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Field visits to churches, mosques, temples or other buildings used by religious groups, are often valued by students of religious education as an opportunity to engage with the 'reality' of the subject: religions as they exist in the world. The Council of Europe text "Signposts" specifies field visits as an important contributor to the religious dimension of intercultural education, but also identifies issues that need to be addressed by researchers and teachers. During an excursion, students interact with representatives who are likely to represent their tradition in one particular way. The aim of this paper is to investigate how the representation of religion and religiosity is constructed during excursions by representatives and visitors. We have developed an analytical tool based on the interpretive approach and the theory of speech genres. Based on our analysis of documentation related to four field visits with students to places of worship, we suggest how the different speech genres in play during an excursion can help in promoting awareness of different levels of religion: individual, group and the whole tradition.

Decision support tools for incentivizing environmentally sound decisions in building design, such as LCA (life cycle assessment), have been highlighted as an essential feature for enhancing the realization of more sustainable buildings. Nevertheless, the use of LCA to support decisions in building design is still limited in practice. A better understanding of the social dynamics and detailed contexts of the decisions leading up to a final building design is therefore critical for better integration of LCA-based information in the decision-making processes. This paper reports a qualitative, semi-structured interview study of single-family home producers in Sweden and their decision-making in relation to climate mitigation, with a particular focus on embodied carbon mitigation. By studying a specific branch of the building and construction sector, a more in-depth record can be obtained of the particularities of implementation contexts and decision-making situations in which LCA may, or may not, have a role in driving climate mitigation. Four primary decision contexts in which LCA may have an influential role to drive embodied carbon reduction include: (1) the development of building systems, (2) development and offering of house models, (3) the selection of construction products for the building system as well as for the offer of add-on products to customers, and (4) the dialogues in the individual house-buyer projects. Decision-making that affects sustainable outcomes in this part of the sector is very much dependent on a supporting regulatory context. Over the years, using building LCA in early design stages, for optimization towards low-impact final buildings, has been a repeatedly promoted recommendation both in academia and practice. This study, however, reveals that such a conclusion is too simplistic. The different overarching decision contexts identified for this particular branch display the variety of needs for life cycle-based information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Society's demand for power is constantly increasing. To overcome the strains, substations are more commonly being built within urban areas. This has its shortcomings, since a substation poses a level of risk. For the first time, the development of an evaluation model for costs associated with substation incidents in urban areas was achieved by Toshiba with the cooperation of the Chalmers University of Technology. This paper discusses an evaluation model for quantifying damages in comparison between a gas-insulated transformer (GIT) and an oil-immersed transformer (OIT) in urban areas. The related damage costs associated with transformer failure during its operation are studied within this paper. The findings from the case study, utilizing a hypothetical scenario setting, were that the damage cost of OIT is in the range of U.S.$1M–$4M and that of the GIT is about U.S.$0.5M–$1.2M. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates problem areas related to energy efficiency implementation in Swedish multifamily buildings. The paper first presents a generic list of (theoretical) problem areas identified through a literature survey. Using a qualitative approach, the paper also investigates if the problem areas identified in the literature also have an impact on the Swedish building sector. Results from the interview study reveal a strong coherence between problem areas in the literature and those expressed by the interviewees. However, this paper identifies seven novel challenges that cannot be derived from the list of barriers in the literature. Moreover, results reveal that as many as 12 problem areas have their origin in national factors such as agreement structures, incentive schemes, and cost calculation methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Humans tend to rely on beliefs, assumptions and cognitive rules-of-thumb for making judgments and are biased against taking more uncertain alternatives. Such inertia has implications for client organizations' decision making about innovations, which are inherently more uncertain than conventional alternatives. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to furthering the understanding of barriers to overcoming inertia in client decision making in new-build. Design/methodology/approach – A descriptive behavioural decision-making perspective is combined with an organizational information-processing perspective. To identify and discuss individual and organizational barriers that potentially distort clients' decision making on innovation, the analysis addresses aggregated data from four studies. The analysis focuses on inferences and interpretations made by decision makers in Swedish client organizations, their information-processing practices and the subsequent impacts on perceived meanings and judgments about industrialized multi-storey, timber-framed building innovations, which are perceived by Swedish clients as new and different building alternatives. Findings – Cognitive and organizational barriers maintain status-quo decisions. Clients are inclined to make biased judgments about industrialized-building alternatives because non-applicable cognitive rules-of-thumb, based on their experiences of conventional-building alternatives, are used. Furthermore, client organizations' information-processing practices do not allow different meanings to surface, interact and potentially suggest different conclusions, at odds with established beliefs. Originality/value – The paper's conclusions highlight how inertia is sustained in client decision making in new-build. They illustrate the limitations of a common engineering approach, i.e. supporting decision making about innovations by focusing on providing more information to the decision maker in order to reduce uncertainty, as well as managing multiple meanings by reductionism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades, energy efficiency of building operation has increased significantly. As a result, the percentage of building life cycle energy attributed to embodied energy has also risen. This percentage, as measured in recent LCA studies, ranges between 2% and 51% and is influenced by the different climatic, infrastructure, and building characteristics that comprise the input data for these studies. Comparing the results of these studies is helpful in understanding how different combinations of these characteristics influence the relative proportions of embodied and operational energy. However, results are also influenced by the subjectivity inherent in each LCA study. Thus, meaningful comparison of results requires documentation of study methodologies, as outlined in ISO 14041. In this paper, 20 journal articles describing LCA studies of buildings were reviewed for their adherence to key ISO 14041 documentation requirements. It was found that the majority of journal articles have inadequate documentation. Journal articles are not subject to ISO 14041 requirements and, due to limitations in article length, some degree of documentation is necessarily omitted. However, since journal articles provide much of the publicly available data on the life cycle energy of buildings, a minimum degree of documentation should be provided to allow comparison between LCA results, without substantially increasing article length. Recommended documentation for journal articles that describe LCA studies of buildings, as proposed in this paper, includes: a list life cycle stages and unit processes included within the system boundary; a statement of calculation procedure; and the referencing of all data sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a research paper which examines the factors affecting the flexibility of buildings in Sweden. It identifies flexibility factors and how they influence adaptability using factor analysis. It notes that from a socio-economic and municipal viewpoint, flexible buildings have advantages and could increase the chances of using the property of the nation more effectively. It says that the results are relevant for the construction sector.

Background: The transition towards a more sustainable energy system is urgent for addressing global environmental and social challenges, and will require transformative changes including improved energy efficiency in the built environment. To reach identified efficiency potentials, various policy instruments have been introduced but their effects are often unclear. In this paper, we argue that the outline of transformative policy strategies will require well-designed evaluations. The objective is to present a theory-based evaluation framework that can be used to assess existing evaluations, in order to support transformative policy strategies. The framework is also applied to provide insights from current Swedish evaluation practices. Methods: The theory-based evaluation framework presented builds on evaluation theory, policy analysis and transition research and is arranged around methods, value judgements and use of the evaluations. Moreover, key aspects from transition research are included to provide guidance for transformative efforts in the evaluations. The systematic review presented in the paper is qualitative, covering 33 policy evaluations for energy efficiency in buildings in Sweden, commissioned by Swedish governmental authorities over a decade. Results: The results of the review reveal a wide range of evaluations undertaken, using a sound methodological evaluation base that builds on a variety of methods for analysis, and application of multi-criteria analyses. Commonly, however, a rather narrow scope was applied and we note a missed opportunity for triangulation of findings. Key aspects for capturing transformative efforts, such as system-, scale- and multi-actor approaches, as well as visioning, experimentation and learning, were considered to varying extents, but could be more explicit and elaborate. Conclusion: In all, we find the proposed theory-based evaluation framework useful for assessing and discussing both robustness and transformative efforts of current policy and evaluation practices. The review of the Swedish policy evaluations further indicates sound evaluation practices, and a foundational structure for identifying and analysing transformative efforts. To fully support transformative changes, we suggest a wider system perspective and a more thorough multi-actor approach and actor involvement in the evaluations. We also stress the need to further link evaluation theory with transition research to design evaluations that can support transformative changes in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: District heating is used in many urban areas in Sweden. Almost always, the district heating utility is owned by the municipality and the municipality naturally encourages proprietors to connect their buildings to the grid, even if they cannot really force them to do so. The building owners are free to choose the best system, i.e. the cheapest one, for their need. Unfortunately, it is not always so easy to find the best solution. Mixed integer linear programming (MLIP) models might here come to help. By such computer programs it is possible to find the absolutely cheapest system of available alternatives, or even combinations among them. This paper shows how to design such a model and further how to closely depict the district heating, and electricity tariff. This is of course very important because the only interface between the proprietor of the building and the utility is found in this bureaucratic instrument. If the tariff is too high the building owners will choose other heating systems than district heating, or even worse, combining district heating with alternative base load sources. In Sweden, this has been of interest because ground-water coupled heat pumps can be profitable, operated by use of the relatively low electricity prices. In this paper we show that dual-fuel, and sometimes even triple-fuel systems, are of interest when the proprietor aims at minimising the cost for space and domestic hot-water heating. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper studies the way in which CO2 emission levels are affected by different measures to reduce energy consumption in a building. A case study is presented which deals with a residential building in Navestad, a suburb of the Swedish city Norrko¨ping. The building is supplied with district heating primarily delivered from a combined heat and power (CHP) plant. Three types of energy measures are studied: extra insulation, new types of window and the introduction of a heat pump. The first perspective is the city of Norrko¨ping, with the system boundary encompassing the residential building and the CHP plants. A second worst case scenario is then presented: a Nordic perspective in which electricity produced in coal condensing power plants is assumed to cover the marginal electricity production. With the former perspective, the measures extra insulation and new windows reduce the CO2 emissions, and with the latter both measures increase the CO2 emissions. The measures extra insulation and new windows are ranked, with respect to cost for the first perspective, using a cost reduction curve for CO2 emissions. In the paper, costs from the ExternE research project are also used. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Energy use in the built environment represents a large part of total energy use in Sweden and is one important sector where energy conservation needs to be significantly improved in order to meet the national implementation of the European goals. One key question that needs to be investigated in relation to these goals is the performance and implementation of passive or low-energy houses. This paper presents results and an evaluation of a newly built house in an area with passive houses in Linköping, Sweden. Nine passive houses were built with the aim to be energy efficient, with an annual space heating demand of 21kWh/m2, and at the same time to have the same visual appearance as any other building in the surrounding area. This study evaluates the energy performance of a residential area with low-energy buildings based on Building Energy Simulation (BES) (IDA ICE 4), and measurements from the real object. Both annual and hourly validation is performed using room by room modeling and internal heat gains. A novel approach to internal heat gain modeling is presented using time-use data (TUD). The results show possible improvements in the design, the building envelope and in the heating control. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The timber-framed parts of buildings and the technical aspects of how the buildings were constructed are rarely addressed in scientific papers on the history of built environments. In Scandinavia architects, art historians, archaeologists and ethnologists have the preferential right to carry out the documentation procedures concerning historic buildings. In this study the 250-year-old barn in Maglö has been the subject of a survey on a historical and technical basis. The aim has been to describe timber framing as a traditional Swedish building method, and to put forward the barn as a unique representative of a forgotten historic building tradition in Southern Sweden. During 2009-2010 a documentation of the barn was carried out which involved measuring and analysing the structure, studying the structural details and the still-existing traces and markings from the original building process. The documentation was performed by carpenters experienced in historic building techniques. Therefore the focus has been to understand the workmanship behind the timber-frame structure, thereby creating a dialogue between the modern and the historic carpenter, which is of great value when the aim of the documentation is to reconstruct the original building process or to make deliberate judgements during restoration. The article firstly gives a review of the history of built environments in Maglö, drawing parallels to Danish barns of the same time, since the inner structure of all similar barns of Southern Sweden has been removed because of the modern use of the buildings for industrialised agriculture. This states that the barn of Magi6 is rather unique in Sweden, although only one-third of the building has survived. The second part is a short description of timber framing in a technical and historical context, which states that today there are many regional terms for different timber-framed structures. The Swedish word stolpverk has been suggested as the Swedish parallel to timber framing, and general aspects of the building method are described shortly. The main part of the article is a tour through the timber frames of the barn, describing and analysing structural details that are not obvious to people unfamiliar with the craft and historic working methods. This involves the joinery, the different parts and materials, the traces of the tools, the bracing of the structure and the scribing and marking of the frames. This technical description of the building has shown that a lot of information about how to build timber-framed structures can be obtained from one single building. In order to find out in a broader perspective which methods were used to build timber framing in Sweden, there is a huge amount of practical knowledge hidden in the old buildings. The documentation procedure using exact measurement and a carpenter's eye to find and analyse the interesting parts and details helps to garner this knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The econometric test in this paper indicates that standard property and municipality attributes are important determinants of sales prices for multi-dwelling and commercial buildings (MDCBs) in Sweden. Spatial econometric techniques were used to determine that spatial specified regressions improved the models" explanatory power. The constant quality price for a model estimated with OLS is roughly one percentage point higher than for a model controlling for spatial autocorrelation. When the constant quality price trend is estimated on a yearly basis, there are hardly any differences between the estimated parameters, notwithstanding if all MDCBs are in the sample or if the sample is split into submarkets. However, estimating models with a quarterly constant quality price trend to some extent shows different price trends for the three submarkets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a contribution to the study of how the history of Swedish architecture was written in the other Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, and Norway) in the 1930s and 1940s. The key sources in this article are architectural magazines that were published in each of these countries as well as proceedings from the Nordic Building Day conferences. They provide new insights into the writing of Swedish architectural history from a Nordic perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose – To understand the potential for various types of retailers, it is essential to appreciate retailer' positioning in the marketplace. Positioning has a critical effect on retailers' competitiveness and performance. Despite the significance and popularity of retail positioning, a few gaps remain that prompt the need for this research. First, little has been written about positioning in the building materials distribution industry, as compared with other retail sectors. Second, the retail classification literature has rarely included positioning as a dimension of retailer characteristics, although, in essence, they are both ways to understand retailer strategy and behaviour. To fill these research gaps, the objective of this research is to contribute to retail positioning research, using the Swedish building material distribution industry as a study setting. Specifically, it has two key goals: to develop a classification framework focusing on the Swedish building material distribution market; and to analyse those distributors by strategic groups and identify their common business priorities. Design/methodology/approach – This research looked at a majority of building material distributors in the Swedish market. A total of 23 interviews were conducted with managing directors or similar from case companies. Interviews ranged from 40 to 90 minutes in duration. This research adapted materials developed for other purposes in order to enhance and strengthen primary data. Findings – This study develops a classification framework of building material distributors and provides an overview of distributors operating in the Swedish markets. Drawing on theory from retail positioning and classification, the research result suggests that the studied distributors can be classified into three strategic groups: DIY-service focused; DIY-cost focused; and builders' merchant (BM)-service focused. Research also showed that distinguishing building material distributor by customer type is not as effective as it once was; there is a trend of internationalisation in the Swedish building material distribution industry; and distributors exert growing central control over certain areas, such as purchasing and marketing. Originality/value – The building material distribution industry attracts little research attention when compared to other sectors, for instance food and grocery retailing. Given this, the value of this article lies in identifying the leading companies in Sweden and offering strategic analysis of their business developments and focus. Insights into building material distributors' supply requirements are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new handbook has been published by the Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning. This handbook describes the building process from an acoustical point of view. It focuses on the conversion of functional requirements on the performance of the building to appropriate designs of a building. This type of requirement allows all kinds of solutions to be applied, but is also requires coordination of acoustic issues between the parties involved during the entire building process. Hence, the handbook addresses detailed information to each party. Functional requirements and acoustic issues are complex by nature, because they affect many building elements, they are handled by several parties and they must be considered during several phases of the building process. Typical errors come from building designs (floor plans), product designs (input data of elements), calculation models, quality of workmanship (during the construction phase) and uncertainties in field measurements. The aim is to help the commissioner manage the responsibility for these issues. The handbook also covers a large field of practical applications to support the acoustic expertise. It is expected that this handbook will encourage developers and contractors to deal with acoustic issues more efficiently. If the noise environment is not considered in the design process for new residential areas and other building facilities, the satisfaction of tenants, the health costs for the society and the building values will be affected. If verifications are made only at a late stage of the building process, errors are normally discovered too late. They are then expensive to correct for and it is difficult to find out who is responsible. When the verifications are made effectively during the process, costs are minimized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical documentary sources, reflecting different port activities in Stockholm, are utilised to derive a 500-year winter/spring temperature reconstruction for the region. These documentary sources reflect sea ice conditions in the harbour inlet and those series that overlap with the instrumental data correlate well with winter/spring temperatures. By refining dendroclimatological methods, the time-series were composited to a mean series and calibrated (1756–1841; r2 = 66%) against Stockholm January–April temperatures. Strong verification was confirmed (1842–1892; r2 = 60%; RE/CE = 0.55). By including the instrumental data, the quantified (QUAN) reconstruction indicates that recent two decades have been the warmest period for the last 500 years. Coldest conditions occurred during the 16th/17th and early 19th centuries. An independent qualitative (QUAL) historical index was also derived for the Stockholm region. Comparison between QUAN and QUAL shows good coherence at inter-annual time-scales, but QUAL distinctly appears to lack low frequency information. Comparison is also made to other winter temperature based annually resolved records for the Baltic region. Between proxy coherence is generally good although it decreases going back in time with the 1500–1550 period being the weakest period—possibly reflecting data quality issues in the different reconstructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Swedish legal restriction on construction of multi-storey timber buildings was imposed in 1888 and repealed in 1994. The subsequent emergence of such a timber building system in Sweden is analysed in the context of the existing concrete-based construction system. The characteristics of the construction industry and its path dependency over the past century hamper the development of a timber building system. However, government policies and funding, the wood industry's interest in an enhanced market for value-added wood products, and involvement of the wood research community has helped develop such a construction system. Investments in knowledge creation, incentives for the entry of new firms, and increased prefabrication may facilitate a transition from this formative phase to a growth phase in the diffusion of timber buildings. En Suede, les restrictions juridiques frappant la construction de batiments en bois de plusieurs etages ont ete edictees en 1888 et annulees en 1994. L'auteur analyse l'arrivee resultante d'un tel systeme de construction en bois en Suede face a la construction en beton qui existe actuellement. Les caracteristiques de l'industrie du batiment et sa dependance au chemin au cours du siecle dernier empechent le developpement d'un systeme de construction en bois. Toutefois, les politiques officielles et les financements ainsi que les interets de l'industrie du bois dans un marche ameliore pour des produits en bois a valeur ajoutee et l'engagement des chercheurs dans le domaine du bois ont aide a developper un tel systeme de construction. Les investissements dans la creation du savoir, les incitations a l'arrivee de nouvelles entreprises et l'augmentation de la prefabrication peuvent faciliter le passage de cette phase de formation a une phase de croissance a la diffusion des batiments en bois. Mots cles: systeme d'innovation, restriction, batiments de plusieurs etages, dependance au chemin, systemes technologiques, charpente en bois, batiments en bois, Suede [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Sweden, two LCA-based tools for the built environment have been developed the last years: the "Environmental Load Profile" and "EcoEffect". Both are standing in front of an implementation phase and it is therefore important that they may deliver credible and consistent results to end users and facilitate a transition to more environmentally benign building construction and administration. The present study looked at the differences in results that may appear when using the tools and where they come from. Applying the two tools for assessment of a new building on equal basis created differences in results. However, both tools pointed at energy use in the administration phase of the life cycle being the most significant factor for environmental impact, consistent with other studies. The results indicate that: (i) differences in material grouping and life expectancy for the construction materials used, (ii) differences in LCI-data used and (iii) different classification and characterisation models used, give rise to important differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an old industrial and harbour area of Stockholm, a new city for 30 000 people will be built in the next ten years. The Hammarby Sjöstad project is unique in its size and municipal organization as well as in its ambitious environmental objectives. In a case study based on interviews and document analysis, the environmental management process of this project is researched. The City of Stockholm will follow up the compliance with set goals; our study is a qualitative one focusing on the management process. We develop concepts and models as an aid for municipal management of future construction projects. Many factors outside the formal ones are considered important. Data is structured chronologically as events and from a stakeholder perspective, including the City, the developers and the contractors. The main focus is, however, on the City's Project Management Team. Collected data is furthermore analysed with the aid of key concepts, derived from organization theory, planning and construction practice and as suggested by the data. Preliminary results indicate that the continued study of informal means of control is just as important as that of the formal ones, and that identifying key situations and tools for environmental management should be in focus for the rest of the research study. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]