ArCo (Architectural Concepts) is an ontology about technical knowledge of construction developed in framework of KOC (1) project (Knowledge Objects of Construction). Aiming to structure this knowledge for pedagogical purposes, it identifies the Construction Objects and defines the WHAT, WHAT FOR, WHEN, WHERE and HOW of every one.

As the largest energy consumer and carbon emitter, China has made substantial efforts to improve energy efficiency to save energy, while the energy rebound effect mitigates its effectiveness. This paper is based on the logical relationship among capital input, technical change, economic growth, and energy consumption, adapting an alternative estimation model to estimate the energy rebound effec...

The major focus of this paper is to identify the advantages, challenges and usability of BIM during the project life cycle. Understanding the actual advantages of BIM is an essential driver for effective adaptation while both academic research and case studies particularly within construction and post construction stages failed to analyse and quantify BIM benefits. It was also found there is la...

This paper presents the conceptual CAD system VCAD that supports construction of Virtual Technical Objects (VTO) in a three-dimensional stereoscopic environment using pre-defined virtual construction elements. From the newly created VTO, the CAD system automatically produces the drafts needed for the production of the real technical object. This approach contrasts considerably from the traditio...

This article employs and extends the concept of technical code (Feenberg, 1992, 1995a, 1995b) to examine the current state of the internet. The notion of technical code – the cultural and social assumptions and values that become manifest in a technology’s physical and structural forms – is invoked to examine design characteristics of the internet that, in turn, reflect and provide opportunitie...

After a short introduction on socio-technical theory, the experiences the author made in the planning and carrying out of web sites and information systems for research and teaching are reported. The results from those experiences are analyzed with a special attention to knowledge development at three different levels: individuals, communities, and organizations (society), and the author’s hypo...

In this paper, we describe the construction of TeKnowbase, a knowledge-base of technical concepts in computer science. Our main information sources are technical websites such as Webopedia and Techtarget as well as Wikipedia and online textbooks. We divide the knowledgebase construction problem into two parts – the acquisition of entities and the extraction of relationships among these entities...

Nowadays, environmental protection has become the most public issue in the world. Thanks for the Kyoto Protocol that has established a trading system for greenhouse gas emissions worldwide; China has more chances to take part in environmental protection by carbon trading. But in recent years, carbon trading has been growing amazingly in China in volume but not in quality, which signs that it is...

The paper combines the discussion of technical agency and hybrid networks of Actor-Network Theory (ANT) with an ethnomethodological/conversation analytical (EMCA) perspective on situated practices in which participants ascribe agency to technical artefacts. While ANT works with (ethnographic) description of hybrid networks in which human and non-human actants are granted agency without differen...