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BUILDERS, INC.
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MEET YOUR BUILDING PROFESSIONALS
There are a number of technical and non-technical professionals who collaborate among themselves in coming up a building/s or land development projects. The involvement of the number of professionals is very much dependent on the magnitude of the project and the budget, that is without saying.
This article will be listing down some technical professionals who may be involved in a building project. Let me also say that there are other technical professionals, not listed below, who may be involved in a project.
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Architect. In most parts of the world, the architect is the prime professional in defining the main character of the building. Almost all construction plans start in a concept which emanates from the architect. The architect provides the main space requirements and its functionalities inside the building and the architect is very much responsible for projecting the exterior form of the building.
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Structural Engineer. The structural engineer or civil engineers are professionals who analyze, computes, and designs the stability of the structure. From the architectural plans, they provide the sizes and dimensions of all the structural components of the building. The vertical, lateral, and diagonal forces that the building would encounter are vital data in their computation.
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Electrical Engineer. Electrical engineers provide all the electrical load requirements and computations in a building project. On some occasions, they coordinate with the sanitary and mechanical engineers on the electrical loadings they may need in order for their system to run accordingly.
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Sanitary Engineer. Sanitary engineers or master plumbers tandem themselves in doing the sanitary plumbing design and works of a building. The sanitary engineer is responsible for computing the water and waste requirement of a project, primarily on big projects, while the Master plumber is in charge of implementing the plumbing requirement.
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Mechanical Engineer. Mechanical engineers are in charge in designing and computing all the mechanical equipment needed in a building, such as pumps, elevators, and other mechanical equipment needed in the project. They are required to coordinate with the electrical engineers and the sanitary engineers on their mechanical requirements in order for their respective systems to run properly.
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Interior Designer. Interior designers enhance the ambiance of the space and the furniture's inside the space. They help improve the way of life and the behavior of the building users, through colors and textures among others.
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Landscape Architect. The landscape architect is the professional that beautifies the surrounding areas outside the building by introducing external elements to blend with the building design. But nowadays since the land areas are limited, interior landscaping works starts to be prolific in the urban setting.​
MAIN STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS IN A BUILDING
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Foundations or Footings. The Foundations and Footings are structural elements that are located at the foot of the building structure, which means it is ideal to construct your foundations and footings underground. If I use an analogy, the foundation of the building acts as the root of a plant or a tree. There are a number of foundation technologies we can use in a building, depending on the soil bearing capacity where the footprint of the building will stand, not to mention the weight of the building is vital in the computation as well. We may use shallow foundations or footings, like isolated or combined footings, we have another variance like Matt Footings, another variance is Piles or any combinations or variations which I mentioned.
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Columns or pedestals. Columns are vertical structural elements that hold the upper portion of the building. There are two main variances of columns, these are single and combined columns. On some occasions, when the architect decides to eliminate the columns in a building, the architects may use walls to act as columns.
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Beams or Girders. Beams are horizontal or diagonal structural elements that connect from one column to the other. Columns and beams are best together as a structural team. They team up together to resist all vertical, horizontal, and diagonal forces within and outside the building.
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Floorings. Floorings maybe categorize into three, one is the ground flooring, which is rested on the ground line itself but this doesn’t mean that this particular flooring is not at the ground floor level of the building; the second one is called slab on fill. This just means that the flooring is rested on a fill; and the third one is the upper flooring, which is a suspended flooring system. There are many kinds of flooring technology in the Philippine market.
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Walls. Walls have two main categories, one is the exterior walls and the other one is the interior walls. There are also subcategories like structural walls and non-structural walls. There are countless of variances of walls, too many to mention. Probably in the near future, I may be able to discuss some.
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Roof. The roof is the covering structural element of a building. The roof is composed of roof frames and the roof skin itself. On some occasion, the roof need not need a roof frame to hold the roof skin, just the roof skin. Probably I can expound on this subject in the near future.
General Building Construction
At this time in the Philippines, General Building Construction is at its peak. There are a number of active on-going vertical and horizontal construction projects that we see in urban areas and rural areas. This is a good sign for the Philippines' economy.
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Having said this, the cost of materials and labor cost begins to rise, plus local government fees and stricter private and government construction ordinances, policies, and rules are now strictly applied that is now making the construction cost higher. On average, for the past decade, the construction cost is getting higher by 1.5% - 3% per year.
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General Building Construction is very much applicable to any size of construction projects.
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It has a number of contract applications, from an "All-In Design to Construction Package" to "Specific Item Contracts" depending on what is best for the project. In general, this is the most widely used application for vertical as well as horizontal projects.
Specialized Construction Fit-Out Construction
Since the Philippines is experiencing an uptrend in construction, a great number of innovative and new building technology and building systems, not to mention the new construction materials and equipment that are continuing to flood the Philippines' market. Thus, Specialized Construction started to blossom in the construction industry.
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Specialized Constructions are addessing specific construction materials, technology, or methodology in a project. The application requires knowledge and experience on the specific construction component in a project, such as Thin-Shell, Hyperbolic paraboloid structures, Pre-Fab or Pre-casting construction, and other specialized construction components.
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Fit-Out Constructions are more focused on architectural or interior design work, normally applied in projects like malls, offices, stores, stalls or specialty shops or restaurants.
Concept Construction Cessation
In the mid 19th Century, the construction industry has developed a “One Stop Shop” project application called, "Concept Construction Cessation" (CCC).
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The primary objective of this project application is to hasten the delivery of projects to the project owner/s, in the most efficient and in the most economical way. This project application aims to benefit the project, as a whole.
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The "CCC" application envelops all the project needs and requirements, from collating all information relevant and necessary to the project, up to turning over the project to the project owner/s, at a reasonable project cost and time frame.
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The "CCC" project application is very much applicable on big and complex projects. The communication and collaboration system with various professionals, non-professionals, technical and non-technical personnel involve in the project are better. It also make sure that all the work deliverables pertaining to the project are all in proper order.