Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 5
Designing for
Building Maintainability
Why do architects and engineers spend four or five years in col-
lege addressing design issues and practically no time on building main-
tenance? In practice, there is still only a limited degree of association
and relation between maintenance professionals and designers. Design-
ers continue to create many buildings which fail to achieve satisfactory
long-term performance and maintainers still have little evident influ-
ence or impact on design. Design and maintenance issues require a
practical approach, a problem solving orientation and a “learning from
experience” to produce a comprehensive approach to improving build-
ing performance and reducing life cycle cost.
Unfortunately, many factors relating to design and maintenance
create contrasting and contradictory objectives and in accommodating
certain design needs, maintenance requirements may be adversely af-
fected. Conversely, the attempt to produce maintenance free buildings
may impose completely impractical and certainly uneconomic design
provisions. Consequently, there is a need to compromise and balance
the opposing criteria to improve overall building performance.
While we know that the quality and performance of buildings is
dependent on the effectiveness of its design and sustained maintenance,
traditionally, these tasks are treated as separate entities. This intrinsic
separation causes several problems such as:
•
Lack of feedback and support: Design and maintenance profes-
sionals often have minimal knowledge or respect for each oth-
ers problems. The priorities considered in design frequently rank
maintenance as the lowest need and the lessons learned through
remedial measures rarely influence design procedures.
•
Lack of knowledge and understanding among design profes-
sionals: Due to the inherent separation and under the pressure of
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