Globally, the construction industry presents a cause of concern for the wellbeing of its workforce. Mental health issues in the industry are on the rise, and literature trends are beginning to recognize this. However, women have been widely neglected from such literature. Thus, this paper aims to identify future research directions on the mental health of women in construction through a review of current related publications. The mental health review is approached from three lenses: challenges, consequences, and wellbeing outcomes. A total of 27 peer-reviewed English-language articles published from 2010 onwards are analysed and cross-examined. In each mental health study, the ‘challenges’, ‘workplace consequences’, and ‘wellbeing outcomes’ experienced by women in construction are highlighted. Within these three categories, 58 concerns are identified. The review reveals that the proportion of issues faced by on-site professionals is significantly larger than that of other construction occupations. Furthermore, the categories ‘workplace consequences’ and ‘wellbeing outcomes’ lack research compared with ‘challenges’. Lastly, there is little evidence of cause-and-effect analysis between the challenges, consequences, and wellbeing of women in construction to uncover systems-based connections between these concerns. The paper provides an insight into these issues that will inform future research investigations and quantifications.

Diversity and inclusion of the construction workforce are considered fundamental to disrupting the perception of the male-dominated construction industry. Despite efforts to increase diversity and inclusion, the construction industry continues to record a slow increase in women’s representation, resulting in the industry missing significant potential talent. Therefore, identifying women's work environment challenges is vital for promoting construction careers. This study examines three categories of challenges: benevolent sexism, hostile sexism, and job conditions and the influences of demographic factors. The study adopted a quantitative research method, with 65 structured questionnaires completed by women working in the industry. The study found that benevolent sexism challenges, such as stereotyping and pressure to prove oneself and hostile sexism challenges, like masculine culture, sexual harassment, and lack of respect, are significant for women in construction. A lack of female role models and work overload are two job condition-related challenges that affect women in the industry. The findings from this study are an important contribution to the existing literature, as they highlight the need to consider demographic factors when creating initiatives to address the challenges faced by women in the construction industry.

Many New Zealand houses are energy-inefficient, unhealthy, cold, mouldy, and damp. Therefore, a new approach to building design is imminent. This article proposes a framework for the transformation of housing that integrates construction planning and design, optimization, and control tools at strategic, tactical, and operational levels. The introduced Complex Integral Design New Zealand (CIDNZ) represents a comprehensive and balanced system-based design and delivery process that facilitates and accelerates cross-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary expertise and knowledge. CIDNZ delineates a new way of designing the process based on integral, complex, and systems thinking. The emerging novel understanding of sustainability, which guides the transformation process, might lead to a balance between individuals, groups, society, and existing ecosystems. CIDNZ comprises all stages in the life cycle of buildings and all significant factors in the architecture, engineering, and construction industry, particularly, people, processes, technology, and the environment. Therefore, the entire construction process that implements a system approach to buildings as a vital part of environmental systems, goes from the environment to humans and vice versa and offers unlimited possibilities. The consequent practical application of these principles might eliminate or reduce the design defects and lead accordingly to the reduction of costs involved in their rectification.

Sustainable buildings, planning and construction process in the 21st century require an interdisciplinary approach by which the use of materials and products has to be a result of a complex decision procedure. Every building in its life span has an immense impact on the environment. This study shows that even small changes in material specification can engender a significant influence on indoor air quality and the whole ecosystem. This paper represents the second part of a research study described and presented by the CESB16 conference. An experimental and numerical study on real houses delivers new data which demonstrate the importance of material determination during the design process. Four different scenarios have been tested in two houses while introducing water vapour into a room to simulate occupancy. Indoor relative humidity, temperature and absolute humidity in the same room (size, position in the house, orientation) have been monitored while introducing various materials with a divergent moisture buffering capacity. This research has been based on real measurements assessed the data and compared with the hygrothermal performance of the original construction. The study further used a hygrothermal simulation to demonstrate the possibility of early materials assessment and allowance for the targeted specification of building materials. The information on how to efficiently use the hygrothermal qualities of materials in a build environment is a contribution to the goal of designing and constructing sustainable buildings.