FLORIN BOTA

Design Principles and Application for

Construction and the Build Environment
 Construction projects are projects that are created to make life easier e.g. living
accommodations, houses, offices, commercial units, schools, hospitals, roads,
railways etc...

LO1Understand the planning and design phases of the construction process

1.1 Discuss the planning phase of construction projects

Every construction project begins with an idea. From there the idea is studied to
identify the need for the project which is the first stage of a development. This
comes from a client who’s wishing to develop a project. Every client or developer
wants to see a return of their investment so the most important factor is their
perception to the market conditions.

Based on the Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA) work stages, the cycle of
a construction project can be mapped out into different stages.

A brief statement will be produced which identifies the type or size of the project,
its standards, the budget, its cost and the time that takes to build it ready for
occupation. Identifying the client’s requirements and possible constraints of the
project is the first part of the process. It is the time when the client is looking for
possible site availability whether in our case the client already has a site for his
dream project. Also at this stage studies will take place to determine from the client
whether to proceed with the project or not. In our scenario a principal factor that
should determine the need for the client to proceed with the project is the location
of the site which in our case is a very expensive area in terms of land, housing,
commercial and social living and this should give the client an advantage for his
investment.

The client or someone on his behalf such as the architect will produce a
strategic brief which will describe the client’s requirements up to little details. It

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also marks out the procedures, planning and type of consultants needed for the
project.
A comprehensive briefing is of fundamental importance to the success of the
project (Duffy, 1994), however, perfect knowledge is unattainable so it is
impossible to establish every need in total details at the outset of the project.

This is the stage when the client appoints independent consultants for cost of the
whole project studies known as feasibility studies. The purposes of these studies
are to establish whether the project is viable. Given the location of our site the
project may be viable but could face possible constrains for example the Local
Authority could refuse the permission for the project due to its size, height and
purpose or environmental friendliness.

1.2 Discuss the design phase of construction projects

On building projects, the client usually employs an architect; however with

different combinations of procurement such as design and build or management
contracting, the client, nowadays, appoints the construction firm directly.

In these modern days every single construction project needs planning permission
from the Local Authority whether is a new build, renovation or an extension of a
building. In our case after finishing the conceptual design which is the last stage of
the planning process and therefore the start of designing process, the architect is
continuing the adding of details of the design’s aspects with full consultation and
permission of the Client. So prior a detailed design, the architect prepares
schematic outline proposals for approval from relevant planning authorities. These
proposals also need to be accepted by the Client. Sometimes it is a good idea to
establish the scopes of the development in the event where there is a doubt as
whether it would or it wouldn’t be acceptable. An early estimate of the costs and
a client’s budget will be required.

The provisional planning permission application also needs to contain details about
the location, site layout, building floor plans, Client’s ownership and application
fee. Once application has been submitted the PO (planning officer) consults the

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neighbours and also the contractors for the schematic view of the intended
development. In the mean time he keeps the Client updated for positive or
negative feedback, whether he needs to do any changes or amendments. So when
all those involved have a positive view about the development the Planning Officer
will then issue a formal approval.
As the process evolves and its various aspects get the approvals, few other
specialist consultants will be employed. The architect then produces a full scale
architectural design where the main decisions regarding the project layout and the
materials that are to be used and the standards of construction will be agreed. An
architect will be responsible for providing a full detailed design in order to secure
the full planning permission. At this stage the structural engineer will do the
calculations necessary from the architectural drawings, to produce the structural
drawing. The drawings produced for this design are usually used, initially for
tendering and also for the construction of the project. The working drawings are
developed fully by engineers and architects for the full scale of site construction
and installations. These are the final design drawings. (Ashworth, 2008)

1.3 Evaluate how the planning and design phases are coordinated and managed

The planning and design phases are two of the most important phases in achieving
success in a project.

The planning and design phases in a construction project interact at several points.
For example conceptual design or preliminary design is the starting point of the
design phases but the final scenario of the planning phase.

To achieve a successful project (profitable and buildability are reaching the

project’s goal) attention need to be given to proper management to all activities
through the whole design process, especially when we have different specialists (
consultants), it requires a well coordinated teamwork structure.

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For successful management and coordination of the design process an architect
needs to be appointed in order that design process operates efficiently. The
architect will produce a programme which will include the main areas of activities
such as planning, implementation and review up to the handover stage.

During the design development activity, which is part of the planning phase, as
soon as other consultants are appointed, the architect will also draw up the project
programme for each specialist with their design duties which is part of the Project
Execution Plan.
Design coordination can be achieved with a large numbers of meetings between
design specialists and sometimes the client or someone on his behalf, all depends
on the project scale.

Coordination can also be achieved using gaunt charts and other types of time
schedule linking planning and design phases.

LO2 Understand the factors that affect the specification of materials and
building services.

2.1 Examine the factors that affect the specification of materials

Material selection is a complex and delicate task determined by the vast choice of
building materials. During planning phase many factors are usually thought off by
the architect when evaluating the various categories of building materials. It all
depends on client’s requirements regarding external appearance, interior
structure and the cost implication to procure the materials. Those materials need
to fulfil some certain criteria such as:

• economic factors
• physical factors
• mechanical and non-mechanical properties
• production/construction considerations
• aesthetic consideration
• their embody energy
• environmental impact
• maintenance

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There are building materials that have low energy content such as sand, timber,
and stone (they don’t require energy consumption to produce them) and they are
cost efficient, however there are materials that require a high energy
consumption to produce them such as brick, cement, glass, metals plastics.

The traditionally building materials such as clay, stone and timber have been used
for decades even centuries and their performance have changed a little however
with the advance manufactory processes, the list of materials available today to
the construction is far bigger than has ever been in construction’s history such as
cement, concrete ,steel and aluminium. So choosing building materials in these
days is a delicate task as there is vast range of materials available in the market.
The selection of materials to be used in a building project depends on following
factors:

• availability
• durability
• workability
• strength
• fire resistance
• cost
• aesthetic
• easy of transportation
• electric conductivity
• moisture absorption
• acoustic properties
• thermal conductivity

2.2 Examine the factors that affect the specification of building services.

There are several factors that affect the specification of building services such as:

• client’s requirements
• the size of the building (whether it’s a one storey building or a ten storeys)
• the purpose of the building (domestic or commercial)

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Building services take up a big slice of the building cost and are also responsible for
most of its operating cost throughout its life.

During the design phase, building services are designed by the specialist designer,
where they evaluate and compare alternatives based on factors such as:

• performance
• life cycle
• cost
• quality and brand
• availability
• build ability and ease of installation

There are also some others criteria the designers need look up to regarding the
building services such as;

• durability( the longer they last there is lower cost involved in long run)
• easy to repair
• easy to replace( an easy access to get to the service and replace it)
• environmental issues
• energy efficiency
• Low maintenance (a building structural wise is capable to last at least 100
years whereas building services cannot last more than 25 years due to
innovations and changes of technology and they’re likely to be changed
several times. Quality of the product is very important as it request a low
maintenance so low cost for their operation)
• Time to purchase (availability of the product is also very important. In case
of a failure it only take little time to purchase it and the replace it, otherwise
if it’s not available around it can take long time and it could cause delays for
the operating system and that could very costly finding alternatives.

Building services are the systems installed in buildings to make the occupants life
more comfortable, safer and efficient. These services can be categorised with two
different types of installation; either temporary (during construction) or
permanent installation (for the purpose of the building).

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During the construction phase there are few temporary services that need to be
installed in order to accommodate the working staff such as, electricity supplies (
either through straight from the supplier or a hired generator), gas supplies water
supplies, telecommunication supplies (phone and internet),CCTV systems,
ventilation system, foul and storm drainage connections.

Providing the building services needed within our project (our scenario) can be a
very meticulous design and installation.

There are several permanent services that need to be installed such as:

• Water –supplying the water within our building can be very complicated task
and we have to take into account that its occupants need be provided with
cold and heated water (for kitchens and restrooms). Also supply of water is
needed to fire hydrants( in case of a fire)
• Gas – needed special for the heating system. The calculated amount of gas
should determine the type and size of the main pipe.
• Electricity – needed for everything that it’s powered by the electricity. The
calculated amount of electricity usage should determine the specialist
designers to find some other alternatives of electricity supply and more cost
effective such as solar panels or wind turbines (depends on the size of the
project but not in our case as there could be no permission for such
installation).
• Drainage - foul drain could all depend of the size of the building and the
calculated full load should determine size of the pipes to use and also the
materials that they’re made off.
- storm drain also depends of the size of the building as it collects the water
from rain and snow
• Telecommunication – needed for providing the phone and internet services
• CCTV cameras and alarm system– needed for securing the building from
theft
• Heating and ventilation system- needed for building’s occupants comfort
• Heat and fire alarms– these are two of the most important devices installed
within the building as it can warn people or save their lives in case of a fire.

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 • Escalators and lifts- needed for people accessing the different levels of
building special those aged and those with special needs
• Building management system (BMS) – computers based controls that can
coordinate, heating, A/C and lightning in building.

2.3 Explain the financial implications of specifying materials and building

services

The Latham Report (1994) cites that: “The project should be effective for the
purposes for which it is intended. A well designed building need not be to a high
level of specification. Evidence to the review has suggested that some UK buildings
are over specified and thus unnecessarily costly. A well deigned project will impact
upon the satisfaction, comfort and well-being of its occupants, and, if it is a
commercial building, upon their productivity and performance. …Quality should be
the overriding consideration.”

“It is unwise to pay too much, but it is worse to pay too little”. - John Ruskin

The relationship of quality to cost is often expressed in the saying that „you get
what you pay for.‟
During the design phase the architect or lead designer will reflect the client’s
requirements, especially those related to cost and quality of the project.

There are many factors that affect the financial implications of the specifications of
materials and building services such as:

• Availability
• Time for delivery
• Quality
• Storage
• Maintenance

There are methods reduce the cost by having a well-organized plan in procuring
the materials and building services. For example protecting the materials:

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 -if we plan the timing our purchases so that the delivery is just in time for the
required building stage

-if we try to avoid keeping materials in storage for too long and this could tie our
funds and this could lead to damage, spoilage and pilfering

Also a safe and correct storage of materials we could avoid damage of them by
damp, excess moisture, rain or daylight or we could prevent theft.

This could help us save money and reduce delays in our project.

Availability of materials is another important financial factor in construction like if

the material is available all over the market we can save money by getting from the
source with the best deal.

Another factor is time get the materials delivered to the site. To save time and
money we can use local merchants and that could reduce length of the journeys
and haulage costs.

An example from the project that i was working on, a water treatment plant, the
client awarded a company to build a pumping shaft to help dealing with London
sewage system. On the client request, the company procured some special
designed pumps build in Germany. When they got to the point to test the system (
final stage before hand over) a bad design of the pumps or a miscalculation of their
capacity caused a massive failure and damage of some of the pumps. There is a
massive financial implication as those pumps needs to be removed (a very long
process as it is 90 m below ground level) transported back to Germany, redesigned,
rebuild it, back to the UK, refitted. This required a lot of time, working force and a
massive bill.

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LO3 Understand how environmental factors affect the planning and design
phases of the construction process.

3.1 Discuss the environmental factors that affect construction projects

Construction projects are responsible for big percentage of UK’s greenhouse gas
emissions.

Concrete and steel, the most commonly used materials in construction, are the
worst culprits when it comes to embodied Carbon. Somehow there is a positive
side in that the construction has the most room to improve. On these days new
environmentally friendly building products and techniques are made available to
the construction industry very often.

The construction industry has lot of downsides when we look at whole thing from
environmental point of view. Like or not we have to admit that it’s one of more
serious sources of pollution. Although it’s not aggressive as the car industry but it
definitely has a notable role in pollution.

Waste management and disposal

Depending on type of development, the waste that is produced can have a very
harmful impact on different parts of environment. For example the soil can be, in
most of cases, contaminated to some level, so moving it to the other location can
have a environment impact on that place. There are certain ways to reduce the
waste of materials, for example, by disposing them in different skips for reuse or
recycling.

Energy

When it comes to energy consumption, construction industry doesn’t really pay

much attention to the conservation of energy.
Every part of construction requires energy, whether it is the manufacturing or
transport of the materials, the use of heavy machinery or power tools, and
everyone them requires a source of energy. This means even a small energy loss

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by those mentioned on the construction industry on a big scale can be a very big
energy loss.

Noise

Noise is big environmental issue in construction industry and it can affect health of
the workers and health of the people that leave around construction sites.
Construction workers are affected the most as they are exposed to noise on daily
basis.

The construction environmental management plan is something that is mandatory

in the UK and provides companies with ways of identification, management and
reduction of environmental issues.

3.2 Evaluate environmentally responsible methods for disposing of waste

materials

The construction industry is one of the biggest culprit in producing waste materials.
Disposing those is a delicate task for companies as involves an awful lot of money,
but with a good environmental management plan there are several methods in
reducing waste. Let’s see what the waste really is.

Waste is everything that gets into a skip and end up in a landfill. Few example of
those waste materials;

• Unused materials and off-cuts

• Damaged materials
• Demolition waste

Here are some methods to reduce waste:

- A lot of waste is new and unused materials (the industry shows nearly 13% of total
waste) – these materials can be returned to some suppliers that can accept returns
or exchanges. This way the waste can be reduced.

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- A lot of other materials that are skipped are the packaging of materials (up to
nearly 60% of total waste) but this can be reduced by talking to the suppliers to
take them back to reuse them. A little example on the project that I was working
on, the company that used to supply the cable for electric connections, it was rolled
on a wooden rollers. Soon as the cable was finished those rollers were sent back to
the supplier for re-use.

- Exchange materials – what may appear to be of no value to us may be value to

someone else. There are many exchange schemes available.

- Crush and reuse aggregates.

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Another method disposing materials is by keeping the waste materials separated
and some of them can be recycled. So we can hire skips for different materials such
as; skip for wood, skip for metals, skip for paint cans, skip for plasterboards ( as
shown in the picture below )..

3.3 Evaluate environmentally responsible methods for promoting

environmental efficiency.

As mentioned earlier construction industry is one the worse environment

destroyer. Nearly every project has an environmental management plan in place
but it is very hard to implement it. However there are several environmentally
methods during construction process of a project that help promoting
environmental efficiency. One them, is when companies encourage the workforce
to dispose the materials in the right manner and this will massively help reduce
pollution. Therefore, waste management is a key factor of promoting
environmental efficiency.

Another method promoting environmental efficiency is reduction of gas emissions

produced by plant and machinery. For example on the Cross rail project they’ve
had a compulsory policy that every plant and machinery to have fitted on the
exhaust pipe, a special filter to reduce the gas emissions.

Noise is another big environmental factor in construction industry. Most of the big
projects, especially those with a lot of plant movement, have encountered lot
complaints from the neighbourhood, regarding the noise they produced with plant

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and machinery. Minimizing the noise level is a big problem and to do this there are
few limited methods promoting the environmental efficiency, by surrounding the
area where the noise is produced with acoustic fencing (it reflects the sound back)
.Also reducing the use of the plant and machinery is another option. A noise
monitor is a must have in big projects.

Another method is the reduction of dust produced on building site from operations
such as: demolition, plant movement. This can be reduced by having the areas
showered with water most of the time.

Reuse of the recycle materials such as crushed concrete, timbers is another good
method promoting the environmental efficiency.

LO4 Understand the roles and responsibilities of all parties involved in

construction projects.

4.1 Explain the roles and responsibilities of all parties involved in the planning
and design phases.

The building industry is a wide industry that enquires the appointments of many
professionals to avoid failure, defects and many more in construction projects.

Planning and design phases are very important stages in a development process.

It’s all starting with the client.

The client is a person or an organisation that needs a building and can supply the
capital to build it. The client has a big influence over projects are run, including the
management of health and safety risks.

The client’s responsibilities are to ensure that:

• He makes suitable arrangements for managing their project

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 • He maintains and reviews the management arrangements for the
duration of projects
• He provides a pre-construction information for every designer or
contractor
• He makes sure that the principal designer or contractor produces a
construction phase plan before that phase commences.
• He makes sure that the principal designer prepares the health and
safety file for the project and it is updated as necessary and made
available to anyone who needs it
Another professional that takes part in the planning and design phases is the
architect or lead designer.

An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversee the construction of a

building.

The architect is a licensed specialist in art and science of building design, develop
the concepts for the building and turn these concepts into images and plans.

His general duties are:

• To adhere to the Code of Professional Conduct emitted by the RIBA

• To provide the client with clear advice on the project regarding :
design and development potential, a summary cost of building(
project), time scales and programming, the need to appoint different
specialists
• To give generally advice on aspects of the client’s brief
• To develop and to produce design schemes in order for the project to
be viable in terms of local authorities guidelines
• To produce the design to detail and to produce all necessary drawings
for the contractor that does the work up to the standards required
• To take look on the health and safety matters
• To pay attention to sustainable and environmental problems

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Geotechnical engineer

Geotechnical engineering is a branch within civil engineering related to the

performance of ground conditions in regards to its properties such as physical,
mechanical and chemical that will influence the proposed development. He also
carries out researches that can include assessment of the risks toward humans and
environment from natural hazards such as earthquake, landslide and ground
collapse (sinkhole).

After the necessary studies the geotechnical engineer may suggest improvement
of the ground which will improve the bearing capacity of soil. He will also advice or
design the type of foundation needed for the building to sustain it.
Structural engineer

The structural engineering is another discipline with civil engineering which

produces the strength calculation, loads and forces on the proposed project and
also prepares the drawings for the structure of the building.

Soon as the architectural design is finished the structural engineer is next

professional to work on the design.

Quantity surveyor (known as QS)

The QS is a person that provides financial and contractual advice services for
planning, execution and completion of construction work. He is the professional in
construction industry that specialises with estimating the cost of the project. That
includes the budget of the project, analysing the effect of any changes of the
design. The most important role is to prepare the Bill of Quantities.

Land surveyor

The land surveyor is a specialist who is licensed by the authorities to determine the
boundaries of the project by measuring distances, directions and elevations.

His responsibilities are to determine:

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 o Location of the site (on the map)
o The project boundary ( shape) o
The area of the building (size)

Building Services engineer

The building service engineer is the professional that designs the mechanical and
electrical systems in a building, bringing the building to life for the future
occupants. They take a big part in influencing the architecture of the building and
play a big role the sustainability and energy demands for a building.

4.2 Explain the roles and responsibilities of all parties involved in the production
phase

There are many parties involved in the production phase such as:
The Project Manager

The Project manager is organising the necessary work on behalf of the client. Ha
will make sure the project quality plan and stages of work is in conformity with the
design.

The Contractors

The Contractors implement the design and are responsible for delivering the
construction process according to the contractual agreements and regulations.
Therefore the contractors have an important role in planning, managing and
monitoring their work to ensure any risks are controlled.

The Subcontractor

The Subcontractor can be a person or a whole organisation hired by the contractors

to perform specific task as part of the whole project and is normally paid for
services provided by the originating general contractor. Their roles are to respect
the health and safety of the project and perform their duties in a safe manner.

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The Builder

The Builder is the professional at the heart of the physical construction of the
projects. His role in building process is to construct the building by taking charge of
the activities such as translating design, working drawings and specifications into a
physical structure. He uses his own production management expertise together
with necessary resources (money, manpower, machineries and materials) in the
site execution of the projects.

The builder has its own roles such as:

o Carry out build ability and

maintainability analysis
o Prepares production documents o
Manage the production process on site

The Landscaping Architect

The Landscaping Architect is the professional that designs every aspect of the
external environment of the projects

The Interior Designer

The Interior Designer is the specialist that is appointed sometimes on the

construction projects to work on the interior design and decor especially in housing
projects. A professional Interior Designer can add significant value to the property.

4.3 Evaluate the corporate and personal responsibilities of all parties involved
in construction projects.

Wenblad(2001) defines the corporate responsibilities as “ a framework for all types

of issues where accompany is regarded at having certain obligation to society at
large”

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Moon (2007) offers a more convincing definition such as that “ corporate
responsibility is in essence o form of self-regulation to contribute to social and
environmental welfare”.

In conclusion the corporate responsibility defines the process of self-regulation,

where an organisation seeks to measure and improve its performance related to
social, environmental and economic expectations placed upon it by society.

Many industries are becoming aware of its importance by integrating into their
business while for others the corporate responsibility is having a lower priority.

In UK some components of the corporate responsibility are governed by legislation

such as environmental activities and health and safety.

In construction a suitable definition would be more appropriate as “the

commitment to integrate socially responsible values and concerns of stakeholder
into their operations in a way to that fulfils and exceeds current legal and
commercial expectation.

The social responsibility values can be listed as:

o Transparency o
Fairness o
Inclusiveness o
Responsiveness o
Integrity o
Diversity o
Accountability

The corporate responsibilities of all the parties involved in construction projects

are:

CDM Construction (Design and Management)

The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations (2015) came into force
April 2015. It describes:

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 - The law that applies to any construction project from concept to
completion
- What each party must or should do to comply with the law to ensure
that any project is carried out in a way that secure health and safety

Health and Safety

Under the CDM regulations the client is to ensure that there will be a health and
safety file prepared for their project. This lies to the architect (principal designer)
appointed by the client to produce it. It is defined as a file appropriate to the
characteristics of the project, containing relevant Health and Safety information
to be taken into account during any project. They also need to have a plan in
order to eliminate any health and safety risks (e.g. designing building that would
require dangerous work to be carried out).

The principal designer regularly updates, reviews and revises the Health and
Safety file taking account of the work and changes that have occurred. He should
expect the client to provide any Health and Safety file that may exist. When the
designing team’s role it’s over they pass this Health and Safety file onto the
Principal Contractor.

The Principal Contractor must update the Health and Safety file so it up to date
and contains all accurate information. This is passed to the client upon
completion of the development. They also manage the site in term of managing
the contractors undertaking the work they have a high level of responsibility to
ensure that works are being carried out in accordance with the designs and that
all permits, methods statements and risk assessments are correct and signed off
prior commencing works.

Under the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974), employers are accountable for
the health and safety management. It is their responsibility to defend the health,
safety and welfare of their employees and others whom their business might
affect. This is to ensure that employees and others are kept safe from whatever
may cause harm.

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Also there are numerous responsibilities on workers such as adhering to the
specific Health and Safety rules on site (e.g. wearing the correct PPE( personal
protective equipment) for different tasks to avoid injuries, report any dangerous
activities to ensure that they are dealt with and avoid any accident. Before any
work they also need to obtain the required permits, method statements and risk
assessments for each task that needs to be approved and signed off. During the
site induction, toolbox-talks or morning briefings, workers are advised to report
any injury either small or big (these need to be filled out in the office accident
book) or report any near misses so the management team can update new
procedures in executing the work to avoid any future risks or accidents.

Environmental Agency

The environmental agency plays a big role not just in construction industry but all
industries. They are working with business, government and society as a whole, to
make our environment cleaner and healthier for us and our future generations.
Their biggest concern in construction industry is the pollution.

There are several pollution incidents from construction and demolition sites every
year that damage the environment, yet these can be avoided by having a proper
environment management plan regarding all the activities on site and that will
protect the environment, wildlife and human health.

There is also guidance,” pollution prevention guide”, for everyone responsible for
managing all the activities from day to day on construction site. Therefore
managing properly their environmental responsibilities will mainly protect the
environment.

The managing team that don’t comply with the rules of this guidance can end up
in courts, resulting in big fines, damaging the company’s reputation or even
imprisonment.

Local authorities

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Local authorities are independent parties (part of government’s representatives
in respective area) empowered to approve aspect of design and construction.
Their responsibilities are to ensure a safe condition to all the communal buildings
and infrastructures that may be affected by the project.

LO 5 Understand how technology affects the design and production phases of

construction projects

5.1 Discuss the modern technology available to designers, planners and builders

Well “Rome wasn’t built in a day but, from mounting caves and sod huts to massive
modern skyscrapers and energy-efficient homes, human progress is story of
buildings as much as it is the history of tools”

New technology is changing how the buildings are constructed these days.

Computer-aided-design programmes such as CAD and Revit, structural analyse

programme (SAP) provide the design team with more accuracy, flexibility and time
saving. Saving time producing a design for a project with new technology has a big
impact on budget allocated to the task.

Building information models (BIM) allow planners to use multi-dimensional digital

representations of a project and can track essential information over the life cycle
of a building.

Other example of technology system developed by the Bechtel Group is a

threedimensional coordinate system that allows people to “walk through” a facility
before it is even built.

Other new technology such as laser levels and global positions systems (GPS) is
helping the builder with more accuracy, time saving and cost effectiveness.

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5.2Evaluate the effect of technological advances on the various phases of
construction projects

Over the past 10 years the effects of technology on the construction industry have
varied by the type of construction being performed, but in general, the changes
have been largely evolutionary.

There are significant changes in construction industry these days if we examining

technological advances how they affect the entire construction industry. These
technological advances fall into different areas such as:

Construction design

Computer-aided design (CAD) is now a fact of life in the design-construction

process. There are significant benefits to the construction industry in several
aspects such as reduced interferences, for instance where the design of separate
systems (electrical system, mechanical system...etc). CAD system gives the
designers the savings in time and related design costs can be significant because
it’s faster (in the time needed for an engineer at the drafting table to produce one
drawing, an experience CAD technician can produce four), also for its accuracy and
information storage.

Construction equipment

Heavy equipment used in construction industry such as cranes, conveyors and

earth movers continues to become more efficient. Major improvements have been
made on some specific machinery such as laser-based surveying equipment, laser-
guided excavation equipment and also the new tunnelling equipment.

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 5.3 Produce drawings using CAD packages.

Drawings of: 1 . Front Elevation of the office building

2. Side View of the office building

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References:

“BUILDING DESIGN MANAGEMENT” by COLIN GRAY & WILL HUGHES

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“PRE-CONTRACT STUDIES” -Third edition by ALLAN ASHWORTH

“MANAGING THE BUILDING DESIGN PROCESS” by GAVIN TUNSTALL

SUSTAINANABLE CONSTRUCTION- Simple ways to make it happen

POLLUTION PEVENTION GUIDE by the Environmental Agency

GLOBALIZATION OF TECHNOLOGY: INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE (1988)

Chapter: Technological advances in the Construction Sector

INTERNATIONAL CODE COUNCIL –Building Technology: Then and

Now LONDON COLLEGE UCK MOODLE by Mr. M Tohidi

www.hse.gov.uk www.nottingham.ac.uk centaur.reading.ac.uk

www.nairaland.com iosjournals.org gilespike.com

Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA) work stages

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