No abstract

Design of a building focuses on meeting basic needs and cost. It lacks in performance evaluation of the building which is normally translated as the ease of building operation and maintenance. Robust Engineering (RE) method has the ability for building design to focus on clients’ expectation. It improves building performance as it significantly influences product performance in use. High engineered quality is achieved by evaluating the interaction between user environment or noise with control factors. The aim of this research is to identify user environment which is also known as noise during building use and important consideration for better building performance. The research design in this study included an expert panel interview and a questionnaire based survey. Respondents of the expert panel interview are professionals who have experience in building design and maintenance. The questionnaire survey was conducted to identify current design focus, main problems during building operation and key factors to improve maintenance related needs of a building. Findings suggest that improving maintenance related needs in building design seeks collaborative design effort in sharing and translating design information, efficient use of information and effective analysis method, focus on product performance on user environment, sustainable use of resources as an integrated system with low waste generation and development of designer competency. Noise in building design consists of space planning, material selection, equipment selection and integration, and control factor(s) to suit the authorities' approval and supply chain support consideration.

Harvesting energy from ocean waves remains an untapped resource, and it is considered a new methodology in renewable energy, especially in Malaysia. This research is based on a project at Kuantan Port that used Wave Energy Converter (WEC) as a platform to generate energy from waves and convert it into electricity. The purpose of this research is to conduct a risk assessment before the execution of the project by referring to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 31000 and Risk Management Guidelines: Companion to AS/NZS 4360:2004. It started from risk identification and planned a mitigation way to reduce the grade of risk. These mitigations will be monitored throughout the project to avoid any accidents or harm during construction and installation in the future. The assessment will be using a qualitative analysis method that will gather all the possible risks that impact the project and propose the actions to mitigate the risk. The assessment will also consider the likelihood, seriousness, and weightage to determine the risk level. The risk assessment is divided into six clusters: project management, hydrography, mechanical, electrical, civil, and safety and security. After analysis, each cluster has given their feedback on the risk assessment and their cluster-s risk grade. This research has found that the risk grade is at grade C, which needs the risk assessment of this project to reduce the likelihood, seriousness, and required mitigation actions. Eventually, after the mitigation plan is applied to each risk, the grade of risk is reduced to N.