various studies show that there is no formal risk management system and integration of risk management process into a landscape project lifecycles. Considering this explorative potentiality within the gap, this study attempts to advance a conceptual framework by integrating the risk management process into a landscape project lifecycles. The conceptual framework is based on extensive reviews of related literatures in the variables but extensively covers two areas namely; MS ISO31000:2010 risk management process (RMP) and landscape project lifecycle (PLC) in developing the conceptual framework. A hypothetical framework for landscape project risk management process is then produced from the study and is surmise beneficial to enhance the understanding and application of risk management among landscape professionals for managing risk in Malaysia landscape development.
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