Planning a Building Project
Why you need to planfirst: what is planning?Planning is the first thing that you do when you are embarking on a building project. Often planning is called Pre-Design. In most standard construction contracts, it is considered the responsibility of the Owner of the project.
You can't really start designing until you know what NEED the building is going to fulfill, what CONTEXT it will be placed in, what CONSTRAINTS it will have to meet, how much the BUDGET is, and how long the SCHEDULE for completion is. These are the 5 key issues that every project faces. Without some direction from you in these 5 areas, it will be a miracle if your design is remotely suitable. why plan?The truth is that Planning almost always takes place. The issue is whether you control the planning or whether the planning controls you.
For example if you don't set a BUDGET in an initial Planning Stage, you will correct that omission when estimates or actual bids are received. The problem with letting the Planning control you is that it is wasteful of your time and money. Without direction up front, your architect will need more time and more money to rework the design into a less costly solution. If you have shared your plan up front, then it will not be entirely your problem when the design solution does not meet the criteria that you have set. |
the 4 main stagesThe stages of facility developmentThese are the four main stages of facility development. You will see that Planning is the first stage and sets the parameters for a successful project.
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the characteristics of each step of the development processPLANNING represents just 1% of the project cost and it has premium value because it is easy to make changes at a very low cost, usually less than 1% of the value received.
DESIGNING represents 9% of the project cost and still has a high value because it is relatively inexpensive to make changes, but the cost of changes grows as the project develops and can reach the point where the cost of the change is equal to the value received. BUILDING represents 90% of the project cost but it has a commodity-like value and it is increasingly expensive to make changes, sometimes costing two times the value received. |
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