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PurposeVirtual reality (VR) offers unique features of a three-dimensional (3D) model during early design stages in the virtual environment with immersive functions. Although the potential of VR is to increase the effectiveness and productivity of the project phases from initial concept design to detailed design preparation. VR adoption in the United Kingdom (UK) Architectural Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector is slow compared to other sectors. This research focuses on ascertaining the drivers and barriers of VR in construction projects in the UK.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopts an online survey design. It uses Bristol Online Survey (BOS) to create a structured questionnaire that is used to assess UK construction professionals using a convenience sampling technique. Therefore, researcher uses descriptive and inferential technique for data analysis and presentation based on Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) to analyze the questionnaire.FindingsThe research findings revealed the most significant barriers to VR adoption in UK construction industry were lack of skills/expertise and cultural change. Hence, the main drivers of VR adoption as rated by the professionals in the UK construction industry are improved safety, improved quality and improved productivity.Practical implicationsThe identification and assessment of the drivers and barriers to VR adoption could advance VR adoption among construction professionals and other stakeholders of the UK AEC sector. This could also be extended to developing countries, given the status of VR as being in the developing stage.Originality/valueThis study provides valuable insights to construction professionals and stakeholders to plan actions that could enhance the drivers and mitigate the barriers of VR. This study's main contribution is to group and classify various drivers and barriers into easily understood categories, in order to potentiate the drivers and reduce the barriers effectively. The groupings could be used as benchmarks in similar studies in developing countries.

Construction works all over the world pose serious threat to workers and even non-workers. Health and safety in Nigerian construction firms have long been an issue to reckon with due to the several reports of the occurrence of accidents during construction works. This study investigates the extent of application of Health and Safety Plan in construction firms in Nigeria. A purposive sampling technique was used purposely for convenience sake and data was fetched from three cities with equal representation by the aid of a structured questionnaire. Results reveal that even though most firms studied have been in business for over a decade, one quarter of them hardly comply with any Health and Safety Plan during construction. Furthermore, employees are assets but this study reveals that some firms fully in business neither have Health and Safety insurance for their employees nor do some facilitate payment of Health and Safety insurance for their staff. It was concluded that effective Health and Safety practices for employees in Nigeria are yet to be fully appreciated and implemented among construction firms. As such, it is recommended that relevant authorities should checkmate Health and Safety practices in the Nigerian construction industry.

Purpose Influential factors attributed to causing project completion delay (PCD) differ because of prevailing variability of local conditions. Construction projects specifically in Yemen (and other developing countries) experience devastating effects of PCD which include litigation, cost overrun, arbitration, abandonment and failure. While existing works have investigated the causes and effects of PCD, not much exist on approaches to optimizing its occurrence in Yemen. In a bid to enhance the effects of PCD in Yemen, the integrated influential factors (IIFs), which is a construction-party specific model, was developed to mitigate the effects of PCD in Yemen. As a build up to the development of this model, this paper aims to validate the IIFs model with a view to foster its application to enhance PCD in construction project delivery in Yemen. Design/methodology/approach The validation of the IIFs model was done through seeking the opinions of 12 selected construction industry experts. This involved using a structured questionnaire to seek information on the sustainability of implementing the IIFs model. Findings The findings revealed that if the IIFs model is vigorously implemented, it would go a long way in curbing delay in the delivery of construction projects, making construction delivery less risky due to the effects of delay. Research limitations/implications The study is limited to only influential factors of internal stakeholders of the construction phase. Similarly, the study was only conducted in the state of Sana'a, Yemen. The implication of the adoption of the IIFs model is that it can hopefully serve as an adaptive controller to construction project delivery relative to the specific parameters and factors investigated in this study. Originality/value The IIFs model is a novel approach to optimizing PCD in Yemen specific to both the construction-phase and internal stakeholders. Existing studies on PCD in Yemen, although investigating the causes and effect of PCD, hardly proffer any approach to optimizing PCD for successful construction project delivery.

Facilities Management (FM) is a discipline having close ties with the efficient management of an organisations built environment. In today’s ever competitive business environments, a core mandate for FM employees is to acquire Information and Communications Technology (ICT) skills which enables, supports and acts as a utility for innovation towards optimally and efficiently managing the built environment. The rate of continuous developments in ICT however equally calls for a continuous review in ICT skills in FM. Literature sadly shows that few reviews on ICT skills are conducted, especially in developing countries. As such, this research studied ICT competencies among 49 students enrolled in Masters in Facilities Management (MFM) in 2013/2014 Academic Session in Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Nigeria with a view to assessing the application of ICT in the student’s places of work. A survey was conducted on the MFM students to collect data using a structured questionnaire. Results reveal that while all students studied use an ICT devise in their place of work, Relative Importance Index however revealed that word processing, spread sheet and downloading (specifically for research) using online databases are the three most used ICT applications. Owning to the shortage of skills in the more technical ICT applications studied which are fundamentally required in current FM practice, the researchers recommended that the MFM curriculum should give more priority in teaching the ICT applications in deficit so that the students can meet up with the marketability requirements for FM practice upon graduation.