Students

Buildings have very long lifespans and decisions made before and during construction have long term consequences. A significant portion of life cycle cost is incurred during the operational and maintenance phase of a building (Patacas et al. 2015). More often than not, clients and investors often focus on the capital cost, with less or no consideration of future operation, maintenance and/or replacement costs (Patacas et al., 2015). Thus, data and information are left until the building is completed before being handed to the facilities managers in typically non-suitable, manual/paper-based or non-digital formats (Patacas, et al., 2015).

With the late delivery of non-digital data, it is challenging for facilities managers to assess the quality of information and whether the information they need is contained in the handover data. Emerging open BIM standards such as Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) and Construction Operations Building information exchange (COBie) can greatly facilitate the handing over of data and information to the facilities managers in a gradual and structured way (Patacas et al., 2015). However, facilities managers are still very reluctant to adopt open BIM standards in their practices due to many uncertainties (Becerik-Gerber et al., 2012).

Recent efforts that facilitate the use of COBie have been noted in the Publicly Available Specification (PAS 1192-3: 2014) and British Standards (BS 1192-4: 2014). PAS 1192-3: 2014 specifies how information can be managed in the operational phase while BS 1192-4: 2014 defines a methodology for the transfer between parties of structured information relating to facilities, including buildings and infrastructure. A recent report by UK National Building Specification revealed that only 26% and 18% of the UK construction professionals surveyed used PAS 1192-3:2014 and BS 1192-4:2014 respectively (NBS, 2015).

The low adoption of these standards can be explain by two main theories that are used in investigating the reluctance of people in adopting new technologies namely, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Venkatesh and Bala, 2008; Venkatesh and Davis, 2000) and Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT) (Rogers,2003). The integration of both theories will guide this study to establish a framework that can better facilitate the adoption of open BIM standards and standards guidelines in facilities management.

Prior to joining Oxford Brookes in 2014, Yuanze gained his MSc in Real Estate at the University of Reading in 2013. He had work experience in Beijing and Urumqi in China before coming to the UK for further study, having participated in several real estate development projects and property management businesses. Both academic and work experiences prompted him to develop a strong interest in real estate research.

Based on housing studies in the developed world, especially in the UK, Yuanze intends to examine the effectiveness of affordable and social housing policies in Chinese cities in the context of rapid urbanisation. Despite the growing research interest on China’s housing prices inflation among policy makers and urban scholars, there is a significant housing issue, i.e. housing for migrants, which has not yet received enough attention. His study intends to fill in the gap of knowledge. For instance, a key concern of his research is how China’s current housing policy relevant to urbanisation will promote the development of affordable and social housing. In addition his intended study examines the current issues within China’s affordable and social housing policy and the housing market in general. 

Prior to joining Oxford Brookes in 2014, Yuanze gained his MSc in Real Estate at the University of Reading in 2013. He had work experience in Beijing and Urumqi in China before coming to the UK for further study, having participated in several real estate development projects and property management businesses. Both academic and work experiences prompted him to develop a strong interest in real estate research.

Based on housing studies in the developed world, especially in the UK, Yuanze intends to examine the effectiveness of affordable and social housing policies in Chinese cities in the context of rapid urbanisation. Despite the growing research interest on China’s housing prices inflation among policy makers and urban scholars, there is a significant housing issue, i.e. housing for migrants, which has not yet received enough attention. His study intends to fill in the gap of knowledge. For instance, a key concern of his research is how China’s current housing policy relevant to urbanisation will promote the development of affordable and social housing. In addition his intended study examines the current issues within China’s affordable and social housing policy and the housing market in general. 

Siti was on a PhD scholarship awarded by Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia and supervised by Professor Joseph Tah and Dr Esra Kurul as second supervisor. Siti has a degree in Quantity Surveying from University of Teknologi Malaysia and a Masters degree in Construction Management from University of Reading, UK. She began her academic career as a junior lecturer at Taylor's College Malaysia in July 2003, and was subsequently appointed as a lecturer in University of Teknologi Malaysia International Campus (formerly known as UTM City Campus) in March 2006.

In her research she explored the possibility of developing an implementation framework for sustainable procurement, with the focus on construction procurement in Malaysia as a developing country. The construction sector in Malaysia had been constantly identified as an essential element of the national economy as well as the support to social development through the provision of basic infrastructure. In 2006, CIDB launched a 10-year master plan for the construction industry that spans from 2006 to 2015, known as the Construction Industry Master Plan (CIMP), which has identified the need for the industry to improve in environmental protection as one of the strategic goals. The master plan was aimed to provide the industry stakeholders with a clear direction of the Malaysian construction industry through its clearly defined vision, mission, critical success factors, strategic goals, recommendations and action plans. Review of the master plan and national policies suggested that Malaysia has a strong foundation in formulating policy on sustainable development however, efforts on actual implementation were still lacking.

This study was aimed to contribute to the understanding of sustainable construction and sustainability in procurement practices, especially for public construction projects in Malaysia as a developing country. There was also contribution towards the implementation of sustainable development policies in Malaysia particularly for the construction sector. The formulated framework helped government agencies and the industry players to understand on how to address sustainability requirements in public construction projects through procurement, as well as contribute towards improving the formulation of government policy on sustainable construction and public procurement.

In China, traditional urban design and street networks were strictly controlled by the feudal monarchy. The function of streets was political, military and ritual. Until the Song dynasty the human scale of streets promoted social interaction; streets became vibrant places for human daily life with mixed use. However, since industrialisation and economic growth in the 1990s, China has increasingly aspired to become more like developed nations; the traditional human dimensions and function of streets has changed, being replaced by modern, engineered roads and large open spaces.

Recently, there has been a growing interest in researching this issue. Some researchers study engineering and landscape design principles, focusing on large Chinese cities. However, there is a lack of research on medium or small size cities. There is a need to investigate typology of streets and the ways in which we can accommodate different social-cultural functions of the modern Chinese society. This will be investigated by linking theoretical concepts and street design practice as both the movement corridors and as places that address the social role and cultural characteristics of the streets. This research proposes to develop theoretical and urban design principles of streets design, both as a global phenomenon and a locally responsive solution, in the context of Chinese, medium and small cities, to meet current and future needs in terms of quality of streets.

I did an MA Urban Design at Oxford Brookes University in 2009-2010. Before I came to JCUD, Oxford Brookes University, I was working as a landscape architect in Beijing Institute of Architectural Design, China. During that time I was involved in all major landscape architectural design projects of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

The research is focused on what kind of urban spaces and urban design qualities contribute to the development of local public life in Beijing, and what transferable lessons from the vernacular environments can enhance the quality of local public life in contemporary urban spaces. Therefore, the research requires investigations and studies of a degree of local responsiveness in different types of public spaces in residential areas in Beijing by evaluating different urban design qualities. The aim of the research is to develop a theoretical framework and a methodology for defining principles for locally responsive public space design.

Kampong Bharu in Malaysia is an urban village, the only historically and culturally important Malay urban settlement that has been slow in modernising its area due to the lack of urban design strategies and implementation mechanism for upgrading the valuable and prime land in Kuala Lumpur. Currently, Kampong Bharu is facing high demand for its land as a result of new mixed use and housing development proposals. Clearly, other urban villages in Kuala Lumpur are being replaced by large mixed-use, island developments that are initiated by developers to gain maximum profit and this occurs through the vertical separations on a single land plot, creating discontinuities at the ground level that affect the pedestrian flow and are visually disruptive. For this reason, the imbalanced land use needs to be rectified by bringing back the rich mix of residential typology, based on low to medium income families, which are integrated with mixed use development in an urban village setting.

Specifically, in the Kuala Lumpur Development Control Plan 2008 (KLDCP 2008) several key planning principles are used to regulate and control physical form development through development control processes and procedures. The most recent Draft Development Plan for Kampung Baru (PITKB), if fully implemented, could lead to alterations of the urban village character of the area and will affect the occupied neighbourhood and its existing traditional urban typo-morphology. Therefore, it is important to develop an appropriate urban design approach of mixed use development in the city centre by identifying how traditional and new morphologies and typologies could be created to integrate mixed-use developments (low, medium and high-rise) in a mixed-income neighbourhood, within the context of a traditional settlement, specifically in the case study of Kampung Baru.

As this research will demonstrate, the challenge ahead for urban revitalisation in Malaysia is to promote development that could help different local neighbourhoods in the heritage urban village to continue living their lives in their traditional places, with new revitalised physical settings but without losing their sense of place. New innovative urban design solutions, could help in adding value to the urban setting and support the needs of modern lifestyles.

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Iskandar is experienced in data collection and analysis gained from his Bachelor’s degree and Master’s degrees in Architecture and Urban Design at Oxford Brookes University. He has also conducted numerous architecture projects and urban studies during his professional work experience that involved the collection and analysis of data and is experienced in conducting interviews, questionnaires, and focus group discussion. Iskandar, a Malaysian national, has worked in London and Malaysia for the last 7 years with a specific focus in the fields of Architecture, Urban design and Project Management.

The purpose of this thesis is to develop a new method to analyse and design good place-making processes by engaging with people. To engage with people is to establish long term relationships with stakeholder groups during a development and to positively support a project in shaping and directing an area as regards providing long-term benefits, lowering local resistance and implementing the fittest development for the future.

There have been various methods implemented in Europe and the USA that are worth assessing as potential comparative case studies. In order to consider how participatory models are operated and how they influence projects, the use of a comparative approach could enhance the theory and practice of participatory co-production of place, and it will also help to understand perceptions of quality of design between professional and user groups, and how different participatory models have contributed to a better quality of spaces and effective place-making strategies.

My research is concerned with the development of the wind energy industry in Germany and the United Kingdom. Despite having the best on and offshore wind resource in Europe the United Kingdom does not have a single large scale manufacturer of wind turbines. Germany overtook Denmark as world leader in turbine manufacturing in the early 1990s. This in part is down to the creation of a strong home market, which was enabled by the introduction of a feed-in tariff for decentralised sources of electricity in 1990. Only recently has the potential for offshore wind turbines been recognised in the United Kingdom and the industry is now trying to ‘catch up’ but is having to buy in key technology from elsewhere, notably Germany.

The study is placed within Evolutionary Economic Geography and uniquely combines the strands of the path-dependency literature and neo-institutionalism. It puts forward the argument that technological development cannot be seen in isolation and must be understood as socially embedded activity. Therefore, institutions need to develop alongside technological innovation for the successful creation of new industries. It also argues that institutions carry a particular role in favouring or hindering the industrial development in a country or region because they determine the influence that the civil society and agents from the established industries are given in shaping its destiny. The institutions themselves are continually evaluated and recreated by society and are the outcome of struggles for influence between past agents.

To study this I have adapted a multi-level perspective of the path-dependent development of industries from existing literature. I have added the distinct focus on the role of institutions. The study presents and tests a framework to represent the dynamics between the civil society, the institutional arrangements and the economic landscape. The fieldwork consists of a descriptive, quantitative element and an explanatory, qualitative element. The quantitative element illustrates and describes whereas the qualitative element seeks to explain. Statistical data is collected, analysed and visualised. This is combined with the content analysis from around 30 semi-structured interviews. This will help to build explanation and will lead to an improved framework for understanding the role of institutions in the path-dependent development of new industries.

What I enjoy most about being a research student is the freedom I have to organise my workload. There is also a lot of freedom to explore areas of interest. The relationship with my supervisor is great; I enjoy the difficult debates that we sometimes have and how my supervisor supports me but also pushes me to optimise all of my work. Being a research student can be extremely challenging and we all experience phases where we feel we move backwards rather than forwards. As much as it can be painful I like this continuous challenge. When I experience my most stressful periods I intensify all my other activities as well - I like to go rowing, running, and swimming, meet my friends, and travel. This enables me to wind down and work harder when needed.

His research aims at examining the impacts of the difference between the ideals of modernity and the realities of urban informality. The research seeks to employ the lens of difference to examine the phenomenon through the prism of settlements upgrading. It seeks to examine two main interrelated axes of difference which manifest themselves in urban transformation processes in post-colonial cities confronted by diverse urban informalities. The empirical focus is on the Sub-Saharan Africa city of Nairobi. The axis of difference between the dichotomous built forms in informal settlements and in upgrading programmes spatially reveals a gap between the hegemonic assumptions and rationalities of Western urbanism adopted by planning interventionists and the rationalities of planned-for urban poor communities. The research aims at bridging this gap by endeavouring to identify a suitable methodological approach of mediating these interrelated axes of difference. The methodological approach will better inform policy and practice in settlements upgrading particularly in the context of delivering culturally specific built forms.

He graduated with a Master of Arts degree in Planning (distinction) in 2002 and earlier with a Bachelor of Architecture degree (Upper 2nd Class Honours) in 1993 from the University of Nairobi. He has more than fifteen years post-qualification experience as a practicing architect and town planner in Kenya.

Currently, Rafik is undertaking PhD research with the School of the Built Environment. His research focuses on: The delivery of more sustainable urban form in Abu Dhabi city: An evaluation framework. The overall aim of the research is to develop an evaluation framework for assessing the sustainability of a given urban form through identifying the key relationships between the physical elements of built environment, different characters of sustainability and culturally specific urban form values that influence decision making process, using Abu Dhabi as a case study city, and suggests a locality specific approach to understanding and appreciating the totality of the system in a way that that can aid and contribute to the evaluation of the sustainability of the current and future built form of Abu Dhabi.

He Studied MSc International Planning at the Bartlett School of Planning, UCL, and earlier BSc of Architecture and Urban Planning at Ain Shams University in Cairo. This has broadened his appreciation of planning and urban theory and strengthened his skills to engage in critical and creative problem solving that extends beyond regulatory considerations, and instead embraces wider social, economic, environmental and political concerns.

Rafik is a licentiate town planner urban designer and architect with 15 years of experience gathered working on projects around the world – from the urban regeneration of town centre in Swansea, Wales, to the development of a master plan for an expansion to Chelyabinsk, Russia, to house 200,000 people. His continuous passion is integrating the usually discrete stages of project development from inception through to delivery - ensuring that from the outset the aim and goals of the project are clear, it is thoughtfully conceived, and elegantly realized.