There are increasing concerns over building code, regulation compliance, and quality assurance issues in adopting off-site construction techniques in the construction industry related to meeting client expectations and regulatory requirements. Performance-based building regulations often allow for space for innovation but not a safe space for those who intend to introduce new construction techniques not prescribed in building regulations. Through a series of surveys conducted in Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, China, Singapore, and Australia, this study identified approaches and practices used in these countries that overcome compliance challenges when off-site construction techniques are used. The findings showed that manufacturer self-certification is the predominant approach for meeting code compliance requirements. A fit-for-purpose regulatory compliance system also warrants fair allocation of risks and liabilities to anyone involved in the supply chain. However, a healthy and functional regulatory system for off-site compliance requires third-party certification for products and factories and traceability. It is hoped that the lessons learned from this study can help policymakers introduce changes in product standards and legislation in order to improve the compliance and performance of off-site construction. This study concluded that a chain of custody approach is necessary in order to address quality concerns surrounding the adoption of prefabrication technology in countries that are increasingly exploring greater use of manufacturing in construction.

Purpose - By adopting the "hard" and "soft" project management (PM) approaches from the PM-literature, this paper aims to problematize the expected role of client organizations in driving innovation in the transport infrastructure sector.

Design/methodology/approach - Addressing a large public client in Sweden, a case study design was initially applied to provide in-depth insights and perspectives of client project managers's views and experiences of managing projects expected to drive innovation. In this paper, the concepts of "hard" and "soft" are used to discuss empirical findings on challenges associated with adopting a PM-approach for driving innovation in projects. The empirical material consists of interview data, complemented with observations and archival data.

Findings - Findings reveal challenges associated with combining hard and soft approaches, frequently demonstrating difficulties in balancing short-term project expectations with the promotion of innovation. In line with the literature, project managers note that there is a need for soft approaches to promote development and drive innovation. Yet, findings reflect a situation in which operational success criteria predominate, whereas soft approaches are not sufficiently used to create the grounds required for fostering innovation.

Originality/value - Insights are provided into how PM-approaches may impact construction innovation in the infrastructure sector, demonstrating a need for further research on the challenges and implications of applying and combining hard and soft PM-approaches.

The construction industry has seen an increase in its complexity. This has meant an increased need for time-consuming and costly quality control. Moreover, the construction industry continues to perform detection-based quality controls with little to no focus on prevention. Quality control documentation is a source of information and data that can support the development of construction processes toward prevention. However, current documentations are ambiguous and subjective, so they remain ineffectual. A case study was performed to explore the causes of the ambiguity and subjectivity of traditional quality control documentation, and to analyze the identified project-variable procedure’s transformation into standardized or even automated documentation. Evaluating the traditional quality control’s preparation, inspection, and documentation phases highlighted unique challenges requiring tailored solutions. This study identifies the challenges of inaccurate data creation and data entry, unusable documentation, and inefficient documentation. Therefore, the usefulness of data structuring and process standardization became apparent. Hence, the study explores two solutions: a digitalized quality control system (DQCS) that ensures one accurate structured data entry method, and a centralized unit that prepares the necessary data for quality control inspections, instead of the unique preparation for each project. The results show the benefits of increased accuracy, usability, and efficiency for reliable on-site inspection and documentation.

Digital transformation (DT) is expected to contribute to the construction industry's ability to meet climate and sustainable challenges and increase companies' productivity. This study aims to explore requirements for, and factors affecting DT in the construction industry. This research goes beyond the technology perspective and focus on factors needed to transform the potential of digitalisation to benefits for organisations in the construction industry. A structured literature review is performed where knowledge gaps are identified, and a framework is developed that maps the required changes, as well as the associated challenges, constraints, and implications.The construction industry & PRIME;s business-to-business logic, and the fragmented and project-based structure is found to have impact on the industry & PRIME;s development within DT. Mainly regarding the DT aspects disruption, structural changes, organisational barriers, and the central aspect value creation. The understanding of DT by scholars and practitioners in the construction industry is found immature and this calls for further research. The research contributes to understanding of the concept DT and proposes, based on earlier DT literature, an adjusted framework for DT in construction, and points out key areas where research in construction has gaps to fill.

Purpose - Simulation-based optimisation (SO) is a popular optimisation approach for building and civil engineering construction planning. However, in the framework of SO, the simulation is continuously invoked during the optimisation trajectory, which increases the computational loads to levels unrealistic for timely construction decisions. Modification on the optimisation settings such as reducing searching ability is a popular method to address this challenge, but the quality measurement of the obtained optimal decisions, also termed as optimisation quality, is also reduced by this setting. Therefore, this study aims to develop an optimisation approach for construction planning that reduces the high computational loads of SO and provides reliable optimisation quality simultaneously.

Design/methodology/approach - This study proposes the optimisation approach by modifying the SO framework through establishing an embedded connection between simulation and optimisation technologies. This approach reduces the computational loads and ensures the optimisation quality associated with the conventional SO approach by accurately learning the knowledge from construction simulations using embedded ensemble learning algorithms, which automatically provides efficient and reliable fitness evaluations for optimisation iterations.

Findings - A large-scale project application shows that the proposed approach was able to reduce computational loads of SO by approximately 90%. Meanwhile, the proposed approach outperformed SO in terms of optimisation quality when the optimisation has limited searching ability.

Originality/value - The core contribution of this research is to provide an innovative method that improves efficiency and ensures effectiveness, simultaneously, of the well-known SO approach in construction applications. The proposed method is an alternative approach to SO that can run on standard computing platforms and support nearly real-time construction on-site decision-making.

Adopting energy efficiency strategies in residential buildings are beneficial as these not only improve the energy performance but also improves the indoor thermal climate and minimizes the greenhouse gas emissions. There exist numerous studies on energy efficiency strategies and their influence on indoor thermal climate in residential buildings in cold climates. However, there is a lack of documented and systematic studies that explicitly investigated the selection of appropriate energy efficiency strategies and their impact on the indoor thermal climate in residential buildings in a subarctic climate. Moreover, the impact of such energy efficiency strategies on the life cycle energy use of buildings has not been given appropriate attention in the existing literature. Due to the extreme climate conditions in a subarctic climate – severe cold and dark winter with heavy snow and mild short summer – buildings require a considerable amount of heating energy to maintain a comfortable temperature indoors. Therefore, it is important to adopt energy efficiency strategies that can help obtain operational and life cycle energy savings along with a better indoor thermal climate.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of different energy efficiency strategies on energy use and thermal indoor climate of three selected case study residential buildings in a subarctic climate. Three research questions were formulated: (1) What is the impact of evaluated energy‐efficiency strategies on the operational energy use?, (2) What is the impact of evaluated energy‐efficiency strategies on the life‐cycle energy use?, and (3) What is the impact of evaluated energy‐efficiency strategies on the thermal indoor climate? To address research questions 1 and 3, implemented energy‐efficiency strategies in two low‐energy buildings were evaluated using measured energy data and dynamic building energy and indoor climate simulations. To address research question 2, different combinations of energy efficiency strategies were explored using a multiobjective optimization method to identify optimal retrofitting solutions in terms of life cycle energy savings for a 1980s building.

Results show that besides an airtight and highly insulated building envelope, a well‐functioning heating system is important to achieve low operational energy use. Findings highlight that the role of occupants is vital both in regard to the proper functioning of the heating system and to reduce the need for active heating in an airtight and highly insulated building. The occupants are also important in terms of maintaining a comfortable indoor thermal climate, especially during summer since manual airing and shading can help moderate temperatures indoors. Furthermore, findings show that applying glazed balconies is not necessarily a favorable strategy in terms of operational energy use and indoor thermal climate for a building in a subarctic climate. In comparison, using double instead of single pane balcony glazing and lowering the window to wall ratio improved the operational energy and indoor thermal climate performance. A combination of energy efficiency strategies including the addition of insulation on walls and roofs, there placement of windows from double pane to triple pane ones and the installation of heat recovery ventilation were found optimal to achieve considerable savings in both operational and life cycle energy use. In many cases, the fundamental aim of adopting energy efficiency strategies is to reduce operational energy use, while impacts on life cycle energy use and indoor thermal climate are less prioritized. The findings illustrate the importance of considering impacts on operational energy use, life cycle energy use and indoor thermal climate simultaneously to select energy efficiency strategies that ensure a better and more sustainable built environment.

Inter-organizational collaboration within the construction industry consists of both engineered and emerged aspects. Engineered formal practices and emerged informal practices interplay in their influence on the overall success of client-contractor collaboration. This interplay has been recognized but is still understudied and requires further research to increase the understanding of how the interplay functions. To enable the study of the emerged aspects of collaboration we applied a practice-based approach in a longitudinal multiple case study, including four projects for operation and maintenance of road infrastructure. This paper contributes to the literature on collaboration in construction by providing detailed examples of how the interplay between engineered and emerged collaboration may unfold, showing how formal and informal practices contribute to the development of vicious and virtuous cycles of collaboration. Furthermore, our findings indicate that a virtuous cycle of only informal practices can become a weakness if unexpected problems occur. Project managers should therefore be encouraged to implement formal collaboration, even if the project team is already in a virtuous cycle of informal collaboration. 

Despite its declared importance for governing complexity in projects, few empirical studies have studied how different types of supply chain integration (SCI) activities (e.g., coordinative and collaborative integration) interplay and affect performance. To address this gap, the purpose of this paper is to study how complexity can be governed through coordinative and collaborative SCI, and how their interplay affects performance in project-based buyer-supplier relationships. We apply structural equation modeling, using dyadic empirical data from 102 infrastructure projects. The overall results verify our developed model and illuminate how the interplay between contractual and relational governance, in terms of coordinative and collaborative SCI, mediates the effect of technical and organizational complexity on project performance. This study contributes to theory and practice by distinguishing between contractual governance based on formal coordinative SCI and relational governance based on emerged collaborative SCI, as well as showing how their interplay affects performance in project-based supply chains.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand if and how industrialized house building (IHB) could support productivity developments for housebuilding on project and industry levels. The take is that fragmentation of construction is one explanation for the lack of productivity growth, and that IHB could be an integrating method of overcoming horizontal and vertical fragmentation.

Design/methodology/approach: Singe-factor productivity measures are calculated based on data reported by IHB companies and compared to official produced and published research data. The survey covers the years 2013–2020 for IHB companies building multi-storey houses in timber. Generalization is sought through descriptive statistics by contrasting the data samples to the used means to control vertical and horizontal fragmentation formulated as three theoretical propositions.

Findings: According to the results, IHB in timber is on average more productive than conventional housebuilding at the company level, project level, in absolute and in growth terms over the eight-year period. On the company level, the labour productivity was on average 10% higher for IHB compared to general construction and positioned between general construction and general manufacturing. On the project level, IHB displayed an average cost productivity growth of 19% for an employed prefabrication degree of about 45%.

Originality/value: Empirical evidence is presented quantifying so far perceived advantages of IHB. By providing analysis of actual cost and project data derived from IHB companies, the article quantifies previous research that IHB is not only about prefabrication. The observed positive productivity growth in relation to the employed prefabrication degree indicates that off-site production is not a sufficient mean for reaching high productivity and productivity growth. Instead, the capabilities to integrate the operative logic of conventional housebuilding together with logic of IHB platform development and use is a probable explanation of the observed positive productivity growth.

Digital technologies as enablers for more sustainable improvements of construction site processes contain interesting opportunities. Little is known how to, in a structured way, assess and implement digital technologies to support development and improvement of construction site operations. Maturity frameworks assess the status quo and guide decision makers to potential improvements. The purpose of this research is to develop a framework for assessing digital maturity of construction site operations. Literature and empirical data were utilized to develop and validate the framework. The framework contains assessment areas that specify the areas of potential improvements, maturity levels that indicate the progression towards maturity, assessment criteria that define organizational aspects of the assessment, and an assessment procedure to guide assessors. The maturity assessment framework contributes potentially to systematization of evaluative processes creating opportunities for a change within processes and organizations enabled by digital initiatives and to long-term improvements on project portfolio level.

Benefits of BIM are not being achieved as expected in the mainstream architecture, engineering, construction, and operation (AECO) industries. Here, we aim to contrast expected and realized BIM benefits in AECO companies and discuss explanations for why benefits proposed in literature have, or have not, been realized. A qualitative research approach is applied to collect and analyse interview data from 47 companies in Finland, Norway and Sweden. Findings show that realized benefits typically occur “within the current practice” of individual organizations' project-related work. In contrast, expected but not realized benefits are long-term, lifecycle oriented and challenge current business and practice. Our proposed explanations acknowledge that fully realizing the expected benefits of BIM suggested in the technology-driven research is restrained by the current sector state-of-practice and assumes a high degree of BIM maturity among all cooperating companies. Thus, we discuss how explanations relate to the fundamental change required to radically leverage the benefits of BIM, challenging both current ways of work and the ubiquitous assumption of clients as drivers for BIM implementation in the sector. Based on our research, we argue that client demand is insufficient to realize the promise of BIM. Suggested research implications include a need for greater supply-driven logic among suppliers of BIM expert services, and the integration of multi-disciplinary competencies within and beyond the traditional disciplines. The research demonstrates the gap between state-of-the-art BIM predicted in literature and mainstream industry's adoption and highlights the importance of extending BIM research to better account for socio-organizational and process aspects of benefits and adoption.

As a part of supply chain management (SCM) initiatives to improve performance and productivity in construction projects, the use of construction logistics setups (CLSs) operated by third-party logistics (TPL) providers have increased. CLSs are often used in complex multi-project contexts, such as urban development districts, where extensive coordination of actors, resources, and activities is needed. The purpose of this paper is twofold: to investigate how main contractors engage in horizontal relationships with each other when coordinating activities and resources within and across projects in a multi-project context, and to investigate what role a TPL provider assumes when engaging in relationships with main contractors in a multi-project context. The findings are based on a case study of an urban development district with a mandatory TPL-operated CLS, and we apply the industrial network approach. In this multi-project context, the main contractors engage in coopetitive relationships, coordinating activities and resources within and across projects. The TPL provider coordinates actors, resources, and activities, facilitating smoother production by managing logistics and mediating coopetitive relationships. This can be understood as a multi-project coordination role and extends the role SCM can play in construction. In that role, a TPL provider can minimise tensions between coopetitive actors across a multitude of horizontal relationships and projects.

As our world becomes increasingly digitalized, data centers as operational bases for these technologies lead to a consequent increased release of excess heat into the surrounding environment. This paper studies the challenges and opportunities of industrial symbiosis between data centers’ excess heat and greenhouse farming, specifically utilizing the north of Sweden as a case study region. The region was selected in a bid to tackle the urgent urban issue of self-sufficiency in local food production. A synergetic approach towards engaging stakeholders from different sectors is presented through a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods to facilitate resilient data-center-enabled food production. The paper delivers on possible future solutions on implementing resource efficiency in subarctic regions.

Using a proper control system is vital to ensure that project delivery is satisfactory for the client. Prior research has identified relationship history as a potentially vital contingency factor in organizational control, but there is a lack of research on how relationship history affects how different control systems function in project-based contexts. In the Swedish infrastructure market, increased demand has resulted in a need for increased supply capacity. This has spurred new entrants that have no relationship history with the major client, the Swedish Transport Administration. The purpose is therefore to compare how the client’s control systems function in construction projects with familiar (known to the client) and unfamiliar (new to the client) contractors. The case study involves 32 interviews conducted in six infrastructure projects, three with unfamiliar contractors. Findings show that relationship history heavily influences how the control systems function, especially bureaucratic and clan control. The new contractors are unaccustomed with the client’s extensive use of bureaucratic control and perceive it as less suitable in design-build contracts. Furthermore, the lack of relationship history reduces the opportunity to use clan control from the beginning of a project, due to unfamiliarity with both the client and the control system.

To reach future climate targets, it is important to verify that materials and technologies used for construction are sustainable and have a minimal environmental impact. The goal of this project was to add a broad life cycle perspective for quantifying energy and greenhouse gas emission, from the upstream flow of the construction process and the operational phase by including buildings and stormwater systems at a district level. The hypothesis was that green roofs might have a higher impact on greenhouse gas emissions as more material is needed compared to a standard roof. In return, green roofs reduce and retain stormwater, which may reduce the risk of hydraulic overloading in connected stormwater systems. This may lead to reduced CO2 emission if an upgrade of existing systems is not necessary. To evaluate this complex issue, a framework was developed combining construction modelling, energy simulation, stormwater system modelling, and life cycle assessment. The result of this theoretical study indicates that green roofs reduce and retain stormwater but are in most cases not sufficient to reduce the risk of hydraulic overloading in connected stormwater systems. The results demonstrated that green roofs should be not solely implemented to reduce and retain stormwater in the Nordic climate.

Swedish municipalities are taking an active role in shaping and implementing sustainability-related policies in urban development by initiating and governing sustainability-profiled district developments on municipally owned land. To drive sustainable development and innovation in these districts and develop future policies, municipalities use land allocation agreements to set project-specific sustainability requirements on housing development projects that go beyond the current national building regulations. Developers play a key role in implementing these municipal sustainability requirements. The purpose of this paper is to explore housing developers’ perceived barriers to implementing municipal sustainability requirements in their projects, which ultimately constrain possibilities for municipalities to drive sustainable development. Findings are based on case studies of two sustainability-profiled district developments in different Swedish municipalities. Main barriers perceived by the developers could be categorized into: (1) increased costs when adapting to unforeseen changes that constrain project budgets and (2) conflicting interests and objectives between interdependent actors. These barriers are contextualised within the relationship between the developers and municipalities. Contributions are made to literature on developers’ roles and perspectives in sustainability-oriented urban development. We illustrate how conflicting short-term and long-term interests between developers and municipalities complicate and impede problem solving in housing development projects. This calls for more research on these actors’ interests, and how they align and conflict in these types of projects. Findings also illustrate how developers resolve issues through interactions with municipalities, indicating collaborative problem solving processes to investigate further.

Purpose

This paper aims to identify how a public client’s use of control systems (process, output and social control) affect innovation possibilities in construction projects.

Design/methodology/approach

Semi-structured interviews about six infrastructure projects were conducted to identify respondents’ views on innovation possibilities. These possibilities were then analyzed from an organizational control perspective within principal–agent relationships between the Swedish Transport Administration (STA) and their contractors.

Findings

How the client uses control systems affects innovation possibilities. Relying on process control could negatively affect innovation opportunities, whereas output control could have a positive influence. In addition, social control seems to have a weak effect, as the STA appears not to use social control to facilitate joint innovation. Public clients must comply with the Public Procurement Act and, therefore, retain the requirements specified in the tendering documents. Much of the steering of the execution is connected to the ex ante phase (before signing the contract), which affects innovation possibilities in the design and execution phases for the contractor.

Research limitations/implications

This study was conducted with only one client, thus limiting its generalizability. However, the findings provide an important stepping stone to further investigation into balancing control systems and creating innovation possibilities in a principal–agent relationship.

Originality/value

Although public procurement has increasingly been emphasized as a major potential source of innovation, studying how a public client’s use of organizational control systems affects innovation possibilities in the construction sector has received scant attention.

Within the infrastructure sector, a public client can have various roles and responsibilities that extend beyond its own organization, such as stimulating and supporting innovation. As an infrastructure project is seldom standardized, the client needs to procure each contract based on the relevant uncertainties and complexities for that specific context. To encourage a contractor’s compliance with the client’so bjectives, the client employs some degree of organizational control. When a public client procures all its infrastructure from contractors, it also needs to find ways of eliciting innovative solutions from the suppliers. Therefore, a public client needs strategies to both promote innovation by the contractors and direct and oversee the contractors’ work to ensure the deliverables meet the project’s objectives. The demands for increased innovation in the construction sector in general needs to be handled concomitant with the client’s need to check that the contractor delivers accordingly to the client’s objectives and demands. The overall purpose of this thesis is to explore the relationship between organizational control and promoting innovation by a public infrastructure client. More specifically, it explores how a public client can promote innovation by its contractors from an organizational control perspective. The theoretical background is provided by an organizational control framework (Ouchi, 1979; Aulakh et al., 1996), i.e. a client can manage and steer an agent via three different control systems: process, output, and social. The empirical data is derived from 47 semi-structured interviews, complemented by observations, from10 different infrastructure projects. The client (The Swedish Transport Administration; STA) is the same for each project, but the contractors differ. Two types of contractor are represented: contractors that have not worked with the STA before (“unfamiliar contractors”), and contractors that have worked with the STA before (“familiar contractors”). A majority of the contract type is design-build. Four appended papers, each presenting a public client perspective, provide the basis of the thesis. Previous findings that the client’s role is important for promoting innovation is explored further in this thesis from an organizational control perspective, emphasizing the role of the public client. It is important that during the procurement phase the client tries to find the right balance between achieving the intended objectives and creating space for innovation. Ex-ante planning is important, because how the client writes the control mechanisms into the procurement documents, and later the contract, has a direct effect on the opportunities for innovation by the contractors.In addition, the client has to manage the project in a way that does not cause irritation of frustration for the contractor, or hinder their work, thus supporting the view that organizational control should be enabling instead of coercive, so that the client’s input encourages innovation rather than creating obstacles. In addition, when adding a relationship history perspective on organizational control, an unfamiliar contractor (i.e. a contractor that has not worked with the client before) can find process control unsuitable and social control confusing, which means output control is probably the most appropriate approach to take when working with unfamiliar contractors. However, just relying on procurement strategies such as a design-build (DB)contract in combination with strict functional demands is not enough to promote innovation. Furthermore, a collaborative setting only seems to lead to innovative solutions if the client regards innovation as a mutual task and utilizes the collaborative setting for innovative co-creation. From the client’s perspective, the practical and managerial implication of this thesisis the importance of finding a balance between giving the contractor space to be innovative in the execution of the contract, and at the same time making sure that the requisite end product is delivered. The results of this thesis suggest that the client does not hand over the “how” to the contractor when it comes to executing the project, as would be expected in a DB contract. From the contractor’s perspective, the responsibility for innovation within a DB contract can be confounded by the client’s use of social control, by which the client may encourage discussions and collaboration regarding innovative solutions but blur the line over responsibilities. This could explain why social control often fails to have a positive impact on innovative output.

Building developers are continuously seeking solutions to increase saleable/rentable floor area and thus the profitability of investments, especially in large/dense cities where the real estate/rental values are high and shortage of available land results in smaller building footprints. Application of passive energy efficiency measures (e.g., thick insulation in walls) not only affects the life cycle sustainability of buildings, but also the floor area and its profitability. This can affect the decisions made on the choice of measures when aiming to improve sustainability. In line with limited studies in this context, a case study is presented here in which multi-objective optimization was used to explore the impact of various passive energy efficiency measures on the life cycle sustainability when accounting for the profitability of the floor area. The building case was a high-rise apartment based on a standardized building concept situated in different locations in Sweden, namely Vindeln, Gothenburg, and Stockholm. The findings indicated that, regardless of the location, use of (1) thick cellulose coating for the roof, and (2) moderately thick expanded polystyrene for the floor, were necessary to improve the life cycle sustainability. However, the optimal wall insulation was dependent on the location; in locations with high real estate values, the scope for using thick and conventional insulations (mineral wool/cellulose) was limited due to the significant economic loss caused by floor area reductions. In general, the optimization identified optimal solutions that could save up to 1410.7 GJ energy, 23 tonnes CO₂e, and 248.4 TEUR cost from a life cycle perspective relative to the building’s initial design.

Innovation is often seen as essential for long-term development in the construction industry, but its actual outcomes and processes in construction projects require more attention. Many studies on procurement strategies and delivery systems have focussed on the public transport infrastructure sector, whereas most construction innovation scholars have addressed the innovation phenomenon in construction generally. Thus, the purpose of this study is to compare how two delivery systems, design-build (DB) and design-build-maintenance (DBM), influence project-level innovation. Findings are based on empirical data from a multiple case study of six infrastructure projects, three with DB contracts and three with DBM contracts, in which 12 innovations are identified, described, and compared. The findings show that various kinds of innovations in terms of outcomes and processes are implemented in infrastructure projects, and that the delivery system do effect both dimensions. Long maintenance responsibilities tend to spur contractors to engage in early exploration of sustainable solutions that could be of long-term benefit. The research contributes to procurement literature by exemplifying how delivery systems influence both the outcomes and processes of project-level innovations. It also increases our knowledge about construction innovation as a multi-dimensional phenomenon.

Utveckling av digitala tjänster och produkter är en utmaning i pågående byggprojekt, då det finns få färdiga produkter och tjänster på marknaden. Metoder för traditionell byggprojektledning med tydliga ansvarsområden och gränssnitt i form av kontrakt lämpar sig förmodligen mindre bra för utvecklingsprojekt, där vägen är delvis okänd. Byggarbetsplatsens uppfattning är ibland att utvecklingsarbetet av digitala produkter och tjänster är långsam och komplex. Inom mjukvaruutveckling har det utvecklats olika former av agila utvecklingsmetoder för att prioritera mot förändrade behov och genom iterationer röra sig mot slutmålet. En sådan metod, Kanban, har inspirerat tester för agil utveckling inom projektet Digital transformation av byggplatser (DigiTransform). Testerna indikerar att den digitala och agila metoden, som används på distans, skapar möjligheter för snabbare respons och prioritering av byggplatsen. Det kvarstår att undersöka hur metoden mer systematiskt kan användas på byggarbetsplatser.

Several of Sweden’s municipalities have coordinated some of their urban development in dialogues processes to increase the fulfillment of stated sustainability goals (SGs). This thesis aims to increase the knowledge of how coordination occurs within a Competitive Dialogue Process (CDP) between and within the municipality and the building actors.

To translate from the series of activities present in the municipalities building process to how the municipality coordinate towards fulfilling stated sustainability goals, I have used my understanding of Henry Mintzberg’s (1979) coordination mechanisms (CMs): Direct supervision, Mutual adjustment, Standardization of skills & norms, work, and outcome. The CMs are directly connected to if coordination occurs in an organization (means of coordination), while other concepts such as decentralization/centralization (Mintzberg, 1979; Thompson, 1967;March & Simon, 1958; et al.) are not directly connected to coordination (conditions for coordination). Decentralization/centralization within an organization can create coordination, but it is not certain since an organization could, for example, be decentralized and have no coordination.

With the coordination mechanisms and the concepts of means of coordination/conditions for coordination, I have conducted a deductive case study with interviews and workshops with Luleå kommun, five other comparison municipalities, and selected building actors present in Luleå kommuns CDP “Nature town”.

The major findings from the thesis are:

- A mapping of a series of activities in the CDP, where two stages occurred: The criteria formulation and the follow-up/checking.

- When the CMs are applied to the activities within the CDP, a trend emerged where standardization was more visible at the criteria formulation stage. Since CMs are means of coordination, the lack of standardization in the later stage of the CDP could impact the fulfillment of stated SGs.

- A vertical dimension was introduced where the activities were categorized as either mandatory or optional. Since the division between mandatory/optional is a form of decentralization, it is also a condition for coordination; It is not directly connected to the coordination within the CDP, and the vertical CMs in the CDP needs to be further investigated to study the impact of vertical dimension in the fulfillment of the stated goals.

- This thesis lacks the perspective of consciousness in coordination. I have applied CMs to the CDPs activities; however, it is my analysis in retrospect of how the building actor(s) and the representatives from the municipality described the CDP and their actions. Further research needs to be done on the level of consciousness of the building actor(s) and the representatives from the municipality when they act towards the stated SGs.

Bioeconomy helps to move towards a renewable, fossil-free future. The environmental impact is significantly reduced when replacing fossil-based products with bio-based alternatives. In a bioeconomy, all products are made from renewable and biogenic resources. In the building sector examples for biogenic sources are traditionally wooden building structures, while green roofs are becoming more popular. The goal of the present project was to assess the amount of biogenic carbon stored in green roofs and wooden buildings overall. The question is whether green roofs are improving the biogenic carbon usage of buildings and find out how that can be improved. The methods used are based on construction modelling, life cycle assessment and standardised environmental product declaration (EPD). The results indicate that wooden building structures are not enough for a complete biogenic building to move to a renewable, fossil-free future. Furthermore, the green roofs do add more biogenic carbon to the building than conventional roofs, while seen over the whole building these benefits are negligible. The results are presented as renewable and nonrenewable energy as well as biogenic carbon and greenhouse gas emissions. These are compared with conventional roofing based on non-renewable standard roofs in Sweden.

The challenges faced by professional service companies in construction are increasing simultaneously as enablers such as digitalization and industrialization are developing. Currently, there are indications of two main diverging market trends: Productification and Servicification. This paper hypothesises that these two trends can be classified as Asset-dominant logic. In construction, the digital development, is currently regularly decoupled from the business model development. In support of business model innovation, this paper's aim is to how we can understand and articulate the development of the markets for professional services in construction by describing concepts for understanding and analysing design work in the context of asset-dominant logic, as opposed to the current dominating Resource-dominated logic. The result indicates that productificiation, includes industrialization (product-based approach) by considering applying disruptive technologies, with the aid of a platform and in an ecosystem, making it possible to create value for the customer by taking service-dominant logic into account. Finally, the paper concludes with an attempt to demonstrate the mechanism of market development by considering the asset-dominant logic as a backdrop to the business model innovations that asset-dominant consulting will start to undertake in the coming months and years.

Utveckling av produktionsnära digitala tjänster uppfattas ibland som långsam och komplex. Traditionellt kommer det initialt en IT-expert som försöker förstå användarkrav. Därefter försvinner experten och för att komma tillbaka efter en tid med en testbar digital tjänst. I detta läge inser ofta byggplatsen att behoven inte fångats upp helt eller att omvärlden har förändrats. Experten har kanske inte förstått verksamhetsnyttan eller gjort fel prioriteringar. Det kan då uppstå en konflikt mellan byggplatsen som inte upplever att man fått det man efterfrågade och nu innebär en ändring en ökad kostnad. Experten uppfattar som att byggprojektet inte vill stå för de förändringar som man efterfrågar och därefter försöker experten minimera utvecklingskostnader genom att kompromissa funktionalitet för att uppnå kundens behov. Detta skapar ytterligare distans mellan experten och byggarbetsplatsen. Inom mjukvaruutveckling finns olika former av agila utvecklingsmetoder med syftet att just för att minimera dessa konflikter och snabba på processen och därmed öka kundvärdet. En sådan metod, DevOps, har inspirerat tester för agil tjänsteutveckling för byggplatser. Testerna indikerar att metoden skapar möjligheter för snabbare respons. Dock kvarstår att undersöka hur metoden mer systematiskt kan användas inom entreprenadföretag på byggplatser i form av vilka organisatoriska förändringar som behövs och hur individer ska utbildas.

The building design process plays a central role in efforts to implement energy-efficient practices. However, unilateral design choices based solely on reducing operational energy use can significantly increase a building’s embodied energy and life cycle energy use as there is a trade-off between embodied and operational energy. To support such trade-off problems, multi-objective optimization represents a useful approach that produces a set of optimal solutions from where a solution can then be selected and progressed within the design process. Selecting one solution from the set of optimal solutions can however be a challenging task as each solution has the potential to be chosen as the optimum. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore how solutions from a multi-objective optimization approach can be analyzed further to provide information to decision-makers when selecting the optimal design solution. An approach is proposed where the integration of post-optimization sensitivity analysis into a multi-objective optimization approach aims to support decision-makers in analyzing the optimal solutions provided by the optimization process. The applicability of approach is demonstrated using a case of a multifamily apartment building located in Sweden, where the aforementioned trade-off is explored for a set of energy efficiency measures. Thereby, a diverse range of optimal solutions that could result in up to 4520 GJ life cycle energy (LCE) savings relative to the case building’s initial design was initially identified using the multi-objective optimization. These solutions were then subjected to a sensitivity analysis where the results indicated that in general the lowest and highest sensitivity in terms of LCE use belonged to the insulation thicknesses in roof and walls, respectively. Furthermore, the thickness of exterior floor insulation yielded the greatest variation in the sensitivity. The findings of case study indicate that the post-optimization sensitivity analysis can add valuable information that complements the results obtained using a multi-objective optimization approach. Consequently, it can support decision-making on how to progress with the design in terms of what design parameters have a negligible or significant impact on the objectives when they are varied, thus facilitating prioritization.

While measuring the performance of collaborative research and development (R&D) projects is critical for both practitioners and academics, it is rarely straightforward in practice. Based on first-hand experience of the performance measurement practice within an extensive, long-term, Swedish innovation programme named Smart Built Environment, this chapter provides a reflective account of the setup and challenges experienced. The programme was launched in 2016 and is a long-term initiative of up to 12 years. Backed by three state research agencies, it is, to date, the single largest investment in innovation, R&D in digitalisation made in the Swedish built environment sector. This chapter is written as a collaborative autoethnography, with three out of the five authors having had first-hand experience of the specific measurement initiative analysed. The chapter describes how the visionary objectives of the programme, related to sustainability, time, cost, and business logics, were developed and operationalised in practice. Furthermore, it is explained how several emergent challenges related to ambiguity in goal formulation, adaptation to contingencies of moving targets and temporal scope, and development of a multiplicity of assessment methods, were managed.

Public clients’ procurement strategies are central in facilitating innovation towards sustainability. In the infrastructure sector, the three main project activities—design, production, and maintenance—are traditionally not procured in an integrated way, which results in sub-optimizations and a lack of life cycle perspective. As project actors are accustomed to traditional, non-integrated forms of contract, implementing integrated contracts imposes fundamental changes to the interdependencies among actors, resources, and activities. This study analyzes the interfaces among key project actors and the related interdependencies across design, production, and maintenance in Design–Build–Maintain contracts, and initiates a discussion on how to manage these interdependencies when implementing integrated contracts. This study of circular public procurement (CPP) focused on three infrastructure projects using integrated contracting and applied the industrial network approach (INA) to analyze interdependencies in how they may influence innovation and sustainable development. The study found significant obstacles to clients obtaining the benefits of integrated contracting and concludes that understanding interdependencies is necessary to implement integrated contracts successfully. The study contributes to the construction management literature by adapting the INA to contracting, and to the CPP literature by providing empirical evidence of sustainability and circularity in infrastructure projects.

Communication is dynamic, social, challenging, and a key quality factor for construction projects. This is especially the case in multinational and inter-organizational infrastructure projects where factors like culture and language differ among the involved actors. As infrastructure projects usually extend over longer periods of time, collaborative relationships need to be established in which the actors can develop, for example, mutual understanding, learning, and efficient working routines. By building on empirical data from contemporary infrastructure projects, we explore how international contractors and a large public client communicate in multinational infrastructure projects (i.e., what the challenges are and what competences are needed). The analysis is based on the linguistic framework of communicative competence, and we contribute to the development of collaborative models in construction project management by suggesting the concept of contextual communicative competence

The construction industry is one of the least digitally advanced industries. Although the industry is project-based, a project-level assessment of digitalization is lacking. The aim of this paper is to develop a digitalization index to assess the degree of digitalization of construction projects. Relying on the outcomes of a workshop with 11 participants and questionnaire responses from 113 site managers in Sweden, four activities; visualized drawings and three-dimensional (3D) models on sites; updated drawings, models, and system documents; created and updated work disposition plans; and updated time resource plans were selected, and a digitalization index enabling a simple assessment of the degree of digitalization of construction projects was constructed based on the degree of digitalization of the data management processes involved in these four activities. The approach to determine the digitalization index was demonstrated in a case study of a new construction project. For future studies, an accurate and simple assessment of the degree of digitalization of projects should increase the opportunities to study the association between the degree of digitalization and project performance. With longitudinal assessments, digitalization trends in the construction industry can be reported. 

The focus of building design is increasingly moving towards considering performance as a driver, which can especially be seen in the realm of sustainable or green building design due to the advent of ambitious goals regarding energy consumption and emissions. Accounting for these concerns is an important target of the building design process, where there is a potential to make valuable contributions. To realize this, command of interconnected and sometimes contradictory requirements is needed, and it necessitates an ability to create novel solutions that fulfill demanding requirements. This entails an iterative process to find design solutions that meet the requirements and needs imposed by clients and regulations on space, costs, energy, etc. To account for the multitude of criteria in building design and aid practitioners in making well-informed design decisions, potential design solutions need to be explored to find feasible solutions and optimized to find solutions that perform as best we can. Even though the potential of further supporting both exploration and optimization can provide significant benefits to improving buildings’ performance, a common challenge is that the act of generating and evaluating larger sets of solutions can be restricted by time and resources. The use of computer-based methods has been suggested to facilitate this need. Through building information modeling (BIM), relevant information can be encapsulated and organized, and computational design approaches can leverage computers’ computational capability to efficiently generate, represent, and evaluate solutions. Together, these can represent an approach that facilitates the need for exploration and optimization of building design solutions. However, to achieve this further iterations, refinement, and evaluation with different design problems and contexts are needed to better leverage and understand its potential. This includes contributing to a further understanding of how and when different computational design approaches can be used to support the building design process.

Therefore, the overall purpose of this thesis was to explore computational design for building design. The aim was to develop frameworks for exploring and optimizing building design solutions in a BIM-based workflow. The research design was based on an exploratory approach, in which frameworks were developed and evaluated in different building design settings. In this approach, a problem drives an iterative development of frameworks, where cycles of objectives, development, demonstration, and evaluation of the frameworks lead to suggestions that are communicated. The frameworks were then demonstrated and evaluated through real-world cases in building design settings. This process was iterated until the identified problems were addressed and the research purpose was achieved. 

The main findings in the research presented are:

• The inclusion of interactive exploration with computational design, where progression is not solely reliant on algorithms, facilitates the addition of qualitative preferences and criteria to be used in guiding the exploration of design solutions. This may be particularly useful in the early stages of design and when the emphasis is on finding novel design solutions.
• The inclusion of multi-objective optimization techniques (e.g., genetic algorithms) in computational design approaches can be used in situations where exploitation is of interest to optimize design solutions with multiple or conflicting objectives. This may be particularly useful when distinct and measurable objectives are available and targeted, such as the minimization of a building’s energy use, or costs from a life cycle perspective.
• Sensitivity analysis can be used to provide additional information on the impact of relevant parameters on a building solution’s performance. This can be applied to assist the analysis of alternative solutions from a computational design approach and can be useful in supporting the selection of solutions to bring forward in the design process.
• A master model approach can be used to structure and contain the constituent components needed to link inputs, outputs, and processes used in computational design approaches. This provides a framework to define a product, its design variables, constraints, and objectives, and to support the generation of representations and models necessary for performance evaluation.
• To facilitate information exchange and interoperability for the systems involved in a computational design approach, a middleware approach can be used to create interfaces between components. This facilitates the integration of existing computer-based methods and tools in BIM-based workflows into computational design approaches.

Overall, the research presented in this thesis highlights different choices of computational design approaches and possible applications supporting the design process of buildings depending on the design problem’s characteristics and objectives. The proposed frameworks facilitate this through two different objectives: one targeted at the exploration of design solutions, and one targeted at the optimization of design solutions. Both are focused on facilitating and strengthening the role of computers as collaborative partners in the design process, rather than solely for information organization or increasing efficiency. By purposefully choosing an approach and through thoughtful application in different design problems, practitioners could be supported in making well-informed decisions regarding multiple design criteria, for example, in relation to environmental sustainability. The work in this thesis also presents approaches for mitigating some of the shortcomings of interoperability between a BIM-based workflow and components related to the proposed frameworks, which are necessary to overcome to maximize the effectiveness of a computational design approach. 

This study explores how the logic of product modularity could be useful for the design of complete residential building areas. Previous research has noted that product modularity is usually only applicable if a ‘full modularization’ approach is pursued (i.e., an approach with completely defined modules). This is challenging in Engineer To Order production strategies. Therefore, an approach towards partial product modularity is sought instead. In this approach, the modules are lesser defined to allow flexibility following, e.g., architectural design freedom, as well as per project-specific requirements posed in house-building projects. This study identifies nine (9) ‘modules’ which are denominated as functional spaces. By explaining how unique project requirements affect functional spaces, some integral elements of house-building are detailed. By evaluating the functional spaces in regards to the level of predefinition, as well as the level of relationship, their level of modularity is explored. The usefulness of partial modularity for house-building is suggested to be for coordination of design work and support tools that aides design work. This study suggests that partial modularity can be a feasible approach towards modularity without the need for countermeasures in terms of increasing product predefinition.

The demand for affordable, high-quality homes and premises has increased as society has evolved. Construction companies have shown that an industrialised housebuilding (IHB) platform strategy is an effective way of meeting exacting customer requirements. We decided to apply a managerial perspective and consider the IHB platform as a technological solution when investigating technology transfer (TT) in a construction context. Drawing on a meta-analysis of the literature and a qualitative case study at an IHB company, this work examines how two construction companies participate in TT. The results show that the IHB platform strategy can help a company overcome uncertainties associated with the TT process. Furthermore, the platform strategy supports the transferability of IHB to different markets, which, in turn, provides unique opportunities for companies from other contexts to enter the construction market. Our findings also revealed that CEOs from three construction companies were not only interested in TT due to potential profit improvements, but also considered how the process could benefit their employees and the community. This may be a result that is specific to Nordic culture or insight into a unique characteristic of the broad construction industry. This study contributes knowledge to the scarce research field of TT in a construction context. It provides evidence for how further cases of TT may disrupt the construction industry in terms of new business models or companies from the diverse field entering the market.

Purpose – To explore the interdependencies between temporary and permanent aspects of project organizing and how they affect the management of public infrastructure operation and maintenance (O&M) activities.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper applies a case study approach and uses Lundin and Söderholm’s (1995) framework of the temporary organization (with the themes of time, task, team, and transition) to distinguish between temporary and permanent aspects of organizing two infrastructure O&M projects.

Findings – This paper adds to the literature on temporary organizations by recognizing a mixture of temporary and permanent aspects of project organizing in an empirical project-level example. In line with previous research, the themes of time, task, team, and transition were shown to be interdependent. Furthermore, the paper broadens the theory of temporary organizations by presenting a project organization with significant permanent aspects.

Practical implications – Project managers of public sector projects need to be aware of the possible mixture of temporary and permanent aspects of project organizing. Management of projects that are found to have a mixture of temporary and permanent aspects should combine the perspectives and management practices of both temporary and permanent organizing. Not acknowledging permanent aspects could lead to management that is not adapted to the prerequisites of project organizing in this context.

Originality/value – The findings further develop the literature on temporary organizations by recognizing that there is not only a mixture of temporary and permanent aspects between the temporary organization and its permanent environment, but there is also a mixture of temporary and permanent aspects of organizing within project organizations.

Green roofs are complex systems, with a vegetation layer covering the outermost surface of the building shell. An effective design may confer environmental and energy benefits. Most field studies evaluating green roof performance have been conducted in warmer climates with few studies of full-scale green roofs in cold regions. No study has so far evaluated the energy performance of a green roof in a sub-arctic climate. This study demonstrates the heat flow and thermal effect of an extensive green roof versus a black bare roof area on a highly insulated building in the sub-arctic town of Kiruna, Sweden, for the period from November 2016 to February 2018. Measured temperature and heat flux values were consistently higher and more variable for the black roof than the green roof, except during the snow-covered winter months when the responses were similar. The cumulative heat flux showed that the net heat loss was greater through the black than the green roof, but the values remained low. Overall, the study confirms that the energy benefit of a green roof on a highly insulated building in a subarctic climate is low.

Global reports over the years indicate that productivity development in construction is poor if compared to other industries, even negative in some countries, calling for a change to increase productivity. However, the construction industry has a problem of defining, measuring and using productivity. Previous research suggest that productivity is a multifaceted term, which meaning depends on the purpose of addressing productivity, the context where one uses the term, the level of analysis (e.g. task, project or industry) or even the background of who addresses the term. The multifaceted meaning seems to have encouraged the development of multiple methods for measuring productivity in construction. The variety of understandings indicate that different aspects of productivity are accounted for by different people. Moreover, the construction productivity measures at different levels account for different things, and there is a lack of a clear connection between the levels of analysis. Subsequently, the multiple meanings and measures hamper how to understand construction productivity, what or how to measure and how to use the measures to improve overall productivity.

This thesis furthers how housebuilding productivity can be understood by drawing on how the literature and on‐site housebuilding contractors address productivity concerning how it is defined, measured and used. An understanding of productivity that has a base in how productivity can be defined and measured, including how different performance measures can be applied to represent measures of productivity and then be used to improve productivity. The research questions of how productivity is understood, measured and used by Swedish housebuilding contractors are answered and synthesized to contribute with an enhanced understanding of construction productivity.

Empirical data was collected through 17 semi‐structured interviews and four workshops. The interviews were held with practitioners ranging from site‐, to project‐, to business area managers from one small and four of Sweden’s largest contractors. The workshops were held with senior managers in charge of production development at the four large companies. Data was cross‐analyzed to identify commonalities and contrasting findings connected to how productivity is defined or understood to represent and include, how productivity is measured, and how productivity is used.

The findings suggest that productivity in on‐site housebuilding production is about how efficiently the production system reaches its goal. That is, how efficiently the building is produced in conformance with the requirements to meet client values. Hence, productivity in housebuilding production integrates efficiency, effectiveness and many other factors that make the production system function better towards reaching its goal. Yet, what is included in, and thus what productivity represents, differs, caused by the choice of level of analysis (e.g. task, project or industry) and the length of the considered system or value chain (e.g. only production, or design, planning and production). The results also indicate that housebuilding productivity includes planning, measurement, control and reporting results. While separate direct productivity measures can be used in planning and for reporting results, many different indirect productivity measures are applied to enable for and control productivity during operations. These different measures represent different factors understood to influence productivity at different levels. However, the choice of measures vary, their use is unstructured and the measures usually stay undocumented.

The results suggest that one measure of productivity is not enough to understand productivity of building production systems, it is rather through the combination of direct and indirect measures of productivity. Yet, there is a need to adopt a systems perspective to understand how to structure and connect the different measures from sub‐processes to processes and productivity, which this thesis suggests as a line of future research. Moreover, it is not enough to measure productivity to develop productivity. Systematic routines for measurements, review and action based on the measures must be developed and implemented.

Purpose – To further the understanding of industrialised house building (IHB) from a temporal, emergentcorporate-ability perspective, this study aims to trace the build-up of corporate assets in an IHB company overtime. The research draws on dynamic capabilities, acknowledging not only what assets the company havedeveloped and currently are exploiting, but also how these assets were develop and managed (i.e. enhanced,combined, protected and potentially reconfigured) to sustain long-term competitiveness.

Design/methodology/approach – A case study design was used to form a narrative that covers theevolution of an IHB company over a 25-year period. Corporate archival material, analysis of original data from alarge number of research studies during 1993-2013 and retrospective reflections of owners and managers,including crosschecking interpretations of archivalmaterial, developed and triangulated the narrative.

Findings – The study presents rich empirical findings on the build-up of corporate assets. Starting from asuccessive process of exploration and exploitation formation of dynamic capabilities eventually played outinto an exponential dynamic capability build-up. The IHB case company displays the ability to not onlycontinuously exploit and renew resources and competences, but also to sense, seize and reconfigurecumulative assets over time. The exponential development of dynamic capabilities resonates to literature onhigher-order dynamic capabilities implying that: the accumulated and higher-order dynamic capabilities aredifficult to imitate and a (any) company must possess higher-order dynamic capabilities to be able to exploitand/or take up IHB.

Originality/value – The study is complementing and potentially challenging frequent framings of the IHBconcept. Previous research has addressed and characterised IHB mainly by encapsulating a moment in timeand, thus, characteristics are momentary and represent static views on IHB. However, IHB has seen a strongdevelopment over the past 25 years, and the study reflects on this development from the perspective of one ofthe IHB-forerunner companies in Sweden. By exploring from a company perspective the developments,reconfiguration and capacity to develop/reconfigure over time in a changing environment, the studyintroduces an alternative understanding of IHB as dynamic capabilities.

Lending inspiration from the manufacturing industry, industrialized house-builders have adopted some of its characteristics such as high standardization of configurable products and manufacturing processes. Standardization of product and information flow within industrialized house-building has shown to beneficially increase offsite manufacturing efficiency. They have however not been able to transfer the increase in efficiency to onsite construction, leading to it being one of the key issues resulting in delays. For offsite manufacturing, previous research has suggested Bill of Material (BOM) as a structure to define information for in manufacturing phases. However, due to the variation in workflow between offsite manufacturing and onsite construction, the structure of a BOM for offsite manufacturing cannot be reused in onsite construction, ultimately resulting in increased data redundancy and recreation. A conceptual model of a BOM for onsite construction has been developed inspired by Bill of Materials (BOM), Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), Location Breakdown Structure (LBS), Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and Work Instructions (WI). The conceptual model utilizes space structure LBS to link spaces with SOPs. Furthermore, it also utilizes WBS to link SOPs with WIs. The BOM for onsite construction is generated by a transformation from offsite manufacturing P-BOM. Streamlining the information flow and transformation between manufacturing and construction phases open the possibility to develop IT-solutions for industrialized house-builders. By developing existing IT-systems to reduce data redundancy, the fragmentation between offsite manufacturing and construction sites could be utilized by reusing existing data. The conceptual model supports multiple information views and allows for information filtering determined by the performed work and project.

Several of Sweden's Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) use developer dialogue processes between them and building actors to aid in the implementation of urban development projects. The idea is often to achieve ambitious local sustainability and to encourage a generally appreciated collaborative culture; however, processes of planners/developers interactions are challenging to manage in practice. In this study, we aim to depict and analyse a developer dialogue process used by a Swedish LPA in an on-going sustainable urban development project through the theoretical lens of organizational coordination mechanisms. Particular focus is placed on exploring how planners and develops interact while negotiating and implementing locally defined sustainability priorities. Empirical material was collected through document analysis, workshops and interviews with LPA representatives. Findings from the ongoing study indicates that the LPA manage a mixture of formal and informal interdependencies throughout in an attempt to achieve a greater fulfilment of their sustainability goals, and better outcomes in terms of product compliance. Furthermore, the use of coordination mechanisms for analysing the project seems to represent an important instrumental knowledge gap for better understanding sustainable urban development projects' implementation and outcomes.

Well detailed, informative and accurate work instructions are a necessity to mitigate delays in construction. Today, this is done through a combination of shop drawings, documents, sheets, work pre-planning meetings and onsite verbal work instructions to transfer knowledge and information between all actors. Due to the subjectivity of these methods, many incorrect assumptions and man-made errors originated from miscommunication and misinterpretation can occur. Such issues are tough to identify prior to their occurrence on construction sites, leading to construction delays. Virtual Reality (VR) technology can simulate and visualize assembly processes using Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). The visualization aims to ensure a quality communication with skilled workers and to aid their interpretation of SOPs by reducing assumptions. As a result of a more effective education, it can support the collaboration between actors. Utilization of SOPs for visualization of Work Instructions (WI) and assembly processes are important, because many process WIs on construction sites are repetitive. Modularity can increase the efficiency by supporting instancing and variation creation of construction tasks and products. Interactivity can support the continuously changing status and demands of construction sites. A method has been iteratively developed to support visualization of modular and interactive SOPs within the context of industrialized house-building (IHB), to increase the quality and consistency of communication at construction sites. Concurrently to development of the method, a prototype using VR technology was developed. Interactive functionalities along with VR technology make it possible to adjust SOP and WI modules to suit the demands and conditions of the construction site, including real-time. As a result, the developed method is responsive and adjustable to conditions such as weather, man-made errors, assembly re-sequencing and re-scheduling. Combining product design, SOPs, WIs and assembly process in early stages of construction has shown to help identify potential issues and aid in planning for cautious measurements. Results show that by using the developed method, skilled workers were able to identify occurring miscommunications, and misinterpretations between them, site managers and foremen as well as ensuring their understanding.

Meeting increasingly ambitious carbon regulations in the construction industry is particularly challenging for earthmoving operations due to the extensive use of heavy-duty diesel equipment. Better planning of operations and balancing of competing demands linked to environmental concerns, costs, and duration is needed. However, existing approaches (theoretical and practical) rarely address all of these demands simultaneously, and are often limited to parts of the process, such as earth allocation methods or equipment allocation methods based on practitioners’ past experience or goals. Thus, this study proposes a method that can integrate multiple planning techniques to maximize mitigation of project impacts cost-effectively, including the noted approaches together with others developed to facilitate effective decision-making. The model is adapted for planners and contractors to optimize mass flows and allocate earthmoving equipment configurations with respect to tradeoffs between duration, cost, CO₂ emissions, and energy use. Three equipment allocation approaches are proposed and demonstrated in a case study. A rule-based approach that allocates equipment configurations according to hauling distances provided the best-performing approach in terms of costs, CO₂ emissions, energy use and simplicity (which facilitates practical application at construction sites). The study also indicates that trucks are major contributors to earthmoving operations’ costs and environmental impacts.

A bottom-up dynamic modeling framework aiming to incorporate realities of the decision-making process when implementing energy-saving building renovations is proposed and applied to a case study of all multifamily buildings in Gothenburg, Sweden. The developed model is based on real conditions of existing buildings, from the national Energy Performance Certificate database, building and property registers, and cadastral maps from the city planning office. Although explorative, the framework accounts for the reaction capacity in terms of (i) investments by all property owners and (ii) total workmanship capacity in the city. Two scenarios were considered to account for renovations driven solely by technical renovation needs (end-of-life of building components) and by cost efficiency; further, both scenarios were investigated at different levels of reaction capacity. The developed framework is easily replicable to other regions and cities. The retrofitting includes, as individual measures as well as in packages, increased insulation levels, increased efficiency of lighting and appliances, and the installation of heat recovery systems and photovoltaic panels.

Whereas implementation of energy-efficient measures dictated solely by technical renovation needs led to a very low energy demand, with some buildings becoming energy producers by 2050, implementation strictly driven by cost-efficiency (from the perspective of the property owners) only reduced the energy demand by 5% during this time and would not fully utilize the investment capacity of the property owners. Furthermore, the current limitations of reaction capacity for the market shares allowed for a reduction of the energy demand by only 15% during the same period. Workmanship capacity was more constraining than investment capacity and is thus identified as a local imperative need and suggests co-benefits related to job creation within the construction sector.

Data centers (DCs) bring important positive economic impacts to the cities and regions where they are established, however, in exchange of a high electricity consumption, which in the end is transformed into unused waste-heat. Only 10% of the DCs in Sweden utilize their waste-heat by generally plugging it into the district heating (DH) network. Despite having a DH tradition in most of Swedish cities, DC waste-heat utilization is not a rule. Data center strategical planning and urban strategical planning should be well coordinated, in order to offer alternative strategies to integrate the DCs waste-heat inside the local sectors/ services constellation in need of heat. Therefore this paper will focus on understanding how the urban planning practice can support DC’s waste heat utilization by proposing an urban scale analytical approach to identify factors in relation to spatial and energy resource planning at a municipal level that may facilitate the DCs’ waste heat utilization in cities.

The use of generative design has been suggested to be a novel approach that allows designers to take advantage of computers’ computational capabilities in the exploration of design alternatives. However, the field is still sparsely explored. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the potential use of generative design in an architectural design context. A framework was iteratively developed alongside a prototype, which was eventually demonstrated in a case study to evaluate its applicability. The development of a residential block in the northern parts of Sweden served as the case. The findings of this study further highlight the potential of generative design and its promise in an architectural context. Compared to previous studies, the presented framework is open to other generative algorithms than mainly genetic algorithms and other evaluation models than, for instance, energy performance models. The paper also presents a general technical view on the functionality of the generative design system, as well as elaborating on how to explore the solution space in a top-down fashion. This paper moves the field of generative design further by presenting a generic framework for architectural design exploration. Future research needs to focus on detailing how generative design should be applied and when in the design process.

Densification by vertical extension (VE) of buildings has become more common in Swedish cities and architectural discourse, partially due to a Swedish law implemented in 2002 concerning three-dimensional property division. By restoring and recreating functions, VE allows for the preservation of the morphological and architectural identity of existing buildings. However, design and construction above an existing building is complex, partially because of the uncertainties in the existing building. This makes it interesting to view VE from a risk perspective and this paper is a first attempt to do that. It summarises a qualitative, exploratory study aimed to increase the understanding of VE from an architectural design perspective. The empirical material was collected in open and in-depth interviews with eight architects from different companies, all with experience of Swedish VE projects. In this research, the perspective of a two-sided uncertainty is applied as threats and opportunities. With that perspective opportunities and threats concerning architectural design of VE are interpreted and translated into design risks. One finding is the construct that VE can be understood by viewing it as a system of components: the existing building (host), the interface between the new and existing building (interface) and the extension per se (extension). The unique nature of the interface controls many of the solutions applied and is therefore a crucial piece in the overall system puzzle. In addition, it was identified that architects managed a lot of uncertainties in their role, uncertainties mainly related to there being a host building to be extended. The main contribution of this paper is that the understanding of VE can be improved by mapping opportunities and threats by source; host, interface and extension.

It has become a mainstream to use physical models to quantify expected energy savings from alternative retrofit methods and technologies. However, they are not suitable for predicting energy use of buildings when detailed and specified input parameters are unavailable. The overall purpose of the research is to support the stakeholders in taking decisions on refurbishments options when not all of physical information is available, in order to achieve the Swedish Energy Agency's measurements of near-zero energy buildings. The research will transfer big data from Swedish Energy Performance Certificates for building retrofitting. A Support Vector Machines and Fuzzy C-means clustering (SVM-FCM) integrated machine learning algorithm is used directly to extract the case-specific knowledge from EPC big data regarding building characteristics and energy saving of retrofit measures. It enables to prioritize retrofit measures and compute their expected energy savings for buildings. This proposed data driven method is an attempt of taking advantage of big data for practical building retrofit selection.