Selection
of Materials
There are a large number of materials available in today's market.
Each of this material has its own quality, colour, texture etc.
Its surface hardness ware resistance, response to water, fire,
heat are different from each other. In selecting materials for
your new building you should think about all these.
Let's take a kitchen as on example. Your kitchen is a very high
traffic area. People tend to be in the kitchen for long times.
So the kitchen floor should be highly wear resistant. Not only
that; kitchen is a place where there is a risk of liquids spreading
on the floor. It could be any thing like water, juices, acids,
alcohol etc. So the kitchen floor should be water repellant. It
should also be able to withstand chemical deterioration. Other
wise your kitchen may look out- dated very soon.
Surrounding environment also plays on important role in selecting
materials for a building. For example, selecting steel as a material
for building in the coastal area could not be a wise decision
unless you want your building to have a corroded effect. For colder
areas like Nuwara Eliya heat insulating materials are very useful
.It insulates the building and protects the amount of heat captured
in the building.
Availability of technology also determines the material that is
to be used in buildings. For example, if you want to take a span
of about 20M, you can't go for timber as roofing material as timber
is too weak to have such long spans. So you would have to go for
steel as a roofing material. Not only that, if you want to reduce
your roof angle down to 4°- 6°. Depending on site conditions or
aesthetics; you may have to go for steel profile roofing. With
that kind of a roof angle clay tiles or any other type of tiles
may tend to leak. Steel profile roofing could be obtained from
the market as a single sheet of almost any size which makes it
ideal for your requirement.
Economic reasons also play a determinant role in material selection.
For example, if you are building a low-cost house, you can't go
for parquet as a flooring material, as it is very expensive. Similarly,
you can't go for copper roofing tiles in an ordinary house as
a roofing material due to economic reasons.
Coordination
In the building process architect is the co-ordinator. He has
to coordinate both with other consultants and the contractor.
In designing; he has to take into account of various structural,
mechanical aspects of the building; and he has to get advice from
experts of the appropriate field; and coordinate. In a building
there will be electrical lines, water supply lines, fuel, water,
discharge lines, gas pipes etc. The architect will have to provide
for all these and get expert advice and to coordinate with them.
As the design team leader the architect has to select all these
consultant taking into consideration of their past works, technology,
and capacities.
In the construction stage, the architect has to coordinate with
the contractor. He will select the most suitable contractor considering
the condition of the contractor. He will check weather the contractor
has past experience in the similar capacity or not; he will check
the technology available with the contractor etc. After commencing
the construction work the architect will chair progress review
meeting
Preparation
of Drawings and Specifications
The architect; after designing the building will prepare drawings.
Drawings include presentation drawings and construction drawings.
Presentation drawings are merely for the purpose of letting you
understand the architect's concept about the building. You can't
build with presentation drawings. Then the architect will prepare
the permit drawing which you will have to produce to the local
authority and obtain legal permission to construct the building.
In the meantime your architect will produce construction drawings,
which elaborates the entire building. It will include detailed
sections, elevations, plans, cutting and filling layout, setting
out plan etc. These detailed drawings will have specifications,
which will clarify the material, its thickness, finish, method
of fixing etc.
Issue of Payment Certificates
During the construction process, the contractor will produce bills
which indicates the cost of construction; to the architect. The
architect will check the rates of this bills and if they seems
o.k. He will ask you to pay the contractor. This process will
take place in various stage of construction. After each payment,
your architect will issue a payment certificate.
