ALL SOLUTIONS FOR YOUR PROJECT

In the first part of this section, I covered a little extensively (I confess) the definition of the three basic objectives of the construction project of your house. Cost, Time and Quality are fundamental elements that we must keep in mind, as no one will be able to define them for us. After all, we know how much we want or can spend, when we want the project ready and the quality of it... If you think about these goals, they end up being your restrictions for your project. But we will continue to call them goals so as not to confuse you. From here, and after having made the decision to move forward, the time has come to put your trust in the technicians who are qualified to help us. What technicians? What documents do I need to get started? These are the themes of the second part of this section “Housing Project”. Before getting into the part of hiring and discretizing the technicians needed to continue your project, it is important to talk about the issue of the land where you will build your house. There are two hypotheses: You have land in your possession: The acquisition of the same is not within the scope of this construction project of your house, so it will be expected that the area of the same and the conditions of the same have been taken into account in the definition of your idea, especially in terms of program, where you defined more at least the size of the house they intend to build. No land: The acquisition of land is one of the tasks that you have to include in your house project. In this case, it was possible for you, in defining your idea, to also take into account, especially in terms of cost, the size of the land you need to carry out your project. I won't go into the location of the land, as this is mainly a matter of taste, although it makes a big difference in the total costs of the project. After all, having a house by the sea or in the city center is not the same as having a house in a parish in the countryside. So let's imagine from now on that we have our land acquired... The time has come to define which projects and respective professionals will be needed so that I can start planning my idea. For those who haven't read the article I made about the vision of the project, we are at this stage entering the Planning stage of our Project. According to the Municipal Chambers, the usual thing is that the following elements are required for the licensing of any housing construction project: • Architectural Project - Architect • Accessibility Project - Architect • Exterior Arrangements Project - Architect • Stability project that includes the excavation and peripheral containment project - Civil Engineer • Gas Installations Project - Engineer with the specific course • Water and sewage network design - Civil Engineer • Rainwater Project - Civil Engineer • ITED Project (telephone and telecommunications installations) - Electrical Engineer • Study of thermal behavior and energy pre-certificate - Engineer or Architect with the specific course • Fire safety data sheet - Technician with the specific course • Acoustic Conditioning Project - Civil Engineer • Health and Safety Plan - Technician with the specific course • Plan for the Prevention and Management of Construction and Demolition Waste - Technician with the specific course In conclusion, I would especially like that with this article, you would get to know the wide variety of knowledge that is needed to carry out all these projects. The team needed to carry out a construction project, in this case of a house, must be multidisciplinary and have the ability to work as a team, trying to make all these specialties compatible as much as possible so that the client obtains a quality product. Be aware and aware of the importance of having a good work team to develop your project! More than complying with the law, these Projects aim to ensure compliance with many rules that ensure our comfort and the organization of our space and the space that surrounds us. It is important not to forget that we live in society and that we necessarily share various public services that guarantee us the basic resources of life, such as water and electricity. In addition to these services, it is essential that projects respect the constraints of the location of your land, such as the maximum number of floors in the house and their alignment, the percentage of area that can be built, the percentage of permeable area, among others... All this, in order to understand that licensing exists to avoid disorganization, excessive and disorderly use of spaces and technical problems in the solutions provided. Licensing is also the document that holds the authors of the respective projects responsible for the positive or negative results that may result from what was designed. Is licensing enough to build my house? Do I have to personally hire all those technicians to do my project? Do I have to manage and make all those specialties compatible? After that, am I in a position to proceed with the construction? Is the licensing project sufficient to guarantee the success of my project? I will try to answer all these questions in the third part of this heading. Until then, Good Projects to all! #MiguelÁvila

In the second part of this section, I made known all the technicians necessary to carry out the various technical specialties of the project of your house. It is important to recognize the importance of all these technicians and their respective projects, especially their correct compatibility, and ensure that we hire a multidisciplinary team capable of developing our project according to our expectations. A very common question that arises several times from those who are starting to organize and define their goals for the construction of their home is related to hiring. Where do I go? Do I have to personally hire all the technicians involved? The answer is no! It is true that the client has the free choice of hiring A or B according to his will, and he can build and define the entire project team himself. However, the normal thing is that there will always be someone who will coordinate the project, that is, they will be the link between the client and the rest of the project team. Whoever is going to build a house does not necessarily have to have the availability or even the ability to manage or coordinate all the parties involved. Let's do it by steps! What is it for this manager or project coordinator to do? • Assemble the best team, that is, proceed with the hiring of the various technical specialties necessary for the execution of the housing project. • Present the project's basic objectives to the project team. It is important that everyone is aware of the intended costs, the desired quality and the deadline for the execution and delivery of the projects. • Ensure compatibility between all specialties, so that there are no technical problems and that the client's objectives are duly respected. (For example beams to pass in areas that the architect did not foresee, electrical panel or sewage pipe without the necessary space for its implementation, final price of the house above expectations etc.). As you can see, the project coordinator has a fundamental role in the execution and planning of your house's technical projects. In housing projects, this coordinator is, in most cases, someone who is part of the technical team (architect or engineer of some specialty involved). What usually happens is that the client chooses an architect that he likes, or the one that presented him with the best conditions through his consultation (Yes, it is important to always consult several proposals so that we can compare). Once the architect has been chosen, he will present in his proposal the price for all the special projects that are needed and he will be the project coordinator. Of course, the client can always ask the architect to include technician A or B because he knows or thinks he is the most capable. Another completely valid option, which also happens several times, is for the client to meet or consult someone who may also be part of the team, for example a civil engineer. The civil engineer in this case will do exactly the same as I described in the previous paragraph. You will consult the different specialties and will present your global or separate proposal but including all the necessary work for the project of your house. He may be the project coordinator or he may eventually delegate this function to the consulted architect. Another alternative is for the client to consult a project manager or person capable of this coordination task to whom they wish to delegate these functions. We have some examples of real estate companies or even builders that offer turnkey solutions with all this management and coordination service included. Briefly, the client (you!) has these options for the project coordinator: • You as project coordinators. • Member of the project team as coordinator (architect or engineer consulted by you). • Known person to whom this function is entrusted. (For example, it can happen that your builder will take care of everything, because you already have it defined before the project and he is committed to taking care of everything). • Company that does all this management and coordination work, hiring the well-known “turnkey” service. As you can see, there are several ways to proceed, and all of them are valid. I have presented to you those that are the most common of happen. (There may be more). Still within this stage of hiring, it is important to touch on and address a subject that, as they say, “has cloth for its sleeves”. I'm talking about the frequent question that you will be asked (or not), which is: Do you just want the licensing project? Or do you also want the execution project? As if you had to know how to differentiate these concepts... I think the problem starts right here! There is a clear lack of information and knowledge that will allow you to make this decision consciously and in accordance with the objectives of your project. I will try to explain these two concepts very well. As I said in the previous article (Part 2), we live in community and we have to share and respect the space that surrounds us with order and organization. This order and organization is established by rules that are imposed by our legislation. These rules exist in all aspects of our lives, and for that reason the construction of a house could not escape the rule. Can you imagine if everyone could build wherever and however they wanted, even on their land? It is up to the municipal authorities to manage and organize the territory in order to properly regulate the construction of real estate. This control is obtained through the licensing of the architecture, in which the developer submits his project for approval. If the project does not comply with any pre-established rule, it is rejected and has to be edited. In relation to the other specialties, this concept may be more complicated to explain and even to accept, however keep in mind that a licensing project only serves to license your project, and for that reason it is not required to be properly optimized and detailed to be executed. What happens in practice is that these projects have only the minimum required by the municipal authorities in question, complying with the parameters of safety, dimensioning, compatibility and territorial planning. For work, this type of project may not be so effective, usually causing difficulties for the builder who does not always have the elements (designed parts) with enough detail to be able to perfectly execute what is required in architecture. In addition, the licensing project does not always contain properly optimized solutions so that the least possible costs can be reduced in the execution phase of the work. Unlike the licensing project, the execution project is well described in the legislation without leaving many doubts as to how it should be done. This must contain the following elements in accordance with Ordinance 701-I/2018 of 29 July: • Descriptive and justificative memory; • Justification calculations; • Measurements and quantity maps; • Budget estimate based on forecasted quantities; • Designed pieces; • Technical Conditions. The execution projects, both of architecture and of all engineering specialties, when well prepared, must contain all the information that allows the project to be executed without any difficulties on the part of the executing entity. In practice, these projects, even though they do not have all the elements mentioned above, are composed of (or at least they should) drawn pieces in detail and on a scale that allows there to be no doubts in their interpretation. The fact that these projects are elaborated in more detail makes it possible to expect a greater optimization of resources as well as a very approximate cost and timelines involved in completing the project. The question that now naturally arises is the following: Is it worth paying for the execution project? This question is not always answered in the best way, and the truth is that some proposals that will be presented to you may not even make this distinction, thus leaving the designers in the hands of the details with which they will prepare and deliver your projects. For that reason, the great advice I give you, if your proposal doesn't make this distinction, is to ask how the project will be, what it's including and what is its level of detail! They care about what they are paying for and only in this way can they properly compare the different offers they have! Is it substantially more advantageous and safer to carry out an execution project? I don't have any doubts. If they are vast, the examples of construction works (even of houses) whose price skyrockets during the construction phase because a project was not carried out with due detail? Yes! On the other hand, I also believe that there are projects whose low complexity allows a simple licensing project to fulfill and allow a careful execution and a favorable result. However, I would venture to say that this is an exception to the rule! One of the possible ways of answering this big question of whether to execute the project or not is the following: it depends on what the client is willing to pay and accept as a result of his project. A client who only pays for the architectural license cannot expect the materials and coatings to be applied to be detailed or to have the drawings for all the interior parts of his building! It will be he or the builder to decide or “imagine” some details. The designer cannot be held responsible for any material incompatibilities, if the finished product is not the same as imagined, or if any aesthetic effect does not turn out as expected, as it was not included in its licensing project. In relation to engineering specialties, the builder who only has a licensing project in his possession can ask him some questions, such as: How is the connection in this area where this wall and the roof converge? (Houses are not always rectangular and simple to build) What outlets should I put in this room? Should I put cable TV outputs here? Etc... These drawings and specifications may not appear in the parts of the licensing project. In practice, think that everything that actually needs more detail, detailed design or technical stipulation, from the start, will not be in the licensing project, as it was only intended to license the project and not to execute it. As a general rule, I would say that more and more people are choosing to contract licensing and execution projects, however there are still those who choose to trust their builder and their capabilities, and just pay for the licensing project. Worse than that, there are still many good people who choose the cheapest project (licensing), because they are not properly informed and sensitized. Think and reflect well if you are actually saving on your project (as a whole), or if it is just a matter of cost reduction in the technical design phase, but which will translate into increased costs in the execution phase! I believe that sometimes it can really represent a cost savings, especially in smaller projects, but I believe that most of the time, paying 2 or 3 thousand euros more for an execution project can mean greater rigor and optimization that translates into work on site. in savings above 10 or 20 thousand euros. What I really intend with this publication is to provide people with the necessary knowledge to make this decision to hire or not the execution project with the utmost awareness. I hope you don't interpret this as a kind of appeal to contract execution projects, or that I'm saying that if you just do the licensing things will go wrong. None of that! I just want you to make that decision properly informed! When we buy a garment from a white label, we know what we are buying! When we choose to spend a holiday in a 2-star hotel instead of a 5-star hotel, we also know what we are buying. In both situations described, we opted for a cheaper solution but with due knowledge and awareness. For this reason, we will not be surprised at first if the shirt is damaged after a few washes or if the hotel is not as clean and comfortable as possible. The same should happen when we build a house and we have to make decisions! We must seek to know and understand well the differences and what we are hiring. In this way, decisions will be made with greater awareness and the results obtained will be in accordance with our expectations and with what we choose to pay in advance. So far we have seen how to define our basic goals to take into account when we decide to move forward with the construction of our house. The construction of our house is indeed a project of great importance in our lives, and for that reason its planning must be very well thought out! We also got to know the technicians of the different specialties and the importance of them being able to work as a team, trying to obtain the best compatibility of the specialties involved and therefore present a quality project in the end. We have just mentioned the various alternatives for contracting this service, which involves the entire team and the coordination of the project itself. We have seen the difference between licensing projects and execution projects, this being a very important part, as the decision to hire or not the execution project must be very well thought out and taken into account. After the team is completed and the projects are licensed, are we in a position to move forward with our work? Can I talk to the builders now? Do I have to be the one to talk to them? In the next article in this section, we will probably describe the entire process that still needs to be done until the first stone is laid. Until then, good projects to all! #MiguelÁvila