Abstracts – Browse Results

Search or browse again.

Click on the titles below to expand the information about each abstract.
Viewing 16 results ...

Assaf, S, Hassanain, M A and Abdallah, A (2018) Review and assessment of the causes of deficiencies in design documents for large construction projects. International Journal of Building Pathology and Adaptation, 36(03), 300–17.

Atkinson, G (2008) Sustainability, the capital approach and the built environment. Building Research & Information, 36(03), 241–7.

Bowen, P, Govender, R, Edwards, P and Cattell, K (2018) Work-related contact, work-family conflict, psychological distress and sleep problems experienced by construction professionals: An integrated explanatory model. Construction Management and Economics, 36(03), 153-74.

Bröchner, J (2018) Construction economics and economics journals. Construction Management and Economics, 36(03), 175-80.

Cairns, G (2008) Advocating an ambivalent approach to theorizing the built environment. Building Research & Information, 36(03), 280–9.

Defoe, P S (2018) The consideration of trees in rights of light cases Part 2. International Journal of Building Pathology and Adaptation, 36(03), 318–32.

Gerges, M, Penn, S, Moore, D, Boothman, C and Liyanage, C (2018) Multi-storey residential buildings and occupant’s behaviour during fire evacuation in the UK. International Journal of Building Pathology and Adaptation, 36(03), 234–53.

Hillier, B (2008) Space and spatiality: what the built environment needs from social theory. Building Research & Information, 36(03), 216–30.

  • Type: Journal Article
  • Keywords: built environment; conceptual frameworks; design; planning; social theory; space syntax; spatial configuration; spatial theory; spatiality paradigm; theory-building
  • ISBN/ISSN: 0961-3218
  • URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/09613210801928073
  • Abstract:
    To foresee social outcomes from decisions about the physical and spatial form of the built environment, built environment professionals need to make use of theory-like propositions linking the two domains. In the absence of scientifically tested propositions, a shifting consensus of beliefs fills the need, and it can take decades of social costs to show the inadequacy of these beliefs. The problem of social theory and the built environment is then defined for the purposes of this paper in terms of the potential for testable propositions at the level at which one intervenes in the built environment. This is called the need for 'design-level' theories, defining design in the broad sense of all the choices and decisions made by built environment professionals in creating and modifying the built environment. Examining social theory under two broad headings, 'urban sociology' and 'society and space', it is noted that both approach the society-environment relation 'society first', in that the form of the environment is sought as the product of the spatial dimensions of social processes. This is called the 'spatiality' paradigm, and note that such approaches have never reached, and probably can never reach, the level of precision about the built environment which would be needed to found testable propositions at the design level. The alternative is to turn the question the other way round and through 'environment first' studies look for evidence of social processes in the spatial forms of the built environment. Recent work of this kind is outlined within the 'space syntax' paradigm and it is shown how the greater descriptive precision this brings to the built environment both permits linkages to mainline formulations in social theory and leads to testable design-level propositions.

Moffatt, S and Kohler, N (2008) Conceptualizing the built environment as a social–ecological system. Building Research & Information, 36(03), 248–68.

Ofori-Boadu, A N, Abrokwah, R Y, Gbewonyo, S and Fini, E (2018) Effect of swine-waste bio-char on the water absorption characteristics of cement pastes. International Journal of Building Pathology and Adaptation, 36(03), 283–99.

Rabeneck, A (2008) A sketch-plan for construction of built environment theory. Building Research & Information, 36(03), 269–79.

Sherratt, F (2018) Shaping the discourse of worker health in the UK construction industry. Construction Management and Economics, 36(03), 141-52.

Simpson, E, Bradley, D and O’Keeffe, J (2018) Failure is an option: an innovative engineering curriculum. International Journal of Building Pathology and Adaptation, 36(03), 268–82.

Szentes, H (2018) Reinforcing cycles involving inter- and intraorganizational paradoxical tensions when managing large construction projects. Construction Management and Economics, 36(03), 125-40.

Vischer, J C (2008) Towards a user-centred theory of the built environment. Building Research & Information, 36(03), 231–40.

Wang, W, Zhang, S and Pasquire, C (2018) Factors for the adoption of green building specifications in China. International Journal of Building Pathology and Adaptation, 36(03), 254–67.