INTRODUCTION TO BUILDING
CONSTRUCTION
HISTORY
Early humans built primarily for shelter, using simple methods. Building materials came
from the land, and fabrication was dictated by the limits of the materials and the builder’s
hands. The erection sequence involved, as now, first placing a foundation (or using the
ground). The builder erected the structural system; the structural material (masonry, mud,
or logs) served as both skeleton and enclosure. Traditional bearing-wall and post-and-
beam systems eventually gave way to framed structures, and builders became adept at
sealing and fireproofing with a variety of claddings (exterior coverings) and finishes.
Steel-framed buildings are usually enclosed by curtain walls. In modern-day construction,
sheathing the skeleton of the building is only the beginning; specialists then begin the
bulk of the work inside, installing plumbing, electrical wiring, HVAC (heating,
ventilating, and air-conditioning), windows, floor coverings, plasterwork, moldings,
ceramic tile, cabinets, and other features
INTRODUCTION
In architecture, construction, engineering and real estate development the word building
may refer to one of the following:
1. Any human-made structure used or intended for supporting or sheltering any use
or continuous occupancy, or
2. An act of construction (i.e. the activity of building, see also builder)
In this article, the first usage is generally intended unless otherwise specified.
Buildings come in a wide amount of shapes and functions, and have been adapted
throughout history for a wide number of factors, from building materials available, to
weather conditions, to land prices, ground conditions, specific uses and aesthetic reasons.
Buildings serve several needs of society – primarily as shelter from weather and as
general living space, to provide privacy, to store belongings and to comfortably live and
work. A building as a shelter represents a physical division of the human habitat (a place
of comfort and safety) and the outside (a place that at times may be harsh and harmful).
Ever since the first cave paintings, buildings have also become objects or canvasess of
artistic expression. In recent years, interest in sustainable planning and building practices
has also become part of the design process of many new buildings.
DEFINITION OF BUILDING
Building is defined in many aspects as:
• The act of constructing, erecting, or establishing.
• The art of constructing edifices, or the practice of civil architecture.
• That which is built; a fabric or edifice constructed, as a house, a church, castle,
arena/ stadium, etc
• The act of constructing or building something; "during the construction we had to
take a detour"; "his hobby was the building of boats"
• The commercial activity involved in constructing buildings; "their main business
is home construction"; "workers in the building trades"
• A structure that has a roof and walls and stands more or less permanently in one
place; "there was a three-storey building on the corner"; "it was an imposing
edifice"
• The occupants of a building; "the entire building complained about the noise"
To differentiate buildings in the usage of this article from other buildings and other
structures that are not intended for continuous human occupancy, the latter are called
non-building structures or simply structures.
Structural height in technical usage is the height to the highest architectural detail on
building from street-level. Depending on how they are classified, spires and masts may or
may not be included in this height. Spires and masts used as antennas are not generally
included.
The definition of a low-rise vs. a high-rise building is a matter of debate, but generally
three stories or less is considered low-rise.
TYPES OF BUILDINGS
Main article: List of building types
A timber framing house in Marburg, Germany.
Residential
Residential buildings are called houses/homes, though buildings containing large
numbers of separate dwelling units are often called apartment buildings / blocks to
differentiate them from the more 'individual' house.
Building types may range from one-room wood-framed, masonry, or adobe dwellings to
multi-million dollar high-rise buildings able to house thousands of people. Increasing
settlement density in buildings (and closer distances between buildings) is usually a
response to high ground prices resulting from many people wanting to live close to work
or similar attractors.
Multi-storey
Some of Denver's multi-storey buildings.
A multi-storey building is a building that has multiple floors above ground in the
building.
Multi-storey buildings aim to increase the area of the building without increasing the area
of the land the building is built on, hence saving land and, in most cases, money
(depending on material used and land prices in the area).
COMPONENT PARTS OF A
BUILDING
SUBSTRUCTURE
• FOUNDTION
Foundation is the part of the building which is below the ground level, and is not
visible in a complete building.
Foundation types
Shallow foundation
Shallow foundation is, usually, embedded a meter or so into soil. One common type is
the spread footing which consists of strips or pads of concrete (or other materials) which
extend below the frost line and transfer the weight from walls and columns to the soil or
bedrock. Another common type is the slab-on-grade foundation where the weight of the
building is transferred to the soil through a concrete slab placed at the surface.
Deep foundation
A deep foundation is used to transfer a load from a structure through an upper weak
layer of soil to a stronger deeper layer of soil. There are different types of deep
foundations including helical piles, impact driven piles, drilled shafts, caissons, piers, and
earth stabilized columns. The naming conventions for different types of foundations vary
between different engineers. Historically, piles were wood, later steel, reinforced
concrete, and pre-tensioned concrete.
Monopile foundation
A monopile foundation utilizes a single, generally large-diameter, foundation structural
element to support all the loads (weight, wind, etc.) of a large above-surface structure.
A large number of monopile foundation have been utilized in recent years for
economically constructing fixed-bottom offshore wind farms in shallow-water subsea
locations.[2] For example, a single wind farm off the coast of England went online in 2008
with over 100 turbines, each mounted on a 4.7-meter-diameter monopile foundation in
ocean depths up to 18 meters of water.[3] An earlier (2002) wind farm in the North Sea
west of Denmark utilizes 80 large monopiles of 4 meter diameter sunk 25 meters deep
into the seabed.
Base-isolating foundation
Base isolator being tested at the UCSD Caltrans-SRMD facility
Main article: Base isolation
Base-isolating foundation, also known as seismic or base isolation system, is a
collection of structural elements which is intended to substantially decouple a
superstructure from its substructure resting on a shaking ground thus protecting a
building or non-building structure's integrity during a potentially devastating earthquake.
The base-isolating system may be constructed on either a shallow foundation or a deep
foundation substructure.
The base-isolating foundation design is believed to be a powerful tool of contemporary
earthquake engineering pertaining to the passive structural vibration control technologies.
SUPERSTRUCTURE
• PLINTH
This is the portion provided just above the foundation to raise the floor level above the
surrounding soil so as to provide protection from rainwater and crawling animals and
insects.
• FLOOR
It is a special surface made up of tiles or special stones like granite or marble.
Special floor structures are used for a number of purposes:
Balcony, a platform projecting from a wall.
Floating floor, normally for noise or vibration reduction.
Glass floor, as in glass bottomed elevators.
Nightingale floor makes a noise when an intruder walks on it.
Raised floor, utilities underneath can be accessed easily.
Sprung floor, improves the performance and safety of athletes and dancers.
Subfloor construction
The subfloor provides the strength of a floor. Many floors have no separate floor
covering on top. The subfloor may also provide services like underfloor heating or ducts
for air conditioning.
A ground-level floor can be an earthen floor made of soil, or be solid ground floors made
of concrete slab. Floors above may be built on beams or joists or use structures like
hollow core slabs.
Ground floor construction
Ground-level slab floors are prepared for pouring by grading the base material so that it is
flat, and then spreading a layer of sand and gravel. A grid of rebar is usually added to
reinforce the concrete, especially if it will be used structurally, i.e., to support part of the
building.
Upper floor construction
Floors in woodframe homes are usually constructed with joists centered no more than
16 inches or 40 centimeters apart, according to most building codes.[citation needed] Heavy
floors, such as those made of stone, require more closely-spaced joists. If the span
between load-bearing walls is too long for joists to safely support, then a heavy
crossbeam (thick or laminated wood, or a metal I-beam or H-beam) may be used. A
"subfloor" of plywood or waferboard is then laid over the joists.
• WALL
These are the members which form the outer limits of the building and separate the
rooms from each other. In a building of the “load bearing” type, they act as structural
members, but in ‘framed’ type, they act only as partitions. Walls are built of bricks,
stones, hollow or solid blocks, ferrocrete, concrete etc.
• BRICKWORK
It is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar to build up brick
structures such as walls. Brickwork is also used to finish corners, door and window
openings etc. in buildings made of other materials.
Where the bricks are to remain fully visible, as opposed to being covered up by plaster or
stucco, this is known as face-work or facing brickwork.
• ROOFS
These are the top coverings of the buildings. These may be flat concrete, slabs, timber
sloping roofs, or steel or A.C. sheet roofs. For sloping roofs, Mangalore tiles, clay
tiles or slate may be used as the covering.
• WINDOWS
These are openings generally in the external walls which provide air and light inside
the building.
• DOORS
These are the openings which allow entrance in the building and circulation through
different rooms.
• LINTELS
These are small beams provided over openings so that portion of wall over the
opening can be supported.
• BEAMS, COLUMNS AND SLABS
These are the components of ‘Framed’ types of buildings which form the ‘frame’ or
‘skeleton’ of the building.
• STARICASE
This is the component which provides access from one floor to another.
• PARAPET
This wall is to provide safety for the users of terrace.
Construction processes
Design team
Shasta Dam under construction
In the modern industrialized world, construction usually involves the translation of paper
or computer based designs into reality. A formal design team may be assembled to plan
the physical proceedings, and to integrate those proceedings with the other parts. The
design usually consists of drawings and specifications, usually prepared by a design team
including the client architects, landscape architects,interior designers, surveyors, civil
engineers, cost engineers (or quantity surveyors), mechanical engineers, electrical
engineers, structural engineers, and fire protection engineers. The design team is most
commonly employed by (i.e. in contract with) the property owner. Under this system,
once the design is completed by the design team, a number of construction companies or
construction management companies may then be asked to make a bid for the work,
either based directly on the design, or on the basis of drawings and a bill of quantities
provided by a quantity surveyor. Following evaluation of bids, the owner will typically
award a contract to the most cost efficient bidder.
Apartment is under counstruction in Daegu, South Korea.
The modern trend in design is toward integration of previously separated specialties,
especially among large firms. In the past, architects, interior designers, engineers,
developers, construction managers, and general contractors were more likely to be
entirely separate companies, even in the larger firms. Presently, a firm that is nominally
an "architecture" or "construction management" firm may have experts from all related
fields as employees, or to have an associated company that provides each necessary skill.
Thus, each such firm may offer itself as "one-stop shopping" for a construction project,
from beginning to end. This is designated as a "design Build" contract where the
contractor is given a performance specification, and must undertake the project from
design to construction, while adhering to the performance specifications.
Construction of a pre-fabricated house
Several project structures can assist the owner in this integration, including design-build,
partnering, and construction management. In general, each of these project structures
allows the owner to integrate the services of architects, interior designers, engineers, and
constructors throughout design and construction. In response, many companies are
growing beyond traditional offerings of design or construction services alone, and are
placing more emphasis on establishing relationships with other necessary participants
through the design-build process.
The increasing complexity of construction projects creates the need for design
professionals trained in all phases of the project's life-cycle and develop an appreciation
of the building as an advanced technological system requiring close integration of many
sub-systems and their individual components, including sustainability. Building
engineering is an emerging discipline that attempts to meet this new challenge.
Financial advisors
Many construction projects suffer from preventable financial problems. Underbids ask
for too little money to complete the project. Cash flow problems exist when the present
amount of funding cannot cover the current costs for labour and materials, and because
they are a matter of having sufficient funds at a specific time, can arise even when the
overall total is enough. Fraud is a problem in many fields, but is notoriously prevalent in
the construction field. Financial planning for the project is intended to ensure that a solid
plan, with adequate safeguards and contingency plans, is in place before the project is
started, and is required to ensure that the plan is properly executed over the life of the
project.
Mortgage bankers, accountants, and cost engineers are likely participants in creating an
overall plan for the financial management of the building construction project. The
presence of the mortgage banker is highly likely even in relatively small projects, since
the owner's equity in the property is the most obvious source of funding for a building
project. Accountants act to study the expected monetary flow over the life of the project,
and to monitor the payouts throughout the process. Cost engineers apply expertise to
relate the work and materials involved to a proper valuation. Cost overruns with
government projects have occurred when the contractor was able to identify change
orders or changes in the project resulting in large increases in cost, which are not subject
to competition by other firm as they have already been eliminated from consideration
after the initial bid.[1]
Large projects can involve highly complex financial plans. As portions of a project are
completed, they may be sold, supplanting one lender or owner for another, while the
logistical requirements of having the right trades and materials available for each stage of
the building construction project carries forward. In many English-speaking countries,
but not the United States, projects typically use quantity surveyors.
Legal considerations
A construction project must fit into the legal framework governing the property. These
include governmental regulations on the use of property, and obligations that are created
in the process of construction.
The project must adhere to zoning and building code requirements. Constructing a project
that fails to adhere to codes will not benefit the owner. Some legal requirements come
from malum in se considerations, or the desire to prevent things that are indisputably bad
- bridge collapses or explosions. Other legal requirements come from malum prohibitum
considerations, or things that are a matter of custom or expectation, such as isolating
businesses to a business district and residences to a residential district. An attorney may
seek changes or exemptions in the law governing the land where the building will be
built, either by arguing that a rule is inapplicable (the bridge design won't collapse), or
that the custom is no longer needed (acceptance of live-work spaces has grown in the
community).
A construction project is a complex net of contracts and other legal obligations, each of
which must be carefully considered. A contract is the exchange of a set of obligations
between two or more parties, but it is not so simple a matter as trying to get the other side
to agree to as much as possible in exchange for as little as possible. The time element in
construction means that a delay costs money, and in cases of bottlenecks, the delay can
be extremely expensive. Thus, the contracts must be designed to ensure that each side is
capable of performing the obligations set out. Contracts that set out clear expectations
and clear paths to accomplishing those expectations are far more likely to result in the
project flowing smoothly, whereas poorly drafted contracts lead to confusion and
collapse.
Legal advisors in the beginning of a construction project seek to identify ambiguities and
other potential sources of trouble in the contract structure, and to present options for
preventing problems. Throughout the process of the project, they work to avoid and
resolve conflicts that arise. In each case, the lawyer facilitates an exchange of obligations
that matches the reality of the project.
Interaction of expertise
Design, finance, and legal aspects overlap and interrelate. The design must be not only
structurally sound and appropriate for the use and location, but must also be financially
possible to build, and legal to use. The financial structure must accommodate the need for
building the design provided, and must pay amounts that are legally owed. The legal
structure must integrate the design into the surrounding legal framework, and enforces
the financial consequences of the construction process.
