Construction site layout planning practices in inner-city building projects: space requirement variables, classification and relationship

ABSTRACT

An inner-city building construction site for vacant land development or redevelopment of existing property is a site surrounded by buildings, occupants, and busy street(s); its space is the most important but limited resource that needs wisely planned and professionally used. The study aimed to assess the construction site layout planning (CSLP) practice and the classification of space requirement variables for inner-city building sites. Thus, the study adopted a triangulated study approach and the data was collected through a sequential mixed method that includes case studies: semi-structured interviews, document evaluation, and site visits observation followed by a two-round Delphi survey. The study has identified the space requirement variables, classification, and relationship for CSLP of inner-city sites; classified under three categories: Micro-space (four), Macro-space (18), and Paths (five); and have significant to strong associations with each other. The current practice shows the CSLP is overlooked or fragmented which causes a congested site condition. So, the provided insight on the strong relationship between space requirements will be a basis for shifting from the temporary-facility-centered planning methods towards an integrated CSLP approach to overcome contractors’ problems in the continued redevelopment demand of the inner city.

KEYWORDS:

• Inner-city
• redevelopment
• building
• construction site layout planning
• space requirements

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our gratitude to the institutions and study participants for their response and collaboration in the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in this study involving human participants followed the ethical standards of the University of Zambia Directorate of Research and Graduate Studies and received approval for the study with Ref No.NASREC-2022-APPRIL-008.

Informed consent

The research involved human participants who were informed about the purpose of the study and that their participation is voluntary.

Additional information

Funding

This research is done under the scholarship of SPREE at the university of Zambia School of Engineering.