In Dutch hospital construction projects, the project goals are not always met, budgets are overrun, delays in planning, and the progress of the projects do not proceed the way that is expected. The complexity of the hospital construction projects influence the possible outcome of the projects. Project failure is often linked to the hard sides of project management, but especially the soft factors and skills, such as negotiation, team capabilities and communication also appear to influence the outcome of a project.
A wide range of signs can indicate possible problems long before they actually occur: Early Warning Signs (EWS). EWS are indicators for potential negative future developments. The signs consist mostly of soft signals which grow stronger over time. When EWS occur in a project, they are mostly process-related, linked to human behaviour and ‘gut-feeling’. Some research is performed on the subject, but the ability to identify and act on these EWS is in its early stages. Research on EWS and the response to EWS mainly focuses on the infrastructure construction sector. EWS-Research related to hospital construction projects is lacking. This research wants to make an attempt to fill the research gap and aims to answer the following research question:
“Which Early Warning Signs can be identified in Dutch hospital construction projects, and how can acting on Early Warning Signs be stimulated to mitigate possible problems?”
The exploratory research is split into two sections; a theoretical study and an empirical study are conducted. The theoretical study consists of a literature review. The findings of the theoretical study are explored in practice in the empirical study, which consists of a case study, including semi-structured interviews, and an expert panel.
The findings show that EWS appear in hospital construction projects and that they are related to human factors, such as gut feeling, communication and culture. Project management can benefit from taking EWS into account: identifying and responding to EWS can have a positive effect on the process of hospital construction.
Before responding to EWS, they must first be identified and barriers must be minimised. To stimulate acting on EWS, there must be awareness of which barriers can occur in hospital construction projects.
Nine categories of EWS in hospital construction projects are found: 1) Infeasible project goal, 2) Postponing decision making, 3) Diminishing cooperation, 4) Unfit team composition, 5) Lack of communication, 6) Lack of quality of documents, 7) Deteriorating connection with internal stakeholders, 8) Excessive workload, and 9) Resistance of external stakeholders.
Eight barriers are found that may prevent recognising or acting on EWS in hospital construction projects: 1) Inadequate management style, 2) Uncertainty avoidance, 3) Effects of board/politics, 4) Optimism bias, 5) Lack of time for reflection, 6) Underestimated project complexity, 7) Deteriorating relationship with contractors, and 8) Fragmentation.
To minimise possible problems in a hospital construction project, the three most impactful barriers can be managed by incorporating possible solutions regarding proactive and reactive approaches applying both soft and hard aspects of project management.

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.

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.

The problem defined in this research is that the concept “fit-for-purpose” does not have a widely accepted definition in the research field of PM (project management). Also, the link between terms “fit-for-purpose” and ‘project management” has not been conceptualized. The main objective of this research is to investigate the link between fit-for-purpose and project management and applications of FFP-PM (Fit-for-purpose Project Management) approach. The main research question is formulated as: How can the term Fit-for-purpose and its development be defined in the field of project management? This research adopted a coupling of bibliometric analysis and content analysis to comprehensively answer this question. The bibliometric analysis was conducted on the literature from recent 20 years to investigate the link from a theoretical perspective. This stage follows a three-step method, with Step I looking into term ”fit-for-purpose” in all management areas, Step II exploring different forms of adaptations in the PM, and Step III building the links between the previous two steps. FFP-PM was defined as a set of wisely selected adaptive methodologies, tools and expertise to manage project activities. To investigate the links from the practical perspective, a content analysis was conducted on 117 student essays of the course WB3501 Fit-for-purpose Project Management from the past 8 years (2013-2021). Many PM practices that are fit-for-purpose in nature were identified and included in the key findings of this analysis. These practices cover many aspects in PM and it was further concluded that FFP-PM consists of a broad set of PM methodologies that can manifest their ways in many aspects throughout the life-cycle of the projects. To validate the results, the preliminary findings from the previous analyses were brought across to be tested with external practitioners via two in-depth interviews, to check weather and to what extent these findings reflect the PM in the real world. The results suggested that the majority of the findings are recognizable based on their experiences. A few adjustments were made after discussing comments through revisiting the literature. The main research question was then answered by establishing a theoretical framework of FFP-PM, the components of which cover the need factors, enabler factors, characteristics and required skills and competences of the project managers under the framework of FFP-PM. Projects under FFP-PM are defined and shaped by specific values and strategies, and managed with conscious decision-making in light of learnings from history experiences, risk management conducted close to the stakeholders’ values, and a welcoming attitude towards uncertainties and changes.

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.

Building internationally is no longer an exception, but a standard for various construction companies. With that, the need to understand foreign norms, values and beliefs becomes crucial to deliver successful projects. Through understanding and managing cultural differences in projects, project advantages and general company success can be obtained. Currently, there is a gap in knowledge on how to manage cultural differences in international building projects most effectively. The research question that links to this problem is formulated as follows: “How can cultural differences be managed most effectively within the management areas of international building projects?” A literature review and cross-cultural qualitative exploratory research method have been applied to answer this question. External validation has taken place through an expert panel review. The findings show attention should be paid to culture within different management areas, with a specific focus on communications management. Management elements in which culture should be managed are expatriate personnel / foreign staff and operatives, design approaches, negotiations, codes of conduct and ethical standards and professional standards and construction codes. Specific actions can be taken to manage cultural differences more effectively, such as addressing the subject during project start-up meetings, making one’s own general expectations, procedures and guidelines explicit and organising team building activities to help project team members keep an open-mind and gain understanding of their own cultural bias and that of others.

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.

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.

The Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Operations (AECO) industry is in constant need of processes and standards that allow it to deliver projects within budget, time, and quality. A strategy that has helped to get closer to this goal is the implementation of Building Information Modelling (BIM). Adoption of BIM-related technologies is mostly limited to architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) actors, who handover the collection of design and construction data for the client but retrieving data from BIM models for operations and maintenance (O&M) activities is not as common as desired but it offers great potential to perform and support activities such as Assessment and Monitoring, Documentation, Emergency Management, Energy and Space Management, and Maintenance of Service Information. Processes, standards, and formats for integrating information about Operations and Maintenance in the design phase have been conceptually developed with a technical dimension approach toward activities, information, and solutions. Given that BIM is a socio-technical system, solutions must also consider a social perspective. For this reason, Activity Theory is used to analyse maintenance activities, their origin, elements related, and processes involved in their performance and, more specifically, their definition. The established theoretical lens considers information as the main product to deliver instead of a by-product of the models’ deliverables. Thus, it was determined, through a literature review, exploratory interviews, semi-structured interviews and the aforementioned analysis, that the integration of O&M personnel is not only usually late along the information lifecycle of an asset’s life, but that the required attributes that provide the necessary information to asset managers to perform their tasks are not even considered early enough in the project, commonly when it is already handed over. Integration of these actors along the already established processes is encouraged to ensure the information will not only be produced and transferred as required, but it will also be useful for other purposes that are included in the documentation of the project.

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.

Project failure rate is astonishingly 70%. This cause for the failure can vary from poor project management, to poor engineering, external factors like environment etc. This research particularly aims at identifying the competencies needed by project managers, with a aim that it will eventually reduce the failure rate.
This research was carried out to investigate the relevance of competencies with respect to contract type, specifically cost reimbursable and lump sum contract and its variations with the project phases. Eventually also identifying the effect of competencies on project success. This will cater to the problem definition what kind of competencies can project managers adapt to execute a lump sum contract. In order to understand lump sum, we also need to study cost reimbursable that is the extreme opposite of lump sum contract. Encompassing all the above the following research question was formulated:
“What are the critical competencies of a project manager needed at different phases of a lumpsum project to ensure project success?”
The main research objective is to understand the importance of competent project managers. The research was divided into three phases.
In the first phase a thorough literature review was done to get insights on competencies, yielding a set of fifteen competencies that will be studied against the phases of a project. FLUOR B.V., has five stages of a project, which will be considered for the research purpose. Two sets of project success factors were identified through literature, one being at macro view point and the other being micro view point.
The second phase was all about data collection and analysis. Survey was conducted to identify the variations in competencies through different phases of a project. Interviews were conducted to recognise the relationship between contract type and competencies, and competencies’ impact on project success. Since both the methods addressed different hypotheses. Data collection is followed by the analysis. Frequency charts were made to identify the most preferred competencies.
The final phase was to put the results to use. A competency-based scorecard was designed to suitably hire and appoint project managers. This was based on phases of a project. Only the top eight competencies per phase was chosen for the scorecard. Competencies that are most affected during a lump sum contract are added to an existing leadership model, it’s a matrix of leadership levels and competencies. The competencies affecting the project success can also be useful in allocating project managers to different projects. This could be directly implemented in projects.

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.

Architects have always found it important to understand the interaction between public and private spaces in the context of the built environment. This paper investigates the relationship between public and private spaces, and how it influences the social and cultural aspects of the built environment. Hence, we first explore what a public and private space is, and how it is defined. From this we investigate the concept of creating an identity within a public space, the formation of social gathering spots, and the necessities of private spots within the public domain. The results of this research paper show that design concepts that are specific to the psychological aspects of human behavior can shape the social and cultural pattern of the built environment.

This research is based on a new law relating quality assurance in construction that was proposed in 2016. The main aim of the legislative proposal is to improve the quality of construction by privatising the way of assessing quality on the basis of the Building Decree. The problem is that the contractor gets more responsibility in this process through the new law. Since the change in the way of quality assurance asks for a new way of working from contractors the contractors have to adapt their organisations towards this change in responsibility. The changes can be distinguished on a legal implementation and organisational implementation level. This research focuses on the social scientific perspective of this law; being the organisational implementation. Within this organisational implementation, the focus of this research is the organisational culture and structure. The research question is therefore: How can a contractor change its culture and organisational structure, to adopt a pro-active attitude in quality assurance? The research strategy is to perform qualitative research. For this research, the method to be used is doing literature research. The literature research reviews the change based on a why-how-what structure. This literature research results in multiple findings on different subjects. Findings which form the basis of an advice on how to approach an organisational culture and organisational structure change. To validate these findings and the advice, both are submitted to a validation process. The deliverable at the end of the research is the advice for the contractors on how to adapt their organisational culture and organisational structure, which will be reflected in an advice brochure. The conclusions of this research start by describing that current organisations of contractors miss a branch or layer on quality management. To change this, a power strategy or planned strategy should be chosen with unilateral implementation instruments. The change process should, regardless the chosen strategy, be implemented on different levels, which was found to reduce resistance for change. The process of change should be started within a project in which the client is interested in improving quality assessment as well. It is concluded that a manager who stands behind the changes and is committed to those change, should be made in the lead of implementing the strategy within that project.

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 construction sector showed almost no fundamental change in the past 50 years, where other industries reaped the benefits of standardisation and digitalisation. Until recently innovation development was no issue for engineering firms active in this construction sector. At the moment however, they are progressing towards higher degrees of innovation by embracing digitalisation. This progression is influenced by an important development in the business model of engineering firms. Engineering firms were used to have exclusive insights in the value chain of the construction sector, which enabled them to sell these insights towards clients. Selling these insights as core business is threatened however, creating an urgency for a new core business. Engineering firms seem to aim for new business consisting of selling ‘total solutions’. Total solutions in which knowledge and assets of external parties are integrated, in combination with a licence business model to make it scalable. Selling such total solutions is regarded as a transformational innovation for conventional engineering firms, because it has the power to transform their core business. Engineering firms however, lack perspective on how they should develop transformational innovation. They have a strong impression that external parties play a role in the appropriate strategy, but it is unknown how to relate with these external parties in such a way they have an optimal effect on the transformational innovation development. This research investigates what order of steps is beneficial for engineering firms to develop transformational innovation through relations with external parties. A cross-case multiple case study methodology is executed in order to answer this question. Seven cases in which an innovation seeking firm makes a relation with an external venture are investigated. These cases comprise venturing relations outside the construction sector. Each case is investigated along multiple topics resulting from a literature review. The most important topics are the degrees of integration, autonomy and openness of the network. A cross-case analysis of the seven cases results in aspects that seem beneficial for (transformational) innovation development, derived from firms outside the construction sector. Subsequently, these aspects are evaluated by an expert evaluation panel consisting of three innovation experts of three leading Dutch engineering firms. The expert evaluation results in an order of steps beneficial for transformational innovation development of engineering firms in venturing relations with external parties. It seems beneficial to create a moderate degree of operational integration when both parties have business on the same domain. Furthermore, it seems beneficial to start strategic discussions between the engineering firm and the external venture after a moderate degree of operational integration is created. After strategic discussions three aspects seem beneficial. First, the provision of extensive strategic autonomy by the engineering firm to the external venture. Second, the creation of a high degree of operational integration between the engineering firm and external venture. Third, the creation of indirect closed network configurations between the engineering firm and external venture.The most important element in the discussion of the research is the suggestion to recognise the network characteristic ‘degree of complementary relations’ as a network characteristic influencing innovation development. With regard to the limitations of this research it may be considered that only seven cases are investigated. Furthermore, from the companies involved in each case only one or two persons have been interviewed. Lastly, the research scope was limited and a possible cross-industry bias cannot be excluded. A recommendation for further research is to investigate the role of clients in transformational innovation development, as they generally have a stringent role in the construction sector. Furthermore, the role of the rather conservative behaviour of engineers in developing transformational innovation at engineering firms is recommended to look into. Lastly, it is recommended to investigate how a special form of venturing, ‘network orchestration venturing’, can be applied to engineering firms.

The construction sector has been the world’s largest consumer of raw materials since years. Construction and building activities together account for 36% of global energy use and 39% of energy-related carbon dioxide (World Green Building Council, 2017). Considering the built environment puts major pressure on the natural environment, a change in the construction sector is crucial. Circular economy is one of the concepts that can be applied to the built environment. The circular economy is based on three principles: design out waste and pollution, keep products and materials in use and regenerate natural systems. This requires a shift in the way of thinking and in the way of executing and planning a construction process. Where traditional projects are executed according to the ‘take-make-dispose’ plan, circular projects work according to a ‘reduce-reuse-recycle’ plan. Research by Van den Berg explains that the new circular construction method requires a radical new approach (Berg, 2019).

The objective of this research is to find out what changes must be made to traditional project management to deliver circular construction projects. This is done by describing the difference in practice in management, between traditional projects and circular projects. Furthermore, the aim of this research is to help project teams to control and implement the circular ambitions in the project. To meet the objective, the following research question is answered:
What changes must be made to the management of projects, compared to traditional project management, to deliver circular construction projects?

In this research, traditional project management is defined with the help of the Project Management Body of Knowledge+ framework, which is the PMBoK framework including two extensions and therefore called the PMBoK+ framework. The framework discusses 12 project management themes, including the different activities for each theme that ought to be executed. Four circular case studies are performed, they are analyzed by interviewing 13 key stakeholders and by investigating project documents. The interviewees are asked about the 12 PMBoK+ themes, to find out if the same themes have been applied and in what way. The degree of circularity of a project is divided into two categories: circular product and a circular process. The four cases are all circular constructions (products), described with the help of the 10R-model. However, it is unclear if the projects used a circular process. The outcomes of the four case studies are compared, by means of cross-case analysis. The findings and recommendations of the research are validated with the help of an expert panel. Based on the validation and the results of the cross-case analysis, the conclusions, discussions and recommendations are composed.
The four projects that are analyzed are (partly) circular construction projects. However, it is unknown whether in the cases circular project management or traditional project management was used. A distribution is made between the four projects, project A to D. For projects B and D, which are projects with public entities as owners, traditional project management is used. This is different for projects A and C. These two projects can be characterized as experimental circular construction projects. The projects were built with the aim to show the sector how circular buildings are delivered, money was not the main criterion and more funds were available due to media attention. For the experimental projects, circular buildings were delivered where circular processes were used. In both projects, alterations were made to the PMBoK+ framework. These alterations were done for the Scope, Cost, Human Resource, Procurement, Integration and Financial Management. For the other themes, traditional project management was applied.

The following conclusions explain what changes must be made to traditional project management to deliver experimental circular construction projects. To start, the aim to develop a circular construction should be an aim at the start of the project. For the scope, the client should define ambitions (instead of detailed requirements) and after the project team is selected, the requirements should be defined. For Project Cost Management, the budget should be accessible to the project team in a transparent way. The project team should consist of people with the same circular economy commitment, vision and philosophy, as part of the Human Resource Management. The procurement process should be different from the traditional process: plan the tender process timely in the project and involve suppliers early in the project. Besides, parties such as suppliers and subcontractors should be selected with the entire project team. Finally, new contract forms should be used to ensure that the building does not get demolished after the life cycle of the building. For project teams non-hierarchical and cooperative organizational structure should be used to ensure team work, shared responsibility and a creative process. With this, project knowledge is shared in a transparent way. Lastly, for Project Financial Management, responsibilities and risks should be distributed among the involved parties.

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.

This thesis explores project managers in practice solving wicked problems. The research are reached by conducting case study researcher focussing on three cases. Out of the research can be concluded that project managers solve wicked problems as it is a technical problem by using the rational decision model. However, during solving they notice that they have a lack of information which make them use other decision-methods, namely: slow thinking and design thinking.

Traditional construction planning and performance control tools such as Gantt Charts and S Curves fail to visually represent physical project progress, construction sequence, interfaces and the critical path, which means that decision makers carry out their job with incomplete information. Moreover, these tools motivate a quantity-oriented mindset and a project island approach. Furthermore, traditional information flows in projects are inefficient since these present a significant lag between data collection and project status reporting. With improvements in technology and enhanced visualization through 3D object-based models linked to the schedule (time being the fourth dimension), opportunities arise that enable bridging the information and communication gaps currently experienced in planning and evaluating as built performance in a Building Information Modelling (BIM) approach. 4D BIM has been seldom implemented in the execution phase of projects and has been utilized merely as a preconstruction planning tool. The end goal of the research is to make recommendations on how to apply 4D BIM during the site execution phase to improve construction performance control in mega projects and provide a conceptual model of a work methodology to be implemented in civil engineering projects...