The Modern Building Construction : A Normative Critique

Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or
organizations, and comes from Latin constructio and Old French construction. To construct is the
verb: the act of building, and the noun is construction: how something is built, the nature of its
structure.

In its most widely used context, construction covers the processes involved in delivering buildings,
infrastructure and industrial facilities, and associated activities through to the end of their life. It
typically starts with planning, financing, and design, and continues until the asset is built and ready
for use; construction also covers repairs and maintenance work, any works to expand, extend and
improve the asset, and its eventual demolition, dismantling or decommissioning.

As an industry sector, construction accounts for more than 10% of global GDP and employs around
7% of the global workforce - over 273m people. The output of the global construction industry was
worth an estimated $10.8 trillion in 2017.

History

The first huts and shelters were constructed by hand or with simple tools. As cities grew during the
Bronze Age, a class of professional craftsmen, like bricklayers and carpenters, appeared.
Occasionally, slaves were used for construction work. In the Middle Ages, the artisan craftsmen were
organized into guilds. In the 19th century, steam-powered machinery appeared, and, later, diesel-
and electric-powered vehicles such as cranes, excavators and bulldozers.

Fast-track construction has been increasingly popular in the 21st century. Some estimates suggest
that 40% of construction projects are now fast-track construction.

Construction industry sectors

In general, there are three sectors of construction: buildings, infrastructure and industrial. Building
construction is usually further divided into residential and non-residential. Infrastructure, also called
heavy civil or heavy engineering, includes large public works, dams, bridges, highways, railways,
water or wastewater and utility distribution. Industrial construction includes offshore construction,
mining and quarrying, refineries, chemical processing, power generation, mills and manufacturing
plants.

There are also other ways to break the industry into sectors or markets. For example, Engineering
News-Record, a US-based construction trade magazine, has compiled and reported data about the
size of design and construction contractors. In 2014, it split the data into nine market segments:
transportation, petroleum, buildings, power, industrial, water, manufacturing, sewer/waste,
telecom, hazardous waste, and a tenth category for other projects. ENR used data on transportation,
sewer, hazardous waste and water to rank firms as heavy contractors.

The Standard Industrial Classification and the newer North American Industry Classification System
classify companies that perform or engage in construction into three subsectors: building
construction, heavy and civil engineering construction, and specialty trade contractors. There are
also categories for professional services firms .

Building construction
Building construction is the process of adding structures to areas of land, also known as real
property sites. Typically, a project is instigated by or with the owner of the property ; occasionally,
land may be compulsorily purchased from the owner for public use.

Residential construction

Residential construction may be undertaken by individual land-owners, by specialist house-builders,

by property developers, by general contractors, or by providers of public or social housing . Where
local zoning or planning policies allow, mixed-use developments may comprise both residential and
non-residential construction .

Residential construction practices, technologies, and resources must conform to local building
authority regulations and codes of practice. Materials readily available in the area generally dictate
the construction materials used . Costs of construction on a per square meter basis for houses can
vary dramatically based on site conditions, access routes, local regulations, economies of scale and
the availability of skilled tradespeople.

Non-residential construction

Depending upon the type of building, non-residential building construction can be procured by a
wide range of private and public organisations, including local authorities, educational and religious
bodies, transport undertakings, retailers, hoteliers, property developers, financial institutions and
other private companies. Most construction in these sectors is undertaken by general contractors.

Infrastructure construction

Civil engineering covers the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built
environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, tunnels, airports, water
and sewerage systems, pipelines, and railways. Some general contractors have expertise in civil
engineering; civil engineering contractors are firms dedicated to work in this sector, and may
specialise in particular types of infrastructure.

Industrial construction

Industrial construction includes offshore construction, mining and quarrying, refineries, breweries,
distilleries and other processing plants, power stations, steel mills, warehouses and factories.

Construction processes

Some construction projects are small renovations or repair jobs, where the owner may act as
designer, paymaster and laborer for the entire project. However, more complex or ambitious
projects usually require additional multi-disciplinary expertise and manpower, so the owner may
commission one or more specialist businesses to undertake detailed planning, design, construction
and handover of the work. Often the owner will appoint one business to oversee the project ; such
specialists are normally appointed for their expertise in project delivery, and will help the owner
define the project brief, agree a budget and schedule, liaise with relevant public authorities, and
procure the services of other specialists . Contracts are agreed for the delivery of services by all
businesses, alongside other detailed plans aimed at ensuring legal, timely, on-budget and safe
delivery of the specified works.

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 be adequate to build the design provided, and must pay
amounts that are legally owed. Legal structures integrate design with other activities, and enforce
financial and other construction processes.

These processes also affect procurement strategies. Clients may, for example, appoint a business to
design the project after which a competitive process is undertaken to appoint a lead contractor to
construct the asset ; they may appoint a business to lead both design and construction ; or they may
directly appoint a designer, contractor and specialist subcontractors . Some forms of procurement
emphasise collaborative relationships between the client, the contractor, and other stakeholders
within a construction project, seeking to ameliorate often highly competitive and adversarial
industry practices.

Planning

When applicable, a proposed construction project must comply with local land-use planning policies
including zoning and building code requirements. A project will normally be assessed for its
potential impacts on neighbouring properties, and upon existing infrastructure . Data may be
gathered through site analysis, site surveys and geotechnical investigations. Construction normally
cannot start until planning permission has been granted, and may require preparatory work to
ensure relevant infrastructure has been upgraded before building work can commence. Preparatory
works will also include surveys of existing utility lines to avoid damage causing outages and other
hazardous situations.

Some legal requirements come from malum in se considerations, or the desire to prevent
indisputably bad phenomena, e.g. explosions or bridge collapses. Other legal requirements come
from malum prohibitum considerations, or factors that are a matter of custom or expectation, such
as isolating businesses from a business district or residences from a residential district. An attorney
may seek changes or exemptions in the law that governs the land where the building will be built,
either by arguing that a rule is inapplicable, or that the custom is no longer needed .

During construction of a building, a municipal building inspector usually inspects the ongoing work
periodically to ensure that construction adheres to the approved plans and the local building code.
Once construction is complete, any later changes made to a building or other asset that affect safety,
including its use, expansion, structural integrity, and fire protection, usually require municipality
approval.

Finance

Depending on the type of project, mortgage bankers, accountants, and cost engineers may participe
in creating an overall plan for the financial management of a 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. Professionals including cost engineers, estimators and quantity surveyors apply expertise to
relate the work and materials involved to a proper valuation.

Financial planning ensures adequate safeguards and contingency plans are in place before the
project is started, and ensures that the plan is properly executed over the life of the project.
Construction projects can suffer from preventable financial problems. Underbids happen when
builders 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; such problems may arise
even when the overall budget is adequate, presenting a temporary issue. Cost overruns with
government projects have occurred when the contractor identified change orders or project changes
that increased costs, which are not subject to competition from other firms as they have already
been eliminated from consideration after the initial bid. Fraud is also an occasional construction
issue.

Large projects can involve highly complex financial plans and often start with a conceptual estimate
performed by a building estimator. 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.
Public–private partnerships or private finance initiatives may also be used to help delivery major
projects. According to McKinsey in 2019, the "vast majority of large construction projects go over
budget and take 20% longer than expected".

Legal

A construction project is a complex net of construction contracts and other legal obligations, each of
which all parties must carefully consider. A contract is the exchange of a set of obligations between
two or more parties, and provides structures to manage issues. For example, construction delays can
be costly, so construction contracts set out clear expectations and clear paths to manage delays.
Poorly drafted contracts can lead to confusion and costly disputes.

At the start of a project, legal advisors seek to identify ambiguities and other potential sources of
trouble in the contract structures, and to present options for preventing problems. During projects,
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.

Procurement

Traditional or Design-bid-build

Design-bid-build is the most common and well-established method of construction procurement. In

this arrangement, the architect or engineer acts for the client as the project coordinator. They design
the works, prepare specifications and design deliverables, administer the contract, tender the works,
and manage the works from inception to completion. In parallel, there are direct contractual links
between the client and the main contractor, who, in turn, has direct contractual relationships with
subcontractors. The arrangement continues until the project is ready for handover.

Design-build

Design-build became more common from the late 20th century, and involves the client contracting a
single entity to provide design and construction. In some cases, the design-build package can also
include finding the site, arranging funding and applying for all necessary statutory consents.
Typically, the client invites several D&B contractors to submit proposals to meet the project brief
and then selects a preferred supplier. Often this will be a consortium involving a design firm and a
contractor . In the United States, departments of transportation usually use design-build contracts as
a way of progressing projects where states lack the skills or resources, particularly for very large
projects.

Construction management

In a construction management arrangement, the client enters into separate contracts with the
designer, a construction manager, and individual trade contractors. The client takes on the
contractual role, while the construction or project manager provides the active role of managing the
separate trade contracts, and ensuring that they complete all work smoothly and effectively
together. This approach is often used to speed up procurement processes, to allow the client greater
flexibility in design variation throughout the contract, to enable the appointment of individual work
contractors, to separate contractual responsibility on each individual throughout the contract, and
to provide greater client control.

Design

In the industrialized world, construction usually involves the translation of designs into reality. Most
commonly, the design team is employed by the property owner. Depending upon the type of
project, a design team may include architects, civil engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical
engineers, structural engineers, fire protection engineers, planning consultants, architectural
consultants, and archaeological consultants. A 'lead designer' will normally be identified to help
coordinate different disciplinary inputs to the overall design. This may be aided by integration of
previously separate disciplines into multi-disciplinary firms with experts from all related fields, or by
firms establishing relationships to support design-build processes.

The increasing complexity of construction projects creates the need for design professionals trained
in all phases of a project's life-cycle and develop an appreciation of the asset as an advanced
technological system requiring close integration of many sub-systems and their individual
components, including sustainability. For buildings, building engineering is an emerging discipline
that attempts to meet this new challenge.

Traditionally, design has involved the production of sketches, architectural and engineering
drawings, and specifications. Until the late 20th century, drawings were largely hand-drafted;
adoption of computer-aided design technologies then improved design productivity, while the 21st
century introduction of building information modeling processes has involved use of computer-
generated models that can be used in their own right or to generate drawings and other
visualisations as well as capturing non-geometric data about building components and systems.

On some projects, work on site will not start until design work is largely complete; on others, some
design work may be undertaken concurrently with the early stages of on-site activity . Some projects
may include elements that are designed for off-site construction and are then delivered to site
ready for erection, installation or assembly.

On-site construction

Once contractors and other relevant professionals have been appointed and designs are sufficiently
advanced, work may commence on the project site. Typically, a construction site will include a
secure perimeter to restrict unauthorised access, site access control points, office and welfare
accommodation for personnel from the main contractor and other firms involved in the project
team, and storage areas for materials, machinery and equipment. According to the McGraw-Hill
Dictionary of Architecture and Construction's definition, construction may be said to have started
when the first feature of the permanent structure has been put in place, such as pile driving, or the
pouring of slabs or footings.

Commissioning and handover

Commissioning is the process of verifying that all subsystems of a new building work as intended to
achieve the owner's project requirements and as designed by the project's architects and engineers.

Maintenance, repair and improvement

Maintenance involves functional checks, servicing, repairing or replacing of necessary devices,
equipment, machinery, building infrastructure, and supporting utilities in industrial, business,
governmental, and residential installations.

Demolition

Demolition is the discipline of safely and efficiently tearing down buildings and other artificial
structures. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apart while
carefully preserving valuable elements for reuse purposes .

Industry scale and characteristics

Economic activity

The output of the global construction industry was worth an estimated $10.8 trillion in 2017, and in
2018 was forecast to rise to $12.9 trillion by 2022. As a sector, construction accounts for more than
10% of global GDP, and employs around 7% of the total employed workforce around the globe .
Since 2010, China has been the world's largest single construction market. The United States is the
second largest construction market with a 2018 output of $1.581 trillion.

In the United States in February 2020, around $1.4 trillion worth of construction work was in
progress, according to the Census Bureau, of which just over $1.0 trillion was for the private sector ;
the remainder was public sector, predominantly for state and local government.

Construction is a major source of employment in most countries; high reliance on small businesses,
and under-representation of women are common traits. For example:

In the US, construction employed around 11.4m people in 2020, with a further 1.8m employed in
architectural, engineering, and related professional services - equivalent to just over 8% of the total
US workforce. In March 2016, 60.4% of construction workers were employed by businesses with
fewer than 50 staff. Women are substantially underrepresented, comprising 10.3% of the US
construction workforce, and 25.9% of professional services workers, in 2019.

In the United Kingdom, construction contributed £117 billion to UK GDP in 2018, and in 2019
employed 2.4m workers . These worked either for 343,000 'registered' construction businesses, or
for 'unregistered' businesses, typically self-employed contractors; just over one million
small/medium-sized businesses, mainly self-employed individuals, worked in the sector in 2019,
comprising about 18% of all UK businesses. Women comprised 12.5% of the UK construction
workforce.

According to McKinsey research, productivity growth per worker in construction has lagged behind
many other industries across different countries including in the United States and in European
countries. In the United States, construction productivity per worker has declined by half since the
1960s.

Construction GVA by country

Careers

Large-scale construction requires collaboration across multiple disciplines. A project manager

normally manages the budget on the job, and a construction manager, design engineer, construction
engineer or architect supervises it. Those involved with the design and execution must consider
zoning requirements and legal issues, environmental impact of the project, scheduling, budgeting
and bidding, construction site safety, availability and transportation of building materials, logistics,
and inconvenience to the public, including those caused by construction delays.

There are many routes to the different careers within the construction industry. There are three
main tiers based on educational background and training, which vary by country:

Unskilled and semi-skilled workers

Unskilled and semi-skilled workers provide general site labor, often have few or no construction
qualifications, and may receive basic site training.

Skilled tradespeople

Skilled tradespeople have typically served apprenticeships or received technical training; this group
also includes on-site managers who possess extensive knowledge and experience in their craft or
profession. Skilled manual occupations include carpenters, electricians, plumbers, ironworkers,
heavy equipment operators and masons, as well as those involved in project management. In the UK
these require further education qualifications, often in vocational subject areas, undertaken either
directly after completing compulsory education or through "on the job" apprenticeships.

Professional, technical or managerial personnel

Professional, technical and managerial personnel often have higher education qualifications, usually
graduate degrees, and are trained to design and manage construction processes. These roles require
more training as they demand greater technical knowledge, and involve more legal responsibility.
Example roles include:

Architect – Will usually have studied architecture to degree level, and then undertaken further study
and gained professional experience. In many countries, the title of "architect" is protected by law,
strictly limiting its use to qualified people.

Civil engineer – Typically holds a degree in a related subject and may only be eligible for membership
of a professional institution following completion of additional training and experience. In some
jurisdictions, a new university graduate must hold a master's degree to become chartered, and
persons with bachelor's degrees may become Incorporated Engineers.

Building services engineer – May also be referred to as an "M&E" or "MEP engineer" and typically
holds a degree in mechanical or electrical engineering.

Project manager – Typically holds a 4-year or greater higher education qualification, but are often
also qualified in another field such as architecture, civil engineering or quantity surveying.

Structural engineer – Typically holds a bachelor's or master's degree in structural engineering.

Quantity surveyor – Typically holds a bachelor's degree in quantity surveying. UK chartered status is
gained from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

Safety

Construction is one of the most dangerous occupations in the world, incurring more occupational
fatalities than any other sector in both the United States and in the European Union. In 2009, the
fatal occupational injury rate among construction workers in the United States was nearly three
times that for all workers, with falls being one of the most common causes of fatal and non-fatal
injuries among construction workers. Other major causes of fatalities in the construction industry
include electrocution, transportation accidents, and trench cave-ins.

Other safety risks for workers in construction include hearing loss due to high noise exposure,
musculoskeletal injury, chemical exposure, and high levels of stress. Besides that, the high turnover
of workers in construction industry imposes a huge challenge of accomplishing the restructuring of
work practices in individual workplaces or with individual workers. Construction has been identified
by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health as a priority industry sector in the
National Occupational Research Agenda to identify and provide intervention strategies regarding
occupational health and safety issues.

Sustainability

Sustainability during the construction phase is an aspect of “green building," defined by the United
States Environmental Protection Agency as "the practice of creating structures and using processes
that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle from
siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation and deconstruction."

See also

Agile construction

Index of construction articles

Outline of construction

Real estate development

Structural robustness

Umarell

References and notes

Bibliography:

Wikipedia

@baygross