A
TERM PAPER
ON
WORKING RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ARCHITECT AND QUANTITY SURVEYOR IN NIGERIA: SCOPE OF MUTUAL RESPONSIBILITIES AND AREA OF CONFLICT.
(FOR ARC 807)
BY
ASEYAN BABAJIDE SUNDAY
(ARC-07-0943)
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
1.0INTRODUCTION
2.0WHO IS AN ARCHITECT
3.0WHO IS A QUANTITY SURVEYOR
4.0ROLES OF AN ARCHITECT
5.0ROLES OF A QUANTITY SURVEYOR
6.0WORKING RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ARCHITECT AND QUANTITY SURVEYOR
7.0AREA OF CONFLICT BETWEEN THE ARCHITECT AND THE QUANTITY SURVEYOR
8.0 CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
1.0INTRODUCTION
The roles of architect and the quantity surveyors in the building industry are complimentary to each other.They work as consultant’s seeing to the success of the project from the design brief to commissioning. The client through the architect proposes a design intentions generated in form of the design brief, which is given to the architect to analyses, evaluate and make a design decision in form of sketch and detail working drawing for the execution of the project. The client in turn after the sketch had been developed, engages the service of a quantity surveyor to carry out an initial cost estimate on the design, so as to keep the design within budget. This is the first working relationship between the architect, the client and the quantity surveyor on building project. This paper will try and address the core areas of the working relationships between the architect and the quantity surveyor in details, the scopes of mutual responsibility and the area of conflicts between them.
2.0WHO IS AN ARCHITECT
In general, an architect is a person who is involved in the planning, designing and oversight of a building’s construction. In the broadcast sense, an architect is a person who translates the user’s needs into the builder’s requirements. An architect must thoroughly understand the building and operational codes under which his or her design must conform. That degree of knowledge is necessary so that he or she is not apt to omit any necessary requirements, or produce improper, conflicting, ambiguous, or confusing requirements. He or she must understand the various methods available to the builder for building the client’s structure, so that he or she can negotiate with the client to produce a best possible compromise of the results desired within explicit cost and time boundaries (Wikipedia, 2007). The architect also observes the work at certain times during the construction phase, but on a much less frequent basis and for different purposes that the contractor, it is only the duty of the contractor to coordinate the subcontractors and develop a work plan for delivering a completed project that conforms to the architect’s design. Architects are charged only with being generally familiar with the work and reporting the general progress and quality of the work, as completed to the owner. The standard of care is that the architect should be responsible for discovering and reporting nonconforming work that is available to be seen (Simson & Atkins, 2006).
3.0WHO IS A QUANTITY SURVEYOR
A quantity surveyor is a professional person working within the construction industry. The role of the quantity surveyor is, in general terms, to manage and control costs within construction projects and may involve the use of a range of management procedures and technical tools to achieve this goal. The methods employed, however, cover a range of activities, which may include cost planning, value engineering, feasibility studies, cost benefit analysis, lifecycle costing, valuation, and cost estimation. A quantity surveyor can also be known as construction economists, cost engineers or construction managers. Quantity surveyors control construction costs by accurate measurement of the work required, the application of expert knowledge of costs and prices of work, labour, materials and plant required, an understanding of the implications of design decisions at an early stage to ensure that good value is obtained for the money to be expended. The technique of measuring quantities from drawings and specifications prepared by designers principally architects and engineers. In order to prepare Tender/Contract Documents, is known in the industry as taking off. The quantities of work taken off typically are used to prepare bills of quantities, which usually are prepared in accordance with a published standard method of measurement as agreed to by the quantity surveyor profession and representatives of the construction industry (Wikipedia, 2007).
4.0ROLES OF AN ARCHITECT
Architect as the leader of the team has the overall responsibility in administering the contract in the following specific duties among which are:
Handing over of site to contractor for commencement of work.
Approving contractors programme of work.
Checking and confirmation of setting out of building.
Coordination of consultants site activities.
Site inspection at least once a month.
Holding site meeting.
Issuing interim payment certificate.
Submission to employer of quarterly progress report.
Giving instructions on matters which he is empowered by the contractor.
Handing over of completed or partially completed building to employer.
Final inspection /completion certificate/final account/final payment certificate.
5.0ROLES OF A QUANTITY SURVEYOR
The traditional role of quantity surveyor still being practiced on a small to medium sized project can be briefly described as a measure and value system, where approximate estimates of the initial costs of building are prepared using a single price method of estimating, and where this cost was acceptable to the client then the design was developed by the architect. Subsequently the quantity surveyor would produce the bills of quantities for tendering purposes, the work would be measured for the progress payments and a final account prepared on the basis of the tender documentation. Other traditional responsibilities or a duty of a quantity surveyor’s activities includes;
Single rate approximate estimates.
Cost planning.
Procurement advice.
Measurement and quantification.
Document preparation, especially bills of quantity.
Cost control during construction.
Interim valuation and payments.
Financial statements.
Final account preparation and agreement.
Settlement of contractual claims.
6.0WORKING RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ARCHITECT AND THE QUANTITY SURVEYORS
The working relationship between the architect and the quantity surveyor particularly in a traditional form of contracting are contractual owning to the fact that each professional be it architect or quantity surveyor has the limit professional rights and obligations under law, most especially that which was covered under the said contract. In every construction works roles, rights and obligations most be clearly stated in the articles of agreement required by each consultant involved on the project work.
Hence, the areas of working relationships between the architect and quantity surveyor are as follows;
Sketch drawing and initial cost estimate: Architect are saddled with the responsibility of interpreting the clients need through design provision, but before the client would set to implement the architects design, a sketch would be produced and costed by the quantity surveyor this is called initial approximate cost estimates. The estimate must be holistic as the successful implementation of the project is hinged on it. If after the initial estimate the client found out that the design is beyond the available funding or above budget, the architect would be required to return back to the drawing table or whatever media of drawing to review the drawing keeping in mind the cost limit of the proposed project, moreover if the sketch drawing is adopted, the architect would proceed on the preparation of the complete contract document needed for tendering. This is the case of client to architect, client to quantity surveyor and the quantity surveyor to client and client to architect relationships. This is the pre-working relationship between the architect and quantity surveyor on a building project and other allied construction works involving the architect and the quantity surveyors, and marked the success of the project throughout the project life, if not properly done it can mar the effective project delivery often leading to abandonment of most project works.
Preparation and opening of tender. The architect and the quantity surveyor feature prominently during tender documentation and opening. The architect prepares the contract drawings while the quantity surveyor prepares the bills of quantity. This allows the tenderers to have equal basis for a competitive tendering for the proposed work. The architect and quantity surveyor along with other consultants acts as witnesses to the opening.
Appraisal of tenders. Tender appraisal is co-supervised by the architect and the quantity surveyors. The aim of appraisal is to analyze the tenders and bring out facts that will enable the client to make a decision on the tender. Tender appraisal must be done free from consultant influences, this is because the both the tender and the person or firm tendering have to be assessed. The parameters to be appraised are the tender sum, the rates, official estimates, completion time and the contractor.
Interim valuation, approval and awarding of payment certificate.The aim of contract administration is not only to ensure that the project or building is erected in accordance to the design and specification but also to ensure that money is paid to the contractor at any stage commensurate with the work done and the materials delivered to site. When the interim valuation is due, it is the duty of the quantity surveyor to visit the site and measure the works done and the materials brought into the site or stoked in an approved store outside the site. The valuation would be recommended to the architect in whom the architect would review it and issue a payment certificate if he agrees. In NIA form of building contract, the architect is required to issue an interim payment certificate once a month, often as prescribed in the contract. The contractor is entitle to the payment of the sum certified within 28 days or the period stated in the agreement for honouring certificate.
Preparation of final account and issuing of certificate of practical completion of project and final payment certificate. This working relationship is similar to interim payment certificate and valuation except for the stage at which each one is stipulated to be carried out.
7.0AREA OF CONFLICT BETWEEN THE ARCHITECT AND THE QUANTITY SURVEYOR
Conflict is as indispensable as peace since the only reason for seeking peace is because there is a conflict, which is inevitable in the construction industry as in other area of human endeavour as (Lee, 2011) concluded. According to (Verma, 1998) Conflict is defined as “a serious disagreement between two people or a number of people, which usually end up in a positive result if properly managed and conversely negative if not properly managed to the satisfaction of stakeholders”. However, the fact that individuals involved are from different background, orientation and values are to work on those complex issues on the project to have the expected outcome that satisfy all stakeholders is adequate to resolve conflict within the limits of the project. The causes of conflict among the project team members as posited by (Ohlendorf, 2001) are difference in belief, orientation, demands, prospects, views, imagination and ego, which is not far from what most researchers have mentioned in respect of other areas of life. Chong (2011) looked at conflict as the internal discord that exists between project team, which usually arises from misaligned ambitions, communication breakdown or not having the right players in key positions as the most prevalent causes of conflict in the construction industry. The specific areas of conflict are hitherto listed below;
Architects design details. Most of the times the area of conflict between the two parties are often irregularities in design details. Mitigating this, the architect and quantity surveyor must ensure they get along with the design, usually through early involvement of the quantity surveyor. More so the architect must ensure that the design is well detailed, before employing the service of a quantity surveyor.
How cost of the design relates to quality of finishes. Often the quantity surveyor always think that architects are the cause of inflated building cost, but research as shown that one of the concerns of the architect is that the building cost are kept within the budget while optimizing quality using the available resources, the quantity surveyor in the same vain owing to their limited knowledge about the aesthetics and construction methods to achieving the desired result they often resulted into argument, which if not properly handled mighty hamper the smooth running of the construction works.
Construction methods and cost. The quantity surveyor had been seen trying to usurp the architect by playing the role of the architect in the area of supervision, therefore conflict arise when the architect suggested a particular construction method and the quantity surveyor disproving it saying is not cost effective. Despite the fact that budget must be kept, it is imperative to note that quality of work and standard of construction must not be compromised.
Design issues and aesthetics were often an area of conflict for both parties. Another area of conflict is design and aesthetics. Architect had been critized must times for extravagant designs concepts, but the architect role is dual synchronizing need, cost, functionality and aesthetic into the design provision is the concern of an experienced architect.
8.0CONCLUSION
A successful project is very much depends on the construction professionals to act as an effective manager. They should act as a generalist and a facilitator when coordinating projects. They must be a good communicator in handling mediation, managing conflicts and negotiating terms with various stakeholders in the project and so on. In fact, there are many kinds of relationship in construction projects. There are relationships between professionals, professionals and client and also professionals and contractor. The relationships of them have many assumption and issues emerged especially in construction projects. The milestones and pressure on the construction project is higher than others industries. That ways the relationships between them is needed to clarify based on duty and responsibility to achieving the objective of projects.
REFERENCES
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Verma, V. K. (1998). Conflict Management . The Project Management Institute Project Management Handbook, Ed Jeffrey Pinto.
Simpson, G.A. & Atkins, J.B. (2006).Absolute of absolution?Observations, inspections and the contractor’s warranty.[Web document]. Available: http:/ 04bp_risk.cfm [2007, 15 February].
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