The quantification of the overall "R-value" of building components is commonly achieved by using numerical models which are generally validated using the standardized Hot Box test. This test setup follows a complex methodology specifically designed to deliver only the R-value. Modern building assemblies are of a level of complexity that many times a single parameter is insufficient to improve the design of the assembly. This paper proposes a simple thermal test setup to analyze both transient and steady state heat flow processes, allowing for effective numerical fitting of parameters that describe all internal heat flow processes. As a result, the contribution of each element of an assembly can be evaluated on its overall insulating capabilities, thereby allowing for a truly optimized design solution. Two wall systems including significant thermal bridges have been chosen to illustrate this methodology. The proposed method, not only delivers a steady state thermal assessment as reliable as the standardised Hot Box procedure, but also allows a precise quantification of internal heat flows and the capability to conduct realistic transient state thermal assessments.

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Traditionally, the energy efficiency properties of building envelope components are prescribed world-wide using the steady-state "U-value" where the insulation capabilities rely on the thermal conductivity of construction materials only. However, the heat flow through the building envelope is also restricted by the effect of other material properties combined in the form of the thermal inertia, a widely used parameter that can be controlled in the building environment through transient-state parameters such as the cyclic transmittance "u-value". By controlling the thermal inertia of the building envelope components key aspects of the building performance such as the building thermal, energy efficiency and fire performance can be evaluated in a holistic manner so that balanced design solutions are obtained without detriment affecting each other. Herein, it is proposed a holistic assessment method that uses a numerical model to obtain the thermal inertia of building components from their thermal insulating parameters to ultimately predict reaction-to-fire performance. The method includes a complementary thermal test to achieve reliable and realistic assessments that enable the analysis of aspects like the effect of construction imperfections. Two wall assemblies were built first to illustrate the method including the thermal test and finally to verify the method by conducting reaction-to-fire tests.

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The term ‘industrialised construction’ carries the promise of an industry transformed, an industry driven by improved processes and higher quality products. One of the more obvious differences between industrialised construction and traditional construction is the factory. Yet it is often undervalued as a secondary consideration to the seemingly more important factors of speed, efficiency and economic rationalisation. This paper offers a reconsideration of the history of the factory as a critical feature in shaping contemporary sites of production in the construction industry. While the manufacturing mega-factories of today continue to develop at a rapid rate, their composition has been shaped by all three previous industrial revolutions and the current fourth. Drawing on the legacies of mechanisation, mass production and automation, today’s factory is informed by ideas of lean and agile production, and the connected factory forecast by Industry 4.0 looks towards the internet, cloud and IoT in visions of the future. By charting the evolution of the preceding three phases of industry in relation to key architectural developments of the factory, this paper reflects upon which aspects of these earlier chapters of manufacturing have affected the implementation of Industry 4.0 in the industrialised construction sector. Research in this area has often asked what the production sites of industrialised construction can learn from contemporary manufacturing, such as the automotive, aerospace or technology industries. By contrast, this paper questions the how the potential requirements of industrialised construction might differ from other forms of manufacturing and how this might in turn inform future sites of production in this sector. This paper speculates that a contemporary industrialised construction industry would be wise to re-evaluate the factory as a space specific to construction, distinct from manufacturing origins, in order to better address the broad range of new, or previously under-considered, industry specific requirements.