A. Straub

• Professor (Associate) at Delft University of Technology

The implementation of prefabricated housing (PH) has become prevalent in China recently due to its advantages in enhancing production and energy-saving efficiency within the construction system. However, stakeholders may not always fully realize the benefits of adopting PH due to the emergence of transaction costs (TCs) in the development process o...

It is recommended to integrate specific management competencies in academic education to support the transition towards environmentally sustainable practices, particularly in the construction and real estate sector. This paper explores how architectural management education can integrate environmental sustainability within its current university pr...

Passports for circularity, e.g., digital product passports and material passports (MPs), have gained recognition as essential policy instruments for the Circular Economy goals of the European Union. Despite the growing number of approaches, there is a lack of knowledge about the data requirements and availabilities to create MPs for existing buildi...

Dutch policies to reach a CO 2 neutral housing stock in 2050 force housing associations to realise higher renovation rates at lower costs. The potential for standardisation in renovation processes of the housing stock is huge. Practice shows that an increasing number of housing associations bundle their individual maintenance and sustainable renova...

Digital technologies are considered enablers of circular economy implementation in the built environment. Literature mainly focuses on conceptual or review studies examining the role of digital tools (e.g., material passport and building information modelling) to close the material loops. There is a lack of understanding of how digital technologies...

The world is facing an alarming housing crisis. The challenge for the construction industry is to find sustainable ways to meet this growing housing demand. The concept of Circular Economy could be an alternative approach as it aims to regenerate, narrow, slow, and close resources loops. Digital technologies are seen as enablers to implementing the...

In the last decades, considerable work has been done regarding service life prediction of buildings and building components. Academics and members of the CIB W080 commission, as well as of ISO TC 59/SC14, have made several efforts in this area and created a general terminology for the concept of service life, which is extremely relevant for propert...

Purpose The recent promotion of prefabricated housing (PH) in China has resulted in a prosperous period for its implementation. However, transaction costs (TCs) cause low economic efficiency to stakeholders and hinder the further promotion of PH. No relevant study has yet been made to investigate the TCs and their causes in the PH field. This paper...

The concept of Circular Economy (CE) and its application in the built environment is an emerging research field. Scholars approach CE from various perspectives covering a wide range of topics from material innovation to city-scale application. However, there is little research on CE implementation in housing stock, particularly that which is manage...

Prefabrication has the potential to improve the efficiency and sustainability of housing production. However, there are various challenges in the realization of prefabricated housing (PH) from the stakeholder's perspective. Transaction costs (TCs) theory provides a particular angle that explains the invisible costs within transactions. This study a...

The growing environmental problems, the rapid urbanization, and the disappearance of the demographic dividend in China has brought unprecedented opportunities to the development of prefabricated housing (PH). However, many barriers are hindering the promotion of PH, for instance, cost, lack of regulations, and the shortage of knowledge, among which...

Purpose A paradigm in circular economy (CE) is that suppliers retain ownership of their products and materials, and that the users “only” pay for services. In many legal systems, however, elements incorporated in a building are considered to be fixtures, and therefore legally part of the building. This means that ensuring multi-cyclic behaviour of...

In the EU, housing retrofit rates have to increase to about 2.5–3% of the housing stock per year to achieve policy goals. The development of new business models and collaboration of SMEs in a fragmented market is expected to result in an increase in home renovations. This study presents a way to better understand the usefulness of the business mode...

A Home Energy Management System (HEMS) has no direct and immediate energy-saving effect. It gives insight into the resident’s behaviour regarding energy use. When this is linked to the appropriate feedback, the resident is in a position to change his or her behaviour. This should result in reduced gas and/or electricity consumption. The aim of our...

Property owners are being forced to increase the energy efficiency of their buildings. Besides energy efficiency the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) of a larger part of Dutch primary school buildings is insufficient. This affects the performance, productivity and health of students and staff, and additionally has monetary consequences for school...

In contrast to physical sustainable measures carried out in homes, such as insulation, the installation of a Home Energy Management System (HEMS) has no direct and immediate energy-saving effect. A HEMS gives insight into resident behaviour regarding energy use. When this is linked to the appropriate feedback, the resident is in a position to chang...

The housing sector is responsible for a more than a quarter of the total final energy consumption in the EU. As the majority (70%) of the EU-housing stock is owner occupied and largely consists of single family dwellings it is understandable that many countries focus their energy saving policies on homeowners. Complementary to the national policy f...

On average 64 % of the dwellings in Europe are owner-occupied. Although there is an enormous potential to reduce their energy use and hence CO2 emissions, the current average renovation rate is just around 1.2 %. The development of one-stop-shops is expected to increase the market uptake of home renovation. Developing emerging frontrunner consortia...

The use of integrated contracts in the Dutch construction sector has increased in recent years. Integrated contracts presume facilitating a much more effective process than traditional delivery methods, saving money and time, as well as improving quality. Formally this type of contracts was only used for large and complex infrastructure projects an...

A new methodology is proposed to assess integral performance of building with respect to energy and materials requirement over the building life cycle. Because the method builds on existing methods for Energy Performance and Materials Performance of Buildings, as defined by Dutch National Building Code, it provides an easily applicable method that...

Reliable service life data of building products are of great importance when completing environmental LCA (life cycle assessment) reviews, for LCC (life cycle costing) and for maintenance planning tasks. A research project was set up to answer the following research questions: (1) what are reliable service life data of current used building product...

The renovation of existing building stock is seen as one the most practical ways to achieve the high energy savings targets for the built environment defined by European authorities. In France, the Grenelle environmental legislation addresses the need to renovate the building stock and specifically stresses the key role of social housing organisati...

In recent years, energy efficiency is a topic of growing importance not only on the political agenda of many Western countries, but also in the management of individual housing providers in these countries. Although there are many publications on how these organisations take up the topic of energy efficiency in their policies and activities, not so...

The use of integrated contracts in the Dutch construction sector has increased in recent years. Integrated contracts presume facilitating a much more effective process than traditional delivery methods, saving money and time, as well as improving quality. Formally this type of contracts was only used for large and complex infrastructure projects an...

Purpose Research into climate change adaptation measures has resulted in the identification of 155 such adaptation measures that contribute to making the built environment more climate resilient. These measures mainly focus on new construction. This paper assesses the feasibility of the measures for the existing social housing stock in the Netherla...

Traditional maintenance contracts using the unit price system and prescriptive specifications are simple in their structure and implementation. Implementation of prescriptive-based specification reduces though the flexibility of the procurement and limits the possibilities of the contractor to improve the in-sight operation. Furthermore, the manage...

Purpose The aim of the present study was to characterize the main project delivery methods that are used for the renovation of social housing, and to analyse the advantages and disadvantages of their application for energy renovations in order to assist social housing organisations in making an informed decision on the choice of a project delivery...

Houses are complex man-made artefacts and can only survive by means of regular reinvestments in maintenance and adaptation. Maintenance is required to maintain a building's initial performance capacity. Without maintenance, performance will not meet the demand and eventually will drop below the limit of acceptance of residents. The tenure has great...

Climate change: the question is not anymore if it happens, but what the impact is of its effects such as drought, heat waves and increased precipitation on the quality of our lives in cities, offices and houses. A significant share of the Northern European housing stock is owned and maintained by large stock owners, such as housing associations. It...

Purpose Many studies on policy implementation have emphasized the difficulties of putting policies into practice. This paper presents several ways in which Dutch social landlords incorporate their energy saving policies in their “regular” housing management, such as planned preventive maintenance, renovations and other physical improvements. Desig...

Integrated building contracts are assumed to result in lower costs, better performance and more innovative solutions as a result of a collaborative environment, output specifications and long-time commitment. Life cycle costs can be reduced when investment and exploitation costs are brought in line with one another. The Dutch government gave some y...

Integrated design models are starting to be used in the renovation of social housing. The public procurement rules and the specific characteristics of social housing renovation limit the use of integrated models known from other sectors. Research was done to identify the key limitations and possible disadvantages of integrated models applied to the...

Social housing organisations have a privileged position to implement changes on the quality of the housing stock, as they are the owners of a large stock of dwellings. In recent years energy efficiency has become one of the main focuses of their renovation processes. However, the financial capacity of these entities is rather small and limits consi...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to show how performance‐based contracting functions as an enabler of service innovation by maintenance contractors. Design/methodology/approach A postal survey of medium‐sized maintenance employers was carried out. The questionnaire and findings were mapped and analysed combining existing models of service inno...

A changing climate can have a large influence on the living quality of houses. A case study was carried out on the level of awareness of housing associations. This study forms the start of a research project on governance strategies for adaptation in residential buildings. A content analysis on climate change related topics was pursued on the polic...

Supply chain partnerships within housing refurbishment have not been given much specific attention which may be found surprising because the refurbishment market is becoming of increasing importance compared to new construction and has specific characteristics that require adapted approaches to supply chain integration. In this paper approaches, ex...

In most literature integrated contracting and procurement is assumed to result in more innovative solutions as a result of the intended process integration. This paper explores Design Build Finance Maintain Operate (DBFMO) cases in the Netherlands on resulting innovations focusing on maintenance and energy-use. It is assumed that in DBFMO contracts...

Obtaining information on reliable service lives of building products is of great importance when completing environmental life-cycle assessment (LCA) reviews, for life-cycle costing (LCC) and for maintenance planning tasks. In the Netherlands a catalogue for the reference service lives of building components exists since 1995. The catalogue covers...

Service‐led construction projects imply major changes in methods and work processes for contractors and a need to reorganize the contracting company. A major change within a performance‐based approach is that contractors act as maintenance‐engineering consultants to clients and as service providers to end‐customers. Offering new services demands ad...

Dutch housing associations use new procurement methods such as performance‐based maintenance partnerships for maintaining their housing stock. Such partnerships promise a range of advantages as compared to the traditional tendering of maintenance projects. For contractors a performance‐based approach implies major changes in methods and work proces...

Purpose This paper intends to ascertain a general guideline for performance measurement and management by social enterprises, combining public and private tasks. Design/methodology/approach The conceptual systems approach is used as a framework. Maintenance service delivery by Dutch housing associations is used as a case study to show how the conc...

New procurement approaches combined with performance‐based building approaches should reduce costs, but empirical qualitative and quantitative studies are lacking. Performance‐based maintenance contracts give maintenance suppliers incentives to improve their way of working. Innovative, cost‐effective solutions that meet the performance criteria can...

Purpose This paper aims to provide insight into the use of a standard for condition assessment. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on a literature review, an analysis of the development, content and practical use of the Dutch Standard for Condition Assessment of Buildings, and the findings of several research projects about condition a...

The discipline of facility management has basically originated from the experience of the field and most of the business models are driven from the American market. The majority of surveys agree that organizational objectives vary according to different business environments. The link between a given company and its facility management department h...

Market segmentation theory is based on the notion that although customers are unique they may be grouped into relatively homogeneous categories which respond in a certain manner to the supplier's marketing efforts. Despite the lack of commercial necessity for the Dutch social rented sector in meeting the demands of tenants, public objectives do com...

Purpose – This paper aims to provide a systematic connection between the special institutional environment of the Dutch social housing sector, public tasks for the social housing sector, the organisational goals of housing associations, and their procurement strategy for technical management services. Design/methodology/approach – Based on expert i...

Dutch housing associations use new procurement methods such as performance‐based maintenance partnerships for maintaining their housing stock. Such partnerships promise a range of advantages as compared to the traditional tendering of maintenance projects. For contractors a performance‐based approach implies major changes in methods and work proces...

Purpose Performance‐based maintenance partnerships promise benefits compared to traditional tendering of maintenance projects. The paper aims to give process models and examples of performance requirements and measurement methods for buildings and facilities managers. Design/methodology/approach Case studies of housing associations' current procur...

Social landlords own over a third of the housing stock in the Netherlands and approximately three-quarters of the overall rental sector. The housing stock has partly been refurbished. Nevertheless, not all buildings are able to satisfy current requirements of housing quality. In particular, those built in the immediate post-war period still demonst...

This paper summarises the state-of-the-art in housing management and maintenance practise of Dutch housing associations based on a survey conducted among almost all housing associations. We address the question what the current developments are in housing management and maintenance practice in the Netherlands. In a housing stock policy document a h...

OTB Research institute has established a long-term research program to performance-based maintenance procurement in the technical management of housing stock. Stakeholders: housing associations, contractors and the Dutch Building Research Foundation are directly involved in this research program. Literature reviews, case studies, expert meetings an...

By adopting a condition-dependent approach to maintenance, facility managers can exercise control over the desired maintenance performance levels and costs. The practice of condition assessment by building inspectors yielded variable results due to subjective perceptions of inspectors. Nowadays well-trained building inspectors are able to manage co...

Housing associations can perform maintenance and improvement in a professional, client-centred and sustainable manner by deriving the technical management from the strategic stock policy. However, utility and maintenance performance levels of housing complexes can be adjusted to suit the target user groups. The implementation of mutable performance...

Dit boek is het resultaat van een onderzoek naar het woningontwerp op Vinexlocaties. Centraal thema in het onderzoek is de aansluiting van het woningaanbod op de woningvraag nu en in de toekomst. Het onderzoek is op eigen initiatief van het Onderzoeksinstituut OTB geëntameerd. Het is gefinancierd door het Stimuleringsfonds voor Architectuur, het Di...

Long-term performance-based maintenance partnering focuses on redesign, maintenance planning, construction and maintenance work by maintenance contractors. A major change within a performance-based approach compared to a traditional approach based on technical specifications, is contractors acting as engineering consultants to clients. Clients spec...

In de praktijk van het bouwen en beheren wordt veelvoudig gebruik gemaakt van opnametechnieken. Opnametechnieken zijn de technieken voor zowel de inventarisatie (het verzamelen van kwantitatieve gegevens van constructie- en ontwerpoplossingen, toegepaste produkten en materiaalgebruik) .als de inspectie (de kwalitatieve beoordeling van het onroerend...

Many studies on policy implementation have emphasized the difficulties of putting policies into practice. The paper presents several ways in which Dutch non-profit housing providers incorporate their energy saving policies in their ‘regular’ housing management regarding the existing stock, such as planned preventive maintenance, renovations and oth...

De relatie tussen de beroepspraktijk en het onderwijs is al vaker onderzocht. Dat geldt ook zeker voor het architectuuronderwijs. In het verleden waren daartoe verschillende aanleidingen. Vragen waren onder meer hoe de opleidingen moesten anticiperen op de praktijk, maar ook of veranderingen in de praktijk moesten leiden tot veranderingen in het on...

OTB Research institute has established a long-term research program to performance-based maintenance procurement in the technical management of housing stock. Stakeholders: housing associations, contractors and the Dutch Building Research Foundation are directly involved in this research program. Literature reviews, case studies, expert meetings an...

Technical management is an important policy field for housing associations. Technical management processes influence the product, price, and exploitation characteristics of dwellings. At the higher level the strategic stock policy concerns the complete stock of the housing association. The design of a model relationship between the strategic stock...

Asset management and property management should be based on objective, reliable information about the performance of buildings and building components. Technical data collected during a condition survey on-site is needed for strategy formulation and for maintenance planning of each estate. Supplementary technical information is needed for the detai...

In this paper we set up a framework for lifetime oriented maintenance planning as an outcome and input for strategic housing stock management. The maintenance planning holds maintenance activities and costs in the longer term. We consider the maintenance planning as a tool to calculate and implement maintenance strategies. Therefore we designed a m...

Maintenance works are component services that are part of the final housing service to the tenant. Because main building maintenance works are designed each time again, it can be compared to product (service) development. With different types of cooperation with maintenance contractors, the degree of interference of them in the product development...

Dutch housing associations develop new procurement methods for maintenance of their housing stock, namely performance-based partnership forms. Partnership forms promise the optimal use of know-how of parties involved. For contractors a performance-based approach means major changes in working processes, methods and need for information. A vital cha...

Voor woningcorporaties is het uitvoeren van onderhoud geen kernactiviteit, maar het aanbieden van woondiensten. Door het onderhoudsontwerp en de uitvoering in één en dezelfde hand van een onderhoudsbedrijf te leggen kan de woningcorporatie sturen op hoofdzaken. Tevens zou het onderhoud van bouw- en installatiedelen goedkoper kunnen worden en kunnen...