Transforming Markets in the Built Environment


Book Description

There is an urgent need to build human capacity to make the often vulnerable and exposed buildings and communities we live and work in more resilient to the changing social, economic and physical environments around us. Extensive research has been done over the last decades on both mitigation and adaptation to climate change in the built environment, but the outputs of much of this research have failed to result in the wider uptake of effective greenhouse gas emission reduction solutions. This volume introduces credible 'fresh thinking' on how this may be done. For the first time an emerging generation of research is brought together that is directly concerned with understanding, influencing and leading the transformation of markets and thinking in the built environment. Chapters cover: defining values setting targets consumer motivation selling existing ideas better developing new design principles, paradigms and programmes optimizing solutions to ensure that when change does happen, it does so in the right direction. Papers are contributed by leading experts in fields ranging from philosophy, the social, political and physical sciences, engineering, architecture, mathematics and complexity science. The resulting volume will be essential reading for all those involved with changing the mindsets of a generation on the need to, and ways to, build resilience to rapid change and transforming markets in the built environment.




Digital Transformation of the Design, Construction and Management Processes of the Built Environment


Book Description

This open access book focuses on the development of methods, interoperable and integrated ICT tools, and survey techniques for optimal management of the building process. The construction sector is facing an increasing demand for major innovations in terms of digital dematerialization and technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data, advanced manufacturing, robotics, 3D printing, blockchain technologies and artificial intelligence. The demand for simplification and transparency in information management and for the rationalization and optimization of very fragmented and splintered processes is a key driver for digitization. The book describes the contribution of the ABC Department of the Polytechnic University of Milan (Politecnico di Milano) to R&D activities regarding methods and ICT tools for the interoperable management of the different phases of the building process, including design, construction, and management. Informative case studies complement the theoretical discussion. The book will be of interest to all stakeholders in the building process – owners, designers, constructors, and faculty managers – as well as the research sector.




Sustainable Futures in the Built Environment to 2050


Book Description

Brings together leading thinking on issues of new professional practice and on the future of a sustainable built environment This book focuses on both construction and development issues, and examines how we can transition to a sustainable future by the year 2050—bringing together leading research and practice at building, neighbourhood, and city levels. It deftly analyses how emerging socio-economic, technological, and environmental trends will influence the built environment of the future. The book covers a broad spectrum of interests across the scales of buildings, communities and cities, including how professional practice will need to adapt to these trends. The broader context is provided by an analysis of emergent business models and the changing requirements for expert advice from clients. Sustainable Futures in the Built Environment to 2050: A Foresight Approach to Construction and Development features chapters covering: data and trends, including historical data and UK and international case studies; policies and practice related to the field; current state of scientific understanding; key challenges; key technological advances (including disruptive and systemic technological innovations); change issues and critical uncertainties; and future visions. It provides: A strong conceptual framework based on a ‘Foresight' approach Discussion of the key data and trends that underpin each chapter Coverage of both construction and property development Specially commissioned chapters by academics and practitioners A synthesis of the main findings in the book and key insights for the future to 2050 Sustainable Futures in the Built Environment to 2050: A Foresight Approach to Construction and Development is an important book for postgraduate students and researchers, construction, real estate and property development specialists, engineers, planners, architects, foresight and futures studies specialists, and anyone involved in sustainable buildings.




Perception, Design and Ecology of the Built Environment


Book Description

This edited volume is a compilation of the ‘built environment’ in response to many investigations, analyses and sometimes mere observations of the various dialogues and interactions of the built, in context to its ecology, perception and design. The chapters concentrate on various independent issues, integrated as a holistic approach, both in terms of theoretical perspectives and practical approaches, predominantly focusing on the Global South. The book builds fabric knitting into the generic understanding of environment, perception and design encompassing ‘different’ attitudes and inspirations. This book is an important reference to topics concerning urbanism, urban developments and physical growth, and highlights new methodologies and practices. The book presumes an understanding unearthed from various dimensions and again woven back to a common theme, which emerges as the reader reads through. Various international experts of the respective fields working on the Global South contributed their latest research and insights to the different parts of the book. This trans-disciplinary volume appeals to scientists, students and professionals in the fields of architecture, geography, planning, environmental sciences and many more.




The Economics of Urban Property Markets


Book Description

This book examines the relationship between the property market and urban economy. The stimulus for this work was provided by the seemingly ever-accelerating process of urban economic change and the noticeable failure of existing studies to adequately explore the pivotal role that the property market plays in this process. Drawing on institutional economics, the central argument of the book is that the property market as an institution is a mediator through which urban economic potential can be realised and served. In developing this argument, the book provides a critical realist ontological framework that advances understanding of the institutional structure of the economy and the complex interrelation between the institutional environment and human agency, as well as a holistic theoretical framework of urban economic change, where appropriate emphasis is placed on the specific mechanisms, processes and dynamics through which the built environment is provided. Arvanitidis also explores an institutional conceptualisation of property market efficiency, defined in terms of the ability of the market institution to adapt its structure and to provide outcomes that the economy requires. To inform empirical research on the developed concepts, the book also offers a generic analytical approach specifying appropriate research methods and techniques for investigation along with a specific research design providing an operational framework that translates developed theory into empirical practice. The book’s primary contribution therefore lies in its delineation of a holistic research programme to conceptualise the property market as an institution and to explore its role within the urban economy.




Ecolabels, Innovation, and Green Market Transformation


Book Description

This book develops a path to decarbonization through a process of Green Market Transformation. Matisoff and Noonan assess the scope and impact of the green building movement, which is working towards decarbonizing a sector that accounts for more than a third of global carbon emissions. They describe the role of the movement in addressing sustainability challenges within the building and construction sector, and suggest new ways of marshalling markets through the voluntary efforts of industry to shift society towards a better future. Matisoff and Noonan tell the success story of green industry, seen through the lens of green buildings and ecolabels. By combining case studies with recent interdisciplinary scholarship, the authors provide a compelling narrative of the opportunities and limitations of reliance on voluntary approaches to regulation.




Water Resources in the Built Environment


Book Description

Water management is a key environmental issue in controlling of floods and reducing droughts. This book provides analysis of the main issues, offering solutions and describing good practice. Water Resources for the Built Environment: management issues and solutions develops an appreciation of the diverse, complex and current themes of the water resources debate across the built environment, urban development and management continuum. The integration of physical and environmental sciences, combined with social, economic and political sciences, provide a unique resource, useful to policy experts, scientists, engineers and subject enthusiasts. By taking an interdisciplinary approach, water resources issues and impacts on the built environment are presented in the inventive and strategic setting of considering the constraints of delivering potable water to an ever-demanding society who, at the same time, are increasingly aware of living in an urban landscape where excessive surface water creates a flood threatened environment – hence, the need to portray a balance between ‘too little vs. too much’. This unique approach to the water resources debate presents a multifaceted collection of chapters that address the contemporary concomitant issues of water shortage and urban flooding and proffers solutions specifically for the built environment. The book is structured into three parts: the first part (Sections 2, 3 and 4) addresses management issues and solutions to minimise water shortages and provide water security for society; whilst the second part of the book (Sections 5 and 6) addresses management issues and solutions to control excessive rainfall and minimise flooding impacts. The third part (Section 7) contextualises the issues of the earlier sections within international case studies from the developing world.




The Elgar Companion to the Built Environment and the Sustainable Development Goals


Book Description

Exploring the link between Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the built environment, this erudite Companion provides a comprehensive overview and critical examination of key topics and complex research issues. Structured around the 5Ps of the SDGs - people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnerships - the Companion suggests potential routes for the future direction of research within this multidisciplinary field of study.




Architecture and Resilience


Book Description

Resilience will be a defining quality of the twenty-first century. As we witness the increasingly turbulent effects of climate change, the multiple challenges of resource depletion and wage stagnation, we know that our current ways of living are not resilient. This volume takes resilience as a transformative concept to ask where and what architecture might contribute. Bringing together cross-disciplinary perspectives from architecture, urban design, art, geography, building science and psychoanalysis, it aims to open up multiple perspectives of research, spatial strategies and projects that are testing how we can build local resilience in preparation for major societal challenges, defining the position of architecture in urban resilience discourse. Chapter 16 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 3.0 license.




International Encyclopedia of Housing and Home


Book Description

Available online via SciVerse ScienceDirect, or in print for a limited time only, The International Encyclopedia of Housing and Home, Seven Volume Set is the first international reference work for housing scholars and professionals, that uses studies in economics and finance, psychology, social policy, sociology, anthropology, geography, architecture, law, and other disciplines to create an international portrait of housing in all its facets: from meanings of home at the microscale, to impacts on macro-economy. This comprehensive work is edited by distinguished housing expert Susan J. Smith, together with Marja Elsinga, Ong Seow Eng, Lorna Fox O'Mahony and Susan Wachter, and a multi-disciplinary editorial team of 20 world-class scholars in all. Working at the cutting edge of their subject, liaising with an expert editorial advisory board, and engaging with policy-makers and professionals, the editors have worked for almost five years to secure the quality, reach, relevance and coherence of this work. A broad and inclusive table of contents signals (or tesitifes to) detailed investigation of historical and theoretical material as well as in-depth analysis of current issues. This seven-volume set contains over 500 entries, listed alphabetically, but grouped into seven thematic sections including methods and approaches; economics and finance; environments; home and homelessness; institutions; policy; and welfare and well-being. Housing professionals, both academics and practitioners, will find The International Encyclopedia of Housing and Home useful for teaching, discovery, and research needs. International in scope, engaging with trends in every world region The editorial board and contributors are drawn from a wide constituency, collating expertise from academics, policy makers, professionals and practitioners, and from every key center for housing research Every entry stands alone on its merits and is accessed alphabetically, yet each is fully cross-referenced, and attached to one of seven thematic categories whose ‘wholes' far exceed the sum of their parts