Building Engineering services - Essay Example

With technologies like telecommunication, internet & video conferencing etc gaining presence the people across the world have become closer and interaction among them has increased. This has given companies from different countries access to a large talent pool, newer avenues and increased business opportunities. With business expansion also comes increased manpower and equipment and naturally the need for more buildings to house them. The last couple of decades has seen an unprecedented growth in the construction of residential and non-residential buildings across the world particularly in developing countries.

The bigger the size of the building, more the number of building services and more the complexity of these services. With bigger the buildings the cost of deployment and maintenance increases and leads to high energy bills. So the emphasis naturally turns towards energy savings. Energy savings not only results in monetary savings to the company but also gives management the satisfaction of doing their bit towards environmental protection. Typically, when a new building project is planned, the management may appoint one or many firms or individuals having specific skill sets.

These include an Architect, Quantity Surveyor, Project Management Company (PMC), Service Consultants, Technology Consultants, Third Party Testing & Commissioning Agency etc. These can directly appointed by the management or the management can appoint an architect or PMC and they in turn appoint the rest. Either ways, Architect usually reigns supreme and is the fulcrum of the structure around which others work around. Generally, the plans and layouts are designed by the architect upon which the various service consultants design their respective systems.

For example, the air conditioning consultant follows the interior designer in terms of deciding the duct sizing, location of the air handling unit etc. A lot of importance is given to the aesthetics of the building and