Building Systems and Costing - Term Paper Example

Name Instructor Course Title Date “Buildability”, “integration” and “coordination.” Buildability in building and construction industry is a preconstruction task that views the design from the point of those who will carry out the actual manufacturing, installation of the components and carrying out the construction activities (Tomczak, 2016) .With the advance in technology CAD, CAM and BIM helps in improving the aspects of buildability just as technology has done in other fields. When carrying out buildability assess , the design elements should be examined with a final aim of achieving the maximum value for the capital put into the project, realizing the desired final value and quality of the project while ensuring that all the requirements outlined at the start are met. It should also be noted that during buildability assess de-risking the perceived problems is also a key issue (Tomczak, 2016). It involves various activities such as checking on the plant use and equipment to help save labour and minimize health risks both on site and off site. The ease and order of interface connections, as well as dimensional criteria, are also greater issues under the same. However, Buildability should not be confused with value engineering through same processes are common to both of them. On the other hand integration of building services or simply integration in building and construction projects brings into consideration of collaboration of the people (human personnel), systems , business structures and practices into a process that see a success of a building service. It should be noted that in a greater insight it refers to the bringing together or consolidating mainly data required in a building service or simply construction site into one server from which these pieces of information can be accessed by individuals in different aspects or stages of the building service. Integration is seen necessary in design, clash detection and coordination of various disciplines or departments of construction to realize the final goal of the project. Normally integration should be understood as an emerging trend in the building and construction industry that has been brought forward by the need to create team members who share information or data reliably and innovative solutions in order to ensure that decision-making process within a project or building service is faster and improved the overall efficiency of the data flow ( Kibert& Charles, 2016). There are three known levels of integration that are usually witnessed in the system management in the sites. The first level is the minimal integration which is sometimes referred to as No-integration. In the minimal integration, the information is not shared within the same platform rather a different entity controls the data and stores it. In this different branches or departments do not share data and efficiency are low ( Schevenels et al., 2014). The next level is the partial integration in which certain parts or given volumes of data are shared by different disciplines while certain information which may be perceived only relevant to given sets of the organization or work group is not shared. Additionally, there is full integration in which all the data is wholly integrated into the central system with everyone being able to view and retrieve information as the need arises. However, full integration is not practised as it has a high cost, security concerns and other greater concerns associated with it. Moreover, it should be realized that as the integration process involves the use of the current technology, it is therefore effective in managing building information. However, it can be risky if there is a problem with the system that manages the data and this can lead to hindering the operation of the whole project (Schevenels et al., 2014 ). Coordination, as seen in engineering and architecture, appears as a great legal responsibility of the design professionals. Scholars argue that coordination, when applied in construction and design of the projects, may have varied interpretations. Coordination may imply making different firms work on the same project together with greater agreement whereas it could also mean the ability to join building materials, products and systems to help ensure good building performance. When materials or products are mentioned, it may imply the raw materials that are dearly needed for the successful completion of the project. Moreover, coordination may also give the idea of ensuring that different design disciplines work together with ultimate understanding in developing a good representation of the building project or generally in the building itself (Schevenels et al., 2014 ). . Coordination is necessary for managing employees of a design firm or construction firm to produce either a design or service and documents that are related to the design or the building industry. It is also necessary for the ensuring different plants and equipment work simultaneously with one another in the same project .Moreover, it ensures that different firms may perform different work in a different section of the project, but still success is seen. It should be noted that coordination is important to both designs as in developing a plan and schedule it is very vital and in the actual building. Not only on the design and construction but also in the managing of the space within the project to ensure that all necessary plants are used (Zaneldin & Essam,2016). Plant rooms The buildability aspect that will be taken into consideration when constructing the plant rooms while be various ranging to issues that will be viewed and examined on the site and off site. The type of the plant to be kept in each room must be evaluated. Secondly, dimensional criteria will follow, which involves setting out space for the construction of the rooms and carrying out space allocation with accordance of the size of the plant to be kept in each given room. The Clear study is also taken to look into the soil structure if it can support the weight of the plant be housed in the various rooms. Moreover, the type and value of the plant are checked to realize and determine the optimum value of money that should be channelled towards building the same. Additionally what is termed as in transit and in- situ examination are all done under buildability assess. The proposed plant rooms are again viewed to see if the complexity in the design can be minimized as much as possible to help in saving both cost and time required in constructing the rooms ( Kibert& Charles, 2016). Furthermore, under this stage, the proposed risks are evaluated to see on how they can be minimized. The flexibility of the room and their tolerances are investigated to realize their practicality of the whole project. The possible waste that would be resulting from the plants are also projected and if the possible chimney is proposed to help in waste management. Temporary works such as façade, falsework and formwork are done .Also, the health and safety are determined how will be maintained in the rooms so that cases of plant operators dying in future are prevented. Moreover, ease and order of interfacing the connections such as chimney and drainages are reached at this stage. If the plant will require unloading operation, then that is determined at this level as well as a determination whether there will be need of weights and lift requirements (Zaneldin & Essam,2016). The integration that will be performed while carrying out the construction of plant rooms will be partial integration in which the data on the suppliers of materials and labour are all viewed from a central point, whereas ideas are being shared throughout the platform. The coordination will be seen in ensuring that the design of the plan and schedules are reached at nicely. Moreover, various firms that will be involved in given activities such as the supply of the building materials, in the electrical installation and the masonry must be well coordinated to see that there is a success in the activities ( Kibert& Charles, 2016). Typical floor The typical floor will require allocation and set out under buildability assess as the first activity (Zaneldin & Essam,2016). Checking of the required equipment in making the floor strong such as rollers and use them to meet the program requirement. The trench support can be done as a temporary work under this. Health and safety are checked, the evaluation should not propose a slippery floor as it would risk the safety of the users of the house. Moreover, the coordination activities that should be done include ensuring that suppliers and on site workers are in agreement as far as delivery and usage of the materials are concerns. There should also be coordination in the materials such as cement and sand mixing. Generally, these activities should ensure that the house is constructed with minimal cost but with great qualities (Tucker et al., 2016). Building Core These include the elevators, common restrooms or even staircases, generally building core is usually shared in a building. In this, the buildability aspects would be issues such as spare parts as well as health and safety of those that will construct and use the building. The buildability should be able to realize the type and nature of materials to be used in constructing weights and lifts. Also to be noted is that the dimensional criteria should be realized at this stage. Moreover, coordination should be carried out such the construction of the building core should be of high quality and if it is elevator should be efficient to serve the building perfectly. Therefore, other parts of the building under construction or the core itself should be well coordinated such that it becomes perfect and helps give the best value for the money (Tucker et al., 2016). Problems. In the above areas, various problems may be noted with respect to what is under construction. It should be realized that problem can arise in which the building or the construction is not erected at all. For instance, it can be realized that construction of building cores has failed totally or the flow has a leakage in its drainage system which could arise from the use of substandard materials or use of wrong sizes of pipes. Moreover, buildability and coordination challenge may be experienced in the construction of the plant rooms such that the completed plant rooms are either not of the required sizes or they can meet the specifications of the room such as ventilation and waste managements (Yung , 2014). The buildability and coordination problems can arise from insufficient data and draw information at the design level. At some cases, it may be poor specification and choice of materials used in the building activity.Moreover, Inadequate project scope definition and briefing at the design level may also lead to buildability problems witnessed later.For example, if the type of chimney and its point of location was not clearly defined while coming up with the plan of the plant rooms, then the room will not be fit to deal with the exhaust gases from the plants in the rooms. It should also be noted that in constructing the floor one might end up with poorly levelled floor or just a sub standard floor that is terribly rough .Also to be noted is that the coordination of various players such as suppliers and builders may lack to the extent that the whole project stops or literally fail (Yung , 2014). The above problems lead to litigation in some cases or lead to the wrong design of the structure outlook (Yung , 2014). In some cases, the buildability problems may lead to the collapse of the building which may consequently lead to the death of persons working at the site or occupants of the building. Moreover, these buildability issues may also have an economic impact on the project. When a part of the already built project is demolished, for instance when in building the wrong floor piping is done, the whole or part of it must be brought down ( Chudley et al. ,2013). The problems seen can be minimized by involving the contractors in design and budgeting. Moreover, accurate drawing scale, design and detailing of the project should be done with sufficiently researched data. Also to ensure the success of the project specification and choice of material should be done well. It should be noted that capital should be available to help minimize the problems too ( Chudley et al. ,2013). For successful at the site or with the team players, coordination should be well done. The aspects of coordination such knowing the team, setting the team roles and goals as well as having a global picture of the work to be done. Moreover, communication is also a key tool in ensuring coordination is efficient, hence the communication channels, as well as information sources, should be well defined. Planning should also be done to help run resources smoothly and save time in the work done. Moreover, each group of the team should be aware of their goals and those of other related groups at the projects this will help in coordinating different aspects of the project in time with little resources. Budgeting should also be noted to be part of the planning aspect. Additionally, correct tools should be available to the work. In summary buildability, integration and coordination are very vital to any project as they help in cost and time-saving ( Chudley et al. ,2013). Work Cited Tomczak, M. (2016). Constructability and plant utilisation: the case of facade scaffolding system selection (No. 4006028). International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences. Schevenels, Mattias, et al. "An optimality criteria based method for discrete design optimization taking into account buildability constraints." Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization 50.5 (2014): 755-774. Kibert, Charles J. Sustainable construction: green building design and delivery. John Wiley & Sons, 2016. Naoum, Shamil George, and Charles Egbu. "Modern selection criteria for procurement methods in construction: A state-of-the-art literature review and a survey." International Journal of Managing Projects in Business 9.2 (2016): 309-336. Tucker, Matthew, and Mohd Rayme Anang Masuri. "The rationale to integrate facilities management into the development process." Property Management34.4 (2016): 332-344. Zaneldin, Essam. "Investigating Coordination-Related Problems During the Design of Building Projects." (2015). Yung, Ping, et al. "A BIM-enabled MEP coordination process for use in China." Journal of Information Technology in Construction (ITcon) 19.23 (2014): 383-398. Taylan, Osman, et al. "Construction projects selection and risk assessment by fuzzy AHP and fuzzy TOPSIS methodologies." Applied Soft Computing 17 (2014): 105-116. Cutter, Susan L., et al. "Global risks: pool knowledge to stem losses from disasters." Nature 522.7556 (2015). Chudley, Roy, and Roger Greeno. Building construction handbook. Routledge, 2013. Read More