West Sumatra is an important region in Indonesia in the context of traditional architectural heritage, especially mosques. There are 39 historical mosques registered as cultural heritage monuments in West Sumatra, 31 of which were surveyed for this study. Five had been completely renewed without leaving any trace of the original structure, while the location of one could not be identified. All mosques were mapped and a total of 25 were analyzed based on their architectural elements: (1) floor level, (2) main building material, (3) roof type, and (4) minaret. From the analysis, a typological tendency in the historical mosques of West Sumatra was identified. The discussion in this article focuses on the correlation between combinations of the four architectural elements in relation to their location. As a result, the architectural characteristics of the historical mosques in West Sumatra were identified.

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Zhaohua is a historic town in Sichuan Province, in China. On 12^th May 2008, a devastating earthquake measuring 8 on the Richter scale struck Wenchuan, Sichuan province. Among the 232 historic buildings in Zhaohua, the number of damaged buildings was 46; partially damaged, 74; and slightly damaged buildings, 112. The purpose of report is to study the extent of damage to these historic buildings during the earthquake, and then attempt to find the weak points which these buildings displayed.
Authors conclude that the damage to historic buildings is primarily related to the combination of main building materials and the construction used. Buildings made of wood and brick withstood the seismic forces better than did buildings made of wood and mud, which collapsed more easily. Further, the connections between the walls and the purlins and beams are the main weak points in the traditional historic buildings in Sichuan. Many of the historic buildings, particularly some made of mud, had never been reinforced.
In Zhaohua, although a disaster prevention plan was in place, this plan focused mainly on fire and did not include practical information on the historic building reinforcement and what should be done during a disaster and post-disaster.

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Taking Hakka vernacular dwellings as an example, this paper discusses the relationship between culture and architectural form. Using survey data from 2,189 traditional villages in the Meizhou region, the authors identify seven types of dwelling and their spatial distributions. Four housing types (Hengtang, Lung Wai, Bar and Pillow) have a high spatial overlap. Architectural morphology, with respect to symmetry, unit design and prototypes is then discussed. The four major dwelling types share the same cultural essence despite having different physical forms. This confirms the phenomenon of isomerism in architectural morphology. The authors hold that the homogenesis of vernacular dwellings, or the ″spatial prototype″ as a symbol and carrier of culture, strongly controls the consistency of architectural design. Meanwhile, heterogeneity reflects specific strategies of housing construction. It gives residential spaces adaptability to specific sociocultural and natural environments. Meanwhile, it exhibits itself indirectly in the form of diversity. Isomerism offers an appropriate mechanism through which vernacular dwellings can balance the needs of the top-down national system, bottom-up family needs, and the natural environment. This brings a new perspective that increases our understanding of vernacular dwellings.

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The main objective of this research is to identify spatial configurations that were dominant in apartment design from 1930 to 2015 in the city of Osijek, Croatia. Development of apartment design will be shown in the framework of various time periods following the social and economic changes that have taken place in Osijek in the last decades.
For this research, a total of 590 apartment building plans were collected. The final sample contains 358 spatial configuration diagrams of medium-sized apartments.
Results identified five different spatial configurations that were innovative for the period in which they appeared. The conclusion of the research is that the spatial layout of the apartment changes according to social and economic periods. Differences among types were identified in apartment functions organized by zones versus those organized by rooms; direct versus indirect inter-room communication; the appearance of specific room functions versus the integration of room functions; and growth versus decline of the net area of specific rooms. Results can be applied in further studies on improving and adapting the existing housing stock to contemporary housing requirements.

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This paper aims to illustrate the design review process of ″General Construction Companies″ (GCCs) and ″Design Firms″ (DFs) in Japan. It then quantitatively evaluates the time duration for the production of ″design and supportive documents″ which is required to go through a design review.
The research is divided into three stages. First, the constraints in the design process in both GCCs and DFs are illustrated. Second, the duration of each design phase is measured to assess the allocation of resources for design coordination required by the constraints. Third, the most commonly shared building types in the survey were evaluated based on the ″designed floor area per month.″
The survey statistically confirms the characteristics of the front-loaded design process by GCCs in the Preliminary Design phase to the Detailed Design Phase. GCCs have more cost and time constraints than DFs, through the involvement of the Cost Estimation and Procurement division in the construction department. It requires the production of ″design and supportive documents″ throughout the design process. On the contrary, DFs tend to spend more time and resources in the later part of the design process. This grants DFs more flexibility in cost and time throughout the design process as they have less strict constraints than GCCs.

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In recent years, the uses and applications of building information modeling (BIM) have become more common in construction projects. Usually, most general contractors (GCs) will use collaborative works for BIM model creation. GCs work together and complete BIM model creation at different locations and times, successfully reducing the duration of BIM model creation. However, BIM collaborative works cause numerous practical problems in BIM model creation, which include low quality BIM models, the need to rework the model creation, and incorrect model creation. To overcome these problems, this study proposes the BIM collaboration management (CM) framework to enhance the quality of BIM model creation work. Using the proposed BIM CM approach, the BIM team can reduce the time needed for model checking and improve the quality of BIM CM work. The proposed framework and approaches were applied to a case study of a building project in Taiwan to verify their effectiveness. The case study results show that the proposed frameworks and approaches are effective for collaborative BIM model creation for the GCs. Finally, the benefits, limitations, conclusions, and suggestions are summarized for further application.

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The aim of this study is to investigate how children behave in the landscape of three Chinese residential quarters. Based on information collected through investigation using Principal Component Analysis and Cluster Analysis, the residential landscapes are classified into ten types, each of which can be generally described according to four spatial factors-- exposure, proximity to water, accessibility, and relative building facade. The results show that: 1) playing is the most typical behaviour of children; 2) space with some degree of exposure has a more obvious effect on the distribution of children′s behaviour, and most children prefer to play along the waterside; 3) children without independent action ability tend to play in a semi-open space with a safe and stable environment, while those with independent action ability choose their play space more freely; 4) integrated open space that can be easily accessed, has a waterfront landscape and is near a building facade, may significantly stimulate children′s behaviour.

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Mongolia is exposed to an inclement-climate environment due to its specific geographical location and altitude. Such circumstances are challenging, and careful consideration is required in terms of the scheduling of construction works; in particular, a high possibility of productivity loss exists regarding outdoor work. This study presents the key climatic factors that significantly impact on the concreting operation, and the historical climatic data, project-specific questionnaire surveys, and the actual productivity data of previous concreting works are accordingly utilized. This study utilized a total of 343 project-specific productivity data collected from the contractors. The analysis results indicate that low temperatures, high winds and precipitation are the critical factors affecting productivity loss in terms of outdoor concrete work. In addition, the authors suggest the critical-factor threshold values for the prevention of this productivity loss, and for the preparation of an optimum project schedule under the inclement-climate condition.

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Building renovation projects are mainly affected by not only the design constraints of existing buildings but also various influential factors (e.g., building age, structural stability, site condition). However, conventional estimation methods deal with renovation projects similar to new construction and do not effectively consider potential risk factors. Thus, unexpected problems can make it difficult to proceed with the initial project execution plan. A three-phase framework is proposed for a probabilistic cost estimation process model that reflects the uncertainties of residential building renovation: (1) roughly estimating the cost based on industry means data; (2) converting the estimated costs to probabilistic values to consider the project characteristics; and (3) adjusting the converted probabilistic values according to risk factors. The value at risk of a specific construction can then be calculated to improve the reliability of the cost estimation. The proposed model was applied to a case study to demonstrate its feasibility. The results showed that the distribution of cost estimates reflecting the project characteristics and risk factors could be objectively confirmed at the initial stage. Thus, the method can help facilitate the decision-making process for homeowners, especially those reluctant to choose renovation.

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The Javanese in Indonesia believe that the cosmos (the natural world) is composed of various opposing concepts – day and night, brightness and darkness, heaven and earth, left and right, male and female, etc. Given that Javanese people perceive a house as a microcosm of the natural universe, they seek to find balance in their housing as well. Such dualism, which is represented in the form and use of Javanese housing, causes the house to consist of various separated units assigned with contrasting concepts. Through case studies of the traditional houses existing in Kotagede, Yogyakarta, this paper aims to clarify how this type of dualism is realized in Javanese houses and how dualism has been transformed as the society changed.
A field survey conducted in August 2014 includes measurement of five houses and interviews with the residents using a semi-structured questionnaire in order to understand the history of the houses and families as well as the meaning and use of the housing spaces. Among the diverse concepts of dualism, the study focused on the three major dualistic concepts of public/private, male/female, and god/ when analyzing each of the Javanese buildings and its spaces.

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Over time, urban developments with increased densities have led to a decrease in private open space with a lack of public open space. Residential open spaces are missing in housing legislations as they are estimated based on floor area ratio and building coverage ratio, whereas they cannot be used as an all-encompassing measurement tool. Moreover, it is important for designers to consider housing layout to ensure a pleasant environment for residents; eventually, a range of benefits and opportunities will be available in residential open spaces. Therefore, to achieve a better quality of space in residential areas, new indices in the evaluation of residential environments should be proposed.
This research assumes that there are links between the attributes of housing layout, space openness, and quality of space in residential areas. This study intends to examine some of the effects of housing layouts on residential open space through a comparative analysis of residential areas in Tehran. The relation between building arrangements, possibility of windows, and spatial openness will be analyzed; subsequently, two new indices—wall perimeter index (WPI) and spatial openness index (SOI)—will be proposed and target districts will be studied to compare different residential areas according to the new indices.

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In reality, an open space comprises various spatial elements, and people choose a place for sojourn according to the attraction created by the spatial elements. In the first stage, this study develops a simple computer graphic prediction method, where the prediction results of computer graphics are compared with that of the reality. After confirming the reliability of the method, it was applied in the second stage in order to analyze the degrees to which the spatial elements attract people for sojourn. Fifty subjects participated in the actual space experiment, and another group of 50 participated in the computer graphic experiment. Three hundred and twelve subjects participated in the second stage experiment.
Both the actual space and the computer graphic experiments show that people tend to choose a place featuring ″seating″, ″trees″, ″shade″ and ″the front of a wall″ for sojourn. The result of the computer graphic experiment is very similar to the actual space experiment, which proves that the computer graphic prediction method is feasible in predicting the places of sojourn of a real space. The priority of people′s choosing a place to stay is: ″a corner + a place to sit″>″a corner″>″the shade″>″a place to sit″>″the front of a wall″.

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Effective and efficient communication skills are crucial for successful projects in the construction industry. When project stakeholders′ decision-making defines all requirements without exception and reaches an agreement for approval, possible waste and potential risk factors may be reduced. Design decision-making is a group rather than an individual task; thus, the final design is drawn by sharing and exchanging information with which each individual project stakeholder is interactively involved. Group decision-making enables the use of professional advice; takes advantage of greater knowledge, facts, and alternatives; and derives design plans with a high level of execution and satisfaction through sufficient opinion exchange among the stakeholders. Thus, this study proposes a novel group decision-making method based on quality function deployment (QFD) together with a communication model to define users′ various requirements in a cooperative manner among stakeholders to secure reliability, understandability, and rationality in the final design plan. To verify this study, a series of communication processes related to the definition of user requested functions, modification of required functions and design feedback were presented by selecting actual cases of design development.

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The purpose of this study is to examine the historical pathways of the developmental housing systems of four East Asian tigers (Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan) to identify the institutional factors of systemic transformations and specify similarities and differences by using cross-national data and performing data analysis. The main results are as follows: (1) historically, the four housing systems have been deeply embedded in market-oriented, pro-homeownership policies; (2) massive provision of large-scale housing coincided with industrialization, urbanization, and modernization to tackle escalating demands for homeownership; (3) public rental housing has been severely marginalized and residualized; (4) the minimalist approach to public housing aggravated the institutional vulnerability of the states in the face of economic globalization; (5) the housing transformation in the global era was triggered by institutional factors, including political power shifts, economic restructuring, and socio-demographic transitions; and (6) it is clear that the developmental housing systems were redirected in recent decades to overcome their institutional shortcomings. Despite the similarities, each developmental state′s housing sector has unique features that have formed their diverse pathways.

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The most common approach to urban control in Japan consists in setting standards by subdividing items and giving approvals only if they are met. Starting from 2000, a discretionary approach to urban control, which takes account of integrating different items and of overall harmony, has been operated in Nagasaki Prefecture. The framework, which is rare in Japan, only covers localized areas surrounding Nagasaki Port. The controlling authority, organized by Japan′s leading professionals, is tasked with screening and giving advice to projects for building structures in the Nagasaki Port areas. Our study has found that architects have benefitted from the framework by gaining access to beneficial advice and being awarded prizes for their works, while at the same time they have also been disadvantaged by complicated procedures and increased labor. Our findings indicate a need for creating opportunities to allow both the urban design experts and the architects to have dialogue on an equal footing and setting the design fees at levels that would justify the efforts on the part of architects in holding talks and negotiations with the advisers.

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The object of visual experiences in three-dimensional built environments can be considered as a collection of surfaces that are recognized by the human senses. This study suggests a way to interpret mutual visual relationships of surfaces based on the visual amount of light that reflects between surfaces. For this purpose, Three-dimensional Visibility Analysis (TVA) has been created as a platform for understanding the architectural implications of visual experiences in three-dimensional built environments by classifying the visual experiences into seven indices and quantifying them. We first examined the architectural meaning of each visual index through simple models to comprehend how visual relations operate between objects′ surfaces and explored the visual properties of the three-dimensional built environments and their architectural significance in them. Two types of case studies using these visibility indices were undertaken to investigate their objective meanings and to provide potential applications that might be adoptable for practical applications of the built environment, as well as to find associations with how these factors are affected by the social behavior that occurs in it.

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This study examines the previously unknown relationship between using human behavior simulation, equipped autonomous, intelligent Virtual-Users, and students′ self-experimentation performance in fire egress planning. The research method involved 70 students in authentic design courses who proposed floor plans for office buildings before and after simulating evacuee behaviors. They then scored their experiences based on using the simulation. Statistical analysis of those scores reveals that using human behavior simulation helps students find unexpected problems, evaluate the validity and functionality of design solutions, conduct the experimentation process more efficiently, and determine the solutions with relative ease. The main reasons for these results are posited to be the explicit, analytic, and observable representation of virtual evacuees, their manipulative parameters, and an integrated system between human behavior simulation and Building Information Modeling (BIM). The findings of the present study can contribute to developing a rational computational means for education in fire egress planning.

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Growth in car ownership has significant impacts on the use of urban space and management of urban environments, especially in rapidly developing countries such as China. However, among voluminous literature, few studies have investigated the correlates of household car ownership in the Chinese context, leading to the lack of effective measures to tackle rapid motorization. This study explored the impacts of household-level socioeconomic characteristics and neighborhood-level built environment on household car ownership, with data collected from 25,325 households in Zhongshan, China. The Zero-inflated Poission regression models detect that, all else being equal, living in a neighborhood with a compact and mixed urban form, better bus service and adjacency to CBD is associated with fewer household cars and higher probability to own zero cars. The models also suggest that household size and income, number of employed or students, and availability of competitive vehicles are significantly related to the number of cars in a household. The findings facilitate our understanding of the effects of socioeconomic characteristics and built environment on household car ownership and provide insights into an effective design of measures to slow down the rapid motorization in China.

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Joints existing in segmental precast and pouring constructions have poorer performance than the monolithic parts in concrete structures, of which the mechanical behaviors have been studied by many researchers. However, studies related to the durability of concrete rarely focus on joints. The purpose of this study is to compare the chloride resistances between joints and the monolithic parts. Concrete structures are generally under a certain stress state, so unstressed specimens and specimens under compressive and tensile stresses were prepared. Salt spray tests on specimens with different stress states and different joint types were conducted. Based on the test results of chloride profiles, the chloride resistances of the specimens under different stress states were compared. The results indicate that the monolithic part has a better chloride resistance than the joint, no matter what the stress state is. Moreover, the chloride resistances of the different joints also differ greatly.

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This study examined the relationship between noise annoyance and sound pressure levels in indoor environments due to various modes of transportation including road traffic, railways, and aircraft. The experiments were conducted in a laboratory environment, where the limited sense of presence was overcome by using an appropriate exposure duration. The degree of annoyance was surveyed and the average score was converted into percent of annoyance (%PA) and percent high annoyance (%HA) values among respondents for comparisons with the noise levels. As expected, the subjective response increased in proportion with the noise level and there was an extremely high correlation. Notably, the smallest deviation in responses was found for road traffic noise. Overall, the noise levels corresponding to a %PA of 50% were 41 dB(A), 48 dB(A), and 49 dB(A) for road traffic noise, railway noise, and aircraft noise, respectively. In addition, the levels corresponding to a %HA of 20% were 45 dB(A), 51 dB(A), and 53 dB(A), respectively. The %HA values coincided well with current regulations for indoor noise in Korea (45 dB(A)).

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Wrong:
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by the Korea Research Foundation Grant funded by the Korean Government (2015R1D1A1A01059898).

Correct:
Acknowledgement
This study was supported by research fund from Chosun University, 2014.

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