Green building development creates many opportunities for meeting the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, most green buildings are new builds rather than retrofitted existing buildings. This may become an impediment for green development progress, as the issues of deforestation and land preservation remain unresolved. Green retrofitting of building façades is one of the most effective passive design strategies and permits perennial benefits for building energy performance, cost savings, and positive environmental impacts. There are a wide range of façade retrofit technologies readily available on the market at relatively low cost that require little installation time and yet can achieve similar energy performance levels as new green buildings. Notwithstanding these advantages, the uptake rates for these are moderately low. The challenges to widely implementing façade retrofitting of Malaysian office buildings are foreseen as holistic and include not just engineering and construction activities, but also social, economic, environmental, and governmental support. This paper aims to review the focus and direction of green development in the Malaysian construction industry and subsequently propose a research agenda for the rapid adoption of green façade retrofitting for local office buildings. The research agenda will commence with a survey on key factors that impede the uptake of green façade retrofitting, and then conducts energy simulations for contemporary green facade technologies (GFTs) using Building Information Modelling (BIM) software. It finally develops a decision-making tool for GFT selection based on simulated energy performance data and the key factors associated with building owners’ considerations and expectations of façade retrofitting. The final research output is expected to act as a catalyst to spur green development progress by identifying the real issues faced by the prevailing construction industry.

There has been a growing awareness to include passive design concepts in buildings as a design strategy for achieving energy efficiency and optimum indoor thermal comfort in workspaces as well. The challenging task for the building designers in the hot-humid tropics is the provision of indoor environmental thermal comfort for the occupants of the building while controlling energy use for the office space. This study has been conducted to investigate the post occupancy evaluation of occupants’ satisfaction in the working-spaces of two energy-efficient office buildings in a tropical country viz., Malaysia. Two office buildings, which have been classified as energy efficient buildings, in Malaysia were selected for the case study. One of them is a Low Energy Office (LEO) building, designed for low energy consumption and the second one is a Zero Energy Office (ZEO) building which was designed for demonstration of renewable energy applications. From the research it is seen that the thermal comfort parameters lie within the recommended comfort zone of Malaysian standards with the exception of air movement in the workspace of both buildings. The results also show that the occupants were satisfied with their work-spaces, with “slightly greater satisfaction” in the LEO building than in the ZEO building.

Humans spend one-third of their lives in the sleep environment; however, research on how its interior arrangement affects individuals’ preferences and perceptions of sleep quality has not been emphasised. We predict that the Form School Feng Shui model corresponds to a mother’s embrace, which may fit most users’ desired paradigm in a sleep environment, and is, thus, probably supportive to better sleep quality. This paper investigates whether the desirable bedroom layout for humans corresponds to the Form School Feng Shui model, and whether the embraced arrangement in a sleep environment can enhance individual sleep quality. A nationwide questionnaire survey was conducted to investigate the perceptions of adults from multiple backgrounds, with a response rate of 27.0% (N = 405). The results showed the bedroom layout that was designed based on the Form School Feng Shui model was indicated as highly preferred but had no significant implications for better sleep quality. The findings supported the claim that the Form School Feng Shui model is broadly preferred for its application in the sleep environment; however, the hypothesis that such a model will contribute to better sleep quality is not established.

The adoption of 3D modelling in construction has contributed many benefits to the industry, yet some of the construction players are still either unfamiliar with the software or not utilizing the software to its fullest potential. The objectives of this research are to determine the challenges faced in 3D modelling software, to postulate the solutions based on the identified challenges in 3D modelling software, and to investigate the strategies of 3D modelling in the QS profession. A qualitative method of research will be carried out to acquire the data and opinions from the quantity surveyors in the construction sector. Based on the findings, financial issues are the most significant challenges on 3D modelling, whereas training for construction staff and enforcement from the government is the most impactful solution and strategy. This study can boost the construction players' confidence in integrating 3D modelling in the construction industry. It also brings higher efficiency in daily operations and helps to improve the productivity of workers.