Amna Shibeika | University of Reading (original) (raw)
Papers by Amna Shibeika
The 'Care Pathways' is a relatively recent health care management concept that seeks to make expl... more The 'Care Pathways' is a relatively recent health care management concept that seeks to make explicit the process of caring for patients. Care pathways appear central to the UK government's National Healthcare Service reforms. However, published reports of care pathways do not adequately incorporate the nature of the built environment infrastructure within and through which most care is delivered. Aligning care pathways issues with buildings' spatial system elements, we realised that the information embedded in care pathways can and arguably should be able to inform architects thinking when considering a building's spatial system. Briefing is identified as the interface where care pathways issues are discussed, and their consequences in the infrastructure tested and formulated. To understand how design requirements to encapsulate care pathways concepts is captured and assessed during the briefing process, scoping study designed with the aim to investigate the mechanisms of specification and evaluation of care pathways in current briefing practices. The study showed that Care Pathways as a term does not exist in current briefing documents. Also it revealed that delivery architects are not involved in the health care planning process furthermore they are not well informed of the outcomes of the health care planning process. As we recognised that care pathways have the potential to inform briefing if represented innovatively and in an understandable way to both health care clients and designers, we are proposing modelling as an approach to understand care pathways to capture the spatial requirements of health care facilities.
Buildings, 2021
The construction industry in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is faced with negative project perfor... more The construction industry in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is faced with negative project performance, including low productivity, higher costs, delays in project completion, and defects during construction. One of the main reasons for these issues is the engagement of unskilled craft workers. Despite these labor issues, demand for construction projects in the UAE has been explosively increasing, in part due to Dubai winning the hosting of Expo 2020, which has given rise to an unprecedented demand for skilled construction craft workers. This study aimed to investigate the views and experiences of construction project managers regarding the reasons and challenges associated with the hiring of skilled craft workers in the construction labor market of the UAE. To fulfill the study purpose, the authors conducted structured open-ended interviews with UAE construction project managers. The results revealed several reasons for hiring craft workers despite a clear lack of qualifications an...
IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 2019
The UAE is witnessing increased interest for sustainable development which poses challenges on th... more The UAE is witnessing increased interest for sustainable development which poses challenges on the development processes for the large amount of built environment projects taking place in this emerging economy. While, great attention has been given to the development of tools and methods to measure and assess the performance of buildings to meet specific environmental sustainability targets, however, less is known about the effect of these assessment methods on the built environment development process itself. This paper addresses this gap through the investigation of the adoption of building environmental sustainability assessment methods for development projects in the UAE. Currently, there are two assessment methods in the UAE; Pearl Building Rating (PBR) and Al Sa’fat systems. Background study revealed that both systems: are developed in parallel to the development of building codes, adopt performance-based approach for assessment methods, and their adoption for development proj...
Construction Management and Economics, 2015
The UK government is mandating the use of building information modelling (BIM) in large public pr... more The UK government is mandating the use of building information modelling (BIM) in large public projects by 2016. As a result, engineering firms are faced with challenges related to embedding new technologies and associated working practices for the digital delivery of major infrastructure projects. Diffusion of innovations theory is used to investigate how digital innovations diffuse across complex firms. A contextualist approach is employed through an in-depth case study of a large, international engineering project-based firm. The analysis of the empirical data, which was collected over a four-year period of close interaction with the firm, reveals parallel paths of diffusion occurring across the firm, where both the innovation and the firm context were continually changing. The diffusion process is traced over three phases: centralization of technology management, standardization of digital working practices, and globalization of digital resources. The findings describe the diffusion of a digital innovation as multiple and partial within a complex social system during times of change and organizational uncertainty, thereby contributing to diffusion of innovations studies in construction by showing a range of activities and dynamics of a non-linear diffusion process.
Digital delivery of infrastructure projects; impact and management issues within a project-based ... more Digital delivery of infrastructure projects; impact and management issues within a project-based engineering firm. Abstract: The use of digital technologies for engineering design is receiving rising interest by both academia and the architecture-engineering-construction (AEC) industry. In the UK the government's new construction strategy to achieve fully collaborative BIM projects by 2016 is a further catalyst. Research in the field is too often focused on digital technologies and associated digital practices as implemented in major projects. Longitudinal case-study research is used to understand the impact and management issues associated with digital delivery of projects within a large international engineering firm. The data shows that technologies to manipulate and manage engineering data, communication and information infrastructure, and digital data standards are emerging as digital infrastructure for the firm's engineering design work; this digital infrastructure is ...
informs.org
... Amna Shibeika School of Construction Management & Engineering University of Reading White... more ... Amna Shibeika School of Construction Management & Engineering University of Reading Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6AW, UK Colin Gray ... AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES AMNA SHIBEIKA is a research assistant at the School of Construction Management at University of Reading. ...
Sustainability
Due to the scarcity of water and the harsh desert climate of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), wate... more Due to the scarcity of water and the harsh desert climate of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), water and energy are two of the main challenges for the design of sustainable buildings in the UAE. Relevant literature calls for the consideration of building systems and materials at the design stage to achieve high-performing buildings and to save on the operational costs of the building. The aim of this research was to design a high-performance building that meets the environmental sustainability requirements for water and energy, in the city of Dubai to reflect the technological advancements of the UAE Mars mission. This has been achieved through following an integrated design process, which was mainly focused on the evaluation and specification of the building engineering systems based on performance, besides the goal of achieving visually appealing building with advanced structural design. The performance verification of the final building design, which considered engineering systems ...
Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering
Current research in sustainable development of the built environment acknowledge the role of buil... more Current research in sustainable development of the built environment acknowledge the role of building environmental sustainability assessment methods as market changers for sustainable buildings' design and construction. While most of the existing studies are focused either on developing and comparing assessment methods, or on assessment methods' performance outcomes, this research addresses how assessment methods are adopted in practice. To address this, a pilot study was designed with desktop study of literature and regulation documents, as well as 7 guided in-depth interviews with 8 professionals engaged with assessment methods in the UAE. While, the spread of sustainable design and construction practices is motivated by mandating the assessment methods for all projects, but, with various rating requirements for government and private development projects, the analysis has revealed the continuous development of communication channels for the spread of sustainable design and construction practices between the regulative bodies with: (a) clients through raising awareness activities, (b) projects professionals through training and technical support, and (c) suppliers of sustainable systems and products through quality assurance and certification procedures. Finally, the paper discusses these findings and outlines possible impact on theory, policy and practice.
Digital innovations are rapidly diffusing within the construction sector. With the UK government ... more Digital innovations are rapidly diffusing within the construction sector. With the UK government policy mandating building information modelling (BIM) by 2016, engineering firms are faced with challenges related to embedding new technologies and associated working practices for the digital delivery of major infrastructure projects. Drawing from diffusion of innovations theory, this research attempts to answer the question of: how digital innovation diffuses in the firm? It adopts a contextualist approach through in-depth case study of a large and international engineering project-based firm. The analysis of the empirical data, which was collected over four years of close interaction with the firm, provides a narrative for the diffusion of the digital innovation across the firm where both the innovation and the firm were in flux. The diffusion process has evolved through three main mechanisms: centralisation of technology management, standardisation of digital working practices, and ...
In 2016, 9.68 million tons of solid waste were generated in Abu Dhabi alone where 67.8% was sent ... more In 2016, 9.68 million tons of solid waste were generated in Abu Dhabi alone where 67.8% was sent to dumpsites and landfills. In the same year, the construction and demolishing (C&D) industry produced 47% of the non-hazardous waste. This research aims to investigate the C&D waste management in UAE’s construction industry, specifically in Abu Dhabi based on (a) official resources identifying authorized entities, regulations, implementation guidelines, and causes behind waste generation in UAE’ C&D industry; and (b) unstructured interviews with construction professionals in Abu Dhabi revealing the waste management consideration process, enhancement methods, professionals’ responsibilities and views toward the topic. While Abu Dhabi’s sustainability framework (Estidama) requires a submittal of C&D Waste Management Plan (CDWMP) prior to any construction activity asking for a minimum of 30% waste diversion from landfills, relevant literature highlighted awareness as an effective factor in...
The 'Care Pathways' is a relatively recent health care management concept that seeks to make expl... more The 'Care Pathways' is a relatively recent health care management concept that seeks to make explicit the process of caring for patients. Care pathways appear central to the UK government's National Healthcare Service reforms. However, published reports of care pathways do not adequately incorporate the nature of the built environment infrastructure within and through which most care is delivered. Aligning care pathways issues with buildings' spatial system elements, we realised that the information embedded in care pathways can and arguably should be able to inform architects thinking when considering a building's spatial system. Briefing is identified as the interface where care pathways issues are discussed, and their consequences in the infrastructure tested and formulated. To understand how design requirements to encapsulate care pathways concepts is captured and assessed during the briefing process, scoping study designed with the aim to investigate the mechanisms of specification and evaluation of care pathways in current briefing practices. The study showed that Care Pathways as a term does not exist in current briefing documents. Also it revealed that delivery architects are not involved in the health care planning process furthermore they are not well informed of the outcomes of the health care planning process. As we recognised that care pathways have the potential to inform briefing if represented innovatively and in an understandable way to both health care clients and designers, we are proposing modelling as an approach to understand care pathways to capture the spatial requirements of health care facilities.
Buildings, 2021
The construction industry in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is faced with negative project perfor... more The construction industry in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is faced with negative project performance, including low productivity, higher costs, delays in project completion, and defects during construction. One of the main reasons for these issues is the engagement of unskilled craft workers. Despite these labor issues, demand for construction projects in the UAE has been explosively increasing, in part due to Dubai winning the hosting of Expo 2020, which has given rise to an unprecedented demand for skilled construction craft workers. This study aimed to investigate the views and experiences of construction project managers regarding the reasons and challenges associated with the hiring of skilled craft workers in the construction labor market of the UAE. To fulfill the study purpose, the authors conducted structured open-ended interviews with UAE construction project managers. The results revealed several reasons for hiring craft workers despite a clear lack of qualifications an...
IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 2019
The UAE is witnessing increased interest for sustainable development which poses challenges on th... more The UAE is witnessing increased interest for sustainable development which poses challenges on the development processes for the large amount of built environment projects taking place in this emerging economy. While, great attention has been given to the development of tools and methods to measure and assess the performance of buildings to meet specific environmental sustainability targets, however, less is known about the effect of these assessment methods on the built environment development process itself. This paper addresses this gap through the investigation of the adoption of building environmental sustainability assessment methods for development projects in the UAE. Currently, there are two assessment methods in the UAE; Pearl Building Rating (PBR) and Al Sa’fat systems. Background study revealed that both systems: are developed in parallel to the development of building codes, adopt performance-based approach for assessment methods, and their adoption for development proj...
Construction Management and Economics, 2015
The UK government is mandating the use of building information modelling (BIM) in large public pr... more The UK government is mandating the use of building information modelling (BIM) in large public projects by 2016. As a result, engineering firms are faced with challenges related to embedding new technologies and associated working practices for the digital delivery of major infrastructure projects. Diffusion of innovations theory is used to investigate how digital innovations diffuse across complex firms. A contextualist approach is employed through an in-depth case study of a large, international engineering project-based firm. The analysis of the empirical data, which was collected over a four-year period of close interaction with the firm, reveals parallel paths of diffusion occurring across the firm, where both the innovation and the firm context were continually changing. The diffusion process is traced over three phases: centralization of technology management, standardization of digital working practices, and globalization of digital resources. The findings describe the diffusion of a digital innovation as multiple and partial within a complex social system during times of change and organizational uncertainty, thereby contributing to diffusion of innovations studies in construction by showing a range of activities and dynamics of a non-linear diffusion process.
Digital delivery of infrastructure projects; impact and management issues within a project-based ... more Digital delivery of infrastructure projects; impact and management issues within a project-based engineering firm. Abstract: The use of digital technologies for engineering design is receiving rising interest by both academia and the architecture-engineering-construction (AEC) industry. In the UK the government's new construction strategy to achieve fully collaborative BIM projects by 2016 is a further catalyst. Research in the field is too often focused on digital technologies and associated digital practices as implemented in major projects. Longitudinal case-study research is used to understand the impact and management issues associated with digital delivery of projects within a large international engineering firm. The data shows that technologies to manipulate and manage engineering data, communication and information infrastructure, and digital data standards are emerging as digital infrastructure for the firm's engineering design work; this digital infrastructure is ...
informs.org
... Amna Shibeika School of Construction Management & Engineering University of Reading White... more ... Amna Shibeika School of Construction Management & Engineering University of Reading Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6AW, UK Colin Gray ... AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES AMNA SHIBEIKA is a research assistant at the School of Construction Management at University of Reading. ...
Sustainability
Due to the scarcity of water and the harsh desert climate of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), wate... more Due to the scarcity of water and the harsh desert climate of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), water and energy are two of the main challenges for the design of sustainable buildings in the UAE. Relevant literature calls for the consideration of building systems and materials at the design stage to achieve high-performing buildings and to save on the operational costs of the building. The aim of this research was to design a high-performance building that meets the environmental sustainability requirements for water and energy, in the city of Dubai to reflect the technological advancements of the UAE Mars mission. This has been achieved through following an integrated design process, which was mainly focused on the evaluation and specification of the building engineering systems based on performance, besides the goal of achieving visually appealing building with advanced structural design. The performance verification of the final building design, which considered engineering systems ...
Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering
Current research in sustainable development of the built environment acknowledge the role of buil... more Current research in sustainable development of the built environment acknowledge the role of building environmental sustainability assessment methods as market changers for sustainable buildings' design and construction. While most of the existing studies are focused either on developing and comparing assessment methods, or on assessment methods' performance outcomes, this research addresses how assessment methods are adopted in practice. To address this, a pilot study was designed with desktop study of literature and regulation documents, as well as 7 guided in-depth interviews with 8 professionals engaged with assessment methods in the UAE. While, the spread of sustainable design and construction practices is motivated by mandating the assessment methods for all projects, but, with various rating requirements for government and private development projects, the analysis has revealed the continuous development of communication channels for the spread of sustainable design and construction practices between the regulative bodies with: (a) clients through raising awareness activities, (b) projects professionals through training and technical support, and (c) suppliers of sustainable systems and products through quality assurance and certification procedures. Finally, the paper discusses these findings and outlines possible impact on theory, policy and practice.
Digital innovations are rapidly diffusing within the construction sector. With the UK government ... more Digital innovations are rapidly diffusing within the construction sector. With the UK government policy mandating building information modelling (BIM) by 2016, engineering firms are faced with challenges related to embedding new technologies and associated working practices for the digital delivery of major infrastructure projects. Drawing from diffusion of innovations theory, this research attempts to answer the question of: how digital innovation diffuses in the firm? It adopts a contextualist approach through in-depth case study of a large and international engineering project-based firm. The analysis of the empirical data, which was collected over four years of close interaction with the firm, provides a narrative for the diffusion of the digital innovation across the firm where both the innovation and the firm were in flux. The diffusion process has evolved through three main mechanisms: centralisation of technology management, standardisation of digital working practices, and ...
In 2016, 9.68 million tons of solid waste were generated in Abu Dhabi alone where 67.8% was sent ... more In 2016, 9.68 million tons of solid waste were generated in Abu Dhabi alone where 67.8% was sent to dumpsites and landfills. In the same year, the construction and demolishing (C&D) industry produced 47% of the non-hazardous waste. This research aims to investigate the C&D waste management in UAE’s construction industry, specifically in Abu Dhabi based on (a) official resources identifying authorized entities, regulations, implementation guidelines, and causes behind waste generation in UAE’ C&D industry; and (b) unstructured interviews with construction professionals in Abu Dhabi revealing the waste management consideration process, enhancement methods, professionals’ responsibilities and views toward the topic. While Abu Dhabi’s sustainability framework (Estidama) requires a submittal of C&D Waste Management Plan (CDWMP) prior to any construction activity asking for a minimum of 30% waste diversion from landfills, relevant literature highlighted awareness as an effective factor in...