To cope with the current problems in the construction industry, project managers and scholars seek new methods to turn the tide. Many scholars blame traditional management approaches for cost overruns and delays occurring in current projects. To find solutions, project managers introduce tools from various sectors that have coped with similar problems before, such as the IT and manufacturing sectors. Scheduling has been found to be a main reason for delays and cost overruns. Traditionally, scheduling is done before projects start. Predictions are made for durations, costs and required resources. Project managers impose schedules on subcontractors and apply pressure to prevent delays or cost overruns. This method is characterized by a reactive approach to problems. Short-cyclic scheduling is more appropriate for complex projects than traditional scheduling. Short-cyclic scheduling tools allow operational personnel to schedule their own tasks. This gives them the flexibility to detect problems quickly and act proactively. Besides, recent knowledge from the work floor is applied directly to the schedule. Furthermore, A benefit of short-cyclic scheduling is the possibility to proactively cope with changing top-down requirements and circumstances. Most short-cyclic scheduling tools originate from the IT and manufacturing sectors. However, construction projects during the realization phase differ from IT and manufacturing projects. Which raises the question if construction projects during the realization phase are appropriate for short-cyclic scheduling. Scholars have investigated implementations of such tools but have not clearly formulated criteria for short-cyclic scheduling in ongoing projects. To find these criteria the following research question is formulated: What determines the appropriateness for short-cyclic scheduling of construction projects in the realization phase? The determination of a project’s appropriateness started with a literature study on short-cyclic implementation in construction projects. The literature study resulted in theoretical conditions for appropriate short-cyclic implementation. The theoretical conditions were used as a framework to observe scheduling sessions and to interview project members in two construction projects. The theoretical conditions were a means to structurally investigate problems and success factors in the two projects. The case studies resulted in a list of critical project factors for appropriateness, depicted in Figure 1. These critical factors can be considered the tipping point for a project’s appropriateness. If a project does not possess these factors it is unrealistic to expect a successful short-cyclic implementation.

The (re)construction of hospitals is a complicated process because of the wide range of activities by different users in these buildings. When real estate managers and designers team up with hospital stakeholders, it results in better project outcomes. This collaboration benefits from appropriate visualisation tools. Both physical mock-ups and virtual visualisation tools are no longer an exception in such projects with various stakeholders. Therefore, maximising the contribution of the visualisation tools becomes more critical. Currently, there is a limited knowledge on how visualisation tools are used best to involve the stakeholders within hospital (re)construction projects. This thesis addresses the following research question: ‘How can visualisation tools contribute to the involvement of stakeholders in hospital (re)construction project?’ Four underlying questions are studied to address this question: 1) which hospital stakeholders are involved and how; 2) which visualisation tools are used and how; 3) when in the design process are the visualisation tools used; 4) what impact the visualisation tools have in hospital (re)construction projects. A systematic literature review and three hospital case studies, including 21 stakeholder interviews, have been conducted. The resulting findings are validated by an external expert panel. The findings show that visualisation tools support the involvement of hospital stakeholders by enforcing communication and improving stakeholders understanding. The visualisation tools positively impact: 1) gathering stakeholders design feedback; 2) forming compromises; 3) creating design support and enthusiasm. In general, visualisation tools have a positive effect on stakeholders' involvement; however, it depends on when in the design process and for what purpose the tools are used. Inadequate use of virtual visualisation tools can mislead stakeholders since virtual visualisations show design details that might not be decided yet. The physical mock-ups and virtual visualisation tools have different purposes and complimentary benefits in hospital (re)construction projects. Using the visualisation tools, depending on the to be served purpose, one should gradually show more realistic visualisations. A combination of visualisation tools has the highest impact when in early design phases, coarse physical mock-ups are used, and virtual visualisation tools reveal refinements at a later design phase.

A tool that contributes to solving the cultural barrier of the lack of knowlegde about circularity in conventional members of project teams. Using three case studies an evaluation tool is developed. With gathering circular project dynamics, validating them and integrating them into the evaluation tool. The tool intends to help members of project teams to learn about the integration of project dynamics for circularity in construction projects to stimulate the realization of circular ambitions. But also intends to stimulate organizational level learning to benefit the transition towards circular economy.

Ericis b.v is a dynamic real estate organisation which provides numerous services in real estate. This project concerns project management department. The operational team of this department is relatively small and exists out of six people. Although this department is quite small, their demand on the real-estate market is not. The consistent successes of their projects, which are created through their high level of execution and premium services and products, cause an increase of demands and projects. A consequence of this success is that an imbalance is created between the amount of work and the available employees. As the pressure and workload increases the team starts to experience numerous difficulties which refrain them from seamless project management processes. Once a lot of projects start to run simultaneously, certain existing problems in the organisation, of which the team might have been unaware, become very prominent and can’t be ignored anymore. One of the most prominent difficulties the team encounters is the lack of an overview regarding the project processes. The organisation indicates that next to the large number of projects and small number of employees, this problem is foremost caused by the lack of a standardized project process. The team does not have a clear documented process which they can hold onto when for example the projects increase and the overview blurs. In order to solve the difficulties they cope with, one of the steps is the implementation of a tool which supports and accommodates the organisation with the difficulties they face. The following design challenge is created: ‘Design and develop a tool which facilitates the management of the project process as well as the management of all running projects.‘ This tool will both support the team dealing with the difficulties and solve the existing situation. In order to solve this design challenge a design process is conducted. This design process exists out of a research & analysis phase, a ideation phase, a conceptualisation phase and finally an embodiment phase. Within this process elements are discovered, defined, developed and designed. From discovering the underlying core problems, to developing ideas based on the defined design requirements and finally developing a concept which is also user tested. Eri-tool is an interactive smart app which provides management support regarding the phasing, hierarchical lines and decision documentation of each project. This application requires specific project input which is to be defined in the project plan- and decision documentation templates. From this input, numerous fundamental elements are generated such as the long- and short term overviews (plannings) of the project process. The user can zoom in and out on the project-phasing overview, as much as preferred or required. The application also contains personal pages, project pages and an archive which offers the users a continuous learning process. The Eri-tool is an application which guides, supports, enhances and optimises the process and projects management by not only facilitating the management process however also by accommodating the required fundamental elements to perform to full potential.

In most of the current starting construction projects, most stakeholders use virgin materials for building elements. Considering climate change, building materials are getting scarce, it is necessary to reduce the number of virgin building materials and improve circularity in the construction industry. The problem is the absence of a middle man that could research the data of existing usable materials and connect this information to stakeholders of starting dwelling projects. This raises the research question: How can an operational model link the supply of existing building materials with the demand for new construction projects in order to reduce the use of virgin materials and thereby improve circularity in the construction industry? The goal of this research is to provide a useful tool for the construction industry to join the transition towards a circular economy. Based on three levels of scale, an operational model is developed that gives a comparison between the materials costs of existing building elements and virgin building elements for a starting dwelling project. This comparison results in insight and an overview for clients, such as municipalities or housing corporations into the costs of potential dwellings built with existing building materials. The operational tool also gives insight in whether or not reusable building materials provide a feasible business case, considering a framework based on the clients input.

Temperatures are increasing all around the world due to climate change and are predicted to continue to rise in the future. This rise in temperature is worrying especially for urban areas around the world that already suffer from increased temperature due to the urban heat island effect. In order to adapt to these changes buildings often get outfitted with mechanical cooling, solving the temperature problems indoors but making the outdoor temperature rise even more and thereby creating a vicious cycle of increased demand for cooling and increased mechanical cooling. This research aims to search for a way to ensure indoor thermal comfort in a passive way without worsening the UHI-effect. This is done by creating an alternative design for a case study that is planned in a Dutch urban center and measuring its impact on the urban microclimate and its indoor thermal comfort performance in a future climate scenario. The alternative design is put together by designing and testing different compositions of passive measures found in the existing literature. These passive measures compositions are then analyzed by software simulation to assess their performance and the effect they may have on the urban microclimate and in turn what this changed urban microclimate means for the implementation of the passive measures. The final result is a building design that not only ensures indoor thermal comfort in current and future climate scenarios but also makes its surroundings more comfortable which in turn results into more manageable microclimate. Turning the vicious mechanical cooling circle into a passively cooled virtuous circle.

Because in the past, assignments of infrastructure projects became less specific and increasingly complex over time, construction companies had to start joining forces and working together to be able to deliver these projects. This asked for a change in behaviour of the employees on these projects. According to literature, in other industries, simulation games proofed to be helpful to induce such a behavioural change. However, a knowledge gap exists about the effectivity of applying a simulation game to induce a behavioural change in the construction sector. Certain characteristics of the construction industry make it difficult for employees in this sector to change their behaviour, which makes it seem too blunt to assume that simulation gaming would have the same positive effects on behavioural change in this industry, as it has in other industries. Therefore, the goal of this research is to fill the knowledge gap surrounding the application of a simulation game to a construction company by conducting an empirical research into the effectiveness of the application of a simulation game to a behavioural change process in a construction company. It was established that a simulation game can be considered effective when it induces a behavioural change or a change in attitude of participants. With help of interviews, questionnaires and observation it was investigated if such a development in attitude or behaviour arose in the company under investigation. Within the timespan of this research no behavioural change was measured and also a change in attitude was only measured amongst a part of the participants. It can be concluded that the investigated simulation game was not effective to induce a behavioural change in the construction company. However, as a simulation game has the characteristic that every game-run is different, this game could yield a completely different result when applied to another company. Therefore it cannot be assumed that the results from this research are representative for the entire construction sector. It is recommended to conduct further research into the application of other simulation games to other construction companies. By comparing the results of the different cases a better idea about the real effects that a simulation game could have on a behavioural change in a construction company can be formed. Next to this, recommendations were stated to the company under investigation to improve their simulation game.

“Who of us would not be happy to lift the veil behind which the future is hidden and to focus our thoughts on the unknown future” (Shepherd & Williams, 2015). What if we already know our unknowns, would it not be a piece of cake to deliver construction projects of high quality within time and budget? In order to predict the unknown future, Fluor introduced Construction-Driven Execution philosophy. In a construction-driven project, construction managers are involved early in the process during front-end engineering and design (FEED) to provide input to office departments in order to prevent mistakes from happening in later stages of the project. By this it is aimed to ‘lift the veil’ and focus on the unknown knowns (i.e. complex issues) in an integrated effort. Construction managers typically focus on operational decisions during construction on-site and focus on tactical and strategical decision-making during FEED. This transition has a major impact on the way construction managers should approach issues in their daily functioning: they shift from a firefighting to a fire preventing approach. In this perspective, the role of construction managers in FEED is compared to that of project managers, in which the construction manager is responsible for the management of the execution portion of the project. The Project Design School assumes that some kind of design thinking is involved by project managers, in which they use a certain frame and go through certain steps when approaching complex issues. To apply this frame for educational purposes, the Project Design School has created the Project Design Cycle. This cycle consists of four elements: Awareness, Design, Performance and Reflection. The Project Design School aims to fill a literature gap in project management research, which concerns the approach project managers use when choosing and adapting project management tools and systems to be applied in specific situations. These two problem fields of Construction-Driven Execution and the Project Design School are combined into the following research objective: 1. Gather and provide empirical data to firmly establish the ubiquity of the Project Design Cycle elements, their cyclic relationship, and the degree to which managers use these elements as an explicit method, 2. Provide Fluor with advice on how to apply design thinking principles (as incorporated in the Project Design Cycle) within the construction management department in order to enhance the Construction-Driven Execution philosophy. In order to achieve this objective, the following research question is answered in this report: -> How can the Project Design Cycle enable construction managers to identify and approach complex situations in a construction-driven FEED phase? A theoretical framework and empirical research are conducted to answer this question. First, a theoretical framework is determined, which includes the influence of Construction-Driven Execution on construction management practices in FEED and the incorporation of design thinking principles in the Project Design Cycle. Subsequently, the current application of the Project Design Cycle by construction managers is researched in a qualitative case-study analysis. In total five construction managers (respondents) are selected of three oil & gas projects (case-studies). Each respondent is interviewed twice by use of semi-structured interviews. The main goal of the first interview is to get background information of the respondent and to identify complex issues they were confronted with in their current project. The complex issues are discussed in-depth in the second interview, in order to analyze the Project Design Cycle elements in the applied approach of the respondents in their daily practice. The main findings obtained in the cross-case analysis are: - The respondents often did not recognize or perceive the complexity of the issues. It is observed that the recognition of the complexity has a large influence on the way the respondents approach issues. Issue-categories that were perceived as complex concern: modularization, pre-assembly, sequencing of work and revising the plot plan. Alignment of disciplines is not recognized as complex by the respondents. From the twenty issues identified in the first interview, ten were defined as complex in the cross-case analysis. - When an issue is recognized as complex, nearly all Project Design Cycle elements were applied most of the times by the respondent. However, the sequence of the elements was often not correct. The design element was conducted separately (generate and test) sometimes. - When an issue is not recognized as complex, it is observed that practically always one or two Project Design Cycle elements were not applied by the respondents. It is found that the design element is recognized the least, followed by performance. Moreover, it is observed that the sequence is most likely not to be performed in the correct order. It can be concluded that construction managers do apply the elements of the Project Design Cycle in their daily function in FEED. However, only when the issue is recognized as complex. Thus, the approach of the construction manager strongly depends on their ability to identify and recognize complexity elements within issues. Furthermore, it is found that the design element is most likely not to be applied when the issue is not recognized as complex. This indicates that the searching and experimenting nature of design thinking is often not applied by the respondents in this situation. It is observed that the construction managers fall back in their on-site problem-solving mode when they do not recognize the complexity of the issue. In this simplified problem-solving approach, the respondents go straight from awareness of the problem to the performance of a solution. The design and reflection elements are often skipped in such approaches. It is determined that the Project Design Cycle provides a suitable framework to educate and support construction managers in approaching complex issues in FEED. However, the Project Design Cycle needs to be adjusted in order to create acceptance and support within the construction management community. Based on the empirical research, the Project Design Cycle has been transformed to the ADAPT – decision-making cycle (figure 1: ADAPT). ADAPT is an abbreviation of the elements Awareness, Development, Assessment, Performance, and Throw-back. In this research context, the essence of ADAPT is precisely that: construction managers have to adapt in order to change something (their approach) to suit different conditions (construction-driven FEED). By doing so, they “have to become familiar with a new situation”, which represents the new role and responsibilities they have to fulfill in order to solve complex issues in the early stages of the project. ADAPT incorporates the identification of complexities, development and assessment of alternatives, creation of a solution with the highest value, and a reflection upon the outcome. This framework can be used to educate and support construction managers by improving their capabilities and skills that are required to approach complex issues during FEED. ADAPT serves a double purpose in construction management practices and could be applied in the form of a cognitive processing model and in the form of a decision support system: - Cognitive processing model: remind and support construction managers not to make decision merely based on old experiences, but to take their time to properly reflect on situations and share their knowledge in order to identify, recognize and acknowledge complex situations. - Decision support system: structure constructability meetings to approach complex issues in a multi-disciplinary way and to provide construction managers the ability to get an understanding of the problem situation, in order to determine an effective course of action by drawing upon the entire repository of construction management research, knowledge and tools. It is recommended to implement ADAPT both top-down and bottom-up. Top-down support is required to estimate enough man-hours for construction managers in FEED and by selecting the right people that are able to approach complex issues. Additionally, ADAPT should be implemented bottom-up as an integrated approach in which the construction manager is pro-active and takes it upon themselves to drive, adopt, and move it forward. This can be done by making individual construction managers aware of the cycle and its added value. Moreover, the constructability program serves as a perfect platform to implement and test the application of ADAPT. In constructability, multiple disciplines work together to create integrated solutions in order to prevent ‘fires’ from happening on-site. ADAPT can be used as a structure to identify complex situations in the constructability program. These identified complex issues can then be discussed in so called ‘constructability focus’ sessions. In these sessions the focus is put on a specific component or sub-area of the design that contains high complexity, by a multidisciplinary team. As construction management lead these sessions, it is a perfect opportunity to implement the ADAPT decision-making cycle and use its elements to shape and formalize these sessions in a structured way. Additionally, by being aware of the elements, and in special ‘throw-back’, construction managers learn to share their knowledge with other colleagues, disciplines, and projects. In this way, awareness is created for future situations and enables others to identify and solve complex situations in an early stage. Further research should be performed to investigate the underlying reasons of why and when construction managers perceive issues as complex (or not), how construction managers could identify complex situations in the FEED phase, and which qualifications are required of construction managers to properly function in a construction-driven FEED phase. Also, the relation between the recognition of complexity and the occurrence of the design element need to be further examined. Finally, further research should be conducted to determine the effectiveness of the application of the Project Design Cycle (in the form of ADAPT) in construction management.

This research aims to identify gain-and-pain-sharing methods to foster a collaborative environment to create win-win situations and create mutual objectives. To do so, gain-and-pain-sharing methods that can positively influence a collaborative environment are explored. This study is restricted to the Dutch construction sector because it is for Dutch implementation. Second, the research scope includes projects with high complexity because otherwise, gain-and-pain-sharing do not have effects, and most problems arise due to complexity. Lastly, the research focuses on the client side, since the client chooses the type of contract and criteria. The objective of the research is to provide clients with insight into the gain-and-pain-sharing possibilities and practical implementation steps to implement a gain-and-pain-sharing mechanism to incentivise collaboration. In the literature, different definitions of gain-and-pain sharing were identified and combined into the following definition: ‘Gain-and-pain sharing is defined as an agreement that allows the parties in a construction project to share profits or cost savings and to share losses due to errors or cost increases. Mutual benefits are achieved through gain sharing. Benefits could, for example, also be a reward for one’s delivered work, a bonus or recognition, and losses are the risks’. Based on this definition, the following gain-and-pain-sharing concepts were identified: -Bonus-malus; -Sharing of new created benefits; -Risk pot; -Target cost. The different concepts have different effects and different reasons for use as gain-and-pain sharing mechanisms. The way to deploy the mechanism depends on the choice based on the vision and strategy that the client has for the project. These two elements in turn depend on the company and project objectives, project specifications, experience with collaboration concepts, risk aversion, market conditions and one of the most important conditions, the scope certainty. It can be concluded that the gain-and-pain-sharing mechanism is deployed by different concepts for different purposes to incentivise collaboration and create mutual objectives. This coordination for the implementation of the mechanism is custom-made for each project based on a number of steps. The step-by-step plan that supports the implementation of the gain-and-pain-sharing mechanism. The case studies demonstrated that such a mechanism has been successful in those cases and is an added value for collaboration and the realisation of common goals.

This research paper investigates the topic of “How policies, workflows and process can set the tone towards adoption and implementation of BIM within the AEC industry and how the future of BIM and Data Validation can influence the future of Architects.” BIM has become a fundamental aspect of today’s AEC Industry. From its conceptual inception in the early 1990’s to its widespread adoption and integration in current workflows over the last 20 years. This rapid rate of adoption for BIM within the industry has been accelerated through governmental mandates, client requirements and through its use in larger organizations. This research paper will investigate how the construction sector views the adoption of BIM within the AEC industry and what process and steps are required in order to adopt and implement a digital design work methodology supported using BIM over that of a traditional design work methodology. We will also discuss how current and future roles and workflows of Architects will be defined due to R&D in advancements technological in BIM. For these advancements of innovative solution in BIM will result in a change as to how we define the role of a future Architect to be.

In general most megaprojects are finished over the budget and later than initially expected. Despite all industries seem to struggle with achieving the desired performance, the lowest performance is found in projects executed in the oil and gas sector. Furthermore the productivity rates in construction industry are the lowest among other industries and have remained in-line with the 1990s figures. Therefore the main goal is to investigate possible ways of improving the construction productivity in the process industry. This is done by identifying critical factors that are affecting the construction productivity on site. Determining how the construction productivity is tackled during large engineering projects and examining main factors that have influenced the productivity on-site, will help in evaluating the productivity issue as a complex phenomenon. Main findings lead to construction productivity being a sum of decisions made at different points in time. Furthermore effectiveness factor was found to be crucial in facilitating high efficiency on site. Overall, proper understanding and combination of both measurements; effectiveness and efficiency in productivity, is expected to facilitate the desired productivity on site. Context of the projects have been found to play a crucial role in the factors’ evaluation.

Rising city-life growth has resulted in a world population where the majority of people live in cities. However, cities are not yet prepared and designed for this increase and are confronted with a need for urban regeneration. The landscape of urban regeneration is next to social, political and economic sustainability, challenged by implementing a comprehensive vision and long-term growth. Thereby, various methods are implemented to involve relevant stakeholders early in urban regeneration projects, focusing on a highly collaborative approach to establishing an integral vision. A robust relationship between the involved stakeholders is desirable to cope with unexpected circumstances along the process and deal with these projects’ complex and uncertain nature. Collaboration factors within the informal domain that enhance the quality of collaboration can be distinguished from literature. This research aims to create awareness amongst the project team to engage with this soft side of collaboration actively. Therefore, the Design Science Research approach is applied. A multiple case study conducting semi-structured interviews resulted in practical (inter) actions to be executed during urban regeneration processes. These findings are translated into a roadmap for (inter)actions, which presents the (inter)actions to be performed along the process of urban regeneration by the project team.

Nowadays, infrastructure projects seem to become more complex and the project manager’s ability to control projects decreases. Therefore, it is crucial to adapt project management to cope with the emerging complexity. Flexibility options are explored to deal with the increasing complexity. To grasp complexity, a selection of the Technical, Organisational and External framework was used. Eleven flexibility enablers are studied to operationalise them and make them applicable for project managers. In this explanatory research, a case study has been done to explain the possibilities for flexibility enablers to cope with the found complexities. The results of the individual case study and the cross-case study provided input for a proposal on how flexibility enablers facilitate the management of project complexity. A selection of related complexity elements and flexibility enablers have been used to develop a flexible project management tool. The tool provides insights into the selected complexities, creates awareness on flexibility perspectives from the project team, allows to choose the operationalised flexibility enablers, and reflects on the changes made to keep improving. The tool is meant to be used throughout the project and supports incorporating flexibility to be a dynamic process. Concluding, the awareness of complexity and flexibility helps to cope with complex infrastructure projects. The developed tool for project management will help apply specific flexibility enablers to cope with relevant complexity elements. Future research into other construction organisations is needed to generalise the findings of the operationalisation of the selected flexibility enablers. Also, future research is recommended on the awareness and the adaptation possibilities for flexibility in project management within the infrastructure.

The design theme is to create a subterranean cultural compound including hybrid programmes under the general theme [Vyšehrad Spring] on the historical site in the north of Prague. The goal of the project is to add a secondary identity to the site, a place which will be characterized not only by its historical value from the past but also its creativity to the future. The definition of selected programs includes a theatre, performing art centre, library, gallery, artisan studios and a sanctuary (meditation centre), encouraging creativity from multidimensional knowledge and responding to local culture and tradition. After the midterm, the design scope has been narrowed down to one single building, a Performing Art Centre, which is the most complex and collective programme from the masterplan. This building includes a professional multi-form theatre for performing arts, a learning centre for young professionals and amateurs, and public access areas for various collective activities. An phenomenological approach has been applied during the process of designing the architectural language. The inspiration source for architectural language are the indigenous images and city experience of Prague, including contiguous colonnade, traditional crossing house typology, color & materialism of the old town, and its unique townscape in the castle district.

The project deals with a changing territorial environment on the Île aux Épis in Strasbourg, France, on which an urban (residential) masterplan has been drawn with a set of stipulations by the port authorities on the island. These stipulations introduce, among other things, a road that is to maintain the connectivity of the port to the highway infrastructure of France and Europe while avoiding the newly-introduced functions of the masterplan as much as possible. Consequently, the road as drawn in the masterplan negates much of its surroundings and thus, if left untouched, may generate conditions of residual spaces reminiscent to Ignasi de Solà-Morales' "Terrain Vague." The project, a bus transfer station, which is to facilitate the flux of tourists and passengers that arrive in or traverse through the city of Strasbourg, thus attempts to use the qualities of such residuals by creating new spaces in-between different sets of urban, infrastructural and natural conditions on the project site.

Winning tenders is vital to the acquisition of work for project-based organizations (Philbin, 2008; Morris & Pinto, 2004). This necessity is due to the fact that within The Netherlands 80% of all revenue within the GWW sector is initiated by the government and therefore must be awarded through a tender procedure consistent to European procurement legislation (PianoO, 2018a). As tender legislation and the amount of available work changed significantly over the last decades, the approach of tenders by supplying organizations has also changed. Here, tender management appeared as an emerging discipline that focusses on adding value by professionalizing the approach of the tender process within supplying organizations. Besides, it incorporates information from the entire organization in order to persuade the client to accept the bid. Tender management in this research is considered to be the management of bid development by supplying organizations. As employees are likely to perform better when their competencies meet their job requirements, this research focusses on establishing a competency-based profile. This profile will eventually help the approach of tenders mature and therefore enlarge the chance of success for supplying organizations in the tender process. In order to establish this competency-based profile, the following research question was established: Which competencies are important for tender management when preparing a bid for different infrastructure project types in an engineering firm? The competency-based profile for tender management professionals will be drawn up on the basis of a combination of literature review and the development of a serious game. The literature review aims to explore three concepts ('tender management', 'competencies' and 'project types') in order to develop elements of the game. The game enables tender management professionals to share their thoughts on important competencies for tender management by compiling competency-based teams. Based on the findings retrieved from both literature and CompeTender, the following conclusions could be drawn: Being creative is very important for creating innovative tender proposals, which are fit for purpose and have a surprising effect on the client (distinctive character). Besides that, this competency is related to the development of new approaches (innovations), which help to reduce both cost and time. The importance of having environmental awareness and being customer-oriented follows from the position of tender management between the client and the supplying organization. Analysing is an important competency for tender management due to the obligation to completely understand the customer demand, which often concerns a complex problem. Planning & organizing needs to be incorporated as tender processes usually take place in a short time-span, but require involvement with a lot of different people. Finally, being cost-conscious is very important, as bids are usually judged on both price and quality. For a differentiation in important competencies for different project types no sufficient underpinning was found, except for the fact that being creative becomes even more important when tendering for contractor services. In order to distinct themselves from the competition, it is recommended to select tender management professionals mainly on their creativity and whether they have environmental awareness, are customer oriented, are cost-conscious and are good analysers. This will lead to a higher quality of bids, which reflect distinctive value and therefore outcompete the competition.  

Many construction projects experience cost overruns (Flyvbjerg & Holm, 2002), which is the difference between the estimated cost and the final costs of a project. In Design & Build procured projects, the contractor is responsible for both designing and constructing the project (De Ridder, 2009). During the tender phase, the contractor creates a schematic design and a corresponding cost estimate (De Ridder, 2009), based on client’s functional requirements. After contract award, the contractor elaborates the schematic design into a detail design. Even though this detail design yet has to be created, the budget for the project is already fixed. It is often difficult for the contractor to keep track of the current cost position relative to the cost baseline (budget) during the design stage because of inadequate interaction between designers and actors with practical on-site expertise, often leading to exceedances of the budget, detected at a later point in the design stage (Kim & Park, 2016) The goal of this research was to improve cost estimation and cost monitoring of the contractor during the design stage in Design & Build procured projects to enable the contractor to keep track of the current cost position of the design, relative to the cost baseline (budget). This research’s literature study provided the following insight into the into the structure of both the design and cost management processes (cost management covers cost estimation and cost monitoring) of the contractor and their dependencies in Design & Build procured projects. In the tender, both the design and the cost estimation processes dynamically converge into a tender design with a corresponding price estimate. After contract award, the design is further elaborated upon through a dynamic and iterative process while the budget to build the design ‘outside’ is fixed. Potential differences between the fixed budget and the cost estimate of the developing design occur at different timepoints in the design stage. Only after the detail design is created the working budget is revised, based on a far more accurate estimate of the cost of the detail design. In this research’s case study, four main team members of three ongoing construction projects of Dura Vermeer infra landelijke projecten were interviewed, resulting in the following general findings in practice: 1) The difference between the costs of the design and the budget, is often inaccurate and incomplete as the responsible actors are not perfectly capable to make accurate estimates of the ever-changing costs for the design, neither to they make them for all design changes. 2) The responsibility for communicating the difference between the costs of the design and the budget is unclear within the project team in terms of initiative and frequency. 3) Designers lack background information of the material quantity’s that support the tender design even though monitoring material quantities is key for designers to keep their design within budget. This research delivered a framework that aims at improving alignment between the design, and cost estimation and cost monitoring processes by structuring actor responsibility and information sharing.

'Intensely Infrastructural' seeks to question the self-reinforcing 'pan-humanist' logic behind a contemporary spatiotemporal condition I decide to name the Seamless Paradigm – an urban, capitalist economy founded on the ethos of smooth, transnational circulation of bodies, goods and ideals. Despite being a modus facilitated by and generative of a typically postmodern, neoliberal reorganisation of capital, this urbanistic dictum is not a late 20th century phenomenon, but an ever ongoing material-discursive project, following the steps of the likes of Cerdà and Saint-Simon. Naturally, a well-developed mobility network is capable of breaking centre-periphery dichotomies, redistributing capital, providing just-in-time, around the clock goods and services and rendering accessible a greater variety of spaces for a greater variety of people – theoretically enabling everyone to 'choose' their lifestyle. However, the deterritorialisation of internal boundaries always entails a reification of external ones; something of which, to mention one example, the migration politics of the European Union is a clear example – its policies struggling to adapt urban territories to the increased flux of asylum seekers and intra-european economic migrants; an influx which which, although perceived as a threat to the European Project, is facilitated by its very own hypermobile raison d'être Furthermore, transit space is not something to 'enter' and 'exit' - ”you are not stuck in traffic, you are traffic” - and all mobile societies require intense synchronisation, monitoring and control - modulation - of bodies and spaces. The project argues that we ought to remain aware and weary of the effects of the positive feedback loop of interiorising forces and hypermobile ideals, on subjectivity in general, and the built environment in particular. As a response, 'Intensely Infrastructural' suggests a permanent intervention for (con)temporary needs for shelter as well as future civic desires of ever more mobile subjects, located in Strasbourg, one of three administrative centres of the European Union, historically defined by a binational identity, and currently in possession of France's most sophisticated multi-modal transportation infrastructure. Wedged between vast train and road systems, and set within the long stretch of artificial slope – glacis - that marks the previously fortified western boundary of the city, the intervention attempts to rearticulate this residual boundary condition, currently defined by technologies of mobility and defense, as a relatively autonomous ”processual ecology”, consisting of factors which affect and are affected by the Seamless without being immediately involved in its system – an 'immanent outside' . Unlike the systemic environment of the Seamless Paradigm, which quantitatively defines its singularity through interior-exterior relations, the immanent outside is defined qualitatively, through the very surplus, externalities and contingencies brought about by the Seamless. By locating, articulating, appropriating and intensifying the immanent outside, the project seeks to provide a facilitating environment for growing truly ”nomadic subjects” willing to not only consume space through vectorial movement, but to produce it by staying put; to change not simply their habitat, but their habits.

This research concentrates on creating wellbeing by performance; behaviour and technical performance of materials and products in office buildings. This research is focused on the case study conducted at; the headquarter of a bank in the Netherlands, whereby the building users are criticizing the indoor comfort. Moreover, the building materials are end-of-life and the building is using a large amount of energy. The following research question is answered: ‘How can the indoor comfort be improved in a circular way, by creating an optimal floorplan including the interior and technical aspects for, the case study, one pilot floor of the headquarter of a bank in the Netherlands, while taking the energy consumption into account?’ Within this study different research methodologies are applied. The first research method is literature study and reference projects to gather knowledge about the indoor comfort with the following possible stressors; indoor air quality, thermal comfort, light and visual quality and acoustic comfort and circularity within the building environment. This information is derived from the Dutch regulations, certification rating systems, the case study and articles with the same theme. The literature study and reference projects are analysed to draw up criteria which the measurements and the design of the floorplan must meet. The second research method is material analyses to identify the materials and products which are used in the interior of the case study and how they can be improved to contribute to the indoor comfort, circularity and energy efficiency. The third research method is analysing the existing survey conducted in 2019 by the company Leesman. Analysing this survey can profile the building users and rate the satisfaction level of their workplace, activities, and facilities. The last research method is analysing the performed measurements. To study the current situation of the case study by testing the indoor comfort stressors on the criteria prepared with literature study and reference projects. These measurements are performed with 24 GreenMe cubes which records the indoor comfort values every ten minutes for three weeks, which resulted in 3024 measurement points within ten categories of the indoor comfort stressors. The research results are translated into a circular and indoor comfort framework and floorplan design including the interior and technical aspects. The analyses results show that it is desired to renovate the headquarter of the bank in the Netherlands. This conclusion is based on the following results of this study, first of all most of the materials and products are not demountable. Therefore it cannot be cleaned well and it pollutes the air. Moreover, it is not fully circular when only the materials are obtained sustainable, but cannot be reused or remanufactured after its first lifecycle, when they are not demountable or additives are added. Secondly, the building users are not satisfied with the indoor comfort within the headquarter of the bank. According to the satisfaction and importance level of the indoor comfort stressors. The indoor air was rated with 28,6% satisfaction and 71% importance, thermal comfort with 19,1% satisfaction and 80,7% importance and acoustic comfort with 13,9% satisfaction and 75,1% importance. These results show a low satisfaction level, while the building users rated these facilities as very important. Furthermore, the measurements results show that the indoor comfort stressors exceed the permitted values during office hours. The carbon dioxide concentration is measured 1,7% above 800 ppm, total volatile organic compounds is measured 0% above 120 ppm. In addition, the temperature under 20°C and above 24°C is measured 10,5% and the relative humidity under 30% and above 70% is measured 14,6%. Moreover, the light level under 500 lux is measured 72,2% and flicker light under 0Hz and above 50Hz is measured 2,6%. Lastly, the average background sound level above 57dB is measured 2% and average installation sound level above 35dB is 0%. These values needs to be improved according the program of requirements of the case study. The analyses emphasize the importance of the renovation of the case study. Measures are recommended to improve these values. The measures have been compiled on the basis of the circular and indoor comfort framework and the developed ‘Circular Indoor Comfort Step Strategy’. This strategy is as follows: 1) Improving the source 2) Improving situation without energy 3) Improving situation with renewable energy 4) Improving processes The measures are categorized in interior aspects, improving the building users activities, and technical aspects, improving the indoor comfort stressors. Every measure contributes to the environment and supports the wellbeing of the building users. One of these measures is a green wall, which is mostly composed from raw materials from biological cycles and contributes to the mental state of the building users. Moreover, it improves the indoor air by filtering the air, thermal comfort by increasing the relative humidity, and the acoustic comfort by absorbing background sound. This product is sold as ‘product as a service’, whereas the producer keeps the responsibility and reuse every part after its first lifecycle to new products with the existing raw materials. This research shows that a big difference can be made by performing small interventions to maintain the current situation and increase the existing value. Moreover, these interventions have a positive influence on the satisfaction level of the building users, meeting the Dutch and the bank’s regulations and rating certificates to renovate and create a healthy circular headquarter.

Today’s rising project complexity in combination with the changing economic environment has led to an increased interest in improving organizational business processes. Large multinational companies were always affected by those two factors in a greater extent than other smaller more localized competitors, rendering process reengineering an indispensable need for their continuous thrive. Determining best-practice approaches and integrating scale and knowledge into business process management may improve business performance by reducing error potential. This could be achieved through process standardization according to best-practice approaches. However, the proclaimed uniqueness of construction projects in combination with the numerous uncertainties that the industry is facing is rendering process standardization in the construction industry more complex. This research aims to explore the implications, opportunities and barriers of standardization in the construction industry and the implementation of previously gained knowledge – marked as best practices.