Maintenance and Design in Saudi Arabia - Essay Example

Unlike modern days, the conventional building maintenance process used to be undertaking after the assessment of the building condition. But in the present day, building maintenance has become one of the important components of expert sustainable design proposals.  Despite the technological advancement, hi-tech society buildings still suffer from a variety of issues of maintenance caused by the decisions of their designer. It is a broad observation that modern-day buildings are more susceptible to maintenance as compared to older counterparts. This research investigates the impact of design defects on maintenance through their barriers and limitations of the interaction between them in an attempt to improve building design to reduce maintenance costs, especially in hospital buildings. In addition to literature studies, the interviewee questions and a case study have been analyzed to identify design and maintenance defects, their impacts on the maintenance and management of hospital buildings in Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, it explores the concerning roles, responsibilities, obligations, and liabilities of the agents who are involved in the design and maintenance performance and feasible solutions. The King Fahad Hospital was chosen for the study and the five interviewees were interviewed by telephone. Qualitative methodology was selected to collect data for this study; it has been found out that the majority of maintenance dilemmas in the hospital building are attributed to design defects. The defects affecting the maintenance of hospitals in the budget were led to the depletion of the maintenance budget besides an increase in maintenance costs. Some recommendations were provided.

Conclusion

The first topic the chapter reviewed was maintenance. Common problems were identified and approaches to reduce the burden of maintenance through Total Quality Management of design were described. The effect poor design has on society was explored in terms of political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal aspects.

 The chapter discussed design defects in terms of the professional obligations that each agent in the design team holds. The chapter emphasized the roles, which the civil engineers, the architects, the interior designers, the commissioning agents, and the structural engineers have in the designing process. It also talked about the increasing role of legal action in poor design. Then the chapter discussed the inherent limitations of the building design and maintenance and its limitation in their relation. It lists the scope of the projects as well as the objectives and concludes with the significance of an investigation of the impact of design on the maintenance of hospital buildings in Saudi Arabia.

This presents an opportunity for investigations of the impact of design imperfections on maintenance. In prior knowledge of most results and the factors that influenced the maintenance of negligence in design, circles many aspects such as the specification of materials, thermal movement, wet areas, ventilation, inefficient detailing, improper material selection, and poor design for accessing maintenance measures. The chapter also argued that the design process must also be considered from a legal standpoint and the obligations of the design agents.

There is mention in the literature of maintenance issues in Saudi Arabia. Ikhwan and Burney (1999) pointed out the importance of maintenance in the Kingdom and discussed the need for maintenance education. They also highlighted research activities on maintenance performed at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah. They recommended an extensive assessment of the current states of maintenance management and practice in the Kingdom, and also more university-industry interaction in the field of maintenance.

Moreover, they presented their survey findings on the practice of maintenance in the private sector. Two symposia on maintenance planning and operations were held in Riyadh in 1990 and 1993. A symposium on maintenance in the public sector was held in Riyadh in 1995. Finally, they advocated the formation of a professional maintenance society. Mohammed and Hassanain (2010) discussed a broad view of faults in design that can cause maintenance problems. They presented their survey findings on design defects in the private sector where they listed 35 specific design defects relating to early increased maintenance costs, while Ahmad (2001) discussed the lack of design principles.