BYTNAR - TALKS
EPISODE 003 - STAGE 1 - PREPARATION AND BRIEF
This episode is for people who want to know more about the process of project design and delivery.
If you ask yourself questions:
What is to be built – the type of building, the form of the building, size of the building, material, and way e.g. (MMC)?
What is the budget and what can be done with it?
What is the site and what can be done on it?
What are the sustainability credentials?
What are the risks? What team members are needed?
What information is required in what detail?
BIM and if who will manage, to what Level of Definition?
What is the envisaged project program?
What is the envisaged project execution plan?
What are the planning constraints? – Nutrient neutrality, Biodiversity, local idiosyncrasy and vernacularity.
Should we start pre-planning discussions?
Should we start to engage local people and groups of interest?
Should I start thinking about CDM obligations and begin the process of collation of the Health and Safety File?
Is the project feasible? What will be the procurement Strategy?
This episode should give you a broad idea of how to start the consideration of an Architecture Engineering or Construction project and why it is worth paying attention at this stage.
This is Bytnar talks the engineer Takes on construction episode three hi I'm Piotr Bytnar each day I help my clients plan and design building projects through Bytnar limited a Consulting Charter Structural Engineers practice my biggest passion and the corner tone on which I've built my business is find finding clever solutions for construction projects I am a chartered structural engineer and a budding software developer so you can rest assured that I will strive to talk about the best practices and the use of new technologies in the industry and if you're embarking on a construction project or are involved in planning designing and building the world around us you'll find this podcast useful this episode is about stage one preparation and [Music] brief hello everyone welcome to B talks where your host takes you on the mamouth task of improving the construction industry one podcast at a time well at least that is my goal and the purpose of my podcast I want to tell you my lovely audience how things look like from the perspective of a person who loves the industry the inventiveness and resilience of people within it but things we could do so much better and that our action shouldn't be determined by the legislation but by best interest of all stakeholders by interest I do not mean money the currency that operates in my office and the one I tend to gospel about left right and Center are the principle of squin square that's sustainability necessity quality and Improvement in my view the project needs to have at least three of these qualities to be realistically worthwhile it may not be sustainable but if it's needed and it's of a good quality and will improve the current situation we think is a good project to go ahead with obviously the best way forward would be in every single case to have a sustainable project on our books but truth be told it's not always the case another week has passed and I'm becoming more confident in the creation of this podcast the postprocessing becomes smoother and your face to face feedback steers me in the right direction I hope well at least I start to appreciate the process more it's constraints in terms of the breadth and depth of discussed matters and my lack of skill of Storytelling my promise to you dear listener is that I will strive to improve that side of things with coming up episodes the last episode concentrated on the first stage of the process called strategic definition one of the two predesigned stages of the plan of work process the birth moment of your project and the decision to move forward with it I emphasized how important that part of the process is and that it is Paramount to engage with experience Consultants to inform on this decision unless you are a hotel chain or a property magnate it is unlikely you'll have enough skill and knowledge to do it on your own and sure if you're short on money but long on time like anything else in this life you might try to figure it out on your own or call your local Friendly multidisciplinary office like Bitner or Chet like the most there you have it I hope you like my maybe not so subtle product placement now I trust you would much more prefer me start talking about the topic of this podcast so without further Ado let's get to [Music] it this episode is about stage one preparation and brief remember stage one isn't the first stage in the process it a a second stage of pre-design part of plan of work the whole process begins with Stage zero strategic definition that I treated about in the last episode and it's important to to realize that the the whole process starts from stage zero like in computer science most of the list well lists generally they start from zero the counting of them starts from zero and then carries on forward so stage one what I in this podcast I'll tell you what it's all about I'll briefly mention the preparation part of it which is like going into a research like going on a research trip to find out what why who how and when then we move to brief which combines all of the information gathered during the preparation phase to inform how the project should go ahead and whether the way we want to we want to approach it the approach for the definition of it is align with what clients actually needs and want it is a live document that will be developed in the further stages but it is the first it is a strategy to move forward it is a document that shows that what why who how and when there's plenty of things to consider within this stage so I will briefly mention most of them I'll skip over most of them as it would be a a material for an entire podcast to treat about any single one of them so you can appreciate it will be too much I've tried to talk about too many things in my first podcast and that wasn't received that well so I rather just let you know about the parts that that are important that but quickly move forward to to hopefully be able to paint the picture of the of the whole stage rather than going into Nitty Gritty of the process I will likely treat more about in one of those parts in more detail and most likely in subsequent podcast that will be specifically designed to Target every single one of them so why border well it is a good question why B after all you can just go on and do the building right yeah sort of to illustrate you better why it is important to do it as with any Endeavor really if you don't have a strategy for it you will struggle and you will not really know why you failed or why it was success so it's good to know good to put that down and and make it Visual and make the strategy make the brief available to everyone that be that will be involved with in the project as there will be then less scope for misinterpretation and going the wrong way and and wasting resources so I'll tell you about two stories that that I think paint the picture just just well one will be about the house builders Georgie and Diana and the baby and I talk about the project manager Steve smartass Hol danid doll worked as a m manager of Tam's water seen the work of best offices knows better than everyone else so what can go wrong there I think I'll yeah I'll point out what in several minutes [Music] time so we know now that you want to build we know what sort of project we want to build and yeah the general direction from the employer now it's time to go out there get the right consultants in place and start assembling the design team or even before the design team let assemble the team that can inform the best way forward with the design team later on let's find out whether the project is visible let's find out all of the let's let's do all of the fible feasibility studies that that may need to be included to inform the next stages a little bit better let's get that Structural Engineering in place and advice on what what s of building is buildable to the constraints and opportunities of that particular site now once we have all of those information in you can move on into putting all of that into a legal document called the brief on which everyone else is will be building their information packages see the things to consider it to to be included within the brief will vary from the project to the project but generally there there are these that I will mention now I managed to see SI out 16 points really which I think are quite important and and the parts that I usually needed on any given project and that these are number one what is it to be built what type of the building it is what form of building it is what size of the building can we build within the budget we got what material we can use what materials are available to to us what way we want to build it whether we want to do it Cas in framed mod method of construction modularize it or what else that's that's the great place for the structural engineer to kick in and inform a lot of this on a lot of these questions indeed what is the budget for all of it it is the biggest constraint on on of any project you may want to build a hotel but you may have budget for 20 rooms not for 50 or even 22 so it's very important to be realistic with your budgets and and put the boundaries on of how far we want to push that budget too because the further you push it the more risk is involved number three what is the site is it on a slope is it on a quagmire is it by the river is it on a hill where is it is orography of the side important size so there's plenty plenty of things to consider here next one would be what are the sustainability credentials for that for the particular project what way we want to approach it whether we want to go for the passive Net Zero building or maybe energy plus building or maybe something completely different what type of certification accreditation will stick with going to be lead brim anything else those are very important question at the at the world go cuz you need depending on what sort of answer you give here the the different way you you're going to go number five will be what are the risk associated with the with the project and that will be budget and whether we can meet meet the standards to to deliver whether whether there's health and safety risk involved and others number six what team members are needed to collect to collect all of that information and to list them down and put them down in a matrix of responsibility clearly stated who is responsible for what number seven what information is required and to what detail you see you may many often many often you have engineering designs that are just conceptual and then you have to take it further and and do and do more and think about the project in detail whether are you going to use beam and if you will who will manage it and to what level of definition that's my point8 number nine what is the invisage project program when do you want to do which part and and accomplish which part you see some parts may drag for too long if you don't give it a deadline you know we can we can try to make the best building possible and never build it number 10 what is the envisage project execution plan how we going to build the actual building taking the constraint on the sides and the chosen way of construction and if that's reasonable or not if we don't know it at this stage we may be pushing for solutions that will be ill defined and won't be able to economically and safely execute them on site number 11 what are the planning constraints whether we are impacted by nutrients neutrality bill or biodiversity what are the local idiosyncrasies and vernacularity that will influence how the building can be positioned and and how the building will cooperate how the building will work in the in the background of the existing existing Town existing site existing surroundings shall we start pre-planning discussion with the planning office if it's a bigger project it may be prudent to start the engagement at the very very very beginning of the whole process if we don't know how it sits with the local planning office it will be difficult to to go through all of those hoops that they may throw our way it is important to number 13 engage local people and groups of interest to see what's needed in the area how how this need can be addressed within the budget and within the constraints of of the budget and whether we can we can enhance the local area peoples and and groups of interests cases but we can we can address them some way that will improve the the life of the people in and around the project we need to start thinking about the health and safety of that of that project thinking CDM regulations and obligation it puts on us if it's a big project it is the time now to start thinking about cating the health and safety file the very important Point 15 is if the project is actually phys looking at all of those all of those studies and information we already gathered going through planning seeing what sort of structure can be built whether there is enough skill in the area to to deliver that on the planning planning scope and and delivery scope and what it's feasible to actually build and number 16 how we going to approach the procurement of that given project these are all 16 points that can make or break any given project and if we if we don't really have to think about every single one of them in a big detail but failing to observe any any one of Any Given one can make a break the project and these are not by any means exhaustive list list of things to be considered but these are generally the the basics that should be should be thought of before you put the first shovel in the ground or even before you start putting the First dress on paper trying to find the best solution for for given [Music] brief so why bother that's that's quite silly question here isn't it thinking that there's at least 16 points that you should look at and taking that indeed if you're not a property magnate of any sort you may not be aware of any of these given things and it will be tough and difficult to find all of the answers about any any of those points and taking there's more points that can be or that need to be thought about before you before you get on with the project and start appointed design teams and and all of the people people that will Define the project and build it if you don't have a proper brief in place and you don't put put that down and show it in black and white is open for interpretation from every given side and very often more often than not it is a massive waste of time and resources down the line and I think I'll be able to to show you that in in two stories I I got prepared for you the first one is about a young family it's George and Diana Georgie and Diana they are a couple in their 30s young healthy professionals owning their own house with manageable mortgage on it with good carers and now with baby on on board in the oven now they realize that they will need some more space and by the way the the story is true the story is taken from one of the experiences we had in the in the office but all of the details are are changed so if you see yourself in that in that description in that story you know who I'm talking about if you dealt with us but I think this this type of the story is quite Universal and and across borders countyline borders if you like so George and Diana they need more space they think that the love coners cor version will be the the great audition and that will actually allow them to to utilize this page they live in a typical Terrace House two story Terrace house with two bedrooms on the first story living in a kitchen downstairs and the LOF which is unused and cold and I think if they change that they could spare one room for the baby the second one can remain as an office as it is now now home office and then they can move upstairs to to have their beautiful bedroom they dream about and suets with all amenities with a nice Overlook of of neighboring Gardens although taking savings plus mortgage as they need to remortgage to afford the house they they embark on the process of educating themselves on the process no one know to tell them about a structural plan of work or plan of work per se most professional buies will align the their advice with the plan of work but the truth be told not many profession actual professionals are involved in designing and managing this this type of projects so they embark on educated themselves they found whatever information they can Google Bing or or Safari I don't know I don't have an device with a the they composing Apple so they visit Architects websites and blogs join Facebook groups both few design magazines and and run them yeah and read them through through and they started dreaming of a bedroom with an end Suite own Suite after several weeks of deciding what they want to and what they don't want to do how much it would more or less cost reading websites and listening to Facebook comments they decided they're educated enough and ready for some action then then they sent out 10 emails asking for a quotation for planning drawings as they fall under impression anyone can do initial drawings then you need an engineer who will do the calculation report for Steals and you can approach Builders to quote and move things forward they choose nearly the cheapest quot scene lovely pictures of projects on the website the architectural designer designer named Agnes is a lovely lady who comes into to measure the house up take pictures and talk about their requirements says the L extension is under permitted development rights so no need for planning with the general Arrangement plans they approach and engineer recommended by one of the builders who came into quote on the architectural plans only they got to the report employed the Builder they got the report employed the Builder and the Builder got cracking with the build after 6 months from the initial realization of need they enjoy their new space after several of after a couple of moments they receive a letter from the plal planning officer saying the dma extension is not py and will need to go through planning or risk enforcement notice this brings dread and insurmountable amounts of stress on the couple and the poor Diana in her late months of pregnancy they decided the first they decided to First engage with the planning officer to take their advice when they consulted the planning officer it transpired that they may also need a sign of certificate from the building control office and they were told that there is no paper trace of the building on their system now they employed Bitner to advise on the matters we took them through the planning process and managed to secure retrospective planning permission but the amount of work required to regularize the building control including localized strengthening of structure fire proofing The Junction between houses insulation assuring there is enough provision for the fire escape and enough Headroom to discharge access requirements of building regulations not to mention the space is cramped and there is no room for and Suite in the first place on Suite pardon you ask about the Facebook Agnes Builder and the engineer now no one picks up the phone or replies to lettuce Builder is dissolved and the engineer was just in the name not registered with any professional institution whatsoever after several years plenty of stress and living in uncertainty in non sellable non-insured house the rectification now approaches nearly half of the initial project cost this is a disaster this is the disaster on a personal level of the worst of the kinds the family will be living in with with this situation for the rest of their life and they will struggle finan financially for the next half a decade if not more so I bother again after all I'm a great project manager and that puts us to the story number two Steve the project [Music] manager I've received an email out of nowhere from a Google account asking whether we're interesting as Brit Limited in providing structural and civil engineering design package for the project a long list of expectations follow that email and from the world go after an exchange of emails and my explanation that the building projects is a two-way street and I need to First find out if the projects are properly defined there is enough money for Professional Services who is involved in the project who is the architect who is the project manager who is the contractor and what's the what's the procurement route here you know the basic things that expose whether the prospective client is ready to collaborate with you on the project or not likely there is no point of producing a A funlet or you know long list of recommendations past projects insurance information and any of this these things just just you know without knowing all of those all of those details if you do you don't know who you share those information with that's the first secondly it doesn't make sense to waste money on the circumstance where where this is not going anywhere it's just you know it's just a one of hundred of of of emails to anyone just trying to fish out as much information as possible so that's the first stage how we usually approach qualifying our leads the scheme it transpires is 1.6 million pound scheme for the construction of several tree St story Terra houses on a two-way sloping sight with lower ground floor with back garden and fronting street with front light well entrance at the street level that's that's ground level I've received several hundred pages of reports planning drawings basement impact assessments and such for my for my perusal I've taken an hour of my time to to go through all of those documents especially I was intrigued that in the initial email the gentleman Steve asks for the building impact assessments where he already got two but both of them are are Sil ones for the from the eye of of well versed and and grounded professionals and they were just done for the sake of discharging planning permission inquiries and I and I always in this sort of circumstance ask why that's already wasted money for two different rapports from two different soil engineering companies but without any any good any good information that you can actually base any of the of the designs on that's several thousand pounds wasted just there where a well vers chter structural and or civil and or civil engineer could just provide a brief report or simple statement of confidence that the project can be can be done taken the circumstances you see there's already there's already a chain of of Terrace houses right to the left of that lower down the slope and to the right of it upper up the the slope so with a great conf confident with you know it's it's hard to say something is not working when you see that it's being built upon in the same way and it is working anyway that comes with experience and and the way of approaching things if you if you do not have right professionals at this stage you end up going going out and pain for all of the information that's unnecessary so I emailed back saying the product is not well defined that we will gladly do it but these are our pre preliminary times and I issued this to the lovely gentl I've received an email back from a person who's who felt that that his character character was blemished we saying in the with the with the email reading in the sorts of how dare you say the project is not well defined I am a seasoned professional work with the best of the best of the best in the industry and it is I who will dictate conditions contracts and approaches well it goes without saying that we declined participation in this collaboration clients learned nothing new and will go on to spend fee on unnecessary work if he finds people who will just push the design out for him to execute this is typical for ignorant or cocky approach especially if the only aspect of the project manager experience is to deliver on instructions and not take creative part in the project definition and actual creation of brief if you do not see the benefit of this part of the project then you cannot blame such an individual not to understand what sort of OT got further down the line it's just it just what it is you know and we need this sort of project managers that that's simp that's simply pushing the paperwork and and assuring that everything is in place and and just build what's what they've been told to build whether that that's by the best offices in the world or or just a simple family run engineering business now for both stories it is too late for stage one to to come about it is obvious the preparation has been float and the brief either non or mostly non-existent or IL defined the damage to the family life and finances as a result of such approach is insurmountable as I said previously how wasteful it can be and building and building those Flats sorry those houses the way that cocky Steve approaching it will be will be wasteful so you see on one side we have a damage of a family life and finances on the other side we have a wasteful Construction and building at the end of the second in the first damage is apparent but in the second the damage is hidden and it's this type of the of the damage that usually comes with headlines that the buildings especially the the massive builds for for governments that the builds are over budget after all the best are designing these buildings and they know how to protect their interests and if no one wants to pay for the proper definition of the and proper participation in the whole process well they deliver as well as much and as well as they can for the risks that they can accommodate and all of the rest of the cast is pushed down the taxpayer well that's me and you unfortunately none of this stories are a positive one but def IL defined or non-existent processes they very rarely end up on a positive note they usually end up in disasters or in the expenditure whether they're going to be in terms of the environment or money you can appreciate how complex this world can be can you this two story about there two stories one about Georgie and Diana and the second one about cocky Steve are a drop in the ocean of possible screw-ups unfortunately this type of scenarios are all too often and as much as I enjoy helping these people and families getting out of the Quagmire I would rather see project delivered well from the W go it is pretty stuggling to know anyone can design and execute your building no license required no hard stops for typical buildings luckily these tragedies are usually Financial but casually financial difficulties cause relationships degradation often leading to suicides so be careful out there it is a perilous world and there's not enough information to to prepare you for it you see well vered professionals are very often lost and very often exposed only to the particular part of that world and not many of us do the actual bigger picture you see it does not cost much to receive a right advice before you start somehow it is one of the easiest easiest budgetary cuts that you can make but if you consider several hundred pounds a lot for an advice on a small project say 50 to 150,000 or several thousands or larger schemes over 1 million pounds then you either do not have enough money to move forward or you are looking for Savings in wrong places in either case [Music] stop but if you want to do your own research I always I will always be sending you to to The Institute tions renowned British institutions that offer a lot of free advice and if you do want to do your own research it's always a great idea to start on the RBA website or I TR T websites and use their free resources that's including finding your local engineer or local architect both can help you with your project for better or worse combined then they can make a magic happen for the initi conversation you can always call Bitner for a 50 minutes free free advice or you can book a 30 minutes paid advice and send us material and we can talk about the actual issue on hand you got there there's also a booking section available to you with our curated Services service packs whether that be for architectural and Engineering or just engineering or survey type of Serv but it all starts with initial advice and then can take it much much further you will find all the details on Bitner website just go to booking section of it I would also like to let you know about the newest Rebus publication in collaboration with sstr and the association of collaborative design as I've been recording this podcast they released a brilliant publication that ties local engagement with the plan of work that means bringing local people to advise and inform of the needs of local of locals so that's that for today thank you very much for listening I hope you've enjoyed listening to it as much as I've enjoyed preparing it for you if you think it is worth your while I encourage you to subscribe and comment under this episode reach out to me on LinkedIn and comment under my posts let us talk and let our voice carry it will carry further and enhance our conversation when you subscribe like and comment I understand that you may not give this podcast much hope after all the online statistics are ruthless they say that the last year 90% of podcast did not publish more than three episodes and the remaining 90% did not go over the 20th episode Mark well I like to be at the top so you can expect at least 21 episodes from me frankly I'm doing it for you and is also and it also improves me as a speaker and make my thoughts to come about more freely in the way I express them what not to like here even if there is only one person ever having to listen to this episode I think it will be worth it as any conversation I ever have face to face with anyone else's do not be afraid no Specialist or expert has all the answers or seese any given situation or problem in the right way it is the directed effort of many people and discussions that bring about beautiful and successful project projects as well as make our lives better thank you for listening please voice up your opinions I want to hear from you toodloo!
Piotr Bytnar BEng (Hons) MSc CEng MIStructE
Chartered Structural Engineer who deals with the Architecture of buildings. His Master's Studies led him to an in-depth understanding of risk and contract arrangements in construction as well as specialist knowledge in soil mechanics.
He and his team help homeowners and property developers to design and deliver construction projects reducing waste in time and the cost. He believes that the construction project is an iterative process that can be well managed and it is best managed if all the aspects of the project definition and management are dealt with in-house or coordinated by one organisation. His team works to all stages of RIBA and ISTRUCTE stages of work and enables contractors to deliver projects on-site providing risk evaluations, methodologies for execution of works and temporary works designs.
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