Smart Building (SB)s have gained significant attention over the past decade. This is mainly because of the performance and efficiency enhancements that smart features can enable a building system to achieve, for example, net-zero energy consumption, operational savings, state-of-the-science user-friendliness, safety and security. Nowadays, many new buildings are being designed with smart features. The ‘grand challenge’, however, is converting the existing, ordinary buildings into SBs, through a process called “smart retrofitting (SR)”. This process, while affecting the existing building components and the end-users, is challenging to the relevant facilities managers. As strengthening the SR knowledge base will enable better-informed, hence more effective decisions, the focus of this research is to undertake a bibliometric analysis of SR research to assess its development in terms of prominent authors, countries and organisations. The bibliometric searches were conducted on the ‘Scopus’ and ‘Web of Science’ databases. A total of 107 journal articles were identified and analysed using the “VOSviewer” software. The findings revealed: the co-authorship patterns; the connections among the most influential authors, countries, and organisations; and the weak collaboration among the authors and organisations. This study is the first bibliometric analysis on SR, the results of which not only serve as a useful reference for both researchers and practitioners but also signpost further works to be undertaken for complementing the current results.

Buildings are among the largest sources of carbon emissions, so their owners have been compelled to set stringent sustainability goals in response to the global call for carbon neutrality. Consequently, facility managers are pressed to make their buildings smarter through adopting greater value-for-money sustainability solutions. Besides the implementation of traditional energy-saving measures, retrofitting buildings with smart building (SB) features, known as ‘smart retrofitting’ (SR), has become a growing trend. However, there is still no known set of appropriate criteria for making decisions on SR. To fill this void, a study was undertaken, where a four-tier hierarchical framework of SR decision-making criteria has been established after a thorough literature search on the Web of Science database followed by an in-depth qualitative review and a focus group discussion. A total of 32 criteria were identified, which fall into five categories: (1) Financial; (2) Technical; (3) Human; (4) Environmental; and (5) Legal, safety, and security. A key finding is that it is not merely the post-retrofit performance but also the retrofitting process itself that plays an important part in SR decision-making. The identified criteria demonstrate that ‘smartness’ encompasses not only ‘energy efficiency’ but also a vast array of other technical and social factors. The broad scope portrayed by the criteria, which needs to be considered holistically, provides guidance to facility managers in making SR decisions. Future works for refining the SR decision-making framework are also outlined.

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Purpose Factory acceptance testing (FAT) in the construction industry has been severely hampered due to restrictions in cross-border travel resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, virtual FAT (vFAT) became a popular substitute for physical FAT. However, the credibility of vFAT is being questioned because it was adopted without much scrutiny. Hence, this study is aimed at investigating vFATs and re-engineering the FAT process to suit an effective vFAT environment.Design/methodology/approach A comprehensive literature search on FAT procedures was followed by two stages of expert interviews with eight leading subject experts and a case study. The findings were analysed using code-based content analysis on NVivo software.Findings Strengths of vFATs include “reduction in cost and time consumed”, “flexibility for more participants” and “faster orders”. Most emphasized weaknesses include “lack of reliability” and “lack of technology transfer”. vFAT has mostly increased test reliability by “improving accessibility” and has decreased reliability by “restricting physical touch and feel observation of the equipment”. A four-step vFAT process was developed with a noteworthy additional step called “Pre-FAT Meeting”.Research limitations/implications The scope of this study is limited to the Sri Lankan construction industry. Expansion of the geographical area of focus is recommended for future studies.Originality/value The findings of this study unveil a vFAT process, which is timely and beneficial for construction practitioners to optimize and enhance the effectiveness of vFATs which are currently conducted in a disarranged manner.