Browsing by Author "Feng, Y"

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item: Conference-Full-text
Energy and thermal performance in complex design in a high-density urban context: educating environmental sustainable design in B. Arch graduation theses
(2017) Feng, Y; Feng, Q; Sitong, G
Building sector consumes a considerable portion of energy and is contributes to global warming due to relevant emissions. Therefore the request for environmental sustainable development poses a critical challenge to human society, particularly to developing countries, as it is of paramount importance for the nations to balance between fast development and low environmental impact. Environmental sustainable design education is gaining popularity in architectural schools worldwide. Many of them are for graduate students. This paper reports an attempt to teach environmental sustainable (or passive and low energy architecture) design in a Bachelor of Architecture final-year design studio. Under the framework of the so-called "principles-tools-applications" knowledge triangle, the 16-week studio aims to equip the students with theoretical and practical experiences in passive and low energy design through a real-case design. The syllabus and the process of the course are elaborated, the final output of each studio member is presented, the lessons learned and experiences gained through the 16-week teaching experiment are shared, and suggestions to integrate environmental sustainable design agenda into the complete teaching circles are proposed.
item: Conference-Full-text
Offsite construction skills prediction: A conceptual model
(Ceylon Institute of Builders - Sri Lanka, 2022-06-24) Ginigaddara, B; Perera, S; Feng, Y; Rahnamayiezekavat, P; Sandanayake, YG; Waidyasekara, KGAS; Gunatilake, S
Industry 4.0 driven technological advancements have accelerated the uptake of Offsite Construction (OSC), causing the need for re-skilling, up-skilling, and multi-skilling traditional onsite construction skills and competencies. The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model that predicts OSC skills as a response to the OSC demand. The paper is a theoretical presentation of a skill profile prediction model which introduces the key concepts, OSC typology, OSC skill classification and their relationships. Components, panels, pods, modules, and complete buildings represent the OSC typology. Managers, professionals, technicians, and trade workers, clerical and administration workers, machine operators and drivers, and labourers constitute the OSC skill classification. The conceptual model takes the OSC project parameters: gross floor area, OSC value percentage and skill quantities as input and provides predicted skill variations as the output. The skills are quantified in “manhours/m2” under six skill categories, for five distinct OSC types. As such, the research presents a comprehensive conceptual model for the development of an OSC skills predictor to capture the skill variations and demand in a construction market moving towards rapid industrialisation. The research contributes to the existing body of knowledge by identifying the key concepts, parameters, and mutual relationships of those parameters that are needed to develop a realistic prediction of future trends of OSC skills.
item: Conference-Full-text
Typologies of offsite construction
Ginigaddara, B; Perera, S; Feng, Y; Rahnamayiezekavat, Payam
In the 21st century, where smart and modern technologies are developed at an expeditious rate, construction industry has survived over centuries, despite its slow rate of technology adaptations, poor productivity, lower sustainability and vastly reported skill shortage. Technological advancement is the catalyst to solve these issues attaching extreme significance to transform the construction industry in line with industrialisation, digitalisation and globalisation. Sequential industrial revolutions have evolved to the present day’s Fourth Industrial Revolution which is also known as Industry 4.0, under which offsite construction leads to the reduction of onsite labour intensity and shift the tasks to factory based manufacturing paradigms. Study on offsite construction revealed different types of offsite construction available in literature; none of which specified a logical method of offsite construction types development to suit the current technology advancements in the global construction arena. Available literature rather mention types of offsite construction based on examples and not the construction technology or combination of onsite to offsite work component. Therefore, this research was carried out to develop typologies of offsite construction using 10 available types of offsite construction. Literature was analysed using content analysis method through the NVivo 2012 (QSR) computer software. Findings revealed six typologies of offsite construction with incrementing portions of offsite construction in the order of; Components, Panels, Pods, Modules, Complete buildings and Flat pack. Therefore, this research contributes to knowledge by the development of typologies of offsite construction through a scientific approach while addressing the 21st century technology advancements available in the construction industry worldwide.