Building Economics

• Acknowledgement

I would like to give a special thank you shout out to Sr. Dianne Kok Hui Wei for assigning and guiding us through the project and throughout the course of the module. She has given us this opportunity to produce this report and helped us understand more on the related matter regarding Building Economics.

• Module Synopsis

This module provides an overview of the Quantity Surveyor's role during pre tender stage of development. I have also been introduced to the practical situations of the various methods of controlling the cost of buildings at design stage. I also had been taught about the relationship between building morphology, design variables and life cycle costing of a building. Lastly, I also had the privilege to learn and apply information technology in cost planning.

• Module Teaching Objectives

The teaching objectives of this subject are:

1. To develop an understanding towards the nature, content and significance of cost control, cost planning and the roles of the members of the project team in fulfilling the client's needs.
2. To develop awareness of the effect of design variables to the economical sense of a project and to understand in a more thorough manner of the role of a quantity surveyor in pre and post contract stages.

• Assignment

The assignment given to us required a proposal on materials to use for a plot of land in Kuala Lumpur, which also included demolition work to existing building on said land. The proposal demanded a benchmark project for the use of reference to our main design of the proposed building. Rates were also required to be obtained from many sources to get the breakdown cost of the project. Upon completion to the report of the project, we were asked to present our findings as a group with the assist of slides conclusive of breakdown of facts and figures.

• Module Learning Outcome

Upon a successful completion to this module, I was able to:

1. Identify the roles and responsibilities of Quantity Surveyors in the overall development process and to match the relationship between cost and design to the outcome value.
2. Explain various methods of pre-tender estimating.
3. Outline the importance of cost studies to enhance the role of a Quantity Surveyor in a development process of a project.
4. Produce an estimate at pre-tender stage, cost plan based on historical data and S-curve in producing financial planning to a project.