Böcker i Spon Research-serien

Novel research in construction management is often distant from existing practice. This collection of reviews intends to bridge this gap under three major themes: innovation, organisation and human behaviour, and methods and tools. It outlines a series of successful collaborative projects between industry and the academic and research communities.

Conventional air conditioning is not a sustainable solution to the challenge of a hot or humid climate. This book explores the complex relationships between climate, buildings and plants, especially in urban heat islands. It is useful for researchers and professionals such as architects, architectural science, and landscape architects.

Offers insights into the potential use, development and limitations of collaborative technologies and practices. This book includes such topics as virtual prototyping in design and construction, building information modeling, and managing the collaborative processes. It is suitable for researchers in the building and construction industry.

Leadership and sustainability have separately been the subject of numerous studies in a built environment context over the years, but they have yet to be addressed together. The real impact of legislation and guidelines designed to promote sustainability within the construction industry is closely linked to the leadership behind it, as this book explores in a variety of ways.

Shows how the concept of knowledge can make sense in the construction industry, an industry which can be viewed in essence as being engaged in the material transformation of 'nature into buildings'. This book explores different businesses including a medium sized construction firm, and Wingardh Architecture, Sweden's prestigious architecture firm.

Using the construction industry as the subject of research, this book traces the development of the literature on organisational culture and business effectiveness. It investigates the culture-performance link using an objective measure of company performance and an evaluation of organisational culture, which is largely behaviourally-based.

Provides a comprehensive overview of the literature on interpersonal communication and delivers a critical review of various research methods previously used in and outside the construction management field. This text investigates the link between successful projects and the effectiveness of communication.

Sets out social science and business-oriented thinking derived from a major EPSRC research project. This work's interdisciplinary approach draws together industry and research.

Performance-Based Optimization of Structures introduces a method to bridge the gap between structural optimization theory and its practical application to structural engineering.

The main risk-minimisation strategy in the construction phase is trust, which plays a major role in the success of key working relationships across the construction industry. This book investigates this phenomenon, and goes on to show that once developed, trust outshines all other risk minimisation strategies and is essential for project success. Drawing on many years of empirical research involving project managers working internationally, Trust in Construction Projects also provides strategies to minimise information asymmetries in order to build trust, and ensure the success of construction projects.

This wide-ranging study of crucial procurement issues includes international historical context, collaboration and risk management, with a focus on sustainable procurement approaches. The international significance of public-private partnerships and relationship-based procurement approaches is reinforced with case study examples from the UK, Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific regions.

This important work sets out cutting-edge social science and business-oriented thinking derived from a major EPSRC research project. Its interdisciplinary approach draws together industry and research, and is international in its relevance.