Kategoria BISAC: Technology & Engineering >> Construction - General

Buildings with load-bearing earth walls were once widespread throughout Britain and many thousands still survive, including some dating from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

Earth is the ultimate form of 'green' building construction, creating no environmental pollutions and consuming virtually no energy. Subsoil can be dug from or near the site to construct buildings that will meet modern needs and conform to the latest building regulations.

This book describes all aspects of earth building, explaining how earth performs as a building material and providing guidance...

Communication within project-based environments presents special challenges. This is especially true within the construction industry, where interaction tends to be characterised by unfamiliar groups of people coming together for short periods before disbanding to work on other endeavours.

This book examines communication at a number of levels ranging from interpersonal interactions between project participants to corporate communication between organizations. Several non-typical perspectives on the process of communication are introduced to encourage the reader to think about...

This book describes current advances and future directions in the theory and application of intelligent agents and multi-agent systems in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector. It is the product of an international effort involving a network of construction IT and computing researchers, investigating different aspects of agent theory and applications.

The contributed chapters cover different perspectives and application areas, and represent significant efforts to harness emerging technologies such as intelligent agents and multi-agent systems for improved...

This key text presents students with a holistic view of the building design process, bridging the gap between the theory and practice of constructing and assembling buildings.

Integrated Strategies in Architecture encourages and enables students to gain a sound understanding of the purpose of buildings, the specialisms that contribute and the available technology. Zunde and Bougdah thoroughly introduce and expose the concepts and technologies that underlie the design process, setting current design in context as part of an evolutionary process, exemplified through historic...

Filled with practical advice for all aspects of the construction manager's role, this invaluable book fills a need for training in this essential subject, to ensure greater efficiency on site and smoother client-contractor relations.

Developed as a handy-reference guide for practitioners and also useful for students, it covers the broad range of responsibilities associated with the role, providing clear guidance and in-depth coverage of the essentials. Topics include financial responsibilities and how to handle them, tender preparation, people management, health and safety, contracts,...

This unique publication is the only detailed, multinational guide to the cost of construction work across the Middle East. Thirteen countries are covered in individual country chapters, along with comparative regional information: Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey and UAE.
The following information is given for each country:
Key data on the main economic and construction indicators
An outline of the national construction industry, covering structure, tendering and contract procedures, regulations...

This state of the art report from an international task group (TG44) of CIB, the International Council of Building Research Organizations, presents a highly authoritative guide to the application of innovative technologies on response control and seismic isolation of buildings to practice worldwide.

Many countries and cities are located in earthquake-prone areas making effective seismic design a major issue in structural engineering. Reassuringly, structural response control and seismic isolation have advanced remarkably in recent years following numerous studies internationally....

Contrary to stereotype, the construction industry has embraced IT with some vigour. Computers are used effectively across the sector and this use is increasing. A range of new issues have emerged in consequence.

This practical book draws on direct industrial experience and examines the role of IT within a range of enterprises operating in the construction and property industry. Emphasis is given to the human side of IT and the effects of the implementation of IT systems on them. The functionality of the IT systems is considered, as is the design brief and the operation of the...

This key text addresses the topic of lightweight claddings in buildings and is a useful guide and reference resource.

Written by well-known specialists in the field, this fourth edition of an established text has been revised throughout to incorporate the latest environmental issues, the use of wood and terracotta in cladding, and use of new materials, particularly the new moulded materials. Two new chapters cover wood and terracotta in cladding. The main types of cladding systems are described in detail and methods of production, performance characteristics, applications and methods of...

This comprehensive and unique work considers the various aspects involved in the behaviour of bulk storage structures. It is the accumulation of over 30 years of study, experiments and field measurements by the author, covering design, examination and evaluation of bulk storage structures. The subjects treated in this volume range from design, through operational behaviour, to failure and its prevention. The following areas are considered: theories of stresses and strains in particulate materials; material testing and evaluation for the prediction of a structure's loads and behaviour;...

Innovation in Small Construction Firms promotes the benefits of innovation, and stimulate innovation capability within and between small and medium sized (SMEs) construction firms in an effort to bring in a new 'can innovate, should innovate, want to innovate' culture to the construction industry. Presenting new theoretical and practical insights and models grounded in descriptive case studies, the issues addressed include:

• what is the motivation to innovate?
• what is appropriate innovation?
• how can small construction firms create, manage and exploit...

Do recent moves in the construction industry towards collaborative working and other new procurement procedures really make good business sense? Procurement in the Construction Industry is the result of research into this question and it includes the first rigorous categorizing of the differences between procurement methods currently in use. In the process of carrying out this research, the team has produced a comprehensive study of procurement methods which looks in detail at the relative benefits and costs of different ways of working, with sometimes surprising results. As such, it is...

Since the early 1980s, researchers and practitioners in the organisational and management fields have presumed a link between organisational, or corporate, culture and organisational performance. Whilst many believe this exists, other authors have been critical of the validity of such studies. Part of this doubt stems from a reliance on measures of organisational performance that are based purely on financial measures of business growth.

Using the construction industry as the subject of his research, Vaughan Coffey traces the development of the literature on organisational culture...