10 Key Ideas before Starting a religious building development:
PREFACE
Having worked upon more than 5 spiritual, religious, communal, charity and public architectural buildings for the last 5 years, we notice 5 key thoughts & factors that a committee can take to improve the process from start to hand-over.
Initial site visit to the Sentosa Church, Old Klang Road.
A well coordinated and cohesive team can deliver astounding outcomes and results but the same can happen the other way around and be a troublesome experience that drains time and money from all parties. Unlike conventional developments where a top-down strategy seems to work best, we have noticed benefits around a primarily horizontal and collaborative setting in a team that has leadership roles and fields contributing in a strategical manner. However is this really possible? Is it just all an imaginary ideal?
Lets discuss further below;
Thought x Factor #01
Find and find and find for a dedicated consultant team
Architect who is familiar with local authority requirements and have a track record of successful approvals of similar project type and scale. If not, then ask if they have the confidence and ability to undertake the role.
Town Planner who is skillful with setting up the architect with appropriate requirements such as traffic flows, parking, heights, greenery requirements, any planning or historic overlays. Again track record of similar project type and scale will be key.
Structural Engineer who is able to understand public building requirements that perform spiritual and religious activity. Not all engineers appreciate the needs and nuances of religious activity and can lead to engineering elements which can compromise performance of religious activities. -In the end, we are seeking for spaces that exude inspiration.
M&E Consultant/Engineer who appreciates creature comforts and is able to deliver water supply, sanitary, electrical, cooling, cooking, sound, acoustical performance in their roles when defining mechanical and electrical components. An M&E engineer also specifies and designs the active fire fighting equipment for larger buildings (say 300pax and up), and if they are not aware of religious building requirements can lead to un-optimised spatial and budgetary requirements.
Tip: We always seek for 3 options when it comes to consultants, contractors and any other personel/professional requirements of human nature. And upon the 3 options, ask for 3 of the most recent examples that are relevant to the project that is on hand. Our best practice is to visit at least 1 of them in person and interview the owner about their experience.
Thought x Factor #02
Use an industry standard construction contract
As we are architects primarily, our preference is to utilise the PAM2018 standard contract in Malaysia which is available to be purchased for RM12. link.
Why & what for?
Industry standards contract’s major advantage is the straight-forwardness in and and many dispute settlement scenarios, from a very minor and petty issue to major non-conformaties. The great thing is that it work both ways. For e.g., the PAM Contract regulates both the client’s and contractor’s actions, meaning that one cannot ‘bully’ the other when according the contract to its standard terms, clauses and regulations. Expert opinions within the professional architectural community or PAM’s mechanism itself can also be sought to quickly understand one’s position if need be, and can be a tremendously low cost method to solve problems compared to litigation.
Thought x Factor #03
Consider the appropriate amount of cost and the time required to deliver the project, up to the point where you are able to use the space/building.
Committee members can sometime consist of seasoned professionals from various industries and mostly have been exposed to project delivery, and thus are able to provide valuable input to the consultants or the contractor in order to control or maintain the build costs and its time-frame requirements. However, what if this is not the case for a committee group, where-by there is not much prior experience that is relevant towards a project delivery such as a building or a renovation?
As mentioned in Thought Factor 01 and 02, they are the foundation blocks to the 2 key problems in a building project:
COST & TIME(time frame to deliver the project)
In order to mitigate these problems:
1. Good consultants are aware of this 2 elements above. Check with them on their opinions upon key building decisions.
for e.g.: Ask about the cost and time implications for say a building of 2 stories that is of 9000sqft per floor build vs a building of 3 stories of 9000 sqft build per floor level.
Each consultant in the team, Architect/Engineer/Quantity Surveyor is able to provide their independent point of view from their expertise position.
