Building Construction and Management

Introduction:
Building construction is the process of preparing for and forming buildings and building systems. Construction starts with planning, design, and financing and continues until the structure is ready for occupancy.
Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of  human multitasking Normally, the job is managed by a project manager, and supervised by a construction manager, design engineer, construction engineer or project architect. For the successful execution of a project, effective planning is essential. Those involved with the design and execution of the infrastructure in question must consider the zoning requirements, the environmental impact of the job, the successful scheduling, budgeting, construction site safety, availability and transportation of building materials, logistics, inconvenience to the public caused by construction delays and bidding, etc.

TYPES OF BUILDING:

The different types of buildings have been classified in following groups as per national building code:

1. Residential Buildings: These shall include one or two private dwellings, apartment house (flats), dormitories,hotels etc.
2. Educational Buildings: These shall include any buildings or part of a building used for school, college or day-care purposes involving assembly for instruction, education or recreation.
3. Institutional Buildings: These shall include any buildings or part which is used for purposes such as medial or other treatment or care of person suffering from physical or medical or other treatment or care of persons suffering from physical or mental illness or disease, care of infants, convalescents of aged persons.
4. Assembly Buildings: These shall include any building or part of a building where group of people congregate or gather for amusement, recreation, social, religious, periodic, civil, travel and similar purposes, for example, theaters, motion picture houses, skating rings marine and public transportation.
5. Business Buildings: These shall include any building or part of a building which is used for transaction of business, for the keeping of accounts and records for similar purposes, city halls, town halls etc.
6. Mercantile Buildings: These shall include any building or part of buildings which is used as shops, stores, markets, for display and sale of merchandise either wholesale or retail.
7. Industrial Buildings: These shall include any building or part of a building which is used as shapes, stores, market, for display and sale of merchandise either wholesale or retail.
8. Storage Buildings: These shall include any building or part of a building primarily for the storage or sheltering of goods, wares or merchandise, like warehouses, cold storage, freight dept, transit sheds, garages, hangers, grain elevators, stables etc.
9. Hazardous Buildings: These shall include any building or part of building which is used for the storage, handling, manufacture or processing of highly combustible explosive materials or products which are liable to burn with extreme rapidity and/or which may produce poisonous fumes or explosions materials or products. 

COMPONENTS OF A BUILDING:
A building can be broadly divided in 2 parts:

• Sub-structure
• Super-structure

The components of a building can be broadly summarized as under:

1. Foundation: Foundation is the lowest part of a structure below the ground level which is in direct contact with the ground and transmits all the dead, live and other loads to the soil on which the structure rests. The provision of foundation is made in such a way that the soil below the foundation is not stressed beyond its safe allowable bearing capacity.Click here for more details 
2. Plinth: The portion of the building between the ground surrounding the building and the top of the floor immediately above the ground is known as plinth. 
3. Wall: Walls are provided to enclose or divide the floor space in desired pattern. In addition, walls provide privacy, security and give protection against sun, rain, cold and other adverse effects of weather. Walls can be broadly divided in 2 categories: Load bearing walls and Non-load bearing walls.
4. Column: A column may be defined as an isolated vertical load bearing member the width of which is neither less than its thickness nor more than four times its thickness. Pier is a vertical load bearing member similar to a column except that it is bonded into load bearing wall at the sides to form an integral parts and extends to full height of the wall.
5. Floors: Floors are flat supporting elements of a building. They divide a building into different levels thereby creating more accommodation on a given plot of land. The basic purpose of a floor is to provide a firm and dry platform for people and other items like furniture, stores, equipment, etc. Floor is generally referred to by  its location. A floor basically consist of 2 parts namely (i) sub-floor (ii) Flooring.
6. Doors, Windows and Ventilators: A door may be defined as a  barrier secured in an opening left in a wall to provide usual means of constantly used moving component in a building, room or passage.This can be termed as the most constantly used moving components namely (i) Door frame (ii) Door Shutter. The door frame is permanently held in position and fixed to the masonry of the opening with the help of hold-fasts or rawl plugs.Shutter is the moving part of the door. Doors are made out of material like wood, steel, aluminum, plastic, flexible rubber etc. They can be side hung, sliding, folding, revolving or rolling type depending upon the functional requirement. A window may be defined as an opening left in a wall for the purpose of providing day light, vision and ventilation. Similar to door, a window has a frame and one or more shutters. The shutters are normally fitted with glass or similar transparent material. The windows can be side-hung, top or bottom-hung, louvered type and the shutters can be fully glazed, paneled and glazed or fully paneled type.
7.  Stair: A stair may be defined as a structure comprising of a number of steps connecting one floor to another. The stair must be constructed in such a manner that it is safe and comfortable to use and it  should be so located as to permit easy communication. Stairs may be made from the material like timber, stone, bricks, steel, reinforced concrete etc.
8. Roof: It is the uppermost component of building and its main function is to cover the space below and protect it from rain, snow, sun, wind etc. A roof is basically consist of 2 component namely (i) the roof decking and (ii) the roof covering. The roof decking is the structural component which supports the roof covering. A roof can be either flat, pitched or covered in shape. The roof covering or roofing which is provided over pitched roof could be in the form of tiles, slates, A.C. sheets. G.I. sheets, etc. The terracing serves dual purpose i.e. (i) of providing suitable slopes on the roof top draining of rain water and (ii) of acting as insulation layer for providing thermal comfort to the users of the space below.
9. Building Finishes: A building is considered incomplete till such time the surface of its components is given appropriate treatment. Building finishes include items like plastering, varnishing, dis tempering etc. The building finishes not only protect the surface from adverse effect of weather but also provide decorative effect.
10. Building Services: Building services include services like water supply, drainage, sanitation, lighting, electricity, acoustics, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, fire detection and fire control etc.