A|Z ITU JOURNAL OF THE FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE

Skills, competencies and knowledge for construction management graduates

2023-06-29T20:53:44+03:00

The ever-changing nature of the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry requires construction management (CM) professionals to be competitive in both theoretical knowledge and management abilities. CM programs are responsible to equip their graduates with the right knowledge and fundamental skills for their future careers. This study identifies skills, competencies and core knowledge for construction management graduates through a quantitative approach. A purposive sampling procedure targets the AEC professionals with an established academic background in the CM field. The relative importance index (RII) analysis reveals that project managers should be highly skilled in communication, problem-solving and decision-making, leadership, and ethical practices. Moreover, there is a need to demonstrate a sound knowledge of time management, project and construction management, decision-making, and cost management. A prominent finding from the Kruskal-Wallis test shows that higher-level managers considerably appreciate time management knowledge over other domains of CM. Overall, the outcomes not only guide CM programs to align their curricula with the industry requirements but also support future CM professionals to decide on the right program among numerous alternatives.

Effect of COVID-19 on productivity of construction projects in Sri Lanka

2023-05-02T14:03:28+03:00

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted the productivity of construction projects in Sri Lanka and other countries. Research initiatives are required to tackle this issue from the perspective of construction, given that this subject is relatively significant and that individuals are still working to come up with strategies to overcome the pandemic consequences. As a result, this study investigates how productivity fluctuations in Sri Lankan construction projects during the COVID-19 era can be managed. The study applied the Delphi method along with a quantitative methodology. Mean Rating and statistical analyses were used to analyse and validate the empirical data collected during the study. Absenteeism and interference were identified as the main factor that affected production. Other notable factors included prioritising safety over productivity, workforce reduction due to social distancing protocols, inspection and permit delays, and cash flow and payment challenges. Further, the study also discovered eight effective mitigation techniques to deal with production challenges in the construction industry during the pandemic. The findings, which highlight the synergy between the construction industry and productivity increase strategies during COVID 19, would be a useful reference for future studies due to the paucity of literature on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the construction industry in Sri Lanka. Overall, this investigation provides valuable insights into the factors affecting construction productivity during the pandemic and offers potential mitigation techniques for overcoming these challenges in Sri Lanka and other developing countries.

Evaluating emotional response to products: The case of dishwashers

2023-04-27T10:17:00+03:00

As the online shopping market proliferates, designers are pushed to start designing for pre-use user experience, focusing on how the user experiences the product during online shopping, namely before actual use. The goal of this study is to provide input to design professionals, helping them to design for pre-use user experience, in other words, design for products sold in the online shopping market. This study sheds light on pre-use user experience by proposing a questionnaire-based method investigating the “affect” dimension of UX. Throughout the study, following two pilot studies and an optimization process, 7 dimensions, which can be rated on a 5-point Likert scale, are generated to assess the emotional response to the dishwasher samples. While proposing a self-reported, practical, cost-efficient, quantifiable method to evaluate the “affect” dimension in UX, this study also posits a framework that can be used to adapt the method to other product genres.

Drawing as a site of critical knowledge production in design research

2023-10-20T23:12:17+03:00

The question of critical representation is discussed within architectural design for its potential to provide other ways of exploration and production. This study focuses on drawing within the extensive field of critical representation discussions. There has been a growing interest in this area (which is distinguished from the earlier architectural representation discussions) due to its reference to the scope of criticality. This reference is taken as a starting point since it reveals the transformative relationship between content and methodology. The aim of this article is to discuss drawing as a critical practice within architectural design by focusing on the actions that are involved in the process of drawing. It is argued that through this approach, practice has a potential to become a site of critical knowledge production in design research. The article provides an understanding of how criticality is discussed within architectural design with an emphasis on design research and how these discussions have affected the scope of drawing within architectural representation. The study suggests a connection between the methodology of design research and the discussion on critical drawing through the aspects of proximity, objectivity and reflectivity. These aspects propose a way of discovering the actions of drawing which are explored through two case studies. The focus is therefore shifted to the process of drawing, not merely the final product, and how this process can be considered as a critical practice.

An investigation related to practice of stakeholder management in Turkish construction industry

2023-10-16T21:16:23+03:00

Stakeholders and their attitudes toward a project strongly affect the overall project success. The construction projects involve numerous internal and external stakeholders that have distinct characteristics, interests, and impacts besides the conflicts and probable competition among them throughout the whole project life cycle. Project success depends on not only achieving targeted time, cost, and quality but also providing all stakeholders’ satisfaction by managing effectively. This study aims to reveal the importance and necessity of stakeholder management and issues related to its implementation in current practice through experts’ opinions and experiences in the Turkish construction industry. This study grounds the literature review in the context of stakeholder management issues such as stakeholder analysis, stakeholder engagement, critical success factors, and stakeholder management strategies. Researchers collected the data by using semi-structured questionnaires with in-depth interviews. The research findings indicate that effective stakeholder management can increase the probability of project success. This most relates to the impact of stakeholders and their adequate participation in the project by using a suitable stakeholder management model and plan via stakeholder management organization. The financial problems and uncertainty, lack of stakeholder engagement, change in project objectives and decisions along the project lifetime, and insufficiency of staff in the organization are the primary issues in stakeholder management. Findings underline that effective communication, stakeholder analysis, and monitoring are the significant activities of the stakehoder management process.

Overlapping of the semiotics in the fields of linguistics and architecture: A relational analysis approach

2023-09-24T03:50:19+03:00

Semiotics is a way of finding meanings by examining the relationships between signified, signifier, and text. Semiotics can be used intentionally in architecture to convey meanings through form, which is perceived differently by the user’s experience. Since influencing the user’s experience is the way to enhance the mutual connection between architecture and users, semiotics is significant in architecture. Given this importance, no comparison has been studied between the linkage of these two fields. Therefore, this research is required. The purpose is to discover the differentiation of the existing relationships between these two fields based on this question: “What relationship can be affirmed from the texts that have been written in the field of linguistics and architecture with the similar keyword (semiotics/semiology)?” To achieve this, the relational analysis method is needed which is a subcategory of qualitative content analysis. In this regard, 53 articles from 2005 to 2020 within the “Science Direct” source website are used as the population interest of this research. Afterward, 16 samples are selected by the snowball sampling method for depicting cognitive mappings. Thus, after finding the concepts by snowball sampling, the relationships between them are defined as codes. Results showed that six types of relationships exist among the concepts. These codes are used as a reagent indicator of the relationship types and are depicted in the suggested cognitive mapping.

A critique on private ownership and protection of architectural heritage: Case study of Arpaz Tower

2023-11-19T13:38:24+03:00

Appropriate conservation and management practices for architectural heritage are crucial for national and local governments to develop since they are not only valuable individually as monuments, but they also impact the environment they are located in. However, this process can become complex when the property has a private owner. The aim of this research is to discuss the issue of private ownership in the conservation and restoration of architectural heritage and to provide an overview of its positive and negative aspects. To analyse these aspects, Arpaz Tower, which is located in the Western region of Anatolia and owned by the same family until recently (since it was built in the 19th century) was selected as a pilot study. The analysis of the performed research suggests that it might not always be possible to manage and protect an architectural heritage only with the efforts of private owners or governmental organisations. Therefore, a concrete strategy that can inform the owners before and during the protection process and adequate collaboration is required.

High street resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic: Shopkeepers’ strategies of Istiklal Avenue, Istanbul

2023-12-01T14:27:34+03:00

This study investigates the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on high streets, focusing on Istiklal Avenue, a historical shopping street in Istanbul, Türkiye. It seeks to uncover the relationship between the resilience of the high street and the response strategies of shopkeepers by examining how they coped with the challenges of the pandemic, adapted to changing conditions, and adopted immediate, temporary, or permanent strategies. To this end, 71 businesses’ shopkeepers, managers, and employees were interviewed in-depth to gain a subjective and profound understanding of their micro-resilience. The findings reveal that businesses in and around Istiklal Avenue responded to the COVID-19 crisis through preventive measures to contain the spread of the pandemic, operational and financial strategies, space adaptations, and alternative interventions, as well as a widespread preference for inaction. These strategies are closely linked to the policies implemented by central and local governments during the pandemic, government support and incentives, and the ability of businesses to take advantage of these policies. Additionally, the response to the crisis is significantly influenced by business characteristics, including sector, activity, size and crisis experience. Significantly, the study highlights a mutually reinforcing relationship between the resilience of high street businesses and the overall resilience of the high street itself. The historical continuity of the high street, its previous crisis experiences, its ability to adapt quickly to the changing conditions of each period, and therefore the resilience of the high street becomes a guiding factor in the decision-making mechanisms of the shopkeepers and increases their resilience.

Factors determining the gulet hull form and a look into the morphological development of the first touristic Bodrum Gulet “Botaş”

2023-12-29T08:08:14+03:00

This article aims to complete the missing lines in the writing of the history of the evolution of Touristic Bodrum Gulets. Since the early 1960’s, sailing and motor boats destined for touristic purposes have been found in Bodrum region. The article defines the origins of gulets and analyses their morphology. It describes the discovery the very first one specifically designed and built for tourism, introduced in 1967. Signs of government planning and financial support schemes for the development of this archetypial model have also been encountered.

Contrary to the story told - that gulets have been in the making since hundreds of years, it has been found that the hull form of gulets is relatively new and consists of rather modern lines, compared to other more traditional, classical boats such as tirhandils. The article relates gulets’ hull lines with larger ships according to “the wave-line theory”, a theoretical ship design approach put forward by naval engineer John-Scott Russell and influenced ship design globally, beginning in second half of the 19th century and continued to be influential for many decades.

Spiritual continuity and architectural transformations at Larisa’s (Aeolis) sanctuary ‘on the rocks’

2024-01-04T16:54:32+03:00

The major sanctuary in the ancient city of Larisa (Aeolis) consists of structures built at different periods -an altar, a small oikos-temple, a stoa, and a propylon- all constructed on the highest spot of the acropolis on solid bedrock. The architectural remains of the sanctuary, dated between the 7th and 4th centuries BCE are mostly preserved at the foundation level. During the 20th century excavations, “a rectangular building with a hearth inside” was found under the temple which is believed to date back to the Early Bronze Age. Another arrangement made of circular stone features with a baitylos and other large rocks is thought to have been part of cultic practices, presumably related to the Mother Goddess. The Archaic-Greek temple and its dependencies were built on the Bronze Age core articulation of the acropolis. The prehistoric cup-marks and the small finds are associated with the cult of Mother Goddess/Cybele to indicate the cult continuity.

In numerous sanctuaries, which became widely known during the Archaic period in Western Anatolia, cult activities can be uninterruptedly traced back to the “pre-Greek” periods. Furthermore, most urban sanctuaries were deliberately chosen to be located at the highest rocky point of the settlement and dominate the surrounding areas. Besides the sacredness of the cult place, its visibility was likely to have been another essential consideration. Questioning the influence of these parameters in determining the location of the primary sanctuary in Larisa requires a comprehensive assessment in conjunction with the original context of the settlement.

Impact of green practices on ecological conscious consumer behaviour: An empirical investigation of hotels in Sri Lanka

2023-10-03T15:19:13+03:00

The rising attention towards ecologically conscious consumer behavior (ECCB) emphasises the need for implementing green practices to reduce environmental challenges and attract environmentally conscious consumers. Therefore, the adoption of green practices is imperative for the success of the hotel industry. As Sri Lanka’s economy is largely supported by tourism, many hotels initiate green practices. However, there is a lack of evidence in research regarding ECCB on green practices of hotels in Sri Lanka. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the impact of green practices on ECCB and propose strategies to improve the ECCB in the Sri Lankan context. Thus, a comprehensive literature review followed by a mixed approach occupying the case study strategy and survey strategy were adopted. Under the case study strategy, 15 semi-structured interviews among hotel employees, document reviews, and non-participant observations were used within three cases and its stakeholders. A questionnaire survey was carried out among 117 hotel customers. Descriptive frequency analysis and content analysis were used to analyse the data. The findings revealed that seven green initiatives were well accepted and positively impacted ECCB. Study recommends promoting the value of going green, providing education, and enlightening customers on benefits, to uplift ECCB. The study makes substantial contributions to both theoretical knowledge and practical implications within the industry by filling a research gap and providing insights into how consumers perceive and respond to green practices. The study opens areas for future research on investigating policy.

Reflections on the vernacular mosques in the Souf region, Algeria: An attempt to inventory the local architectural language

2023-09-22T08:59:48+03:00

The architectural design of mosques has evolved and been interpreted within various Islamic countries, influenced by diverse local contexts and specific circumstances. This article investigates the vernacular mosques in the Souf region, located in the southeast of Algeria. The study aims to reveal the local architectural language used in these mosques in order to develop an inventory of vernacular mosques. The investigation employs a hybrid approach, combining historical research methods, morphological analysis, and typology. The tools and techniques of data collection were based mainly on architectural surveys, in-situ observations, and non-directive interviews with the local inhabitants (testimonies). The findings confirmed that although the architecture of the vernacular mosques of the Souf respects the archetype of the Arab mosque and expresses a vernacular style particular to the region. However, their three-dimensional morphology presents a specific silhouette that is not found elsewhere in Algeria. These mosques are distinguished by their staircase minaret and raised dome (on a double tambour), which often dominates the mosques by their height and monumentality.

Resilience: A catalyst for a reliable future

2024-03-28T10:04:55+03:00