Saturday, January 14, 2012

Construction and Architecture



The building sector now a day wittiness a rapid growth due to the increased number of population, and the use of modern technology to invent new kinds of building materials with new specifications, and in some cases as a substitute for other materials that has been used or still used but rarely now a days, and many new kinds of equipments to make it easier and faster the the people who work in the field of construction like cranes, excavators, modern methods of formwork etc.


 The purpose of this article is to give a brief idea for the beginner in the field of construction and architecture about the stages and steps for the executing of a building from A to Z briefly. 
Firstly if you want your project to succeed and you want to achieve the goals you are planning to from your project you should always remember three things:   
·        Time schedule never forget the factor of time (the shortest period to execute the project according to the contract and specifications)
·        The budget of the project (the expected amount of money to execute all the activities of the project).
·        The quality of building which will be the final result of your project and it will give you satisfaction about what you did. 
Stages that any project should pass through till it complete from A to Z: 


1.  The Project Charter:

Having complete clarity as to the purpose of the project is the first hurdle to overcome in being able to successfully complete the project and this is defined in the project charter. Without clearly understanding the purpose of the project you won’t be able to clearly define and communicate the aims and objectives of it to those carrying out work on your behalf. No two projects are ever the same whether you try to compare diverse ones such as launching a spaceship to improving a neighborhood or similar projects like launching a new brand of coffee to a new brand of cola.

2.  Project Initiation:

The main tasks in initiating your project are; setting the objectives for it, defining the scope of the project, establishing your strategy for the project and, perhaps most importantly – determining a Work Breakdown Structure. The work breakdown structure is a key document as it will contain the details of the work plan, budgets and financial controls and the assignment of responsibilities to others.

3.  Specifications for the project:
Next you need to get down to detailing the requirements for your project. It is vital during this project specifications stage that you remember the purpose of the project and refer back to the feasibility study. The reason for this is that you are delivering the project on behalf of the sponsor, whilst you are responsible for the project – it does actually belong to someone else who will probably have responsibility for it on a day-to-day basis once completed, the ‘end-user’.

4.  Design:

With a full set of specifications and approval for them to refine your initial plan if necessary you can now move on to the project design stage.  This is when you translate the ‘what is required’ in to ‘how it will be done’. At this stage you can hand over some of your initial plans to the specialists in your team charging them with producing the solutions that will deliver the project. Project designs can be arrived at in a variety of forms such as diagrams, working models or prototypes.

5.  The Building stage:

Whether you’re building an office block or a database doesn’t matter, with all of your plans and designs in place you can actually get your teams started on building the project. The temptation to skip or indeed even skimp on any of the prior stages must be avoided. Having the build stage progress with the minimum of difficulty and delay is of prime importance as this is the  stage that will cost the most money.

6.  Implementation:

With the project built the next stage is to implement the project or put it into operational mode. This is the phase in which the end-user eventually takes ownership of the project transferred to them and, following a period of testing and adjustments, fully accepts it. No matter how much you have liaised with the end-user up to now, or indeed how well you have executed your job and the project as a whole, there will almost inevitably be snags that need tweaking and improving.

7.  Operation stage:

At the operation stage you have actually handed over the project, got everything running smoothly and finished with it. However there is still one final job to do and that is to write a post-implementation report for the project sponsor. As time goes on projects are frequently re-opened as further changes and improvements to them need considering. Your closing report will be an invaluable tool in helping the project sponsor to consider any changes and may yet prove useful to you if asked to work again as the project manager.

The building stage of the project will be the subject of this article and it can be briefed into the following activities :



1)     The alignment of the building location on the land of the project by a surveying technician.

2)     Starting excavation works to a reduced level and it is always known as the level of the slab on grade. And giving a work space area more than the building area to do the formworks and the required activities like isolation etc.

3)     Structural excavations for the foundations and tie beams of the building and this excavation are done after alignment of the column and walls axes.

4)     Casting of blinding concrete under foundations and tie beams.

5)     Reinforcement of foundations and necks of columns and walls.

6)     Casting the foundations after the shuttering.

7)     Casting of the neck columns and walls.

8)     Reinforcement of the tie beams.

9)     Casting the tie beams after the shuttering.

10) Back filling between the tie beams with selected materials on layers and compacting then back filling with base course layer at least 20cm and compacting under the slab on grade.

11) Reinforcement of the slab on grade then casting after the installation of the entire electrical and mechanical first fix.

12) Reinforcement of the columns and walls.

13) Shuttering of the columns and walls after the alignment of their axes.

14)  Formworks for the slabs.


15)   Electrical and mechanical first fix for the slabs.  
         16)Reinforcement of the slabs then casting with  concrete pump.

17)Building stone walls between columns for the external walls of the building.
18)Stone cladding for the shear walls 5cm stone and 10cm concrete with reinforcement steel mesh of 8mm diameter.

19)Internal partitions which might be concrete block or gypsum boards.

20)Electrical and mechanical installations (first fix) for the walls and.

21)Plastering of the walls and ceiling if there is no falls ceiling.
22)Tiling of floors and walls and marble works for the stairs and window sills and door thresholds and garnet works for the kitchen cabinets.

23)Aluminum for some doors and windows.


24)Carpentry works for doors and kitchen cabinets.




25)Metal works for window protection grills and stairs rails and some metal doors etc.








26) Finishing works for the sanitary units and electrical finishes such as sockets and lighting points etc.

27)Handing over the project to it end user. 

This article  written by Taha Mesleh working as an experience civil engineer in the field of building and contracting   , if you want to read similar articles visit:construction-and-architecture.plogspot.com   



   

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