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The intensity and diversity of human activities in public open spaces are indicators of their success and high quality. Although some studies addressed the relationship between the quality of open spaces and their use, none has comprehensively addressed the intensity and diversity of use and users. This study attempts to develop the Mehta method 2007 “GPSI” for measuring the quality of public open spaces, by adding the spatial dimension and using the time dimension more widely. Procedures for developing a tool for measuring the intensity and diversity of use (IDU) were applied to four selected public open spaces in Sana’a city in Yemen by the survey studies. The tool of (IDU) includes the intensity of temporal use, the intensity of spatial use, the intensity of social use, diversity of age and gender, the intensity of stay, and the intensity of activities. This study used the perception of architects and urban designers to determine the quality of public space (QPS). It then examined the correlation between IDU and QPS using Pearson’s Correlation Coefficients. The results show significant correlations between indexes of IDU and QPS.

Entrepreneurship orientation (EO) recently came to light as a major business strategy for improving firm performance in different contexts. The goal of this paper is to investigate the impact of EO dimensional components as independent constructs on the financial performance of Nigerian construction SMEs. A field survey method was used to collect information from 139 owners and top managers of construction SME in Abuja and Lagos, Nigeria. Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) technique with the aid of Smart PLS 3.0 software was used to analyse and tests the hypothesized relationships between EO dimensional components and financial performance of construction SME’s. Finding shows that EO strongly explains 78.1% of the variance in construction SME’s financial performance. Innovativeness, proactiveness and autonomy orientations were found to correlate positively with financial performance while competitive aggressiveness and risk taking reported no significant relationship with financial performance. The study concludes that EO has a very strong potential for boosting the financial outcomes of construction SMEs in Nigeria. The study recommends construction SMEs to leverage on EO strategies to engender improvement in their general corporate performance.

A thermal insulation material’s effectiveness is influenced by its thermal conductivity and ability to maintain its thermal characteristics, particularly in hot and humid environments. In this study, different waste materials used in building envelopes are investigated for their thermal conductivity under temperature and humidity variations. Four materials are being studied experimentally; rubber, paper, plastic, and foam are mixed separately and proportionally with plain mortar. Thermal conductivity in testing samples is determined using heat-flow meters. Testing waste materials in a room environment for 14 days revealed varying degrees of thermal resistance. Compared to plain mortar, the inclusion of rubber, plastic, paper, and foam increase thermal resistance by 1.6, 43.4, 50.5, and 101.4%, respectively. In a climatic testing chamber, samples were exposed to extreme temperatures and humidity levels consistent with Bahrain’s monthly average temperatures. To determine the effect of changes in temperature and humidity on each waste material’s thermal properties, the thermal resistance of the samples was measured after 24, 48, and 72 hours. The change in environmental factors seems to have a mild impact on rubber’s thermal resistance. Most materials are foam and plastic, while paper and paperboard are moderately affected. Such a change is not substantial for the four tested waste materials during the July environment. Foam, which has demonstrated more significant changes throughout the January environment, shows fewer changes than rubber, paper, and plastic. In an extreme environment, all the tested waste materials, except for plastic, are highly influenced by exposure to extremities of temperature and relative humidity.

During the 21st century, food security has become a significant concern due to the growing population and the Earth’s diminishing resources. The Kingdom of Bahrain is one of the numerous countries that has been affected by urbanization, where the urban expansion was at the price of agricultural land. The paper introduces a rational for Vertical Farms that are sustainable solutions for 21st – century urbanization. It brings multiple benefits to Bahrain and its community in terms of food security, education, awareness, and health. It also supports its food security strategy and its 2030 vision. The study discusses the proposed project location in terms of the project’s needs as an urban vertical farm that aims to serve locals & residents of Bahrain by improving the quality and quantity of locally grown fruits and vegetables in an indoor controlled environment. The paper discussed various analyzed case studies of comparable type projects to understand better the project’s purposes, spaces, technological needs, and other significant features. Then, introducing and discussing a decision support framework for a set of criteria that responds to the primary sustainability pillars have been established to identify the best potential site to assure project success.

The study examines the effects of heat islands on Putrajaya City and evaluates the planned city features effect since climate policies were not deliberatively considered during the planning process. The aim of this study is to explore the effect of air temperature on the different urban forms and residential areas in the completed construction precincts of Putrajaya Boulevard. The investigation was performed using a mobile survey method with a data logger three times a day, during the morning, noon, and afternoon time, for three days during the hottest month in July 2012. It was found that there is no significant difference in variation of the air temperature between the different city features, and urban typology blocks, and the maximum air temperature was 37 °C. Hence, the temperature has remained constant since before the city was built. Therefore, the climate aspect was not considered during the planning process for reducing the temperature and improving environmental comfort. It is, therefore, necessary to establish a strategy and policy that will reduce the high air temperature before the master plan is completed.

Waste materials pollution has instigated a serious environmental problem for decades, therefore new initiatives have been taken around the world to recycle wastes into construction materials in recent years. This study applied the compressive strength as one of the key parameters to examine the characteristics of materials, it was conducted to investigate the efficiency of adding different waste materials to cement mortar mixture as partial replacement with sand. Crumbed rubber, expanded polystyrene (foam), shredded wastepaper, and shredded plastic bags were selected to examine the efficiency of adding them to cement mortar. These waste materials were mixed individually with cement, sand and water proportionally. The produced mixture of each waste materials was casted in standard cubes and cured in water for different ages 3, 7 and 28 days. The compressive strength of the cured cubes was tested, the results showed that over all tested ages, plasticbased mortar provided the lowest compressive strength variance values by -7.4, -6.7%, and -5.4% in comparison with tested reference mortar. Rubber-based mortar showed the highest variance by -58.5 % at 3 days, -58.3% after 7 days and -55.5 % after 28 days. Foam comes next to Plastic-based mortar then Paper-based mortar by -13.7 & -37 % after 3 days, -11.3 & -34 % after 7 days and -14 & -26 % after 28 days respectively. In comparison to ASTM C129, the results rangessupported the possibility of using cement mortar mixed with shredded plastic, foam and shredded wastepaper in producing non-loadbearing concrete masonry units.

A city’s human scale can be achieved if people recognized the four Cardinal Directions (CDs) anywhere within the city. As a reflection of the theory of ‘prospect and refuge,’ this paper investigates the problem of losing a city’s human scale, by studying the impact of the form of the street paths on maintaining and perception of the four CDs. The paper highlights the problem of a non-designed street network and the heterogeneity of its texture. The paper explores the impact of such random street networks on achieving the human scale of cities. Kharga City in Egypt located on (25.4390° N, 30.5586° E) is an example of cities suffering from non-designed street networks. Therefore, the paper relied on the inferential statistics approach by surveying a sample of residents in Kharga City, with the assumption that, the main reason for that problem was the various curves existing in the street paths, which had different shapes, sizes, diameters, and directions. Moreover, the lack of a typical street network pattern had aggravated the problem. Analysis and results confirmed the hypothesis of the research, hence basic recommendations were made. The most important of which is, the need to avoid random curves in street directions, and to follow the orthogonal grid pattern, mainly in the design of street networks, in order to ensure a city with human-scale, that is easy to recognize its correct mental map.

A city’s human scale can be achieved if people recognized the four Cardinal Directions (CDs) anywhere within the city. As a reflection of the theory of ‘prospect and refuge,’ this paper investigates the problem of losing a city’s human scale, by studying the impact of the form of the street paths on maintaining and perception of the four CDs. The paper highlights the problem of a non-designed street network and the heterogeneity of its texture. The paper explores the impact of such random street networks on achieving the human scale of cities. Kharga City in Egypt located on (25.4390° N, 30.5586° E) is an example of cities suffering from non-designed street networks. Therefore, the paper relied on the inferential statistics approach by surveying a sample of residents in Kharga City, with the assumption that, the main reason for that problem was the various curves existing in the street paths, which had different shapes, sizes, diameters, and directions. Moreover, the lack of a typical street network pattern had aggravated the problem. Analysis and results confirmed the hypothesis of the research, hence basic recommendations were made. The most important of which is, the need to avoid random curves in street directions, and to follow the orthogonal grid pattern, mainly in the design of street networks, in order to ensure a city with human-scale, that is easy to recognize its correct mental map.