An insight into the changing nature of the industrial and business space property market and how business space development schemes can be initiated and implemented to revitalise urban areas.

A comprehensive practical manual for professionals and self-builders, this innovative book explains the many benefits of building with hempcrete.Hempcrete is a building material with excellent, environmentally friendly properties. It's made from lime and hemp shivs (a waste product from hemp fibre growing) and can be used for walks, floor and roof insulation. Hempcrete is breathable, absorbing and emitting moisture; this helps regulate internal humidity, avoiding t...

Adapting Building for Changing Uses discusses the comprehensive refurbishment of buildings to enable them to be used for purposes different to those originally intended.For those involved in the often risky business of conversion of buildings from one type of use to another, Adapting Building for Changing Uses provides secure guidance on which uses may be best suited to a particular location. This guidance is based on a unique decision tool, the "Use Comparator", w...

Notions of authenticity lie at the heart of many questions about heritage and identity in the built environment. These questions are most pertinent when buildings have been destroyed in disaster or war, and the built fabric is being reconstructed to reinstate traditional or historic appearances in place of what was lost.Authentic Reconstruction examines this idea of reconstruction, using it as a prompt to examine a range of deeper issues on heritage and the built environme...

Social housing has long been delivered through mixed economy mechanisms, but there has been little focus in housing studies on what this means for housing organisations themselves. This book presents recent international research applying concepts of social enterprise and hybridity to illuminate organisational behaviour in the housing sector. It addresses critiques of the explanatory value of these concepts by exploring their underlying meanings and their application to diverse case studie...

Disaster risk is increasing, not only in number of events, but also in incurred losses. Such increases are being driven also by the growing exposure of assets, due to the rapid urban growth, because vulnerability decreases as countries develop, but not enough to compensate. The situation will be more and more critical, due to the growth of the amount of the building stock. Thus we need new initiatives to foster upgrading of existing building and enhancement of land planning strategies. “Sa...

This work discusses the impact of the life of buildings on sustainable development methods. The study of the lifespan of the building is used to assess and manage the environmental impacts associated with all the stages of a product's life, from raw material extraction through to repair, maintenance and 'end of life' scenarios. While several papers have discussed thegreenhouse gas emissions of buildings, less research has been done on how these are affected by the lifespan of the bu...

Climate change is believed to be a great challenge to built environment professionals in design and management. An integrated approach in delivering a sustainable built environment is desired by the built environment professional institutions. The aim of this book is to provide an advanced understanding of the key subjects required for the design and management of modern built environments to meet carbon emission reduction targets.In Design and Management of Sustainable Built E...

This book reviews the sources of the air pollutants responsible for building damage and the mechanisms involved. Studies investigating the relationships between pollution concentration (dose) and the resulting damage (response) are described and the latest research findings for dose-response functions are presented.Trends in pollutant emissions, ambient concentrations and building damage over time are described and future predictions are presented. Methodologies for assessing the e...

Contemporary cities face phenomenal risks, and they face particularly high levels of mounting social and environmental risks, including social polarization, urban conflicts, riots, terror, and climate change threats. This book suggests that climate change and its resulting uncertainties challenge the concepts, procedures, and scope of conventional approaches to planning, creating a need to rethink and revise current planning methods. Therefore, this book suggests a paradigm shift in our th...

This book describes and analyzes the phenomenon of spontaneous transformation in self-built houses in the context of developing countries. After describing briefly the history of self-built houses and the phenomenon of transformation around the world, it focuses on its context, the city of Dhaka. Firstly it describes the physical patterns of spontaneous transformation. Then it explains the explicit reasons behind those transformations. Finally, it carefully unveils the implicit values that...

Today, our cities are an embodiment of the complex, historical evolution of knowledge, desires and technology. Our planned and designed activities co-evolve with our aspirations, mediated by the existing technologies and social structures. The city represents the accretion and accumulation of successive layers of collective activity, structuring and being structured by other, increasingly distant cities, reaching now right around the globe.This historical and structural development...