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HISTORY URBANISM RESILIENCE VOLUME 07: Planning Theories, Pedagogies and Practices
Get PDFThe 17th conference (2016, Delft) of the International Planning History Society (IPHS) and its proceedings place presentations from different continents and on varied topics side by side, providing insight into state-of-the art research in the field of planning history and offering a glimpse of new approaches, themes, papers and books to come.
VOLUME 07: Planning Theories, Pedagogies and Practice
Enhancing [Spatial] Creativity: Enhancing creativity of architects by applying unconventional virtual environments
Get PDFPotentials of a virtual environment for enhancing the creativity of architects have shaped this research. There is no singular definition of creativity. In fact, there are more than 100 different definitions of creativity according to different contexts and disciplines. Nevertheless, it is possible to confine the boundaries of definitions and address creativity within a confined framework.
The first practical step was thus to perform an in-depth literature survey to define a boundary condition for the widespread topic of “creativity” and identify vital research questions pertaining to creativity. In this regard, personality and behaviour of creative people; mood, state, temper, intelligence vs. creativity, motivation and so forth were ignored. Instead, cognitive aspects of creativity such as thinking patterns, conceptual blending, idea expansion and tolerance of ambiguity have been focused upon.
The second step was to test whether starting a design procedure with a 2 or a 3-dimensional mode of thinking has any correlation with creativity. An experiment pertaining to this test was designed in which participants were asked to perform the same design task once with 2D tools and environments (e.g. traditional pen and paper) and the next time by applying 3D tools and environments (e.g. 3D software). A jury of experts in the field of design subjectively compared the results and arrived at a conclusion that participates generated more creative ideas by implementing 3D environments/tools.
The third step involved the introduction of unconventional virtual environments (UVEs), which subsequently lead to the creation of a hypothesis. This hypothesis tries to connect navigation in UVEs with the enhancement of creativity. Characteristics of UVEs and theoretical arguments around the hypothesis were also discussed.
The fourth step involved a discussion on two effective parameters of creativity:
Tolerance of ambiguity
Conceptual blending
Attempts to verify these parameters, lead to the formulation of two separate experiments. The conclusions of these experiments were as follows:
Tolerance of ambiguity has a direct relationship with creativity. Architects deal with multiple parameters during a typical design process. The ability to meaningfully process the relationships between such a multitude of parameters has also trained architects to possess a higher level of tolerance of ambiguity aiding them in postponing making hasty judgements.
By combining different ideas, one can formulate newer and much novel ideas. Ideas tend to become creative when more remote ideas are combined and synthesised. In order to prevent repetitive and self-similar ideas, the unconscious mind needs to be fed with more ideas, which the mind has not been exposed to. These new ideas/experiences can be generated by exposing one’s self to UVEs since UVEs can expose one to situations and experiences which the brain cannot experience in the physical world.
The fifth step aims at understanding how the brain perceives different environments. Three different environments were chosen for an experimental study pertaining to the same: 1- Abstract environment 2- Semi-designed environment and 3- Fully designed environment. Participants were asked to provide a feedback by answering a questionnaire after navigating each of these environments. Simultaneously, their brain activity patterns were recorded via a professional neuropsychology apparatus. After analysing the brain activities, in conjunction with the questionnaire, it became clear that perception of an abstract environment is completely different from the perception of a Semi-designed or Fully designed environment. This experiment consolidated the hypothesis that UVEs as abstract designed environments activate parts of the brain that are correlated with creativity.
The sixth step involved putting the hypothesis to a final test. A conclusive experiment was thus designed. The experiment won the Visionair fund of FP7 and was conducted in Italy. A UVE was designed using the software 3D max and was converted to the 3D stereoscopic mode using a specific software: GIOVE; developed in ITIA-CNR, Italy. Using a 3D goggle and 6 axis mouse, a group of 20 participants were asked to navigate the UVE. They were asked to provide a written feedback pertaining to their feelings, expectations, the strategy of navigation and in general, their experience. Their responses were collected and analysed.
The final step involved answering the formulated research questions and discussing the final results
Geo-Design: Advances in bridging geo-information technology, urban planning and landscape architecture
Get PDFGeo-Design. Advances in bridging geo-information technology and design brings together a wide variety of contributions from authors with backgrounds in urban planning, landscape architecture, education and geo-information technology presenting the latest insights and applications of geodesign. Geo-Design is here understood as a hybridization of the concepts “Geo” — representing the modelling, analytical and visualisation capacities of GIS, and “Design” — representing spatial planning and design, turning existing situations into preferred ones. Through focusing on interdisciplinary design-related concepts and applications of GIS international experts share their recent findings and provide clues for the further development of geodesign. This is important since there is still much to do. Not only in the development of geo-information technology, but especially in bridging the gap with the design disciplines.
The uptake on using GIS is still remarkably slow among landscape architects, urban designers and planners, and when utilised it is often restricted to the basic tasks of mapmaking and data access. Knowledge development and dissemination of applications of geodesign through research, publications and education, therefore, remain key factors. This publication draws upon the insights shared at the Geodesign Summit Europe held at the Delft University of Technology in 2014. All contributions in the book are double blind reviewed by experts in the field
EAAE Conference 2016: For Example Delft: A case study discussed in the context of institutional profile(s) and the future of architectural education
Get PDFThe conference ‘For Example Delft’ addresses approaches in architecture education, their past, present & future in relation to professional practice and the architectural discipline. Using the example of Delft, the conference starts from the observation that the broad field of architecture and the built environment carries a re-assembled character that has lost its Modern, structured and disciplinary way. Moreover the conference addresses the issue what architecture research currently means and upon which policies Delft as an institution has set eyes, for example with regard to its ambitions, organisation and profile
The Spatial Dimension of House Prices
Get PDFThe economic reform in China, launched in the late 1970s, gradually promotes the free mobility of capital and labour between rural and urban areas, and between cities. The following housing market reform in the late 1990s thoroughly terminates the socialist allocation of housing and introduces market forces into the housing sector. Such institutional shifts have profound effects on the evolution of the Chinese interurban housing market. Yet, little is known about the spatial behaviour of house prices across cities in the post-reform era. How do the housing markets of different cities organise across space? What is the relationship between the house price dynamics of different cities? To answer these questions, this research performs economic and econometric analysis of the spatial dimension of the Chinese interurban housing market. In addition, this research also concerns the construction of a reliable house price index in the presence of spatial heterogeneity and dependence in the urban housing market of China. A reliable house price index is essential to the analysis of house price dynamic behaviour. However, owing to the data problem, this part is conducted based on the housing market of a Dutch city.
This research discovers the spatial regularities of house prices across Chinese prefecture cities in an economic common area and investigates the underlying formation process. It reveals an uneven distribution of house prices across cities, with those large and/or higher-tier cities and their neighbours having signiï¬cantly higher house prices. Such an uneven pattern of house prices demonstrates the agglomeration spillovers in the interurban housing market. Two forms of spillovers are empirically examined. The ï¬rst is the urban hierarchy distance effect, which is related to the position of a city in a hierarchical urban system. In general, the distance penalty of higher-tier urban centres is conï¬rmed, that is, all else being equal, the further away a city is from the higher-tier city, the lower the house price. The second form of spillovers relates to a city’s position in a city network system, in which no hierarchical structure is imposed. In such a situation, the spillovers arise from the interaction with neighbouring cities and it is found that a city that has larger neighbours tends to have higher house prices. These two forms of spillovers are somewhat correlated with each other because a higher-tier city is always associated with a larger urban size.
It is argued that the spillovers in the interurban housing market work through two channels: the productivity and amenity channel. First, because of the economies of agglomeration, a location that has good access to large urban concentrations is likely to enjoy some productivity advantages and thus can bear higher house prices. Second, a location that is surrounded by large urban concentrations can easily get access to some unique amenities that need a large market potential to survive; households value such access and thus bid up the house price there. However, it seems that the role that the productivity channel plays is much more important than the role of the amenity channel.
In addition to the static distribution of house prices across space, this research also concerns the time series behaviour of house price dynamics across Chinese cities. Geography plays an important role in explaining the cross-city differences of house price dynamics. For the housing markets of major cities across the whole of China, the cluster analysis generally uncovers two relatively homogeneous groups, within which the house price growth series share a similar dynamic pattern. One cluster contains mainly the cities in the undeveloped central, western and northeast China, whereas the other is composed of the most important economic centres in eastern China. However, the spatial segregation of housing markets is more likely to occur in the most recent period. In the early period before 2010, the house price dynamics of cities are much more homogeneous.
The similarities and/or dissimilarities among house price dynamics of different cities indicate the complicated interrelationships between each of the markets. This research further examines various spatial interrelationships between the housing markets of an economic common area in south China. The spatial causal relationships between housing markets are ï¬rst tested by the Granger causality test. The results reveal a complicated pattern, but it can be tentatively conï¬rmed that house price changes in the developed eastern-central markets ‘cause’ the house price dynamics in the less-developed western markets. Then a spatial-temporal model is built to depict the diffusion pattern of house prices between markets. In general, a shock given to the house price of a certain market gradually spreads to its neighbouring cities. However, the interurban housing market can hardly remain an equilibrium relationship in the long-run, that is, it tends to be divergent.
The last part of this research concerns the treatment of spatial effects in the hedonic house price model as well as its influence on the construction of hedonic imputation indexes, which measure the pure house price changes over time. It is argued that the value of a dwelling can be split into the value of the land and the value of the structure, and that the value of the location characteristics of a dwelling is capitalised into the price of the land. Thus, land prices can be expected to vary signiï¬cantly across space. Indeed, the mixed geographically weighted regression framework adopted in this research, which allows the shadow price of structure to be constant across space and the implicit price of land to be property-based, is found to be superior to, in terms of model prediction, those models that restrict the spatial variation of land prices. Nevertheless, the Fisher imputation house price index based on the most sophisticated model is almost identical to those based on the simple speciï¬cations. The land and structure price indexes, on the other hand, are sensitive to the treatment of location in land prices.
This research underlines market forces in the operation of Chinese interurban housing markets in the post-reform era, and contributes to the understanding of spatial dimension of house prices, not only in China, but also in other market-oriented economies
OverHolland 16/17: Architectural studies for the Dutch city
Get PDFThis edition of OverHolland pays detailed attention to the province of Noord-Holland to the north of the River IJ and to railways. The focus is on the relationship between spatial arrangements, research and design. Reinout Rutte analyses the development of the Zaanstreek region from the fifteenth to the twenty-first centuries. He reveals the unique morphological features of the first industrial town in the Netherlands. The lack of planning and regulations led to a ‘town of strips’, unlike the conventional pattern of urbanisation that typifies cities such as Amsterdam, Haarlem and Alkmaar. The text by Reinout Rutte was previously published in Geschiedenis van de ZaanÂstreek [History of the Zaanstreek region]. Here we have placed the article, accompanied by new visual material, in the context of the research that has been carried out over recent years with the Province of Noord-Holland at the Faculty of Architecture at Delft Technical University. Part of this was previously published in OverHolland 12/13, when Henk Engel mapped out the distribution pattern of the towns and infrastructure in the Noorderkwartier region of Holland up to 1700. In this issue of OverHolland, he focuses attention on the spatial policy that the Province of Noord-Holland intends to implement over the coming decades. Encouraging public transport by train is the main aim; transitoriented development (TOD) the main theme.
In preparing its intended policy, the Province of Noord-Holland has commissioned a great deal of research. The province and Vereniging DeltaÂmetropool (an association for metropolitan develop ment) presented the results in October 2013 under the title Maak Plaats! Werken aan knooppuntontwikkeling in NoordÂHolland [Make Room: working on hub development in Noord-Holland]. One of the studies included in Maak plaats! was carried out by the research group Mapping the territory and the cities of the Randstad at the Faculty of Architecture of Delft Technical University. Drawing on the methodology used in the Groeikaart van de Randstad (1850Â-2000)
[Growth map of the Randstad conurbation, 1850-2000], 22 station locations in the Noord-Holland area to the north of the Noordzeekanaal — the canal to the North Sea — were studied and analysed. In Drawings and calculations for the Zaan Corridor Henk Engel explains the general setup and the methodology for this study. He shows that the Groeikaart van de Randstad (1850Â-2000) not only provides insights into the morphological composition of the various towns, but also that the cartographical records of the town expansions since 1850 yield new facts that can be used for calculation.
In the crossÂsection, Michiel Riedijk and Filip Geerts report on the contributions that the Faculty of Architecture made to the follow-up to Maak plaats! On the initiative of the research section of the BNA (Federation of Dutch Architects), Deltas, Infrastructures & Mobility Initiative (TU Delft) and the Province of Noord-Holland, an investigative design project was set up for the railway line from Amsterdam to Heer hugowaard. The results have been published under the title Onderweg! Vijftien ontwerpen voor Transit Oriented Development aan de Zaancorridor [Under way! Fifteen designs for transit-oriented development in the Zaan Corridor]. This shows clearly that investigative design in this context serves primarily to create a platform for the parties that will be playing a role in the implementation of the Province’s spatial policy. Investigative design sets a group process in motion. As one of the participants put it, ‘It’s all about the energy and the people who meet up to tackle this theme.’ The design acts as a conversation piece during workshops — the picture that is worth a thousand words — and thus far the key weapon in obtaining commitment has been ‘temptation’. This shows how lightweight architecture is in the current system — intolerably lightweight, even. Michiel Riedijk and Filip Geerts refuse to simply accept that. They took a strictly architectural, technical point of view for their work with the students.
In Euralille twenty years on, we seem to have left Noord-Holland behind... or have we? Euralille can be seen as the shining example for the type of planning processes that have now become standard practice. Manuela Triggianese describes the sequence of events when Euralille was created and wonders what degree of importance should be ascribed to the architectural planning in this kind of process. The role of Rem Koolhaas is often dismissed as that of a great tempter. In particular, the dream of Delirious New York in some provincial town or other and the suggestive images that leave all kinds of directions open were criticised, but also gained a following. In both cases, a key aspect of the work of Rem Koolhaas and OMA is missed. In the smoke spread by the magician, the surgeon’s knife does its work, following a strict methodology.
In Towns and ports on Walcheren and ZuidÂBeveland between 1500 and 2000, Leo van den Burg zooms in on the fate of the towns in the southwestern delta. Continuing on from Reinout Rutte’s Four hundred years of urban development in the Scheldt Estuary in OverHolland 12/13, he shows that the towns and businesses were in the past continually making efforts to retain or strengthen their own positions in the network of relationships. The possibility of planning railways opened up a new horizon in the nineteenth century for strategic spatial thinking on a previously unheard-of scale. The plan for a railway line from Middelburg to Germany by the Zeelander Dirk Dronkers is evidence of this. The opening of the railway line from Vlissingen to Bergen op Zoom in 1872 did not work out as he had anticipated, as is often the case with large-scale visions. For Leo van den Burg, Dronkers’ plan however also demonstrates that the vast scale that spatial strategies are implemented on means that they only have a chance of succeeding if the appeals by local actors are looked upon favourably by a national authority. This raises the question for a port and its town of whether the common destiny that they have always shared in the past has been essentially changed by the primacy of the nation state in terms of spatial planning.
In the Polemen section, Jaap Evert Abrahamse reviews the wonderful study by Clí© Lesger, Het winkellandschap van Amsterdam. Stedelijke structuur en winkelbedrijf in de vroegmoderne en moderne tijd, 1550-Â2000 [Amsterdam’s retail landscape: Urban structure and shops in the early modern and modern periods, 1550-2000]. Iskandar Paní© adds another review taking a critical look at the publication Dutch Dikes, written and illustrated by LOLA Landscape Architects
Spatial planning and urban resilience in the context of flood risk
Get PDFSpatial planning is increasingly being considered as an important mechanism in coping with flood risk due to climate change. One of the reasons for this is that engineering approaches are increasingly expensive and cannot provide complete certainty of protection against climate-related floods. The thesis examines whether and how spatial planning is used in urban areas to promote resilience to flood risk and climate change. In this study, planning is considered as the regulation of physical implementation as well as the process of policy-making that guides spatial development. This process mainly involves the interaction and collaboration between actors (both public and private).
The notion of resilience is being used more and more in discussions of complex issues like the impact of climate-related flood risks on spatial development. The interpretations of resilience can vary significantly depending on the local context, the focus of spatial development and the interests of the actors involved in decision- making. The study proposes six characteristics of planning decision-making that can help to promote the resilience of cities. These comprise: (i) considering the current situation, (ii) examining trends and future threats, (iii) learning from previous experience, (iv) setting goals, (v) initiating actions, and (vi) involving the public. The importance of these characteristics over time for policy and practice is examined according to empirical evidence from detailed case study analysis. Six case studies are presented, four in Taiwan and two in the Netherlands. In all of the case studies, the issue of flood risk and spatial development is considered important by policy- makers, but the planning strategies used to tackle climate-related flood risks are often different, as are the experiences of flooding and governance arrangements. The information gathered is primarily based on interviews and the review of planning policies, government reports and research documents.
Comparative analysis is a central focus of the study. The analysis has both a national and international perspective, comparing cases within Taiwan and between Taiwan and the Netherlands. The national comparison examines the way in which local planning governance is addressed in shaping decisions to deal with flood risks. This can vary among cases which share similar spatial development objectives and national institutional framework. The international comparison between Taiwan and the Netherlands examines the roles of planning to promote urban resilience in the context of flood risk and climate change.
Three conclusions can be drawn. First, the interpretation of resilience is dependent on the views and interests of the actors involved. These change over time and can be seen in different episodes of policy-making. Second, the importance of the different assessment characteristics varies from one case to another. The interests of the leading actors, the interpretations of flood risks and the framework of local collaboration are all major factors that shape these differences. These factors are often associated with planning traditions and relatively stable in resistant to change. Third, when there is a collaborative framework for planning involving multiple actors, the result is a more comprehensive set of strategies in dealing with flood risk
Facade Refurbishment Toolbox: Supporting the Design of Residential Energy Upgrades
No full textThe starting point of the research is the need to refurbish existing residential building stock, in order to reduce its energy demand, which accounts for over one fourth of the energy consumption in the European Union. Refurbishment is a necessary step to reach the ambitious energy and decarbonisation targets for 2020 and 2050 that require an eventual reduction up to 90% in CO2 emissions. In this context, the rate and depth of refurbishment need to grow. The number of building to be renovated every year should increase, while the energy savings in renovated buildings should be over 60% reduction to current energy demand. To achieve that, not only is it necessary to find politics and incentives, but also to enable the building industry to design and construct effective refurbishment strategies. This research focuses on refurbishment of the building envelope, as it is very influential with regard to energy reduction.
The early design phases are particularly important, as decisions taken during this stage can determine the success or failure of the design. Even though the design decisions made earlier can have bigger impact with lower cost and effort, most existing tools focus on post-design evaluation. The integration of all aspects during the early design phases is complex, particularly as far as energy efficient design is concerned. At this stage, architects are in search for a design direction to make an informed decision. If the designer is provided with an indication of how efficient refurbishment options are, it is possible to apply them as part of an integrated strategy rather than trying to add measures at later stages, after the strategy has been developed.
Therefore, taking into account the need to refurbish residential buildings and the importance of integrated design of façade refurbishment strategies, the thesis aims at answering the following question.
How can the energy upgrade potential of residential façade refurbishment strategies be integrated in the early design phase, in order to support decision-making?
The objective of the research is to enable the design of refurbishment strategies that acknowledge the potential of energy savings. Having available an assessment of the energy performance results in informed decisions that improve the efficiency of the strategy and the final refurbished building.
The answer to the research question is given by the Façade Refurbishment Toolbox (FRT) approach. It consists of three different types of information that can support the decision-making of residential façade refurbishment strategies. Firstly, the building envelope components that need to be addressed in an integrated refurbishment strategy are identified and different retrofitting measures for each one are proposed, composing the façade refurbishment toolbox. Secondly, the measures are quantified in terms of energy upgrade potential, expressed by the simulated energy demand reduction after the application of the measure. Finally, a roadmap to the key decision aspects in the refurbishment strategy development indicates when the toolbox information can be used.
The methodology used to develop the FRT approach includes organising and calculating information about component retrofitting measures. The steps of the methodology were developed in the different chapters of the thesis. The first three chapters (Chapters 2-4) comprise the theoretical background that shapes the research question, discussion of the residential building stock, energy performance and refurbishment practice. Chapters 5 and 6 describe the process of the composition of the toolbox. Finally, Chapters 7 and 8 are concerned with its further applicability, regarding the approach validation and usability.
This thesis concludes with an approach to enable informed and energy-efficiency conscious decisions in the early stage of the design of refurbishment strategies. To improve the design process, the Façade Refurbishment Toolbox facilitates the development of strategies in different cases and for different specifications, without limiting or dictating designers’ choices.
Designing is deciding. Knowledge and information can lead to better understanding of a decision consequent and, therefore, result in better design solutions. Different buildings have different energy saving potential. They also have different specifications, performance requirements and design ambitions. All these parameters result in different refurbishment strategies. The aim of the proposed approach is not replacing the design process and generating a solution, but supporting it by providing information to lead into responsible and knowledgeable decisions. In this way, refurbishment strategies that take into account the building improvement, occupants’ comfort and efficient energy use can be designed, contributing to the greater society’s goals of CO2 emissions reduction and sustainable development
Performance measurement of workplace change: in two different cultural contexts
Get PDFNowadays, organisations must cope with the pressure of cost reduction and efficiency in order to succeed in a highly competitive business environment. However, drivers to improve social interaction and employee’s performance and as such to contribute to organisational goals and objectives make it necessary to be concerned with other performance criteria as well, such as effectiveness, flexibility, employee satisfaction, productivity and creativity. There is a growing need for performance management and performance measurement that not only covers all aspects of an organisation, but which can be applied to various situations in a changing internal and external environment. Performance measurement methods which include an integrated perspective of performance have become essential. In addition, it has been realised that corporate real estate can contribute to organisational performance (Nourse and Roulac, 1993, De Vries et al., 2008, Lindholm, 2008, Den Heijer, 2011, Jensen et al., 2012). For this reason, worldwide organisations started to implement new ways of working in a more open and flexible work environment. Although there are various objectives and drivers of workplace change, the common objectives are to reduce costs and to increase efficiency. The changing organisational and external contexts, such as the increasing demand for talented knowledge workers and changing work patterns, have led to the development of new offices that can promote social networks and interaction among employees. The new workplace does not only aim at achieving cost efficiency, but it should also support employee satisfaction and productivity.
This PhD research focuses on both themes i.e. performance measurement of workplace change. The aim of this research is to provide a conceptual framework that visualises the impact of workplace change on employees’ responses to the new work environment and to present guidelines on performance measurement of workplace change in different contexts. Two organisations in Thailand and one organisation in The Netherlands were selected to serve as case studies. The impact of culture was explored as a contextual background.
Research methods
Based on literature review an overview of performance measurement systems and measures has been developed. The list of corporate real estate performance measures has been classified in six categories according to Bradley (2002) and subsequently compared with the findings from the case studies. The six categories include: 1) stakeholder perception, 2) financial health, 3) organisational development, 4) productivity, 5) environmental responsibility and 6) cost efficiency. The impact of workplace change was examined using the work environment diagnosis instrument (WODI) questionnaire which evaluates employees’ responses to the changed work environment in three areas: employee satisfaction, perceived productivity support and prioritised aspects (Maarleveld, et al., 2009). The Organisational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI; Cameron and Quinn, 2006) was used to assess organisational culture. National culture was measured by using the Value Survey Module 94 (VSM94; Hofstede, 1997).
Research findings
The conceptual framework that came to the fore from the literature review showed to be useful for both theoretical understanding of performance measurement and practical applications. Proposed performance measures have been applied in all three case studies but in different ways. The three case studies showed that performance measurement of an organisation is multi-dimensional. It includes several performance criteria and performance measures beyond cost efficiency. All seven performance criteria mentioned by Sink and Tuttle (1989) have been applied in all three cases including effectiveness, efficiency, quality, productivity, quality of worklife, innovation and profitability. The four perspectives of the Balanced Scorecard (financial, customer, internal business process, learning & growth) are applied in all three cases as well, with different points of focus regarding their business types. The corporate real estate performance measures found in the case studies and classified in the six categories can be aligned with most of the areas of the added value of CREM in the literature and can also be viewed as value dimensions. In all three cases, the performance measures related to human resource management were focused on the occupiers having been provided with an office environment that enables employees to increase their productivity.
The findings show that organisation and workplace change characteristics have an influence on the satisfaction of employees. The physical characteristics of workplace change that have influenced different degrees of employee satisfaction include location, building grade, architectural design, workplace concept and supporting facilities. The findings also show a negative impact of workplace design on perceived productivity support, due to the miscalculation of the users’ needs and preferences during the implementation process. Furthermore staff characteristics, the work process and work patterns showed to have an effect on which work environment aspects employees perceive as being most important.
Regarding the impact of culture, the findings show that the dominant organisational culture types obtained from the organisational culture survey have been influenced by the structure and staff characteristics of the case organisations. The data from the national culture surveys that were conducted in the case studies show large differences in comparison to the findings from the studies by Hofstede (1997). These differences can be explained by the organisational context.
Conclusions
The cross-case analysis led to several conclusions: - The relevance of corporate real estate performance measures depends on different stakeholders, and different real estate and managerial levels. - The study confirms that measuring employee satisfaction of the work environment can be used as a means to measure organisational performance.
- The empirical findings confirm the relevance of the variables shown in the conceptual model of workplace change appraisal and the integrated conceptual model that connects organisational characteristics and characteristics of work processes to objective and subjective performance measurement indicators.
- The findings show that information about organisational and national culture is vital for the interpretation of workplace characteristics and the appraisal of change.
- The study shows that neither organisational nor national culture has absolute dominance in the employees’ appraisals.
- The findings proved that national culture data from Hofstede cannot be generalised to organisations; on organisational level huge discrepancies were found with employees’ between scores on cultural dimensions and national culture indices.
These conceptual frameworks on performance measurement and employees’ appraisals of workplace change can be used as a reference to provide input for further improvement of performance measurement and performance management. Many variables such as staff characteristics, work process, cultures and workplace characteristics simultaneously impact the performance measurement of workplace change. The relevance to performance management is that the organisations should be aware of the possible relationships between variables in the integrated conceptual model which could have an impact on performance measurement.
The role of real estate that exceeds an operational asset focusing cost efficiency to also include a strategic resource contributing to other criteria of an organisational performance has been shown in this study. A step-by-step plan for prioritisation of corporate real estate performance measures and KPIs has been introduced as a means to find a balance between the costs of measuring and the benefits of being able to manage corporate real estate efficiently and effectively and as such to contribute to achieving organisational objectives and to supporting the core business and organisational performance.
Methodological reflections
The empirical studies include a combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative data from the case studies which were analysed inductively helped to understand workplace change phenomenon, to clarify the relationships between the variables in the conceptual framework of workplace change, and to answer the research questions formulated at the beginning of the thesis. So far, the quantitative data from questionnaire surveys were used to explore the relationships between employees’ responses to workplace change and organisational and national culture in a qualitative way. The collected data can be used for further exploration of complex relationships by statistical analysis.
Triangulation of data collected from different sources (documents, surveys, interviews) helps to validate the findings through cross verification, i.e. reduce weakness or intrinsic biases from the researcher’s background knowledge. The assessment of both tangible (physical characteristics) and intangible components (perceived quality) of the office environment can help to validate the findings from the empirical research.
This research study is an exploration of performance measurement concerning workplace change in different contexts. The conclusion of this study is based on the findings from two Thai cases and one case in the Netherlands. Although there are assumed cause-effect relationships between the variables in the conceptual models, more case studies are needed in order to collect comparable data that support the findings of this kind of research
Woningcorporaties en Vastgoedontwikkeling: Fit for Use?
Get PDFWoningcorporaties en vastgoedontwikkeling, dat is een logische combinatie. Tenminste, het lijkt een logische combinatie. Woningcorporaties worden niet voor niets nog steeds vaak woningbouwverenigingen genoemd. Vastgoedontwikkeling is altijd í©í©n van de activiteiten geweest waar woningcorporaties mee bezig zijn geweest: woningen ontwikkelen voor een specifieke doelgroep, woningen renoveren en sinds de jaren ‘90 ook het investeren in ander vastgoed dan alleen woningen. Het is een dynamisch werkveld, de institutionele context van en rondom corporaties verandert continu en de markt is altijd in beweging.
Woningcorporaties reageerden en reageren verschillend als deze bewegingen worden vertaald naar de activiteiten en hun manier van handelen in vastgoedontwikkeling. De aard en omvang van vastgoedontwikkeling is vanuit de context voor een groot deel te analyseren en te verklaren. Er is evenwel weinig inzicht in de manier waarop corporaties de opgave uitvoeren, terwijl de manieren die wel zichtbaar zijn sterk per corporatie verschillen. Dit roept verschillende vragen op:
Waarom heeft de ene corporatie alles ‘in huis’ georganiseerd en legt de andere corporatie alle verantwoordelijkheid voor ontwikkeling in handen van een derde?
Waarom heeft de ene organisatie een aparte afdeling projectontwikkeling en de ander een team vastgoedontwikkeling binnen de afdeling vastgoed?Waarom verandert de manier van organiseren van projectontwikkeling binnen corporaties continu en ook nog eens in verschillende richtingen bij verschillende corporaties?Is het niet logischer dat woningcorporaties, met een op hoofdlijnen gezamenlijke doelstelling, inmiddels een goede manier van werken hebben ervaren en zich meer eenduidig volgens deze manier zouden kunnen organiseren?
Dit issue van A+BE gaat in op de antwoorden van deze vraagstukken. Het vakgebied vastgoedontwikkeling voor woningcorporaties moet hiervoor in beeld gebracht worden.Wat gebeurt er nu daadwerkelijk in de dagelijkse praktijk? Waar treden problemen in — de organisatie van - vastgoedontwikkeling door corporaties op? Zijn woningcorporaties op dit moment wel ‘fit for use’ om vastgoedontwikkeling uit te voeren