Sukumaran

Andrew is right. A few points to watch for:

The first slab you cast (ground floor) will probably need additional
strengthening because its going to be your working surface. It needs to cater
for construction loads, materials storage etc. The piles, whether temporary or
permanent, need to cater for the additional loads, too. I suggest you ask the
Engineer to add more rebar so that the slab can cater for 25 to 30KPa. That
should cope with most normal events.
The new basements ground support system at the perimeter needs to be
installed first. Your engineer may design a sheet pile or diaphragm wall
system, depending on ground conditions and your local design codes. If the
storey height of the basement floors is not too much he should be able to
design a D-Wall system that can span about 6 metres of height without
intermediate strutting. This can allow you to excavate in jumps of 2 floors at a
time thus allowing you to get to the deepest levels as quickly as possible and
reducing the time you need to keep openings workable for "mucking out". The
intermediate floors can be cast later, bottom up. If a sheet pile wall, then you
may not be able to excavate down in jumps of two floors at a time.
The temporary piles that you installed to support the ground floor and that
later become columns must be designed as columns, because there will be a
time when theyre taking all the vertical loads without the lateral support of
the ground, as a pile does. Also, if youre using steel H-piles, they will need
shear studs welding to them to support the floors as you go down. Later you
can encase the columns in concrete to become permanent columns or cut
them out; depends on the structural design of the final basement.
Give careful consideration to your mucking out routes and methods.
Make sure there is enough ventilation. The construction plant will be diesel
powered and the fumes are heavier than air, so you must keep pumping or
blowing in fresh air for your site personnel and for the machinery to burn in
their engines. Similarly ensure you have adequate lighting; for safety and
working.
Make sure you carefully plan your escape routes in the event of and
emergency. The conditions are not dissimilar to tunnelling and many of those
considerations also apply to top-down construction.