Get it right, from design to finish

In the olden days, master craftsmen, called ‘Thachans’ or ‘Asaris,’ used to design and construct buildings. Without any formal engineering education, these highly-skilled carpenters used to design, fabricate and erect wooden floors and trusses for tiled roofs. Intricate roofs of huge temples and palaces, with ridges and valleys of complex shapes, reveal their skill. Fabricating and assembling the components of trusses is no easy task, especially wit hout accurate drawing tools.

The legendary ‘Thachans’ disappeared as concrete replaced timber in floors and roofs. With reinforced cement concrete (concrete with steel reinforcements), engineers design beams, slabs, columns and foundations. Essentially a civil engineer’s domain, building engineering is considered part of civil engineering.

This is true as long as the buildings are of up to three or four storeys. For designing and constructing high-rise buildings, civil engineering skill alone is not enough. A coordinated effort of specialists in diverse disciplines is needed to build high-rises. A specialist in one discipline should have more than elementary knowledge of others.
It begins here

The architect is the first to enter the scene. He prepares the conceptual plan, considering the functional requirements of the building and the owner’s preferences. While planning the building layout, he or she must make provisions for electrical systems, plumbing, air-conditioning, fire-fighting, water supply, sewage treatment and lifts. The limitations likely to be imposed by the structural designer should be kept in mind.

The architectural design must conform to building rules. If it violates any statutory requirement and consequently, the building owner suffers a loss, the architect is liable to compensate him or her. So, the architect should know more than just architecture.

Specialists in other disciplines, such as plumbing, electrical, fire- fighting and air-conditioning, will study the plan to ensure that requirements of their works are taken care of. The plan then goes to the structural engineer for the design of the structure.
Crucial survey

The geo-technical engineer comes on the scene before or when the architect and other specialists work on the building design. He or she conducts a soil survey and studies the soil properties, determines the load-carrying capacity of the soil and suggests the type of foundation suitable for the structure.

The survey findings are important for the architect to decide the number of floors below the ground level for cellar, car park, underground tanks and so on and to determine the type of waterproofing below.

Experts in several disciplines thus work together to finalise the design. When the construction starts, services of other experts become necessary.

Before commencement of any activity on the site, several permits and approvals from various departments are required. Some of them, such as the building permit to construct the building on the site and registration as principal employer, are legal. Some others, such as environmental clearance, are techno-legal. The work on the field starts with the survey to mark the location of the building on the ground. This is called ‘setting out.’

Earlier, skilled masons used to set out the buildings using just a tape and a transparent hose. Today, sophisticated instruments, such as ‘Total Station,’ are used.

The surveyor is required not only for initial marking but also till the structure is complete to locate the columns on each floor. After the survey, agencies for executing each package of work start their work in the predetermined sequence.
Packages

Usually, the entire work is divided into the following packages:

• Piling, if the building is supported on piles

• Civil works consisting of earthwork, concrete, masonry, plastering, flooring, painting, doors and windows, hand rails, structural steel, false ceiling, and internal roads and drains

• Waterproofing: this may be a separate package if special waterproofing for underground cellars and car park are required. Otherwise, waterproofing of exposed slabs, toilets and balconies may be included in the package for civil work.

• Special finishes such as structural glazing and aluminium composite panels

• Plumbing and sanitary work

• Electrical work

• Fire-fighting

• Water, sewage treatment

• Lifts

• Security systems

• Communication system

• Centralised cooking gas distribution system

• Swimming pools

• Landscaping
Assigning work

The entire work may be entrusted to one executing agency, which will make the owner’s task of monitoring easier because he need deal with only one agency. But the disadvantage is the increased cost.

No agency has in-house wings for executing all the packages. So, work which cannot be executed in-house will be sub-contracted. The owner will end up paying the cost of execution by the sub-contractor and the margin on that to the nodal agency.

A high level of mechanisation is unavoidable in a major project. Machinery, such as batching plant, concrete pump, tower cranes and slip form shuttering, is expensive. Engineers and technicians familiar with operation and maintenance of these machines should be available on the site.

The works are inter-linked and inter-dependent. One agency can do its work only if the other completes its tasks. For example, the civil works contractor can cast a slab only after the electrical contractor lays concealed conduits. The electrical contractor can continue his work only after the civil contractor completes the slab and masonry.

Planning and scheduling the myriad activities is a complex job. Planning has become a special discipline by itself. Planning must take into account the limitations, such as availability of space, restrictions in movement of lorries, restrictions in working beyond normal working hours and fund flow.

Monitoring the progress is equally complex. Services of planning engineers conversant with the latest software are as essential as the services of civil, electrical and mechanical engineers.

Quality control and safety are other important functions in project implementation. It is a desirable practice to have these departments function independently and directly under the top management.

Materials management in construction project requires special skills for two reasons. One is that materials purchased for one project may not be required in another. Even if it can be used, transporting it to another site will be expensive. Hence, the estimate of materials has to be accurate. Also, because of the restrictions in storage space, supply must come in phases and in time.

This requires close and continuous monitoring. Finance and cost control is another area requiring an expert’s service.

During the construction, several labour laws have to be complied with. Compliance with statutory requirements and keeping records is another specialised job and non-compliance might invite punitive action.
Team work

Thus, implementation of a modern building project requires team work by professionals in various fields. Managing these professionals is a demanding and difficult job.

According to Peter Drucker, management expert, managing professionals is the most difficult job of a leader. This is because a professional usually respects only a more competent professional in the same subject.

He has scant regard for the work of others. So, the leader should have special skill to persuade the professionals to work as a team focussed on the ultimate goal of the organisation. Building engineering is, thus, a multidisciplinary specialty, and in fact, implementation of a building project is more than engineers’ job.

S.R.C. NAYAR