Within the digital era of building information modelling (BIM), the sustainability of architectural business practices and architect’s professional values is highly anticipated by the competencies of individual architectural practitioners in performing their day-to-day job activities. However, their lack of competencies remains a significant barrier towards successful implementation of BIM within an organisation and individual architectural project. Previous review studies of BIM competencies have yet to focus on any architectural discipline, and therefore, this study attempts to redefine the expected BIM competence acts expected from the architects serving an architectural institutional environment. Towards this end, the PRISMA Statement (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) was employed to assess the empirical evidence found in the literature. The findings have confirmed that within a BIM-based environment, being competent is no longer viewed as being ‘technology savvy’ but rather having an ability to demonstrate change management, strategic planning, finance and budgeting, and project delivery sets of competencies in day-to-day job activities. This discovery extends the base knowledge of BIM competencies sets particularly for architectural practitioners and offers valuable and practical insights for architectural institutions to structure a framework of professional pathways for future architectural practitioners.

Purpose: This study aims to provide insight into the patterns and trends in the literature on the direction of future studio education in architecture schools, and can be useful to architecture schools, researchers and boards of studies in making decisions on how to move forward post-COVID-19.Design/methodology/approach: This study conducted a thematic review (TR) from SCOPUS and WoS that discuss the direction of future architecture studio education in the post-COVID-19 era and their recommendations for how to move forward.Findings: The final theme is feedback studies, innovation in studio teaching, and a new model for post-COVID-19 studio education.Research limitations/implications: Due to the temporal constraints of the data investigated between 2020 and 2022 based on the post-COVID period, only 13 publications were assessed based on the search strings utilized in this study, considering the decision and efforts made after COVID-19 among the participating architectural schools.Practical implications: This study will prove helpful to architecture schools, studio education researchers and the architecture board of studies.Social implications: This study intends to promote blended learning and enables the student to access the materials from anywhere at any time while enjoying the benefits of face-to-face (F2F) support and instruction.Originality/value: This is the first review paper for architecture studio education post-COVID-19, as well as the first to use a TR approach to analyze the available literature on the subject. The focus on the post-COVID-19 period and the use of TR allow for a comprehensive understanding of the trends and patterns in the literature on the direction of future studio education in architecture schools. Additionally, this research aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 on ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all, as it seeks to address the challenges and opportunities presented by the pandemic to support the learning and development of architecture students.

Concerns about a rapidly increasing elderly population mostly relate to the need for adequate housing and welfare for the aged. The poor design of housing for the elderly has led to the charge that the needs of aging people have not been adequately anticipated. There is little focus on design features that facilitate aging in place, hence improving the quality of life for the elderly, for example. This study examines the impact of interior housing design on the lives of the elderly, through a review of research on the subject and an evaluation of current design trends. Using a keyword search, 51 empirical studies from 2013 to 2022 that focus on housing for the elderly were identified and analyzed in terms of architectural features, home environment, and energy efficiency. The review found minimal connections have been made between interior design efforts and the actual housing needs of the elderly. This thematic review provides a summary of this literature for use by researchers and designers and recommends future studies for the use of inclusive designs in housing interiors in order to better meet the needs of elderly individuals.

The construction industry is currently facing challenges because of the massive waste generated by its production processes. The climate agreement also requires the industry to meet the increasing demand for sustainable building materials to achieve the energy transition. As a result, the construction industry is looking for alternative ways to meet these sustainability challenges. The implementation of the fourth industrial revolution (IR4.0) can be an opportunity for the construction industry to become more sustainable. Therefore, this paper aims to (i) ensure a detailed assessment of the existing challenges and (ii) identify the potential implementation of IR4.0 technologies in the construction industry. A set of criteria was established for searching and screening papers from three major databases (Scopus, WoS, and Mendeley), and 58 eligible articles were included in the current study. Using ATLAS.ti 22 software, a thematic analysis was conducted, and the final six themes were determined based on problems and challenges, technology and tools, information technology, consulting and business, construction management, and education. In addition, this paper identified potential prospective study paths. It is expected that the results will be useful for the future direction of the industry in addressing the challenges of IR4.0.

Purpose: Formal architecture curriculum necessitates students to observe their architectural experience and environment, which cannot be comprehended entirely in a classroom alone. However, complications in handling site visits and the Covid-19 pandemic can affect their overall learning experience. This study seeks to uncover (1) how a learning tool can be designed to actively enrich novice designers' personal spatial understanding and (2) how will the experiential learning (EL) with immersive learning technology (ILT) replace the actual concrete experience (CE) in enriching the novice designers' personal spatial experience during the architecture design process.Design/methodology/approach: The current research focuses on novice designers (first-year architecture students) who seem to lack personal spatial experience. Findings from a personal spatial experience survey (PSES) conducted in the earlier stage of the research established that each learner had had a different level of spatial experience, which affected their approach in the design process. A learning tool called Architectural Spatial Experience Simulation (ASES) was designed, developed, implemented and evaluated with an experiential learning model (ELM) framework.Findings: The findings suggest that the use of ASES in the ELM significantly increased the learners' spatial experience. However, the simulation and framework demonstrated a different effect on the participants' spatial experience, particularly on learners with minimal spatial experience.Originality/value: This study benefits the architecture learning process by providing a tool and a framework to remedy the emerging issue concerning novice designers. The finding contributes to the body of knowledge by expanding the application of EL theory in architecture education.