Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the enablers of creating a viable environment for a sustainable housing industry and investigate the barriers limiting this progress.Design/methodology/approach: A literature review is carried out to explore the four‐angle enablers (technological, institutional, internal action and market influence) which are crucial to create an industry which is prone towards sustainable construction. Based on the interviews and surveys conducted on Malaysian developers, the findings point to various challenges for each enabler.Findings: The paper highlighted that the government's lack of incentive programmes and the slow progress in revising related regulations are major hindrances for institutional enablers. For technological aspects, the problem lies in the cost of importing products because of the lack of locally‐produced green technology. The cost factor and lack of “urgency” are the core problems in encouraging internal action, while the low demand by the potential buyers affects market influence.Originality/value: Actions towards transforming the conventional industry into a sustainable one require resolute actions and drive from various parties. This paper provides an insight into the key enablers for a sustainable housing industry and the current problems associated with each enabler. Although the research was carried out in Malaysia, the results may be applicable to other countries as well.

Sustainable development has become a goal for all countries seeking a balance between social, environmen­tal and economic needs. The principal vision of a sustain­able built future is about developing creative designs that utilize energy and materials effectively. However, this vision should consider historic buildings that were built centuries ago. Although many of these buildings are standing in a stable state, they are obsolete and their values are not fully utilized. Towards revitalizing and generating sustainable values of these buildings, adaptive reuse is adopted as a process of modifying, adapting and reusing obsolete build­ings with their existing structures to extend their life cycle whilst performing a new function. This is currently practiced worldwide, specifically when a building has a unique archi­tectural character and is in a stable condition. The adaptive reuse of a historic building should have minimal impact on the heritage significance of the building and its setting. This paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of adaptive reuse as an innovative approach for generating sustainable values of historic buildings in developing countries. To achieve this aim, a research strategy is designed to accomplish four objectives: first, literature related to sustainable develop­ment, sustainable values, adaptive reuse and developing countries is reviewed; second, two case studies are pre­sented and analysed to investigate the role of adaptive reuse towards increasing the sustainable value of heritage build­ings; third, a strategy with its action plan is developed for facilitating adaptive reuse of historic buildings in develop­ing countries and finally, research conclusions are outlined and recommendations useful to professionals concerned with adaptive reuse of historic buildings are proposed.

Confining the development of the project brief to a certain stage hinders the interaction between the client and the designer. In addition, it inhibits the incorporation of the influential internal and external factors that may affect the project. In spite of the frequently adverse impact of change orders on project cost, time and quality, literature review and case studies showed that client organisations continue to use change orders to achieve their expectations and enhance their projects' performance principally because current construction management process instills an expectation that, change after a specified point is somehow outside the project brief rather than part of the ongoing development of that brief. This paper introduces the concept of dynamic brief development (DBD), a process that facilitates client satisfaction, meets the need to adapt to the brief developing factors for the benefit of the project and fulfils the desire to manage project change orders. In this paper, the need, aims and principles of the concept of DBD are explained and the factors driving brief development are identified. In addition, the rationale behind each factor is given and the case study sampling method is described.

In a competitive business environment, like construction, achieving customer satisfaction has been identified as a key measure for the success of construction projects and an effective tool for sustaining competitive advantage. This perspective emerges from the crucial role played by customers as the core of the construction industry and a driving force for improvement. Traditionally, customers are excluded from the design and construction process and decisions are made on their behalf. Organizations which fail to take account of their customers' needs and satisfaction encounter the risk of losing their customers. In spite of the contribution of the national customer satisfaction barometers and indices that have been developed worldwide, these have their own limitations and shortcomings that hinder their adoption and application globally. Hence, this paper aims to develop an international index of customer satisfaction in the construction industry. To achieve this aim, a research methodology consisting of a literature review, case studies and a survey questionnaire was designed to accomplish four objectives. Firstly, the literature review is used to investigate the concept of customer satisfaction and identify the drivers that lead to customer satisfaction in the construction industry. Secondly, 30 case studies are collected and analysed to validate the drivers identified in literature review and add new insights. Thirdly, the identified drivers are classified into two categories based on the different phases of the project life cycle and the construction industry's contribution as product-related and/or service-related drivers. Finally, an international survey questionnaire is conducted with a sample of members of the Co-operative Network for Building Researchers (CNBR) to quantify the identified drivers and define the most important ones. The International Index for Customer Satisfaction in Construction (IICSiC), developed from this research, represents a synthesis that is novel and creative in thought and adds value to the knowledge in a manner that has not previously been found in construction literature.

Construction is a dangerous and risky industry. This could be attributed to the nature of its activities and the high resultant accident rates. The Health and Safety (H&S) Act, specifically the Construction Regulations, are stated to eliminate the potential hazards during the design and construction phases and to reduce the consequential risks thereof. However, the importance of the construction regulations seems to be overlooked in South Africa. Accordingly, the number of accidents and fatalities witnessed has been rapidly increasing. This article aims to investigate the causes of contractors’ non-compliance with the H&S procedures and the subsequent effects of such non-compliance on the construction project as well as the country's socioeconomy. A research methodology is designed to achieve this aim. Firstly, literature is used to review the H&S Act, policies used to promote and ensure compliance within sites, hazard and prevention methods, and management systems for safe construction. Secondly, survey questionnaires are used to define the causes and effects of non-compliance with H&S procedures from the industry perspective and determine practices on site. Finally, interviews are conducted with the relevant professionals to assess the practicality of their plans and investigate their view towards eliminating contractor's non-compliance with H&S procedures.

This paper aims to investigate the causes and impacts of site accidents in the Egyptian construction industry. To achieve this aim, a research methodology consisted of literature review and survey questionnaire was developed to accomplish three objectives. First, literature review was used to investigate the nature of the construction industry, identify and classify the causes of site accidents as well as their social and economic impacts on organizations and affected families. Second, a survey questionnaire was conducted with a representative sample of large and medium sized construction firms in Egypt to examine their perception of the causes of site accidents. Finally, outlining research conclusions and recommendations useful to construction firms and governmental organizations. The research identified 16 causes of construction site accidents. These causes were classified into three categories based on the party responsible for the occurrence of site accidents namely, workers, organization management and government. Results of data analysis showed that "Lack of housekeeping" and "Lack of governmental inspection for Safety" were ranked the highest causes of site accidents in the Egyptian construction industry, while "inefficiency of old safety equipment or no safety equipment at all" and "reluctance to input resources for Safety" were ranked the least causes. Moreover, Spearman correlation test showed there are relationships between many causes in which some causes may affect the occurrence of other causes. This research provides valuable information about the nature of the construction industry with particular focus on site accidents, causes and impacts of construction site accidents. The research tackled a topic that received scant attention in construction literature especially in the Egypt context. The work presented in this paper represents a synthesis that is important and adds value to the knowledge in a manner that has not previously occurred in the Egyptian construction industry.