Design decisions are important drivers of building quality. While it is impossible to eliminate all defects in a building, it is possible to reduce the number of defects through good building design.
In order to reduce defects, it is important to understand the types of defects occurring in buildings so design strategies can be put in place to help prevent them occurring in future designs.
The type of defects commonly observed from the Deakin University research study required invasive and often costly remedial works to rectify (particularly waterproofing and fire
separation failures). The types of building defects included:
For Building Designers there are many considerations in the design process including building standards and codes, environment conditions (including weather and soil conditions), who will be undertaking the build and what involvement you will have in briefing the builder on the documentation and liaising with contractors to interpret the drawings as well as understanding the end user of the building and how they will use the building on a day-to-day basis and meeting client needs.
In the coming issues of Intersect we will examine practical ways good building design can help reduce defects across these key areas.