By Odinaka Victor Okonkwo
There are three basic needs of man: food, shelter and clothing. A building is another name for shelter and is therefore one of the basic needs of man. We construct buildings to provide shelter for man, animals, machines, properties and work places. A building protects us, our properties and our animals from harsh environmental conditions. The building also helps to suspend us in space as in multi-storey buildings hence enabling a large number of people to occupy a small area of land.
A building has failed if it is unable to perform its intended function. The failure of a building could be as a result of many factors. It is best traced by looking into the building team. Like a football team, the construction of a building requires the input of different professionals. Each professional, like each member of a football team, supplies one or more of some of the ingredients needed for the building structure to meet its intended needs. The absence or failure of which leaves the project deficient. Just like in food and nutrition classes, the deficiency points to what is lacking in the product. The addition of the ingredients/input lacking heals or restores the product.
The architect conceives the building project. He is the one with the mental picture of the building before it is built. This he puts down on paper in the form of a set of drawings. The drawings show the size, shape, look etc of the building to the nearest millimetre. He is usually regarded as the head of the building team.
The civil/structural engineer studies the architectural drawings and produces the structural drawing. The structural drawings are a set of instructions (ingredients) needed to enable the building to stand firm meeting both the requirements for stability and serviceability. He must be able to understand the architectural drawings. He must understand the soil characteristics of the chosen site and the available building materials in the market.
The electrical and mechanical engineers produce the electrical and mechanical drawings respectively. Modern buildings come with electrical and mechanical components like sockets, heater, lifts etc. Their drawings provide information on the electrical and mechanical components of the structure to enable them work as envisaged by the architect.
The quantity surveyor collects the drawings (ingredients) provided by the architect, civil/structural engineers, electrical and mechanical engineers and works out an estimate of the resources needed to execute the project. He facilitates an estimate of the project cost.
The land surveyor helps us in positioning the building project accurately on land as provided for in the site plan. Hence in large building projects, they are often hired to enable the contractor locate the exact place/point to erect the building. They are excellent at transferring geometry from paper to land. They can also be hired to position building components like columns as specified by the civil/structural engineers.
The town planner plans our city. He prepares its layout to enable easy movement of people and access to basic facilities.
The builder is the professional trained in school to become the contractor (the cook). He is the one that collects the instructions (ingredients) from the other professionals and sets out to execute (cook) the project (food).
These professionals have inputs to make in our building structure. While the input of some like the town planner is only pre-contractual, others like the architect and civil/structural engineer are pre-contractual and post-contractual.
A building fails when one or more of the inputs of any of the building team is deficient.
The reactions to the failure of buildings are often politicized. Whenever a building collapses it becomes an opportunity to invite all the building professionals. Expert views are requested from all building professionals even when it’s a known fact that it has to do with the contribution of the civil/structural engineer. This is to enable each professional gain from the largesse or government spending that often goes with such investigations. Committees set up by government to investigate building collapse often have engineers in the minority. It’s not strange to see such committees being chaired by non-engineers. This shows the value our political leaders place on the problem.
Our building regulation and adherence to standards is still very low. Our building construction industry is still like a student who is not bothered about what he scores in an exam. He is happy to score anything from 2% to 100%. He is only bothered when he scores 0%. Sure 0% is a failure. But failure actually starts from 39% and below.
A building that is wrongly sited is a failure. A building that offers poor circulation/movement within the building is a failure. A building that is poorly ventilated or poorly lit is a failure. A building that could not be completed after the release of the estimated cost is a failure. A building that has no safety features is a failure. In each of these cases the building scores below 39%. But we usually react only when the building collapses that is when it scored 0%. Well that too is a failure.
One of the professionals offers a very essential input which not utilized can plunge the building into a total failure (0%). That is the civil/structural engineer. This should make the civil/structural engineer occupy a special position in our building industry. This should be so because we often ignore or tolerate the failures due to the inputs of other building professionals.
The government has instituted agencies for monitoring and ensuring our buildings do not fail. These agencies are to ensure that the inputs of the relevant building professionals are not lacking. These agencies to say to least have performed below expectation.
They do not seem to appreciate the enormous task of monitoring building projects as different from just being a revenue generating asset of government. In fact the latter seems to be their priority and the instrument for assessing their performance.
The staffing of the agencies is usually poor both in quality and quantity. The agency is supposed to house all the professionals in building construction. To meeting this requirement is however very expensive.
Synergy with the professional associations will release to the regulatory agencies a pool of ready and viable hands for effective building regulation. The agency will tap from their expertise and numerical strength. They (the professionals) being one of the ultimate beneficiaries of a well regulated industry are willing to assist the agency. The civil/structural engineer is the first culprit when a building collapses. It is therefore necessary to ensure that he makes the necessary input to every building project we want to stand. If however he is careless in discharging his duties for reasons entirely his, he should be reported to his regulating agency COREN for appropriate sanctions.
A well maintained data or record of work done and by who will enable easy recourse to the culprits in the event of poor implementation of professional duties. People are more cautious when they know that their files are kept properly and can be referred to if occasion warrants. These records should be accessible to the public.
The relevant professional should be the contractor (cook). As painful as this may sound, the cook (the person that interprets the instructions of the other professionals with the aim of producing the finished product) should be a professional that is able to interpret the instructions from the architect and civil/structural engineer. The most threatening danger faced by the construction industry is the lack of regulation on who should be the contractor. In our construction industry, the contractor can be anybody. He needs not know how to interpret the information supplied by the other professionals. He needs not know the consequences of flouting their instructions. He only needs gut and the ability to imitate what a professional elsewhere did to be a contractor. This leaves our regulatory agencies stretched to their limits.
Building collapse will remain until we begin to regulate who and who executes building projects and if possible criminalize the execution of building projects by non-building professionals. Building professionals are people who by training are equipped to interpret the instructions from the other professionals. The architect has a smattering knowledge of structures, quantities etc to be able to work effectively in a building team. The civil/structural engineer is taught the very rudiments of architecture to enable him interpret the drawing and hence recommend the appropriate structural elements. This also applies to the quantity surveyor. Building construction must be executed by the person who can interpret appropriately the instructions from other professionals.
• Engr. Okonkwo Ph.D is of Department of Civil Engineering, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Anambra State.
