Innovation In Small Professional Practices In The Built Environment

From the book’s Foreword by Trevor Mole, Managing Director,Property Tectonics; President of the European Association ofBuilding Surveyors and Construction Experts: ‘Shu-Ling and Martin have built on their research workand that of others to produce an understandable and readableinsight into innovation in small professional service firms. Theyhave successfully unravelled the complex behavioural andorganisational forces taking place and created a framework to helppractitioners understand the issues and to fashion the rightenvironment in which to foster innovation and deliver economicvalue.’ Small professional practices in the built environment arecrucial to the success and long-term viability of the design,construction and property industries. This research-based bookaddresses the urgent need to better understand the nature andprocess of innovation in these important firms. The authors offer an analysis of both why and howinnovation is a key competitive factor for small professionalpractices in the built environment. As these practices are locatedin different business environments and behave in different ways toother types of industry firms, the context-specific methodology todesign, implement and assess innovation in small professionalpractices presented in this book will appeal to researchers andpractitioners in surveying and design. Innovation in Small Professional Practices in the BuiltEnvironment makes a significant contribution to anunderdeveloped area of innovation by offering new theoretical andpractical insights and models grounded in results from a 22-monthcase study of a small professional practice.

Construction innovation is an important but contested concept, both in industry practice and academic reflection and research. A fundamental reason for this is the nature of the construction industry itself: the industry and the value creation activities taking place there are multi-disciplinary, heterogeneous, distributed and often fragmented. This book takes a new approach to construction innovation, revealing different perspectives, set in a broader context. It coalesces multiple theoretical and practice-based views in order to stimulate reflection and to prepare the ground for further synthesis. By being clear, cogent and unambiguous on the most basic definitions, it can mobilise a plurality of perspectives on innovation to promote fresh thinking on how it can be studied, enabled, measured, and propagated across the industry. This book does not gloss over the real-life complexity of construction innovation. Instead, its authors look explicitly at the challenges that conceptual issues entail and by making their own position clear, they open up fresh intellectual space for reflection. Construction Innovation examines innovation from different positions and through different conceptual lenses to reveal the richness that the theoretical perspectives offer to our understanding of the way that the construction sector actors innovate at both project and organizational levels. The editors have brought together here leading scholars to deconstruct the concept of innovation and to discuss the merits of different perspectives, their commonalities and their diversity. The result is an invaluable sourcebook for those studying and leading innovation in the design, the building and the maintenance of our built environment.

The multi-disciplinary perspective provided here offers a strategic view on built environment issues and improve understanding of how built environment activities potentially induce global warming and climate change. It also highlights solutions to these challenges. Solutions to Climate change Challenges in the Built Environment helps develop an appreciation of the diverse themes of the climate change debate across the built environment continuum. A wide perspective is provided through contributions from physical, environmental, social, economic and political scientists. This strategic view on built environment issues will be useful to researchers as well as policy experts and construction practitioners wanting a holistic view. This book clarifies complex issues around climate change and follows five main themes: climate change experiences; urban landscape development; urban management issues; measurement of impact; and the future. Chapters are written by eminent specialists from both academic and professional backgrounds. The main context for chapters is the developed world but the discussion is widened to incorporate regional issues. The book will be valuable to researchers and students in all the built environment disciplines, as well as to practitioners involved with the design, construction and maintenance of buildings, and government organisations developing and implementing climate change policy.

Innovation in construction is essential for growth. The industry strives to remain competitive using a variety of approaches and needs to engage structured initiatives linked to proven innovation concepts, techniques and applications. Even in mature markets like the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector, where business behaviour is generally considered as being risk averse, it is increasingly important to embed innovation into mainstream business practices. In Construction Innovation and Process Improvement a number of wide ranging issues from construction practice in different countries with different contexts are presented to provide a rich collection of literature embracing theory and practice. Chapters are divided into three broad themes of construction innovation relating to: Theory and Practice; Process Drivers; and Future Technologies. Several questions are posed, including for example: What is particularly unique about construction innovation in theory and practice? What are the major drivers of construction innovation? What factors are needed to support and deliver future construction technologies? In attempting to respond to such questions, the book sheds new light on these challenges, and provides readers with a number of ways forward, especially cognisant of the increased role of globalisation, the enhanced impact of knowledge, and importance of innovation. All these can have a significant impact on strategic decision-making, competitive advantage, and sustainable policies and practices. Part One deals with change management, technology, sustainable construction, and supply chain management; Part Two addresses innovation and process improvement drivers, including strategic management, concurrent engineering, risk management, innovative procurement, knowledge management; Part Three explores future technologies in construction – and particularly, how these can be harnessed and leveraged to help procure innovation and process improvement.

How to adapt existing building stock is a problem being addressed by local and state governments worldwide. In most developed countries we now spend more on building adaptation than on new construction and there is an urgent need for greater knowledge and awareness of what happens to commercial buildings over time. Sustainable Building Adaptation: innovations in decision-making is a significant contribution to understanding best practice in sustainable adaptations to existing commercial buildings by offering new knowledge-based theoretical and practical insights. Models used are grounded in results of case studies conducted within three collaborative construction project team settings in Australia and the Netherlands, and exemplars are drawn from the Americas, Asia, Japan, Korea and Europe to demonstrate the application of the knowledge more broadly. Results clearly demonstrate that the new models can assist with informed decision-making in adaptation that challenges some of the prevailing solutions based on empirical approaches and which do not accommodate the sustainability dimension. The emphasis is on demonstrating how the new knowledge can be applied by practitioners to deliver professionally relevant outcomes. The book offers guidance towards a balanced approach that incorporates sustainable and optimal approaches for effective management of sustainable adaptation of existing commercial buildings.

Future Challenges in Sustainable Development within the Built Environment stimulates and reinterprets the demands of Responsible and Sustainable Development in the Built Environment for future action and development. It examines the methods of evaluation, the use of technology, the creation of new models and the role of human factors for examining and developing the subject over the next twenty years.

Describes all aspects of sustainable conversion adaptation of existing buildings and provides solutions for making urban settlements resilient to climate change This comprehensive book explores the potential to change the character of cities with residential conversion of office space in order to withstand the negative effects of climate change. It investigates the nature and extent of sustainable conversion in a number of global cities, as well as the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal drivers and barriers to successful conversion. The book also identifies the key lessons learned through international comparisons with cases in the UK, US, Australia, and the Netherlands. Building Urban Resilience Through Change of Use covers the benefits and aspects of sustainable conversion adaptation through the whole lifecycle from inception, planning, and design, to procurement, construction, and management and operational issues. It illustrates and quantifies, through empirical research, the changes that have been achieved or delivered in sustainable conversion adaptation. The book gives an overview of all aspects of performance characteristics and the conversion adaptation of existing buildings. In the end, it enables planners to make more informed decisions about whether conversion adaptation is a good choice—and if so, which types of sustainability measures are best suited for projects. Provides detailed, empirical knowledge based on real-world research undertaken in five countries over three continents on both a citywide scale and on individual buildings Case studies and exemplars demonstrate the application of the knowledge in North and South America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and in Europe Addresses the key themes of technology, finance and procurement, and the regulatory framework The first research-based book to examine how to improve resilience to climate change through sustainable reuse of buildings, Building Urban Resilience Through Change of Use is a welcome book for researchers and academics involved in building surveying, urban development, and sustainability planning.

Risk Pricing Strategies for Public-Private Partnership Projects Innovation in the Built Environment The complexity of public–private partnership (PPP) project procurement requires an effective process for pricing, managing and appropriate allocation of risks. The level at which risk is priced and the magnitude of risks transferred to the private sector will have a significant impact on the cost of the PPP deals as well as on the value for money analysis and on the selection of the optimum investment options. The construction industry tends to concentrate on the effectiveness of risk management strategies and to some extent ignores the price of risk and its impact on whole life cost of building assets. There is a pressing need for a universal framework for the determination of fair value of risks throughout the PPP procurement processes. Risk Pricing Strategies for Public–Private Partnership Projects addresses the issues of risk pricing and demonstrates the use of a coherent strategy to arrive at a fair risk price. The focus of the book is on providing risk pricing strategies to maximise return on risk retention and allocation in the procurement of PPP projects. With its up-to-date coverage of the latest developments in risk pricing, and comprehensive treatment of the methodologies involved in designing and building risk pricing strategies, the book offers a simple model for pricing risks. The book follows a thematic structure: PPP processes map; risk, uncertainty and bias; risk pricing management strategies; risk pricing measurement and modelling; risk pricing at each of the project life-cycle stages – and deals with all the important risk pricing issues, using relevant real-world situations through case study examples. It explains how the theory and strategies of risk pricing can be successfully applied to real PPP projects and reflects the broad understanding required by today’s project risk analysts, in their new and important role in PPP contract management. Also in the IBE series Managing Change in Construction Projects Senaratne & Sexton 978 14443 3515 6 Innovation in Small Professional Practices in the Built Environment Lu & Sexton 978 14051 9140 1 Other books of interest Urban Infrastructure: Finance and Management Wellman & Spiller 978 0 470 65635 8 Project Finance for Construction and Infrastructure Pretorius, Chung-Hsu, McInnes, Lejot & Arner Construction Supply Chain Management Pryke 978 14051 5844 2 Policy, Finance & Management for Public-Private Partnerships Edited by Akintoye & Beck 978 14051 7791 7 Strategic Issues in Public-Private Partnerships, 2nd Edition Dewulf, Blanken & Bult-Spiering 978 0 470 65635 8