October 21, 2018, a residential building near Clemson University in South Carolina experience a floor collapsed during a party they held in the meeting room, 29 out of 30 were injured. No one was killed. When investigating I would first like to see the document from the Department of Building made by the architect and construction document when it is built to compare any inconsistency, if found check through the architects work with a structural engineer to see its durability, if it’s okay then the fault would most fall on the general contractor and superintended for not following the document provided by the architect as well as the architect passing the work. Second, find the occupant load, as well as the dead load of the space, see if the party held is too much for the structure, if it’s too much the fault would go mostly to the owner or the one in charge with the planning the party and letting the student party in an unusual space. Third, any reconstruction/reconfiguration of the structure in a recent month to a year base on the frequent use of the room in a year, if the building is modified in any way, check the new structure to see its durability and the fault would be on those who made the change. In any case, the architect fails to provide the health, safety, and welfare for the public, the leading architect needs his license stop for a certain period base on how much is his fault, the worst would take his license and the architect also need to pay for the damage. The general contractor and superintended would pay the damaged base on their carelessness.
Author: Yuli
Case study #1
In any field of profession one must do its best and carefully examine every little detail of their job to make sure it’s flawless for the client and themselves for any and all job they have, this is especially true to the architects. Every architects have to protect the health, safety, and welfare of every individual that will go into their designed buildings and those around its vicinity. In case study 1, the architect notice a different in the poured in place concrete, the amount is different than the original proposal which can and will lead to the building falling down. When the architect talk to the owner he said, he will talk to the superintendent of construction, which is hire independently by the owner. The situation create a distrust between the groups, architect suspect the owner and the superintendent cheating on material to save money which will be really bad on the architect since it’s his job to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public. In this kind of sticky situation I would suggest the architect try to get an emergency meeting with the owner and the superintendent as fast as possible because it’s the entire team that build the building not just architect, so the reasonable thing to do is to prove how the shortage in concrete will negative impact the overall building. The architect have to test the concrete and show the result as prove to the owner and superintendent. At the same time the architect should also get ready for the worse, which is when after the fact they will keep on not listen or outright refuse it, then the architect should prepare and find his original proposal for the pour in place concrete amount in all his document, as prove to the government like the DOB that the owner and superintendent is cheating on the concrete, that is the last straw to do which I don’t think it should come to that.
Dream Job in the Building Industry
I think everyone heard about the phrase “it’s not a job if you love what you do” or something very similar when growing up. They tell you it’s all about knowing oneself and understand it to find true passion and your dream job, which will make the work less boring and when you start to enjoy it, a job will no longer be a mandatory thing. I don’t like this quote but none the less I try and look into myself to see what I like and what am I not good at.
In the field of architecture or the building industry, in general, I had realized I’m not a very creative person, in many cases, I had struggled to get the idea across and figure out what I was doing in design classes, which make the experience, not as fun or enjoyable as people imagine, however, I don’t dislike the drawing part of a project. I’ll be clear, I don’t like designing the façade but I do like planning out the interior and leading to the drawing, the plan, section, elevation, I think it’s a fascinating way to see a building and how its constructed as well as learning how it affects people’s mood when entering a certain space. I also really like the animation and building technology that goes into the project. I enjoy a lot of classes like animation, fabrication, and building technology, for me the dream job would be something that can let do rendering, planning, drafting drawings, and fabrication of the material. I don’t have a direct passion but so far, I’m working toward this goal in my mind at the same time trying everything new and experiencing it to the fullest.
