Building Services Design Management
Preface
Building services engineers seek to provide safe and comfortable
environments for building occupants and for any activities happening
within buildings: their remit may also extend to areas outside buildings.
This process starts with the design of the appropriate systems and
equipment, which then has to be installed and operated.
It is all too easy
for building services engineers just to concentrate on, for example, the
water flow rates in pipes, the airflows in ducts, the temperature and
airflow rate coming out of the diffusers, because these are specific.
However, they also need to focus on what is happening within the space
they are serving; for example, in any space there will be air movements
due to draughts, leakages, window and door openings, and the buoyancy
of the air will be changing from place to place; there may, or may not, be
sun streaming through the window; heat is being given off by people,
lights and equipment; … and so the list goes on.
The role of a building services engineering design manager is becoming a discipline in its own right. There have been numerous efforts
to place design on a higher intellectual level, and to develop design as
a discipline with its own structure, methods and vocabulary.
The
methodologies for design management are inherently complex and the
problem is exacerbated by the highly dynamic nature of the construction
industry, the iterative nature of any creative process and the reworking
that inevitably must be planned for.
The increasing number of specialisms
coupled with a tendency for participants to work in ‘silos’ provides
further challenges.
Finally, design management is increasingly becoming a contractor-led process which is a relatively new scenario for all the
involved parties.
Traditional planning and management techniques are not well suited
to the particular needs of the building services design manager. Design
management issues cannot be resolved by squeezing the design process,
achieving the same milestones with less information or making autarchic
decisions to change design sequences.
With respect to building services
engineering, there are a lot of factors to be considered and many disciplines are involved. Non-existent or ineffective design management
results in extended design timescales and poor quality of information.
Any unresolved design issues have to be answered at some point in
order for the installation work to happen.
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