Saturday, 15 October 2011

Design Criteria and Requirements

Project: JILC Dagupan City Church Building
RE: Design Criteria and Requirements

To the members of the building committee:

It shows in the preliminary presentation that there are design requirements which are not met within the given building floor area assumptions. We could either totally eliminate those requirement needs or, squeeze them in and result to cramming, or, add more of the floor area assumptions which will result to variance application to the city and the cost.

It will be in the part of the building committee to decide which solution/s to adhere to. As your architect, really, there is no limit to the design requirements, except that every requirement we add, also adds up the cost. Provided also in the assumption that these are allowed accordingly to our local municipal rules and the compliance to latest building codes.

Please also remember that in the listing of "criteria" and "requirements", they are not written in stones which we can always revise, add in to, deduct in to, criticize, suppress and so on... up to the closest realities are met.

Being your architect, I therefore urge you to please feel free in examining your entries in the "requirements" and submit your inputs.

Here are some possible leads towards a solution:
- from the criteria "near zero energy" specifically the harvest of rainwater, do you think we can stick to this or, totally eliminate(?);
- from the criteria "near zero energy" specifically the use of natural ventilation, do you think that we will forget about this and go back to conventional air conditioning and result to paying high utility cost month after month for as long. In using the conventional air conditioning system, we can add more floor area to accommodate the needed floor area for the requirements not met as mentioned above, i.e. parsonage, guest room, others. But, we must also be willing to pay any penalties (huge amount due to variance) to the city in violating the building codes regarding the allowed minimum setbacks and so on.
- from the overall building design itself considering the "near zero energy", which will be unusual to customary construction methods in the locality known to workers - should we also forget all about this(?) - and go back to the usual methods and practice.
- from the "design criteria - expansion", shall we forget that idea too?
- from the "design requirements - overflow capacity", shall we forget this idea too?

Committee members, forwarding your inputs is therefore a necessary step towards the documentation and plans for the city permission for us to start building.


Edwin Bambilla Ceralde, Architect, UAP
Email: edwinceralde@gmail.com

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