Building Construction
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Building construction is a complex, significant, and rewarding process. It begins with an idea and culminates in a structure that may serve its occupants for several decades, even centuries. Like the manufacturing of products, building construction requires an ordered and planned assembly of materials. It is, however, far more complicated than product manufacturing. Buildings are assembled outdoors on all types of sites and are subject to all kinds of weather.
Additionally, even a modest-sized building must satisfy many performance criteria and legal constraints, requires an immense variety of materials, and involves a large network of design and production firms. It is further complicated by the fact that no two buildings are truly identical; each one must be custom-built to serve a unique function and respond to the uniqueness of its context and the preferences of its owner, user, and occupant.
Because of a building’s uniqueness, we invoke first principles in each building project.
Although it may seem that we are “reinventing the wheel,” we are in fact refining and improving the building delivery process. In so doing, we bring to the task the collective wisdom of the architects, engineers, and contractors who have done so before us. Although there are movements that promote the development of standardized, mass-produced buildings, these seldom meet the distinct needs of each user.
Regardless of the uniqueness of each building project, the flow of events and processes necessary for a project’s realization is virtually the same in all buildings. This chapter presents an overview of the events and processes that bring about a building—from the inception of a mere idea or concept in the owner’s mind to the completed design by the architects and engineers and, finally, to the actual construction of the building by the contractor.
Design and construction are two independent but related and generally sequential functions in the realization of a building. The former
Building construction is a complex, significant, and rewarding process. It begins with an idea and culminates in a structure that may serve its occupants for several decades, even centuries. Like the manufacturing of products, building construction requires an ordered and planned assembly of materials. It is, however, far more complicated than product manufacturing. Buildings are assembled outdoors on all types of sites and are subject to all kinds of weather.
Additionally, even a modest-sized building must satisfy many performance criteria and legal constraints, requires an immense variety of materials, and involves a large network of design and production firms. It is further complicated by the fact that no two buildings are truly identical; each one must be custom-built to serve a unique function and respond to the uniqueness of its context and the preferences of its owner, user, and occupant.
Because of a building’s uniqueness, we invoke first principles in each building project.
Although it may seem that we are “reinventing the wheel,” we are in fact refining and improving the building delivery process. In so doing, we bring to the task the collective wisdom of the architects, engineers, and contractors who have done so before us. Although there are movements that promote the development of standardized, mass-produced buildings, these seldom meet the distinct needs of each user.
Regardless of the uniqueness of each building project, the flow of events and processes necessary for a project’s realization is virtually the same in all buildings. This chapter presents an overview of the events and processes that bring about a building—from the inception of a mere idea or concept in the owner’s mind to the completed design by the architects and engineers and, finally, to the actual construction of the building by the contractor.
Design and construction are two independent but related and generally sequential functions in the realization of a building. The former