In conjunction with today?s increasing competition within the construction sector, more pressure is being placed on building contractors. Efficiency and improvements are necessary but without impairment to an ergonomic and safe construction site. This in is in order to reduce the construction costs and time but to retain the ability to deliver a high-quality contract.Various methods and prefabrication degrees are used, depending on the project's requirements and conditions. This analysis sets out to investigate and exhibit what qualifications are important when choosing a construction method for curtain walls.Advantages and disadvantages with each method have been analyzed and recommendations have been given to show when different methods are best suited.

Idre Fjäll currently has not full control of how visitors experience their site or if it has good usability. I have helped the company to do a usability test on their website to see how and where any improvements can be made on the page before the winter season 2010. I have also done a survey to investigate how users perceive Idre Fjälls website. Ten people of various ages participated in the survey. All test subjects was recorded with both audio and screen activity during the tests.

Miljö och energianvändning blir ett mer aktuellt ämne. 40 % av landets totala energianvändning går idag till bostäder.[1] Om elpriserna stiger under den närmsta tiden kommer det med stor säkerhet leda till att människor blir mer kostnadsmedvetna och gärna hittar sätt för att minska sina energikostnader. Som ett led i detta har hustillverkare tagit fram ett energisnålt alternativ till det vanliga huset. Det benämns lågenergihus och använder mindre energi än de hus som är vanliga på marknaden idag. Det här är möjligt genom att lågenergihus byggs på ett annorlunda vis jämfört med ett ordinärt hus.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the degree of influence of holes in the web of steel beams with long spanson weakening of their bearing capacity. Making holes in the web of the beam generally reduces the bearing capacity of the beam. However, it might be necessary seen from both an architectural perspective as well as from a building services perspective by creating an opportunity for building installations.The objective of this thesis is to examine how much an I-beam can be weakened without sacrificing safety and functionality. The investigation has been done by using Finite Element Method through commercial software.The regulation for structural design of building structures in Sweden used to be specified in the document known as BKR. But this was replaced by the European norm Eurocode back in May 2011.

Most of today?s concrete structures that are built on site are mainly constructed in a traditional fashion with a lot of artisanal operations. One step towards industrializing the in-situ construction of concrete is to use prefabricated reinforcement. Through this method there can be a lot of savings when each bar doesn?t have to be placed and fixed separately on site.

In this degree project we wanted to investigate if there are any possibilities to get a higher income from grain growing by giving the grain to hens instead of selling it. We were also wondering if the manure has any value or if it only cost the egg producer money. If the egg producer cultivate his own grain and is able to store it in layer is there quite much money to earn. Expensive pasture makes it profitability to pay up to 1,35 Swedish crowns for a kilo of wheat. In our calculating we?ve used calculation from the company Lantmännen.

Many corporations turn to IT-outsourcing to focus more on their core competence or to cut the IT-budget. There is one caveat, the costs presented at a first glance does not always present the entire truth. Instead the costs run deeper and so-called hidden costs exist beyond the contractual cost. Reducing these hidden costs may very well be crucial to the entire IT-outsourcing endeavor. However many firms are not aware of these costs and as such they have a reduced chance of success.

WSP building physics in Stockholm has certified the preschool Temmelburken in Bromma with the system of certification Miljöbyggnad. The rating of the building became BRONZE. In this thesis the preschool has been investigated with respect to the three areas: thermal climate, use of energy and improving of the level of certification. The thermal climate at the preschool has been investigated by a questionnaire survey and by measurements in order to do comparisons between the results from the two investigations as well as with the results of the simulations that WSP has done at the certification of the preschool. The differences between the results from the simulations and the questionnaire survey for winter as well as from the measurement performed with a comfort meter the 19th of March are concidered to be reasonably small since they give rise to the same rating according to Miljöbyggnad.   Operational data for the use of energy for the preschool have been obtained in order to do comparisons with simulations performed by WSP and Svenska Besiktningar AB. The comparison shows that the simulated values for the specific use of energy are lower than what the real specific use of energy would be for the preschool, since just the operational data for the heat energy is higher than the simulated values. At the investigation of the possibility of improving the level of certification it was found that the rating of the preschool can be raised from BRONZE to SILVER by improving the ratings of the ?thermal climate summer? and the ?daylight?.

A home for elderly is planed to be built at Zakrisdal, Karlstad, Sweden. The heat source for the building was at the time not determined. In order by the local government of Karlstad this report is meant to examine if the need of heat could be provided only by solar heat combined with a seasonal heat storage. The problem to solve is, if the need of heat from the home for elderly is provided from only solar heat, whitch dimensions of the solar collectors and the storage is needed?.

During the last 100-200 years people have change their way of living and the condition and need for survival is no longer depending on the agricultural work. The forestry has replaced the farming and a lot of the natural pastural have been lost. Wessmantorp in the north part of Skåne is an old place for forestry and farming where people have been living for several hundred years. Studies of selected parts of the everyday landscape, that earlier have been settlement with small crofter?s holding, show that the changes in the landscape mostly depends on the human factor and that a lot of the cultivable soil have been replaced with spruce. Some of the areas, which the earlier dwellings were placed, still contain some remains of old house foundations and stone fences and can regard as being of an historical value. The studies provide the reader with a short background, the place as it is today and the changes of the land use in Wessmantorp.

The essay describes the bachelor project by Marie Hanås, in collaboration with Skälsö Arkitekter. Skälsö Arkitekter are currently developing an area in the north of Gotland, Bungenäs; previously home to lime stone quarries and military bases.The brief was to design a set of outdoor furniture to complement the new development. The main effort of the project was in designing furniture that would fit the environment visually but construction issues were a major secondary concern, to ensure the easiest possible manufacturing. A reference group of coastal house owners were interviewed, and their feedback, together with an analysis of functions, trends and target groups, were the base for the ideas.Of the five concepts presented, Skälsö Arkitekter chose one to develop further. This was done through sketches, models and 3D models and led to the final result which is lightweight furniture of Gotlandic pine wood with an industrial touch.

On commission of the County administrative board in Värmland County a method was developed for analysis of the occurrence of artificial land use at lakes and watercourses. With artificial land use is meant land significantly affected by man. Two bases have been used to carry out the analysis. In one of the analysis the vegetation database and in the other GSD¹-Marktäckedata (land cover data) was used (this method has been used by County administrative board in Jönköping County).The analysis comprises all watercourses within Alsterälven river basin. The digital water bodies are created by the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute on the basis of GSD-Översiktskartan (general map).

Summary The estate of Johannishus is situated in the south of Sweden and in the province of Blekinge, about 8 kilometres from the city of Ronneby. The main building together with the park represents the province´s only example of a well preserved estate environment from the early 1800th Century, and was declared as a historic monument in 1982 because of its unique role in the province. Johannishus Park has during 300 years developed in close relation to the main building, the landscape and the surrounding infrastructure. Each century and owner has had an influence on the park, which has resulted in an interesting visible cross-section of 300 years of Swedish garden history. Most noticeable today are the traces from late 19th Century, but in its oldest parts the park contains structures from the early 18th Century.

An Internet application, VEDAIR, for estimation of air quality in regions with small-scale combustion of bio fuel has been developed by Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute with financing from Swedish Energy Agency and Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. The model contains user interface and a coupled model concept where concentrations of atmospheric pollutions are calculated for regional, urban and local contributions. In this report the model is described and a first study of air quality considering PM10 (particles with a diameter less than 10 µm) in two Swedish municipalities, Vänersborg and Gnosjö, is introduced.According to the result, there are areas with poor air quality even in smaller Swedish municipalities, mostly due to high emission from buildings with older wood heating furnace without hydraulic accumulator.In Vänersborg three areas were analysed in VEDAIR for the year 2003: Vargön, Mariedal and the downtown district. In the whole municipality the upper evaluation threshold for PM10, which is defined as 14 µg/m3 for annual average, was exceeded due to background contribution of particles. In all areas, however, the concentrations of PM10 were less than the environmental quality norms.

This report deals with issues related to construction waste. Building material that has not been built into the project is defined as construction waste. Cost of construction waste amounts to 4-12 % of the total cost of the project. Moreover, cost of construction waste is 1-3 % of the production cost. The aim of this study is to increase knowledge about the main causes of waste within the construction industry.