This article reviewed the state-of-the-art applications of the Internet of things (IoT) technology applied in homes for making them smart, automated, and digitalized in many respects. The literature presented various applications, systems, or methods and reported the results of using IoT, artificial intelligence (AI), and geographic information system (GIS) at homes. Because the technology has been advancing and users are experiencing IoT boom for smart built environment applications, especially smart homes and smart energy systems, it is necessary to identify the gaps, relation between current methods, and provide a coherent instruction of the whole process of designing smart homes. This article reviewed relevant papers within databases, such as Scopus, including journal papers published in between 2010 and 2019. These papers were then analyzed in terms of bibliography and content to identify more related systems, practices, and contributors. A designed systematic review method was used to identify and select the relevant papers, which were then reviewed for their content by means of coding. The presented systematic critical review focuses on systems developed and technologies used for smart homes. The main question is ”What has been learned from a decade trailing smart system developments in different fields?”. We found that there is a considerable gap in the integration of AI and IoT and the use of geospatial data in smart home development. It was also found that there is a large gap in the literature in terms of limited integrated systems for energy efficiency and aged care system development. This article would enable researchers and professionals to fully understand those gaps in IoT-based environments and suggest ways to fill the gaps while designing smart homes where users have a higher level of thermal comfort while saving energy and greenhouse gas emissions. This article also raised new challenging questions on how IoT and existing developed systems could be improved and be further developed to address other issues of energy saving, which can steer the research direction to full smart systems. This would significantly help to design fully automated assistive systems to improve quality of life and decrease energy consumption.

Cost overrun has remained a key risk of construction projects that can be prevented by utilizing new technologies. This paper aims to identify the gap in the literature, which can potentially be addressed by using digital tools and technologies, by reviewing the current and state of the art practices. The paper presents the results of a systematic and critical content reviews on cost overruns, to address the question of what factors are affecting the cost overrun. This paper also reviews how building information modeling (BIM) in conjunction with other tools, such as the common tools in the Asia and Asia Pacific regions, are used for cost estimation and monitoring. The paper presents the results of the content review, including their contributions and limitations, which are also used to set key directions for future investigations. A total of 176 papers was identified to develop the construction cost management (CCM) dataset. The method was a mix of systematic reviews, including co-authorship network analyses, co-occurrence analytical map development covering 5671 keywords, and content analysis including theme identification and a critical review of selected papers. The paper critically reviewed 63 selected papers from CCM, which are divided into four clusters based on their scopes: BIM adoption for cost estimation and quantity surveying; BIM implementation for a bill of quantity, risk paths, and cost overruns; cost control and management; and, finally, BIM, virtual design, and value management. A trend analysis using a set of 16 themes (e.g., 3D model, BIM, Decision, Energy, and Life Cycle) for all the papers over the past ten years was developed. The content of each cluster of papers was reviewed based on the frequency of the selected themes in each cluster. The content of each cluster of papers was also reviewed critically and gaps were identified, so a set of directions for future investigations are presented.

Delay is one of the main challenges of construction projects, and there is still much to overcome in order to reach near zero delay in all construction projects. This project aims to conduct a systematic critical review including a bibliography analysis on delay literature in construction. The main questions consider what has been learnt from a decade investigating delay causes and effects in the construction literature and what factors have been missed in the literature. This paper also presents a new and challenging question regarding how digital tools and associated technologies may prevent any delay in construction projects, which can change the research direction from delay investigations to identifying prevention factors. The paper identifies the delay dataset, including 493 papers investigating delay in construction, and establishes a specific dataset of papers focusing on delay effects and causes (DEC), including 94 selected papers covering different factors examined in over 29 countries such as Iran, India, Turkey, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Cambodia, Oman, Malaysia, Taiwan, China, Vietnam, the US, the UK, and Egypt. In addition, the paper identifies 30 critical factors with the frequency of occurrences over three times in the DEC dataset and computes their medians of ranking. This paper also discusses digital tools and methods that can be used for delay analysis and preventions, including MS Project, Oracle Primavera P6, and Open Plan by Deltek. The paper discusses the project schedule delay analysis from project management methodology perspectives. It also discusses the current method’s limitations and future directions, which are based on the identification of the deficiency areas. In total, four overlooked factors are identified and suggested, including faulty data analysis, unmatched structure of the research questionnaires with new knowledge and standards [e.g., Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)], overlooked effects of digital technologies [e.g., Digital twin, Navisworks, Building Information Model (BIM), Geographic Information System (GIS), and Integrated Project Delivery (IPD)], and ignored job-site technologies. In addition, the paper presents the DEC model for future studies, including four main key factors. These factors are resources (e.g., project budgets, labour, material, equipment, and digital tool), project context, stakeholders performance (e.g., owner/client, consultant/designer, contractor, vendor/supplier), and external factors (e.g., ground condition, site location, regulation, natural disaster), which may significantly affect delay prevention and should be concurrently considered in the future delay investigations, since they may be required for designing an effective mitigation strategy when these proof points are identified. This would significantly help to utilise digital systems to prevent time overruns in different construction contexts.

The frequency of natural disasters is exacerbated by the escalating impacts of climate change with the need for effective relief shelters for victims and displaced individuals. Providing accessible and easy-to-assemble relief shelters is essential in addressing these needs. Due to climate-related challenges and the need for sustainable solutions, the integration of circularity principles in shelter design has become imperative. Circular economy principles promote the efficient use of resources, minimising waste generation and the cost of shelters. Moreover, a considerable number of people usually suffer from homelessness, and an increasing number of families live in slums in every part of the globe. All such people are entitled to be housed in affordable, safe, and appropriate shelters for at least several months after a disaster until they can either rebuild their former houses or find somewhere decent to settle after recovering from the hardship. With the aim of investigating the immediate housing needs of people after a disaster, this paper identifies the essential factors that must be taken into account during shelter design. The paper also presents the prototype developed on the basis of theoretical criteria and the identified factors. The paper’s main objectives were to design an easy-to-assemble emergency shelter on circular economy principles, identify critical factors for the circularity and buildability of the shelter, and present a proposed smart shelter acceptance model. The methodology behind the research involves conducting an intensive literature review and creating a novel prototype of a smart disaster relief shelter on the basis of long-run laboratory work and various prototype iterations. The paper presents the details of the novel prototype and shows materials that enhance the circularity of the shelter, according to a unique architectural design strategy of ‘reusing’ materials to enhance circularity practice in the design and construction sectors. The prototype was developed in a workshop after 6 months of reiterations using plastic water bottles, basic pipes, and other reusable materials. Then, by incorporating the essential factors, a set of criteria was designed that can be used as a guide for the architectural design of shelters. The criteria offered in this paper are useful to evaluate each factor’s importance in shelter design. In total, 51 effective factors in designing and constructing such accommodation are presented, clustered into five design strategy groups: social–cultural, physical–technical, environmental, economic, and organisational.

Technology, particularly over the past decades, has affected the cities and their components, such as building sectors. Consequently, smart building that has currently utilized various technologies which is incorporated into buildings is the core of the present chapter. It provides a comprehensive overview on smart cities, smart buildings and smart home to address what systems and technologies have been incorporated so far. The aim is to review the smart concepts in built environment with the main focus on smart cities, smart buildings, and smart homes. State-of-the-art and current practices in smart buildings were also reviewed to enlighten a set of directions for future studies. The Chapter is primarily focuses on 51 articles in smart buildings/homes, as per collected from various datasets. It represents a summary of systems utilized and incorporared into smart buildings and homes over the past decade (2010–2020). Additional to different features of smart buildings and homes, is the discussion around various fields and system performances currently utilized in smart buildings/homes. Limitations and future trends and directions is also discussed. In total, such building/home systems were categorized into 6 groups, including: security systems, healthcare systems, energy management systems, building/home management systems, automation systems, and activity/movement recognition systems. Furthermore, there are a number of surveys which investigated the user’s acceptance and adoption of the new smart systems in homes and buildings, as presented and summarized thereafter in Tables. The present Chapter is a contribution to a better understanding of the functions and performances of such buildings/homes for further implementation and enhancement so that varying demands of smart citizens are fulfilled and eventually contribute to the development of smart cities.

Close attention to education and its effects on the identities of societies has been ingrained in the history of studies. Nowadays, a considerable amount of criticism in the field of education is related to inefficient and obsolete educational scheduling, with a large number of researchers exploring new learning methods. Logically, these new methods require new architectural environments, which can meet the needs of a new generation with the approach of positively affecting students’ learning efficiency. The main purpose of this research is to identify effective factors in students’ sense of attachment to school. First, this research finds factors on the sense of attachment by studying past literature. Second, a number of questions and hypothesis are developed. Third, in order to validate the effective factors and answer the developed questions, a questionnaire is devised and distributed among 278 students of 10 state primary schools of Shahriyar, Iran. The collected data are then analyzed using SPSS software. The findings indicate that there is a meaningful relation between students’ educational efficiency and their sense of attachment to school. It also shows that important factors, such as social activities and connection with natural elements in design, can have a noticeable impact on the students’ sense of attachment to school and consequently their educational efficiency.