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Contract Documents

Following the completion of the design development phase and its approval by the owner, construction documentation is a natural continuation of the design process, one that sets the parameters for the building process. Comprising legal, procedural, and construction information, CDs outline the key interrelationships, rights, responsibilities, and dynamics that bring a building into being. In a combination of written and graphic formats, construction documents translate the design of a project from the realm of ideas to physical form. CDs are at once descriptive and prescriptive: They describe, in detail, the components of a project that need to be fabricated and assembled for the project to be built. To that end, the contributions of myriad consultants are assembled into a coherent, artful whole. It is essential for clarity, specificity, and completeness of construction documents. Accordingly, they demand thought, time, research, coordination, organization, clear communication and, above all, infinite care: The health, safety and welfare of the public is bound up in the successful completion of this phase of a project.

It is important to understand that once a contract between owner and contractor has been executed, the construction drawings acquire the status of legal documents: They are instruments of the contract, as well as the focal point of the construction process. Every project has distinctive characteristics that demand unique expression that requires standards for assembling CDs at the start of construction documentation based on their thorough familiarity with every aspect of the project to establish the best means for planning and describing the work at hand. Generally, id9 takes the lead in overseeing and coordinating the work of the full project team, including the contractor (see IPD section A1.5) during the construction document phase of project delivery. Consultant teams and contractors collaborate to assemble CDs including any necessary consultants such as civil, structural, mechanical, electrical, and environmental engineering; landscape architects; acoustics; lighting; interior design; and so on. To guide this complex process successfully, id9 takes a clear understanding of the full project scope, as well as of the responsibilities and contributions of each team member. A thoroughly organized approach to the work, aided by an effective system of communication among project participants. Clear standards and procedures for collaboration and communication among team members are vital. 

Id9 creates mechanisms that enable excellent communications to achieve an excellent end-product: a thoroughly documented, meticulously coordinated set of construction drawings and specifications that clearly and faithfully communicate the project design while enabling construction to proceed within budget and on schedule.

Construction Specifications

The relationship between construction drawings and construction specifications is vital, especially the need for close coordination between them, which can enhance their descriptive potential and lessen any possible conflicts between them. Specifications are generally defined as presenting the “written requirements for materials, equipment, and construction systems, as well as standards for products, workmanship, and the construction services required to produce the work.” Project specifications are usually included in the project manual, along with bidding requirements, contract forms, and conditions of the contract. Development of project specifications typically begins during the schematic design phase, with the creation of an “outline spec” for the project. As the design evolves through the design development phase, the specifications are revised and updated to reflect changes in the project. Writing specifications for buildings is important and time-consuming work in that they stipulate, in full detail, the range of acceptable construction materials, manufacturers, and systems for virtually every aspect of a building project. The project specifications also communicate requests for shop drawings and for other submittals from the building contractor.

The Future

The traditions and conventions of document production are revisited with each new development in the tools we use to generate design and construction drawings. Computer programs and methodologies such as building information modeling (BIM) and computer aided three-dimensional interactive application (or CATIA) are quickly changing the face of construction documents production. By extension, they are changing the construction process itself. 

Building Information Modeling (BIM) 

Already in use is what has come to be known in the CAD software industry as building information modeling, or BIM. BIM, which is a significant departure from traditional two and three dimensional CAD drawings. Building information modeling is not a technology but an approach to organizing and connecting data. It is based on a technique known as parametric modeling, which allows CAD software to store and manipulate detailed parameters of building elements, rather than simple graphic representations of them. This approach is also sometimes called object-oriented modeling because the project information is created and defined as a collection of objects rather than a series of lines and planes. 

The greatest advantages of using BIM include these: 

• Ease of collaboration: All project participants collaborate on a single building information model, which is essentially a central database that can be translated into a graphic or tabular representation of the project. 
• Flexibility: Project participants may view the model in ways applicable to their responsibilities. An architect may want to view the model as a drawing, while an estimator might want to view it as a bill of materials in tabular format. 
• Better coordination: Portions of the model can be “checked in” and “checked out” by the responsible project participants to avoid duplication of effort and creation of conflicting information. Since all project participants collaborate on a single building information model, coordination among disciplines is easier. The entire team has access to the latest information available in the model across all disciplines. 
• Increased speed of delivery: As portions of the model are updated, linked elements are updated automatically; maintaining consistency among references and reducing the time it takes to update them. 
• Greater productivity: Since the building information model is a database, information can be extracted from it for use in other computer applications, such as scheduling and estimating software.  

All of these advantages can increase the overall efficiency of the documents production process and the comprehensiveness and quality of the work produced. 

CATIA 

Like BIM, computer aided three-dimensional interactive application, or CATIA, is a modeling tool. Originating in the aeronautics industry, it is a methodology that scans three-dimensional physical models and builds numerically controlled virtual models using descriptive geometry. The methodology for generating the virtual model translates directly to manufacturing: Through computer-controlled milling tools, complex forms can be fabricated with an astonishing degree of accuracy and at relatively low cost directly from the design model. The methodology eliminates intermediary steps between designer and builder. The primacy of the relationship between designer and manufacturer also serves to control the costs of manufacturing; without the middle man, costs can be kept down. CATIA is used in conjunction with conventional CAD drawings to render complex designs for which traditional two-dimensional drawings are insufficiently agile and descriptive. It can be used to achieve repetition of elaborate forms in a cost effective way, making daring proposals feasible. 

(Source: Marilys R. Nepomechie, AIA, NCARB & Michael J. Poynton, AIA)