Typical Traditional Building Procedure

Though this post describes the basic traditional building procedure, the procedure could be improved by:

• More questioning of the cost effectiveness of proposed building components and greater efforts to obtain better alternatives.
• Coordinating the work of various design and construction specialists to achieve more cost-effective designs; for example, use of multipurpose building components in which the products of two or more specialties are integrated. This can be achieved by employing Building Information Modelling (BIM) techniques.
• Placing relevant emphasis on both construction and life-cycle costs.
• Having construction experts contribute their knowledge of construction and costs to the design process. These could include construction managers, project managers, etc.
• Use of techniques that will reduce the number of mistakes and omissions in design that are not discovered until after construction starts. This can completely be achieved by employing Building Information Modelling (BIM) techniques. Read a bit about BIM here.

Read about typical project teams here.

Now back to Typical Traditional Building Procedure.

A knowledge of current design practices is essential before proposal of new design procedures.

What Designers Do

The client or owner starts the design process by engaging an architect. The client should choose an architect who has established a reputation for both good design and low construction costs. However, clients do not always act in their own best interest in their choice of architect.  Instead, some owners shop around for the architect with the lowest fee.  Yet, a good designer can provide a high-quality building and, at the same time, save the owner several times the design fee in lower construction costs.

Role of the Architect

The architect usually selects the consulting engineers and other consultants who will assist in the design.  A good architect selects engineers who have established a reputation for both good design and low construction costs. These engineers mainly include; Electrical Engineers, Mechanical Engineers, Structural/Civil Engineers, Cost Engineers (or quantity surveyors). Legally, the architect acts as an agent of the owner. Thus, at the completion of design, the architect awards a construction contract to a general contractor and later inspects construction on behalf of the owner, who is obligated to pay the contractor for work done.

Planning consists generally of determining:

• What internal and external spaces the owner needs.
• The sizes of these spaces.
• Their relative location.
• Their interconnection.
• Internal and external flow, or circulation, of people and supplies.
• Degree of internal environmental control.
• Other facilities required.
• Enhancement of appearance inside and outside (aesthetics).
• How to maximize beneficial environmental impact and minimize adverse environmental impact of project.

Engineering consists generally of the following processes:

• Determining the enclosures for the desired spaces
• Determining the means of supporting and bracing these enclosures.
• Providing the enclosures and their supports and bracing with suitable characteristics, such as high strength, stiffness, durability, water resistance, fire resistance, heat-flow resistance and low sound transmission.
• Determining the means of attaining the desired environmental control (HV AC, lighting, noise)
• Determining the means of attaining the desired horizontal and vertical circulation of people and supplies
• Providing for water supply and waste removal
• Determining the power supply needed for the building and the means of distributing the required power to the places where it is needed in the building.
• Determining communication and entertainment infrastructure in the building.
• Providing for safety of occupants in emergency conditions, such as fire.

What Contractors Do

The owner selects the general/main contractor.  The architect provides advice and assists the owner in reaching a decision.  The owner may pick a contractor on the basis of price alone (bidding) or may negotiate a price with a contractor chosen on the basis of reputation.

Sub-Contractors

These can be brought on board in two ways:

1. The consultants help choose independent sub-contractors who then enter into a contract with the main contractor.
2. The general contractor selects the various subcontractors who will be needed. Selection is generally based on the lowest price obtained (bidding) from reputable companies with whom the contractor believes it will be easy to work. The contractor compensates the subcontractors for the work performed

Steps in the basic traditional building procedure

The design procedure starts with the collection of data indicating the owner’s needs and desires and terminates with award of the construction contract. The procedure starts with preparation of a building program. The program consists mainly of a compilation of the owner’s requirements.

Steps in the Basic Traditional Building Procedure

Conceptual Phase

During data collection, the architect may have formulated some concepts of the building, but on completion of the program, he formalizes the concepts-translates requirements into spaces, relates the spaces and makes sketches illustrating his ideas.

Quantity Surveyors/Cost estimators then prepare an estimate of the construction cost for the selected solution. Since at this stage, practically no details of the building design have been decided, the result is called a rough cost estimate.  If the estimate is within the owner’s budget, the solution can be prepared for submission to the owner for approval.

Design Development

After the architect receives, in writing, the owner’s approval of the schematic drawings and rough cost estimate, the design is developed in detail. In this phase, the designers concentrate on technology.  The objective of this phase is to bring the building into clearer focus and to a higher level of resolution.  The phase culminates in completion of preliminary construction drawings, outline specifications and preliminary cost estimate.

In the conceptual phase, the architect’s aesthetic concerns were mainly with function, mass and space.  During design development, the architect pays more attention to surface and detail.

• The structural engineer prepares drawings showing the framing and sizes of components.
• The mechanical engineer shows the layout of pipes, air ducts, fixtures and HV AC equipment
• The electrical engineer indicates in drawings the location and type of lighting fixtures and layout of electric wiring and control equipment, such as switches and circuit breakers. The electrical engineers also carries out ICT design and as well provides data on escalators and elevators.

Contract Documents Phase

The ultimate objective of the design effort is production of information and instructions to constructors to insure that a building will be produced in complete accordance with the design agreed on by the owner and the architect.

The information and instructions are provided to the builder in the form of working, or construction, drawings and specifications.

These are incorporated in the construction contract between the owner and the builder and therefore become legal documents.  As such, they must be prepared with extreme care to be certain that they are precise and their intent is clear.

In the contract documents phase of design, the designers’ efforts are concentrated mostly on details and refinements, inasmuch as the main features of the building were worked out in design development and approved by the owner.  If changes have to be made in the design at this stage, they are likely to be much more costly than if they had been made in earlier phases.  The architect with the advice of legal counsel, also prepares the construction contract.

With final details of the design worked out, a more accurate estimate of construction cost can now be made. If this estimate exceeds the owner’s budget, the designers have to revise drawings or specifications to bring costs down.

Contract Award

After the contract documents have been approved, the architect assists the owner in obtaining bids from contractors or in negotiating a contract with a qualified contractor .The architect also aids in evaluating proposals submitted by contractors and in awarding the contract.