A modular construction method includes factory-prefabricated room-sized volumetric units. Although low-rise buildings have been constructed worldwide using this method for more than 30 years, it is a relatively new technology in high-rise construction. There are three basic methods of constructing high-rise buildings using modular construction: the core method, the core-and-podium combination method, and the modular in-fill method. While the first two have been used in the USA and in several European countries, the third method, introduced in 2011 by an international cruise ship development firm, is a rather new approach for which there are few case histories. Although the modular in-fill method is being used to construct several dormitories in Korea through public–private partnerships with the Korean government, there have been few applications of this method to construction of high-rise buildings. Therefore, its applicability and construction feasibility should be verified. As a pilot study to test the applicability of the modular in-fill method, a 12-story residential building was built in Korea. This paper describes a case study of the pilot project. The advantages and disadvantages of the method and its applicability in terms of cost effectiveness and construction schedule management were evaluated. The results of this study provide a reference base for advancement of the in-fill method based on an analysis of problems that arose during the construction process for the pilot project.

Total volumes of construction orders and the domestic construction markets are predicted to continue shrinking. To compensate, Korean construction companies have been trying to make inroads into the global construction market. Companies must determine their competitiveness and establish strategies to expand into overseas construction markets. The General Electric/McKinsey Matrix, introduced in the early Seventies, is a specific framework for evaluating investment opportunities and is still widely used to analyze competitiveness scenarios. In this study, we analyze the construction industry in 22 countries. We describe the procedure for creating the matrix and present each country with details of various construction environments. The results are relative to the two typical matrix dimensions: the competitiveness of a construction business and the attractiveness of the construction industry. This model can be used to conduct a comprehensive analysis of global construction markets and policies, thereby providing policy-making recommendations to countries or companies. This study fills a gap and describes the state of the industry, enriches the literature on the subject, and creates new points of inquiry. The results, although based on a limited selection of countries, provide an accurate demonstration of the methodology and highlight the ranking of countries.

Both drones and laser scanners digitally take the as-built context of an object into the computer, and the data taken are transmitted to a Building Information Modeling (BIM) world to create accurate 3D models. Although the laser scanner is the leading method of the Scan-to-BIM procedure, many professionals indicate drawbacks of the technology and point out the drone is an alternative that can improve the shortcomings, leading to the UAV-to-BIM process. The Korean construction industry plans to implement drone technology for scrutinizing as-built construction quality by 2025. However, drones are not popular in construction projects. Korean universities where Construction Engineering and Management programs have been implemented have requested to develop a drone curriculum for construction professionals. Since the majority of the professionals are not familiar with drone operation, in order for the schools to be successful in developing the curriculum, it is very necessary to perform a preliminary experimental study for identifying the essential education contents that are appropriate for drone beginners. The main objective of this paper is to perform a study for drone beginners and recognize the recommendations and the framework of a drone curriculum that will be beneficial for the schools to develop a comprehensive curriculum later on.

Constructing free-form buildings is very complex due to the difficulty in fabricating the curved façade. To install the façade, the complex geometric shapes of the façade need to be divided into panels. The panels developed are classified into three categories in terms of their curvatures, i.e., planar, single-curved, double-curved panels. The quality of the curved façade is determined by the geometric difference between as-built and as-designed panel shapes. Among the three types of curved panels, the double-curved panel is very difficult to form, showing greater quality discrepancy than the other two panel types. Ensuring the as-built quality of the curved façade is for contractors. The main objective of this study is to enhance small/mid-size contractors’ capacity of managing the as-built quality of the double-curved panel. To meet the study objectives, a case study of a small free-form building and empirical mock-up tests of curved panels were performed and beneficial lessons for the contractors were identified through the tests. Among diverse materials, aluminum and glass-fiber-reinforced concrete (GFRC) were utilized for the mock-up tests. Three-dimensional laser scanning technology was employed to foster the as-built data of the case study project and the mocked-up double-curved panels. The data superimposition method was used to measure the deviation between the as-designed and the as-built data of the case study.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) has been one of the most dominant trends in the construction industry worldwide. In Korea, since 2012, public construction projects worth more than USD 40 million have been subject to the application of BIM. However, many public owners have hesitated to adopt BIM for their projects; they generally view BIM as being very complex to manage and difficult to understand. In 2021, the Korean governmental entity in charge of developing the public policies to furnish quality infrastructure requested a variety of individual public owners to prepare BIM guidelines fit to the infrastructures they manage. While there are diverse BIM guides available for them to refer to in preparing the BIM guidelines, these involve certain deficiencies in meeting the public owners’ preferences, such as being tailored for the public procurement process. The main objectives of this study were to investigate the desirable nature of an owner-oriented BIM guide, suggest the structure of the guide, and identify the major advisory contents to be included in the guide. To achieve these research objectives, a number of domestic and international BIM guides were analyzed, and workshops were operated twice with 12 BIM experts from the Korean construction industry. As a result of the study, a four-stage guide structure was developed consisting of the BIM service Scoping, Tendering, Executing, and Wrapping-up (STEW) guides.

The exterior surfaces of the free form buildings contain the panels with very complex curvature. While the panels incarnate a symbolic and remarkable building facade in the urban environment, constructing the panels is extremely complex. Because the bigger the curvatures of the panels, the more expensive the construction cost, a free-form building designer needs to perform the process to mitigate the curvatures of the panels at the early design stage without damaging the features of the free-form façade in parallel with estimating the cost to construct the panels (i.e., panel optimization). However, at the upfront design phase, estimating cost of design alternatives and finding a good one that meets both design intention and budget limit is very difficult. Most designers lack understanding, technology, and data on panel optimization. This study suggests how to optimize the panels for free-form facade by using Grasshopper, a widely-used application that a building designer can easily approach as well as how to calculate the construction cost change in conjunction with the optimization process. The panel optimization is mainly carried out by connecting Grasshopper’s continuity analysis function with curvature analysis function. A case study is performed on a recently completed free-form building project in Korea to verify the applicability of the study result.