Broken Kode

The Construction Industry

I’ve created a brand you category on the Kode. It’s called ‘Funk You Mr.Architect‘. Before I get into what I’ll be posting about in the category I’ll put a small disclaimer that I like architects as people. In fact I live with one, so I’m not a professionalist.

I’m going to talk about the industry I work in, since I look around the blogosphere and there is little going on about this here industry. There are not enough blogs talking about architecture, engineering and everything inbetween. This is the industry that builds the buildings you live in, the transportation you depend on (from roads to train stations to airports), the schools and universities you learn in and the supermarkets and shopping centres you buy your stuff from. Someone has to sit there for YEARS to design these things, then someone else has to come along and build the bloody things while trying hard to keep with the design vision and intent.

Part of the reason for me blogging about this is to actual build awareness. One of the most frustrating things I’ve ever heard is a building described as a so-and-so architects’ building. Lets get one thing very clear, a building or construction job is not ‘an architects’. The architect plays a role in a team that can comprise between 100 people and 5000 people. Each one of these people has the RIGHT to claim it as their project as well. However the way that the media and industry has been chiselled people seem to have forgotten this little fact, or don’t care to say it. I’m going to be going on the attack and will no doubt upset people but fuck it someone has to say something.

Hopefully I’m going to tell you what the architect’s role actually entails and what the other 5000 people do as well. If anything it’ll be educational. So for the first post we’ll just set up the major players for you to mull on.

1. Client
2. Project Manager
3. Quantity Surveyor
4. Architect
5. Consultant
6. Contractor
7. Sub-contractor
8. Manufacturer

A project generally speaking needs the following groups of people involved, at different times of the project’s life. The amount of involvement is clearly dependant on the type of construction contract everyone is working towards, but we’ll discuss that much later down the line.