Innovation in construction: a sociology of technology approach

An alternative approach to understanding innovation is made using two intersecting ideas. The first is that successful innovation requires consideration of the social and organizational contexts in which it is located. The complex context of construction work is characterized by inter-organizational collaboration, a project-based approach and power distributed amongst collaborating organizations. The second is that innovations can be divided into two modes: 'bounded', where the implications of innovation are restricted within a single, coherent sphere of influence, and 'unbounded', where the effects of implementation spill over beyond this. Bounded innovations are adequately explained within the construction literature. However, less discussed are unbounded innovations, where many firms' collaboration is required for successful implementation, even though many innovations can be considered unbounded within construction's inter-organizational context. It is argued that unbounded innovations require an approach to understand and facilitate the interactions both within a range of actors and between the actors and technological artefacts. The insights from a sociology of technology approach can be applied to the multiplicity of negotiations and alignments that constitute the implementation of unbounded innovation. The utility of concepts from the sociology of technology, including 'system building' and 'heterogeneous engineering', is demonstrated by applying them to an empirical study of an unbounded innovation on a major construction project (the new terminal at Heathrow Airport, London, UK). This study suggests that 'system building' contains outcomes that are not only transformations of practices, processes and systems, but also the potential transformation of technologies themselves.     

换填法建筑地基处理的工程实录

结合某工程的地基处理，对换填法的应用作了较详细的阐述。     

Assessment of the types of public building maintenance contracts in Saudi Arabia

The study revealed that Fixed Price, Cost Plus and Purchased Labour contracts are the top three maintenance contracts adopted whilst Unit Price, Cost Plus A Percentage Fee contracts are alternatives used in the Kingdom. Some other types of maintenance contract were thought to be inappropriate by ministry departments.     

门式脚手架在已建高层建筑外装修中的应用

介绍门式脚手架在已建高层建筑外排栅中的整体搭设和应用实例。     

Facilities management, building maintenance and modernization link

The widening of interest and scope of property management and maintenance has attracted a greater diversity of professional disciplines into facilities management. Dr Quah, coordinator of CIB W70 on Management, Maintenance and Modernization of Building facilities, expresses her personal views on the current fascination with the subject.     

Time‐dependent heat transfer coefficient of a wall

A time‐dependent coefficient of heat transfer is proposed for the computation of thermal power required, so that a room temperature reaches a desired value within a given time. A mathematical formulation of the room heating transient phenomenon is constructed in a dimensionless form. Using an integral approximate solution an analytical expression for this coefficient is provided and it is verified by diagrams adopted by DIN 4701. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Ornament and function

The architects and builders in the past lacked our knowledge concerning fluid dynamics, but they exhibited a deep rooted ability to observe and reflect - thus, different cultures have developed by trial and error. The authors have produced a stimulating analysis which couples the science of fluid dynamics and a sensitive understanding of past cultures. The paper is recommended reading.     

Health and Indoor Climate Complaints of 7043 office Workers in 61 Buildings in the Netherlands

During the winter of 1988/1989, the relationships between the prevalence of work-related health and indoor climate complaints and a number of building, management, workplace and personal characteristics have been investigated in a study in more than 60 office buildings located throughout the Netherlands. To collect the information, a questionnaire was prepared on health and indoor climate complaints and personal and workplace characteristics. A checklist was used to obtain information on building characteristics More than 7000 questionnaires were completed by the regular users of the buildings investigated. The results showed that the prevalence of symptoms was higher in air-conditioned buildings than in naturally or mechanically ventilated buildings. some other variables were also related with most work-related complaints after adjustment for selected management, personal, workplace and job characteristics. These included gender, work satisfaction in general, presence of allergies and/or respiratory symptoms, and personal control over temperature at the workplace. No differences were found in symptom prevalences between buildings with spray and steam humidification. The combination of air-conditioning and humidification did not lead to further increases in the prevalence of complaints as compared to buildings with only airconditioning or only humidification.