Architecture project from practice, fund role in realization

Architecture project from practice, fund role in realization is the tenth article on projects from practice. Funds are a major factor in the realization of urban development projects, and architectural projects. Funds play a major role in moving the real estate cycle and related business cycles. It also affects the implementation of many public bodies and private sector organization’s work and the process of building environment, economic, and political governance.

This building is a commercial residential building composed of ground plus three typical floors, a gym floor, and a swimming pool level deck. The project is located in an area where the planning authorities have finalized the urban development blueprint for the area. At the beginning of the late 90s, the allowable building height was ground plus three floors. In the next ten years when the investment and developers moved to this area and the immigrant movement increased the authorities permitted owners to go as far as ten floors in height. The plot is in the Al Qusais area in one of the UAE cities. The client requested the start of a consultancy contract for the design and supervision of this building in late 2002.

The preparations for the consultancy started with initiating a concept design for the building and after a couple of rounds, the concept was approved. The building concept does not belong to any architectural design movement, but it simulates the principles of architectural design and some touches of the classical movement in architecture.

The schematic phase design consultancy prepared for the client a ground plus four typical floors, and a gym and pool level plans. The client after receiving the phase drawings negotiated with the family members about the design and had no objection to proceed to other stages. In this event, the family informed us that they need the cost estimate to be updated to give further decisions to proceed with the consultancy contract. The cost estimate was submitted but it was higher than available funds. The project halted for three weeks till the consultant moved towards private funds from companies and banks. See Figure 1, 2, building floors architectural design.

The client approved a bank loan for the competition of the consultancy contract, and we moved forward to the detail design stage. After the completion of this stage, the consultant started the building permit process for the proposed building. The building permit from the planning and other authorities was obtained in May 2003. A full set of construction drawings was prepared, and bidding documents were prepared for bidders, the contractors, and the contractor was selected. The client had to put a down payment of 25% of the total construction cost which was not fully available as the contract with the bank defines that. The project was put on hold since then and ill date the building permit expired and was canceled. The project remained on paper and did not see light.   

The architecture of the plans consists of a ground floor plan including the required parking lots, the building entrance, the watchman room, and the services required for the building. The upper three floors are typical in plan covering all the permitted boundaries excluding the setbacks of the plot as per planning regulations. Each of these floors includes ten flats, two of these flats are one-bedroom flats and the remaining eight flats are two-bedroom flats. All rooms in the plans have direct light and fresh air either from setback or from elevation. The normal procedure is to include in the design a gym floor and swimming pool level to give attraction to the building and to generate more revenue. In this manner, the building will be rented faster than others due to the availability of these facilities. See Figure 3, the gym floor including the swimming pool.

Returning to the external form of the proposed building. The external form follows the plot boundaries excluding the setback areas. In general, it is simple elevations with some touches from classical architecture movement by including some columns in the façade, below plinths, and column caps with corniches. Most of the elevations project balconies include classical corniches. Building finishes are simple paints for client approval. See Figure 4,5 for the front elevation and side elevation looking to setback.

Figure 6 shows the final round of the couple of proposals for the building concept design. The 3D sketch is the externally approved building concept design in 2003 which was not implemented, constructed, and realized. In this project, funds played a great role in the realization of it and caused the halt a couple of times. The project stayed as a project on paper to date.