Building Issues in Buildability - Assignment Example

BUILDING ISSUES IN BUILDABILITY Student’s Name Class Course/Semester Admission Number Date Q: 1, Issues of Buildability Buildability or constructability is one of the most common techniques of managing building projects in the modern world and it ensures that every process is followed from begging to the completion of certain projects and this means that the process starts from pre-construction to the time the project is completed. Buildability ensures that all possible obstacles to the project are identified in advance so as to prevent or reduce any possible delays, errors and any other forms of cost overruns during the running of such projects. Issues of Buildability and its relation to integration, coordination (ABDULAZIZ, 2011). During a building construction project, the contractor is always the right person who can advise on how to counter some of the issues affecting Buildability since this entails understanding procurement methods like construction management and design proposals among other issues. Integration in buildability is simply the process of ensuring that there is effective management of projects being carried out in construction projects. This entails organizing all the phases of a building project in a way that all the projects are carried out in a well guided manner and that the company running the project achieves its goals. Coordination in a construction project refers to the unification and the synchronization of all the integral parts of a group involved in a building project. Coordination often plays the role of a hidden force that brings all the functions of management together. One of the ways of implementing both integration and coordination in a construction project is through ensuring that everything related to the projects are carried out effectively. The contractors and subcontractors are all brought together to work harmoniously to foster the success of the intended projects and so on. The types of materials required to be procured during a construction project also fall under the roles that both integration and coordination play since all these contributes to productivity of the projects. Q: 2, Aspects of Buildability The concept of Buildability was used in the United Kingdom for a long time before being used by other countries and this was because its potential had not yet been exploited fully within the construction industry(BATES, 2012). In the modern world, the concept has become one of the most famous and sought out due to its increasing benefits, thus making it an integral part of modern construction. Buildability aims to ensuring that the impact of the details of construction designs are felt quite early in the process of building, hence preventing errors and any other forms of delays that can affect the completion of any construction project. There are certain aspects of Buildability, integration and coordination that are crucial when it comes to dealing with plant rooms, typical floor or building core. These aspects are such as innovation, proper scheduling, repetition and standardization and simplicity among others. The aspect of implementation of innovation focuses on how to use ideas that are innovative in the process of project Buildability (ABDULAZIZ, 2011). This means that the contractor ought to bring new and more advanced kinds of machines to enhance improvement of work performance and this also means implementing advanced working methods during Buildability for more efficient construction process. As part of innovation as one of the aspects of Buildability that helps improve Buildability, it is essential to look at employees skill levels in a specified construction industry. Another aspect of Buildability that is essential in improving the plant rooms, typical floor and building core is implementing the concept of repetition and standardization which is mainly used in reducing risk errors, and the cost of construction through ensuring that items that are readily available in a construction industry. Proper scheduling is also another aspect of Buildability that is essential in improving the plant rooms in a construction design project since it ensures that the projects are carried out smoothly and allowing the flow of other forms of work to take place during construction projects with no delays (EMMIT, 2012). Participation and communication is also one of the other aspects of Buildability that is crucial in implementing the plant floor, building core and typical floor during a construction project in the modern world. This insinuates that members who seem to have relevant knowledge in construction projects need to be given a chance to express their views and bring their expertise on board and participate in different levels of a construction project. They are encouraged to give their opinions, advices and other suggestions that can yield to better performance during the projects so as to reduce any possible problems in the future. This aspect of Buildability also ensures that there is effective circulation of information within the industry to foster understanding and communication during related projects on site. There should also be tolerance level during Buildability projects since there are different materials that needs to be put together, there are employees who work at different levels with different speed, thus tolerance is important since the coordination of everyone is needed for quality productivity in the long run (FERNANDEZ, 2011). The other aspect of Buildability is simplicity which implies that designers responsible ought to produce materials that are compatible and are of the simplest forms that can be understood by other designers during construction projects and this also implies discouraging the use of foreign materials during construction projects. Plant Room This is a specific room within a construction site that is set aside to install and store mechanical equipment and is not used for human occupancy and its size is often proportional to the building’s size with a well centralized heating (SIMONSSON, 2011). These rooms are often big in size or subdivided to cater for different kinds of mechanical equipment during construction projects and some of the common equipment kept in plant rooms are such as boilers, water pumps, and heat exchangers and so on. Modern construction projects prefer having a control system that ensures effective management of the HVAC cycles, equipment for life safety, and lighting among other types of equipment. Typical Floor This is often a floor plan that is repetitive within a story-building. They are also the levels within a building and are arranged in terms of a subfloor which offer support to the other parts of a house and finally the general floor which offers good walking surface to a specific building. Building Core This is one of the central areas of a building that the elevator, electrical equipment, stairwells and restrooms occupies and in most cases they occupy up to 10% of the total space within a building design (LAMP, 2011). These parts of a building are important in many ways since they ensure that some of the dangerous electrical equipment are kept safe, ensure there is efficient air circulation within a building and so on. Q: 3, Problems that Might Arise There are a number of issues that arise in plant rooms since it is a place that stores equipment such as fire exhausters, and other types of equipment that can contribute to health safety issues. One of the biggest issue that can occur plant rooms is fire problem and this can be a very serious issue since the fire will not only affect the plant room, but has the potential of spreading to other parts of the building and so on. Some of the other equipment still in plant rooms can be quick to catch fire and contribute in spreading the fire faster. As much as there a number of fears of fire occurring in plant rooms, the presence of fire exhausters can be one of the positive things of having a plant room in a construction site since it can come in handy in such situations. Plant rooms might also have issues such as electrical shock especially if a person who is not sufficiently trained to deal with electrical stuff attempts operate any electrical machine and end up causing fatal accidents in the process (LYON, 2011). Typical floors might also have issues such as cracking down due to poor quality or due to being fixed by a personnel who is not sufficiently equipped with the knowledge to handle it. When a typical floor fails, it incurs unnecessary costs to the company and even makes the whole construction much more expensive than the initial amount intended to be invested in the project. The building core is the part of building that has different things such as the stairwells, the elevator, restrooms and any other type of facilities and in most cases this occupies close to 10 % of the whole building. Some of the issues that can occur within the building core are such as the failure of performance by the elevator, breaking down of the staircases, failure of the electrical equipment in place and so on (NUR, 2012). Most of the issues that might occur in this parts of the building during construction might be of greater repercussions than the rest of then parts since it has a higher chance of contributing to fatal disasters. If the elevator fails to work, it means that most of the people working within the building will have to be affected both direct and indirectly. If the parts with electrical equipment gets to be affected, then it means that most of all other operations will be affected drastically. If the restrooms also get affected during the process, it means that people working within the building will also be affected in different ways and so on. Q: 4, Why is it important There are a number of reasons as to why it is important to ensure that problems affecting the core parts of a building with a construction project taking place need to be solved. One of the reasons is ensuring the safety of employees working in a construction project is guaranteed since most of the equipment stored in a plant room seem to be extremely dangerous in many ways. Fire safety is also one of the reasons as why these parts of building projects ought to be kept out of danger at all costs. Ensuring that these problems are resolved in advance also plays a great role in enhancing productivity of employees within the industry as well as help in saving money during construction projects. Some of the possible consequences of not dealing with problems are such a shaving fatal accidents or instant deaths occurring during the projects thus, it is important to ensure that the problems are solved (LAM, 2006). In situations where equipment break or any parts of the building like the staircases get affected, the firm often pays too much money to fix, thus the consequences also proves to be expensive in many ways. Other consequences are such as low productivity of employees since they might be demoralized by the issues affecting their company or through lack of proper functional equipment and so on. It is also important to solve any arising issues in this section because it can contribute to the breaking down of the main building construction in which the entire construction activities. Q: 5, How Designers, Contractors should Address the Issues There are many ways in which designers and other members can convey the message on the arising problems within a construction firm. Employees might decide to attempt fixing the problems themselves before officially call for any forms of assistance from the entire marketing team. Designers of a construction site ought to be the first guys to notice if there are any forms of changes since most of their activities become delayed in many ways. Designers, builders and contractors should address issues of buildability by ensuring that there is effective communication across all the participants during a construction project since this is one of the ways of ensuring that there is total coordination for all the members to understand the whole working process. Communication is one of the best tools which designers should raise their concerns on the issues of buildability since through it many arising issues can be pointed out with immediate effect. Issues can also be addressed through having a well detailed design that is as simplified as possible on the construction sites and this means that the contractors and builders should also remember to have a balance between construction and factory tolerance during this detailing. Designers should also point out issues of buildability through selecting flexible construction methods that they think will have effective results before proceeding with construction projects so as to avoid any forms of delays in the process (ROGERSON, 2009). They can also suggest individuals with more experiences in building and construction to come on board and give suggestions on how to meet some of the challenges that may occur in the projects. Conclusion In conclusion, addressing issues of buildability needs to be done in relation to the knowledge of the tools, plant and equipment in place by simply ensuring that all the items are used in the right and accurate way to achieve the required results in the long run. Designers should address issues of health safety boldly both when on building sites as the projects begin and even as the project is still ongoing since this can help prevent any other issues from arising as the projects progresses. This also means that through addressing safety issues, builders will have ensured that there is job safety and a conducive working environment for everyone involved in the project (SHAIK, 2012). Designers, contractors and builders should also address issues of buildability through pointing out some of the challenges of work accessibility during work layouts so as to allow effective maintenance of chemical wastes, vibration and noise during work progress. They can also address issues of buildability through ensuring that there is optimization of material usage in the whole working process. Annotated Bibliography ABDULAZIZ M. JARKAS. (2011). Buildability factors that influence micro-level formwork labour productivity of beams in building floors. The author tries to explain some of the factors that affects buildability and its relation to productivity. BATES, D. (2012). Passivhaus refurbishment: an investigation into buildability and cost effectiveness. Saarbrücken, LAP Lambert Academic Publishing. Bates investigates the impact of buildability in modern construction and how it helps in saving costs in construction projects. EMMITT, S., & EMMITT, S. (2012). Architectural Technology. Chichester, Wiley-Blackwell. In this book, the author outlines some of the advantages of implementing buildability in modern construction projects. FERNÁNDEZ-SOLÍS, J. L., & MUTIS, I. L. (2011). The Idealization of an Integrated BIM, Lean, and Green Model (BLG). This book gradually talks of the innovation aspects of the concept of buildability LAM P.T.I., & WONG F.W.H. (2011). A comparative study of buildability perspectives between clients, consultants and contractors. Construction Innovation. 11, 305-320. Lamp brings out the comparison between previous types of construction projects and buildability concept and the relation existing between both the clients, the contractors and consultants. LYON, E. (2011). Emergence and Convergence of Knowledge in Building Production: Knowledge-Based Design and Digital Manufacturing. 71-98. This book gives a wide perspective on the knowledge and understanding of building construction and factors affecting it. LAM, T.-I., PATRICK. (2006). A model for buildability assessment in Hong Kong. [Hong Kong], [Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Dept. of Building and Real Estate]. This author tries to examine the impact of buildability in Hong Kong and how it has improved the Real Estates NUR HIDAYAH ZAINAL. (2012). Construction knowledge for improving buildability of slope construction. The author simply expands on the knowledge of buildability and on how it cuts across construction ideologies. ROGERSON, J. H., & MORRIS, JONATHAN. (2009). improving construction design: The lean thinking paradigm. Cranfield University. http://hdl.handle.net/1826/3840. The author simply focuses on the types of designs that are suitable for the implementation of buildability aspects. SHAIK HUSSEIN MYDIN, MUHD. ZAIMI ABD. MAJID, & ROSLI MOHAMAD ZIN. (2012). Quantitative buildability assessment system for building project. This book brings out buildability assessment in building projects SIMONSSON, P. (2011). Buildability of concrete structures: processes, methods and material. Luleå, Department of Civil Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering, Division of Structural Engineering. The author of this book notes out some of the advantages of buildability and brings out the notion that it offers concrete solutions to construction projects and impacts engineering so on. Read More