Zoekresultaten

The dangers of urban decline and the role of facility management in reducing associated safety and health risks

Background and aim – This paper studies urban decline, the processin which the built environment suddenly or gradually loses its practical,technical and economic functionality, resulting in it being abandonedby its legitimate occupants and neglected by its owners for an extended period of time. Recent European examples of urban decline fromaround the globe as well as five German examples were studied. This isfollowed by a reflection on the risks for public safety and public healththat these examples show and the possible role of facility managers indiminishing these risks.Methods / Methodology – Data were collected by means of desk research and direct observations.Results – At all locations public safety and public health risks were considerable. Direct observations at five German locations show extensive urban decline.Originality –Identifying safety and health risks in abandoned buildings and connecting these issues to the facility management profession offers a new perspective on dealing with urban decay.Practical or social implications – Abandoned buildings that are easily accessible to the public generate considerable risks for public safety and health. This paper calls for a debate about how to deal with these risks. Part of the debate should be whether or not such situations should be allowed to continue.Moreover, this paper suggests a prominent role for the facility management profession in order to deal with these safety and health issues.Type of paper – Research paper.

Moderators of the longitudinal relationship between the perceived physical environment and outside play in children

Objectives: Promoting unstructured outside play is a promising vehicle to increase children’s physical activity (PA). This study investigates if factors of the social environment moderate the relationship between the perceived physical environment and outside play. Study design: 1875 parents from the KOALA Birth Cohort Study reported on their child’s outside play around age five years, and 1516 parents around age seven years. Linear mixed model analyses were performed to evaluate (moderating) relationships among factors of the social environment (parenting influences and social capital), the perceived physical environment, and outside play at age five and seven. Season was entered as a random factor in these analyses. Results: Accessibility of PA facilities, positive parental attitude towards PA and social capital were associated with more outside play, while parental concern and restriction of screen time were related with less outside play. We found two significant interactions; both involving parent perceived responsibility towards child PA participation. Conclusion: Although we found a limited number of interactions, this study demonstrated that the impact of the perceived physical environment may differ across levels of parent responsibility.

Urban facility management for healthy cities

Worldwide, sedentary behaviours and overweight are major health concerns. Most adolescents are insufficiently physically active and have overweight. Moreover, most work is sedentary or requires only light activity. And most people live in cities, a context which discourages participation in physical activity. How can we change this situation? An analogy between urban design and facility design is introduced to elucidate spatial properties that may be beneficial in both contexts. It is the purpose of this paper to use this analogy for the advancements of health and well-being of both workers and city dwellers.

Gaps in perceived quality of facility services between stakeholders in the built learning environment

Purpose - This paper aims to identify perception gaps on the quality of facility services among different users of educational buildings, and provide possible explanations for these perception gaps, and discussing the consequences regarding Facility Management (FM) governance.Design/methodology/approach - This paper is based on the first preliminary analyses of a national online survey among members of the Board of Directors (n=17), education managers (n=211), facility managers (n=76), and lecturers (n=1,755) of 18 Dutch Universities of Applied Science. We used Mann-Whitney U tests to analyse the data.Findings – The results seem to indicate a misfit between the perceived quality of facility services of Board of Directors and facility managers of the different institutions on the one hand, indicating an above average quality level, and the education managers and lecturers on the other hand, indicating an under average quality level. FM likely acts in accordance with the Board and both seem dissociated from the primary process and users’ support needs.Practical implications – Based on the research findings, we propose that, when it comes to determining service requirements, FM aligns more with the users of the built learning environment and puts their interests and needs first. Following a user focus approach may contribute to the value-adding capability of FM.Originality/value - This study is the first to find that FM (implicitly) is aligned with the Board, which however seems to result in users' needs to be underestimated.

Facility Management

Agenda praktijkgericht onderzoek health

De Regiegroep van de topsector Life Sciences & Health wil een impuls geven aan initiatieven die praktijkgericht onderzoek op het gebied van Health betreffen. De redenen hiervoor zijn de relatief bescheiden positie van Health vergeleken bij de Life Sciences in de eerdere agendering onder de topsector en de verwachting dat praktijkgericht onderzoek door hogescholen een substantiële bijdrage kan leveren aan de doelstellingen onder het topsectorenbeleid. Daarom is opdracht gegeven tot het opstellen van een agenda voor praktijkgericht onderzoek “Health”. Deze agenda moet leiden tot samenwerking met een solide economische component tussen hogescholen, eventuele andere kennisinstellingen en publieke en private partijen uit de beroepspraktijk. De Agenda Praktijkgericht Onderzoek Health is ingedeeld in vier overkoepelende thema’s (A - D) waarop het onderzoek van hogescholen zich zou moeten richten. Binnen elk thema zijn onderwerpen benoemd die op basis van deze verkenning prioriteit verdienen.