Architects / 12 site supervision steps: Supervision activities is the eleventh article of a series. To share and illustrate the author’s years of project architectural supervision experience. The experience of supervising various types of projects and functions in several areas and countries in the Gulf region. Such as functions related to human residential, commercial, leisure, sports, other industrial, and military projects. Projects I worked on and supervised. For example, district cooling plant of Abu Dhabi Airport .An industrial building that supplies the airport with chilled air. Additionally, other projects, such as Emirates Industrial Bank, of a mixed-use function. Privately funded school building with a sports hall.
Supervision includes 4 major activities: monitor, control, inspect, and review.
Monitoring activity represents the collection of data and analysis compared to processes and procedures, and planned goals.
Monitoring includes several activities in the site supervision project:
The supervision team and architects monitor activity through Daily meetings and Progress meetings. In these meetings, the supervision team collects data from all the site teams In Relation to ongoing construction activities per the project management plan.
Monitoring also includes informing the site team about the work conducted at the site. Hence, the site team conducting supervision will have updated information about all the activities ongoing in the site. Certainly, the activities scheduled in the project management plan.
Reporting by the site team. Whether a reporter is the assistant resident engineer or site architect, or inspector about the activities and stages in the site. Reporting comes either by verbal communication or by submitting a report document. The site architect and ARE prepare these documents each week or every two weeks. It includes all the completed construction activities and daily comments reported about issues, problems, and failures.
Monitoring also includes document submittals, and these include material submittals, whether it is documents or materials on board. In addition, shop drawings for an activity coming in the project management plan, and any contract deviation and variations. See figure 1, monitoring plaster work for Abu Dhabi district cooling plant.
Control is the second activity in the site supervision project. It represents the direction and regulation of people’s actions towards the planned processes and procedures.
Control activity comprises several activities:
The first activity of the architect’s supervision activities includes formal or non-formal meetings to inform about procedures and quality control. This includes meetings with the architect’s team. Indeed, the site inspector, the site architect, and the assistant resident engineer. This activity is mainly to inform and take prerequisite measures to avoid failures while conducting an activity at the site.
Second, it includes checking the site team’s number in executing a job, if they represent enough to execute the job. Mainly of a contractor or a subcontractor. Additionally, the staff attendance whether it is the consultant, the contractor, and the client team. Indeed, the contractor must adhere to the contract agreement, and Subcontractors must follow the contractor’s instructions.
The Assistant resident engineer, who is an architect, informs his team about ahead activities and informs them to prepare all the schedules. The timetables and the activities related to the building finishing or any related activity.
Another major sub-activity of control is site meetings about coordination with civil work and MEP work. When an activity is under construction, the architect must attend either an available site meeting or an official meeting in the site office. To coordinate any related issues to the architectural drawing, construction drawings, or shop drawings.
Review is the third major activity of an architect’s supervision activity. It represents the examination of the quality of something or work in comparison to project specs, standards, and codes.
Review also includes several activities on the site Supervision.
An occasional review of minutes of meetings to ensure the decisions and instructions are followed, and the teams are cooperating with all the decisions and instructions.
Additionally, a review of submittals, conducted by the site architect or the assistant resident engineer, includes the documents of a material submittal. In addition to a submittal of shop drawings, construction drawings modifications. Moreover, a change in time, delay, extra cost, and submission of specifications alterations.
Review also includes when the ARE interviews job candidates. Any required employee for the site supervision. ARE to review CVs submitted and to specify the selection criteria and the successful candidate to the company for employment.
Also, one of the major activities of review is that the assistant resident engineer conducts a review of the project management plan updates. Certainly, to inform all the site team of any updates to the project management plan related to any architectural construction activities.
The fourth major activity of architect’s supervision activities, inspection, represents a systematic examination and assessment of the conducted work to identify its compliance with project criteria.
Site team conduct Inspection whenever required. By the contractor or the client or scheduled by the project management plan. Inspection of an architectural activity in the site project. In addition to that, a site team runs an inspection normally when a contractor finalizes and completes an activity. In addition, it is ready to be handed over to the consultant.
Inspection includes the architectural activities of internal work and external works of a construction project. Inspection of architectural activities begins when a contractor completes the Superstructure and finalizes the block work. On the site, and to start with architect’s supervision activity represents several works. The walls, partitions, and ceiling plastering work. The painting of all plastered elements and the ceiling. Ceramic tiles, the flooring, bath fixtures, and toilets, and, in addition to staircases, finishes. Light fittings for all internal spaces and rooms.
Furthermore, to all these activities is the installation of wooden doors’ internal aluminum doors, aluminum windows, and metal windows. Staircase railing, whether it is steel or glass. In many cases, the client of the project requests to install the kitchen fixture, which includes cabinets, Washing machines. Installation of the kitchen fixtures. Such as washing machines, cookers, and other related fixtures.
Architect’s supervision activities, as I have shown, include actions related to procedures, process, and standard deviation, effective communication, and unethical work.
You can read the previous articles, which are related to architects, site supervision, in the following links 10, 9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2
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