The concept of sustainable development is gaining increasing popularity in construction industry. Previous studies have prioritized on the sustainable performance of construction projects from perspectives of economy and environment, social performance of construction projects has not drawn much attention. Social performance of construction projects refers to the extent which the projects meet the needs of current and future generations. Therefore, social performance of construction projects is critical for project success as well as social sustainability. However, a systematic framework for evaluating social performance of construction projects is absent. At the same time, existing methods are time-consuming and subject to certain degree of subjectivity. To overcome these limitations, the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) method is introduced in this paper to evaluate social performance of construction projects. A real-world hospital redevelopment project was employed as an empirical study to develop the systematic framework for social performance evaluation using FAHP method. By analyzing previous studies and the hospital redevelopment project, a systematic framework with 18 indicators of five dimensions (i.e., socio-economy development, socio-environment development, social flexibility, public service development, and environment and resource conservation) was developed. Social performance of two proposed schemes for hospital redevelopment project were evaluated using the FAHP approach. Results show Scheme 2 has a relative higher social performance sore than that of Scheme 1 and the hospital redevelopment project would improve socio-economy development, socio-environment development, social flexibility, and public service development, while it brings challenges to environment and resource conservation. More seriously, results indicate the hospital project may threaten healthcare and disease prevention of the local communities. Therefore, more measures should be taken to improve social performance of the hospital redevelopment project. The empirical study shows the proposed framework using FAHP method is viable for conducting social performance evaluation of construction projects, which could be helpful to improve social performance, reduce negative social impacts, and contribute to the social sustainability of construction projects.

Construction industrialization (CI) has been adopted worldwide because of its potential benefits. However, current research shows the incentives for adopting CI may differ in different regions. While the promotion of CI in China is still at the initial stage, a systematical analysis of the driving factors would help decision makers get a comprehensive understanding of CI development and select proper strategies to promote CI. This research combines qualitative and quantitative methods to explore the construction industrialization driving factors (CIDFs) in China. The grounded theory method (GTM) was employed to explore CI concepts among 182 CI-related articles published in 10 top-tier journals from 2000 to 2017. A total of 15 CIDFs were identified, including one suggested by professionals during a pre-test questionnaire survey. The analysis showed that the development of CI in China is pushed by macrodevelopment and pulled by the government and is also a self-driven process. The major driving factors for CI adoption in China are the transformation and upgrade of the conventional construction industry and the solution of development dilemmas. Our study also suggests that pilot programs are, currently, the most effective method to promote CI in China and to accumulate experience so to gain recognition by the society. This research is also of value for CI promotion in other developing countries.

Safety management is a major concern in construction industry worldwide; hence, researchers are pursuing proper concepts equipped with advanced technologies to improve safety management. By studying the publications in this field, trends in safety management in construction industry can be obtained: (1) the elimination and mitigation of the hazards should start at an earlier stage, which led to the concept of design for safety (DFS) and (2) advanced digital tools have been applied in order to improve safety management, among them building information modeling (BIM) is one of the most promising tools. This review surveys state-of-the-art research on DFS and explores BIM application in DFS, discusses the relationship between DFS and BIM practice; findings indicate that BIM has the potential for helping construction industry to achieve DFS. Meanwhile, the findings and results of the review could also be for future reference.