AbstractThe development of the construction industry is slower compared to other industries. This implies that there must be improvements in this field. One step to increased effectiveness in construction projects is making the construction process more efficient, therefore resulting in a positive result for both the actual construction project and for the overall branch. The purpose of this study is to identify areas for improvement within the municipal housing company Gavlegårdarna completed construction project, who will then contribute to increased efficiency in their upcoming projects. The work has been performed with the help of two case studies examine construction projects "Fullriggaren" and "The three nursing homes." Opinions about what could have improved the efficiency of these construction projects further have been collected with the help of an interview study among some of the project participants involved in both projects.There have been many studies addressing the topic of how the construction process can be streamlined and similar studies that have been previously conducted.

There are currently 2160 buildings in Sweden that are protected by law with the designation as a cultural heritage building, which is the strongest protection that can be obtained for a building of cultural historic significance. The purpose of this thesis is to research how strong and sustainable the protection of such a designation is and how you can motivate a revocation. Furthermore, this thesis aims to give an overall insight into all cases where there has been a revocation.To achieve the protection of a designation as a cultural heritage building, the object has to be of outstanding interest on account of its cultural historic value. In the first part, this thesis gives a short historic background of the cultural heritage law and its terms, like outstanding interest and cultural historic value. The County Administrative Board's documents about revocation are the main source for this research.There have been 24 cases of revocation and the frequency of such cases has increased in the past ten years.

In the construction industry today there is a significant technological revolution goingon. New methods for automated processes and information management are developedcontinuously. Intense studies are currently taking place to ensure ways and means toembrace the new technology of BIM.At the present, environmental certification systems are considered cumbersome andchallenging. However, the increasing demands of sustainable development in the constructionindustry imply that the environmental certifications will not disappear. ThisMaster Thesis examines the possibilities to apply BIM technology within the field ofenvironmental certifications to streamline the processes.The applications that provide the best opportunities are:- To use BIM to be able to, during the design stage, dynamically evaluate the resultor score a certain building will achieve.- To avoid unnecessary work through collection of data for calculations directlyfrom a BIM-model.- To be able to automate certain time consuming calculations that are currentlyperformed manually.- To automatically examine the completed model to ensure that the demands arefulfilled.The possibilities to use BIM within these areas are however limited by the technologyitself.

3D-modelling in AutoCAD This thesis is done in cooperation with LB-Hus in Bromölla, and have aimed to establish a digital AutoCAD model of one of the company?s house types and to find out what opportunities there are to do visualisations in the form of images directly from the programme. Modeling has been carried out so that the very construction of the house is included. Interiors and installations, with the exception of the ventilation system, have been left out in the model. The model has been created with solid models after a comparative study made between solid models and surface models to find out which option in this case was the easiest to handle and took up the least space.

The purpose of this study was to examine how pre-school teachers in Montessori inspired and traditional preschools can work with build and construction with the older children, and what views the pre-school teachers might have on the subject.  The study was implemented through qualitative semi-structured interviews with pre-school teachers. The investigational method was chosen due to the fact that I wanted to gain knowledge about the pre-school teachers? views and perspectives on build and construction activities, and how they might work with it. Another reason was to examine how the view on, and the work with build and construction can resemble and differ between Montessori inspired pre-schools and traditional pre-schools.The result shows that there is both similarities and diverseness between the Montessori influenced pre-schools and the traditional pre-schools, when it comes to how the pre-school teachers reason and work with build and construction.

AbstractThe indoor environment affects the human performance. Noise pollution, poor lightning and coloring are some of the factors that affect our work performance. The human is also affected by the air change and temperature, these factors are in most buildings possible to adjust and through this make economic savings. To find out about the indoor environment in the O-building a questionnaire was handed out, measurements/surveys and an interview was also made. 108 questionnaires where handed out to employees and students.

To reconstruct a building is a long-term investment for farmers and it is important that people with different qualifications are involved at an early stage for making the system adapted to the animals as well the animal keeper. Therefore, ethologists who can contribute with their expertise are needed to design the system and get it to function well for the animals.A Swedish farmer who planned to rebuild her stall for tied dairy cattle to a loose-housing system for recruitment heifers for milk production asked me as an ethologist to find a system which can be fit to her existing tie-stall barn for 30 dairy cows, considering the animal needs in terms of movement, social interactions and play behaviors, and to theoretically compare the system with other systems with respect to the behaviors mentioned.The theoretical comparison between different systems was made through a scientific literature review.In agreement with the animal keeper I set out to fit a system with feeding cubicles, a system with cubicles and a system with deep straw bedding to the barn. After measurements were taken and preliminary drawings were outlined it was found that only the feeding cubicle system was possible to fit to the barn.The space provided will limit the animals to perform some playing behaviors. To decrease aggressive interactions between animals even thought a limiting area it is possible to provide partitions between resources animals compete around to prevent that more than one animal can get success to the resource at a particular place at one time. To increase the animal movement in the system the water trays were moved to the outer wall instead of kept in contact with the stalls.Although this report provides guidelines for rebuilding, other competences regarding Building construction and a pre-test of the suggested building solution according to Swedish legislation are needed before the rebuilding can start.The results are directed mainly to the owner of the barn, but the literature review can be used by other cattle farmers and might bring increased understanding of the possible effects of different building solution on the animals..

This thesis focuses on the construction of drystone walls in the county of Sm?land, as well as their historical value and significance to the county. In Riksantikvarie?mbetets Plattform Kulturhistorisk v?rdering och urval, a directory for historical evaluations of buildings and objects, the first clause is to describe the object and its history. When trying to do this, the lack of literature focusing on the constructional elements of drystone walls and their history became an issue and is what prompted the writing of this thesis. With a study of different handbooks, a compilation of the constructional elements of the walls were put together.

The hotel is located on Skatholmen in the archipelago of Stockholm, Värmdö county. The hotel building has an open structure characterized by hospitality and the nature outside. The rooms have stunning views of the island landscape and lush forest. With biodiversity and valuable nature in mind, the building has been designed with a structure that should not be too intrusive in the surrounding landscape. The building is meant to blend into the dark silhouette of the island and to give a light footprint on the topography of the landscape.The use of well-chosen materials and similar design, both in plan and facade, creates a consistent building despite the building's somewhat playful expression.

This is a project showing a proposal on how a high-rise building gains qualities similar to middle rise houses of 7-9 stories. The closed, isolated and often anonymous life in the high building opens up through gardens. The resident meet the outdoor environment on the balcony, or has direct access to a garden.Instead of moving in a closed core, the resident will meet the climate and outdoor conditions as soon as he or she leaves the apartment.The project consists of two parts, where the first is presenting a building proposal, the second is expanding the knowledge through background research. The topics are history concerning the skyscraper and the skyscraper globally, closing up with the situation in China..

This thesis investigated the possibilities to resume cultivation of an old manor house built of timber and what this would mean from an energy and moisture perspective. The building in this case study is named Sofiedals mansion and was built in 1858 in Valbo 11 kilometers west of Gävle.The structure of the house was documented and used as a starting-point for carrying out calculations focused on energy and moisture aspects. With the help of a number of computer programs and a conducted air tightness test, the buildings energy consumption were calculated and compared with the current building regulations.In addition, the building was analyzed considering energy retrofitting and what it meant for moisture problems. The energy retrofitting consisted of additional insulation, decreasing the buildings permeability through air sealing; window and door replacements. When a building is equipped with natural ventilation it is difficult to know its precise performance and how an energy retrofitting affects it.

This thesis tries to clarify why more houses such as passive houses is not built and at the same time the differences is described with the conventional construction as a starting point. Sweden has set environmental objectives to reduce energy consumption in buildings by 50 percent by the year 2050 compared to 1995. The passivehouse concept could have a significant role, particularly in the reconstruction of buildings with high energy consumption. For sustainable building the passivehouse technology is an economically viable concept while benefiting the environment. Initially an introduction is given of the background to the problem, purpose and objective of the thesis.

For nearly twenty years people have been talking about Product models, but given that the building industry is so conservative, it is hard to implement new working methods. Product models are these days known as Building Information Modeling, BIM. People often say they work with BIM but they often forget the most important part, the information. A 3D model should be linked with characteristics and information. Information that can be invaluable for the facility manager.We have a vision that in the best of worlds the facility manager would be able to "walk" into the model and see what kind of installations are inside the wall or in the roof.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore and analyze the processes and efforts involved in rebuilding the war-torn state of Afghanistan. The examined period span from the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, to the elections in 2005. This period, commonly known as the Bonn-process, sets out the initial time for the reconstruction of the state.A theoretical framework, which considers the necessary mechanisms for successful state-building, will be used to analyze Afghanistan's re-building process. The mechanisms include the prerequisite of a stable security environment, emerging from a cease-fire, together with the development of a well-functioning economy, re-introduction of rule of law and rejuvenating civil society.The failure to establish a secure environment has had a devastating impact on all analyzed aspects of the re-building process. It is therefore crucial that the international society continuing to assists the Afghan government in its efforts to strengthen its capacity, in order to improve the security situation.

This paper examines how to use different kinds of source material for building surveys. The studyexamines how to use legends, construction archaeological surveys and Ground Penetrating Radar(GPR) as source material, and use them against each other to ensure the reliability they have.As a starting point I used Gräfsnäs castle ruin in Alingsås, Sweden, as an example. Gräfsnäs castlewas probably built in the Middle Ages and was rebuilt through the ages until it became a ruin in thelate 1800s. The castle ruin is today Alingsås most visited attraction.The investigation has focused on three areas which are located in the very ruin; rescue tunnels, thecellar vault and the treasure.There are legends that describe how the castle lord of Gräfsnäs fled an attack of the Danes in 1612 ina rescue tunnel which ended at the beach. At the construction archaeological surveys carried out in1935-36 they found a sewer in the courtyard that was once served as rescue tunnel and ended in themoat.