Development of a Plot in Town and Rural Areas - Essay Example

Architecture & Construction Assignment 26th February OUTLINE I The Purpose II The Fitness For Purpose II Content & Quality Expectations A. Content B. Quality Expectations IV Risks involved, and mitigation V The feasibility study VI Potential environmental impact of a development VII The role of the local planning authority Reference List THE PURPOSE The object of this report is to conduct adequate due diligence development of a plot in town and rural areas for a client. Our decision was based on planning controls and land use themes and also industry knowledge through several key players. THE FITNESS FOR PURPOSE The urban plot is fit for the purpose because it proximity to various amenities. There is great access to the plot as there is several main roads and quiet streets. There is a new bypass diverts a large portion of the peak hour traffic returning plot to the once humble town. Direct access to the nearby parklands makes for easy walking routes. Content & Quality Expectations The development will be an apartment that will have its own uninterrupted ocean views with access to the site. Each apartment will have 3 bedrooms, all with ensuites, a study, a theatre room, large open living with plenty of room for dining and also 2 spacious balconies. The main balcony will be facing northeast, and the second balcony will be northwest and will accessible via the main and second bedroom. There will be floor to ceiling glass slide away doors hat give way to a wrap around balcony. This should then allow for the living areas to extend to the outdoor area. Having such an expansive living arrangement makes it as intimate or as social as the occupier wishes. This crucial piece of infrastructure in this beach shack suburb will be finished with modern European finishes. Bamboo floorboards will be used for the flooring and morato marble will be used for the paneling and joinery. There will be a basement car park, finished in sandstone to accommodate all residents. The stylish architectural design and the rare beachfront location enables us as developers to offer the ultimate in beachfront living with the motto of 4 levels of elegance, and only 4 metres to the beach. There will be a 10 metre by 3 metre pool on the beachside of the site to accommodate for a more personal environment for the residents of the building. The facility will come with a small BBQ area allowing for a full functioning facility. The pool will be lined with black pebbles to attract the sun so there will be no need for heating. Beautifully landscaped gardens High end European finishes 12 underground car parks with storage for each unit owner The rural site will have a house that will be purely for residential. Quality expectations: Goals were set to ensure that the quality of the project in terms of product and process was not compromised. Project planning was done with the consideration of the external environment which included technological changes, customers and competitors, suppliers, geographical location and climate; economic political and social settings The project was planned to run for two years. The stages involved were planning, programming, budgeting, design, construction documentation, bidding, construction, evaluation, testing and delivery. The main objective of the project was to come up with state-of-the-art apartments that could meet the need for quality living of the tenants. Quality control in construction mostly requires ensuring that the basic standards of workmanship and material have been complied with so that performance of the facility is in keeping with the given design. Such basic standards are outlined in the specifications provided for in the plan. In order to ensure conformity to the plans, statistical methods and random samples are mostly used as a measure to accept or reject materials and completed work. Rejection of batches of materials is done on the basis of non compliance or violation of the given specifications of design. An understood assumption in such conventional quality control measures is the concept of acceptable quality level that is permitted, which is most often only a small fraction of faulty items. Material that is received from the supplier and the work performed by a team are examined and passed if they can be accepted, provided the extent of faulty material is within given levels of quality standards. Project managers are accountable for correcting problems relative to goods and material after they are received at the construction site (Fox and Cornell, 2004). In variance with this conventional practice of quality control is the objective of ensuring total quality control. In such systems there is no scope of receiving faulty items in any function of the construction project. Although the objective of zero-defect cannot be practically achieved, it serves in establishing goals whereby the owners and stakeholders of the project are never satisfied with the prevailing quality control initiatives and practices despite defects being reduced or minimized on a consistent basis. Such practices and approaches towards quality control were initially introduced in the manufacturing sector in developed countries but have now been adopted in construction activities as well. A typical example in this context is the certification issued by the International Standards Organization whereby its ISO 9000 focuses on efficient documentation, quality objectives and a set of planning processes, execution practices and review. Total quality control implies commitments towards quality that is focused upon all departments of the organization and mostly deals with several aspects. Review of design has to be undertaken to ensure efficient and safe construction processes, which are considered to be the main element of total quality control. Other aspects of significance are exhaustive training for workers, making workers accountable for detecting faults, ensuring quality control and maintaining equipments on a continuous basis. Project managers can enhance worker involvement to improve quality control and such objectives are achieved by patronizing management principles such as quality circles whereby teams meet on a regular basis to take stock of achievements and to give suggestions to improve quality. Suppliers of material are encouraged to make sure that there are no defects in material supplied by them and the project manager evolves a system whereby all materials are inspected randomly after which entire batches are returned if found defective. Project managers establish systems whereby suppliers having good record are certified and their material is no longer required to undergo the inspection process repeatedly. Risks involved, and mitigation The risk of default or failure of a building contractor can be mitigated by use of surety bonds. The surety bond offers a guarantee to the owner that the contractor will complete the project and in time. Accordingly, this bond has three parties to it. There are three types of surety bonds available for the construction industry. The first type is the bid bond, which guarantees that the bidder will enter into the contract and at the expected price. This bond also guarantees that the contractor will provide the payment and performance bonds required. The other type of bond is the payment bond, which offers a guarantee that the contractor will provide the required payments for the project. It guarantees that the contractor will adequately pay for labor and materials. The performance bond on the other hand offers protection from the risk of failure of the contractor to adhere to the conditions and terms of the contract. Requisitions are some of the measures applied in the mitigation of risk in construction. The contractor reduces the risk of loss of materials through theft or damage by making material requisitions only when required. This type of arrangement reduces the possibility of uncertainty in the project since variability in the relationships between the parties in the contract is defined more comprehensively. Logistics for material delivery are better defined due to the requisition arrangements (MassschoolBuildings, 2011). As a result, uncertainty about the price of the materials is reduced. The quality of the project is also improved by existence of requisition arrangements because cases of material spoilage in storage are reduced. Invoicing the clients or developers at the right time ensures that the requisitions are received in adequate time to allow the project to continue smoothly. Having preset schedule values for the requisitions enables the contractor to plan the work more efficiently. This reduces the possibility of working beyond the scheduled time(Hendrickson, 2005) Requisitions also reduce the appropriations available at each stage of the project therefore any cases of overspending are noticed by the contractor and rectified. It also facilitates the control of funds and their usage. The appropriation is made for specific aspects of the project and has to be used for that. This reduces the possibility of the project going beyond the agreed cost therefore the risk of financial damages and loss is lowered significantly by having purchase requisitions. The use of insurance in construction contracts is another important measure for managing the risks inherent in the industry. The insurance contracts have to include other parties involved in the contract besides the contractor and the owner of the property. The most commonly used is liability insurance, which protects the contractor from losses that might occur in the execution of the construction contract. All construction contracts require the contractor to have insurance in order to ensure that risks are mitigated. The insurer does not cover the insurance policy states clearly how long the policy will last therefore any losses incurred after the expiry of the policy. The insurer in liability insurance policies has the right of subrogation. This allows the insurer to take the right of recovering losses from the party that caused the damage after settling the claim with the insured. However, this has the potential to cause disruptions in the work. When such liability insurance covers more than one party to a certain contract, the insurer signs a provision not to exercise subrogation rights on parties covered by the policy. Insurance policies are also provided for works in progress to cover the contractors’ work, which is not covered by the principal’s insurer. In the formation, execution, and retention of standard construction contract controls, risk management aims to reduce the severity of loss resulting from expected and unexpected occurrences. Through the process of arbitration, the management of loss or delay caused by disputes is enhanced by adopting out-of-court procedures. Arbitration allows disputing parties to resolve conflicting issues without the strict adherence to federal rules required by civil lawsuits. Disgruntled parties initiate the process by filing a claim as required by arbitration standards, and in accordance with the arbitration clause in the construction contract. To be effective in solving potential disputes amicably, the parties to a construction contract should craft an agreement that guarantees a fair resolution process. The feasibility study urban plot Feasibilty Analysis Potential environmental impact of a development Environmental concerns is very important for any development and should take up time and resources during most of the planning and preparation stages aside from the functionality and aesthetic states of the project. Not only are hosts concerned about the state of environmental pollution within the area, planners often adopt large-scale renewal of urban centers to simulate environmental sustainability. The planning provides the best opportunity for improvement of urban infrastructure and environment. Air pollution therefore has been integrated into most environmental programmers undertaken during the planning stage. It has been seen that the traditional buildings have a significant impact on the natural environment as mentioned above. But by the use of green building practices there are chances that the environment is saved. Whenever buildings are built, they tend to account for a large amount of space, use large amounts of energy and water and there is a definite alteration being caused to the air and the atmosphere. Green building does not include your typical renovations but the plus point is that by going for this type of construction, there are chances that a significant amount of emissions can be reduced (Alonso, 2008). The humorous aspect of this is that while constructing buildings, the environmental impacts are underestimated whilst in opting for green building, the cost aspects are overestimated. This shows that there is a certain amount of resistance to change (Birch and Wachter, 2008). There is a significant impact on the usage of materials in this regard as well; the reason for this is that in order to go green, the materials that should be used in order to change the structure of the property should also be green; materials which are easily renewable as well as recycled. Apart from this there is also the concern of the transportation of the materials. Now for this the suggestion by most environmentalists is that the materials that need to be manufactured should be done in or near the premises. This is practically very difficult because of the fact of occupancy. If the changes are being implemented with the tenants being present, then this is highly unlikely because there will be a disturbance cause for them and hence they might even leave the property, which the owners do not want (Brebbia, Neophytou, Beriatos, Ioannou and Kungolos, 2009). The role of the local planning authority The local authority authorizes the types of buildings required in area. In this case there they will approve a building if the owner has a title of ownership for the plot, the proposed building confirms with other building in the area and it is the right zoning. The proposed plot will be in the area shown below Reference List Alonso, A. 2008. Biodiversity: Connecting with the Tapestry of Life. Darby, PA.: DIANE Publishing. Birch, E. & Wachter, S. 2008. Growing greener cities: urban sustainability in the twenty-first century. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. Brebbia, C. A., Neophytou, M., Beriatos, E., Ioannou, I., & Kungolos, A. G. (2009). Sustainable development and planning IV, Volume 2. Ashurst, UK: WIT Press. Chiras, D. D. (2010). Environmental Science. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Doordan, D. 2002. Twentieth-century architecture. New York: Harry Abrams. Fox, A & Cornell, H. 2004. Quality in the Constructed Project. New York: American Society of Civil Engineers. Harvey, D. 2004. The condition of post-modernity: an enquiry into the origins of cultural change. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford. MassschoolBuildings, 2011. "CM at Risk Construction Delivery Method." Massachessets School Builing Authority. February 26, 2011. http://www.massschoolbuildings.org/sites/default/files/edit-contentfile/Guidelines_Forms/Contracts_Forms/CM-R%20v_02_25.pdf (accessed February 26, 2012). Hendrickson, C., 2005. Labor, Material and Equipment Utilization. May 26, 2005. http://pmbook.ce.cmu.edu/04_labor,_material,_and_equipment_utilization.html (accessed February 26, 2012). Janssens, M., & Janssens, M. 2009. Sustainable cities: diversity, economic growth, and social cohesion. Camberley, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. Larsson, M.-L. 1999. The law of environmental damage: liability and reparation. New York: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1999. Mander, Ü. Brebbia, C. A., & Tiezzi, E. 2006. The sustainable city IV: urban regeneration and sustainability. New Delhi: WIT Press. Mougeot, L. J., & International Development Research Centre (Canada). 2006. Growing better cities: urban agriculture for sustainable development. Ottawa [u.a.]: IDRC, International Development Research Centre. Nymer, R. 2000 International architecture. New York: Addison-Wesley Norton, B. G. 2005. Sustainability: a philosophy of adaptive ecosystem management. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Portney, K. E. 2003. Taking sustainable cities seriously: economic development, the environment, and quality of life in American cities. Cambridge: MIT Press. Sanders, J. C. 2010. Seattle and the Roots of Urban Sustainability: Inventing Ecotopia. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Pre. Read More