Integrating Building Services Teams

Abstract

Abstract : The building services in modern building are becoming more and more complex. This increasing complexity has resulted in more specialists' work on building projects at different stages of the building process. The effective integration of the building services teams is essential to avoid and solve the conflicts expected among various parties that have different disciplines and interests. The extent of the co-ordination and integration at the design and construction stages of building projects are identified and investigated by a field study which is carried out through questionnaires and interviews with various parties of project teams. The analysis of the survey findings has concluded that most of the clients' dissatisfaction are for reasons related to engineering building services and therefore the building services engineers should be at the heart of the building process and take an important role at the beginning of the building process in order to have a valuable contribution. Building services maintenance engineers have not been able to participate effectively in the building process and their role may be extended to have a valuable role at the design and construction stages. The early participation of Building Services engineers in the design process, the wider involvement of maintenance engineers during all stages of the building process, the extensive use of CAD systems and the democratic management style followed by project managers or leaders will greatly improve the integration of Building Service teams and systems.