Facility Management and Operational Performance of Mosque Buildings

The rapid increase in energy consumption, the poor building envelope characteristics, inadequate systems operations have all affected the overall operational performance of the buildings, leading to higher operation and maintenance costs and uncomfortable indoor environment for users. That necessitates the need for developing systems which ensures that the buildings are providing the intended services taking into consideration the building's users, developed technologies, and other building aspects, this is achieved through Facility Management. Facility Management involves monitoring and controlling the building's operational scheme during the operation and maintenance phase of the building's lifecycle. One of the building types that have a unique operational scheme and performance are mosques. Mosques are unique with respect to building characteristics and design, operational schedule, occupancy pattern and installed systems. These features affect the mosques operational performance that should be met during the operation and maintenance phase and monitored during the facility management. As a result, this study proposes a framework that aids in facility management for mosque buildings for assessing and enhancing their operational performance. This framework involves data acquisition using new technologies, creating a BIM and energy analysis model, proposing new retrofit strategies and examining their impact on the operational performance and utilizing two different decision-making techniques AHP and TOPSIS to assess and select the best retrofit strategy. This framework was applied on Imam El-Hussein Mosque, Cairo, Egypt.