Building Environment Professional Practice

This document discusses the professional practice of building environment and the services offered by Maestro Architects Limited. It covers topics such as design, fees, ethical positions, and service schedules. The document provides valuable information for those interested in the field of architecture and building construction.

BUILDING ENVIRONMENT PROFESSIONAL PRATICE
[Author Name(s), First M. Last, Omit Titles and Degrees]
[Institutional Affiliation(s)]

FEES, TERMS, CONDITIONS
Maestro Architects Limited is planning to provide services that capture all types of design,
documented records and assessment of building tasks. Maestro Architects Limited normally
specializes in structural design of any building that is very secure and at the same time ensuring
that environment is preserved and protected. Additionally, Maestro Architects Limited also deals
with the conception and generation of new ideas concerning building and ways of upgrading
buildings hence making the existing building to become practicable for its intended use (Angral,
2019). The following are intended specifications of Richmond office building:
 Managing the construction of office area for a particular building
 Suitable front desk and guests waiting and resting place
 Suitable washrooms for different genders factoring in people with disability
 Appropriate storehouse
 Housetop BBQ region
 Amble car park space
The above design-elements are used in the construction of an office and office approximations
should contain 212 m2 per floor in its three building floors. The amble parking space for cars
should be constructed on the lower basement (ground-floor) of the office-building. It is important
to point out that the office space herein is appropriate for small office holders to medium office
holders or owners (Coetzer, Ryan, Susomrith and Suseno, 2017). Consider the illustration of
design-detail of the building as per the specifications;

The figure illustrated above, clearly shows the intended plan of ground-floor for an office-
building that is suppose to be modelled. It can be further estimated that the total free space is
636m2.
In a situation where the budget of the project is not well explained and illustrated before, then the
fees to be charged to the project can be best determined by use of bundle provided by Maestro
Architects Limited (Drevland, Lohne and Klakegg, 2017). Maestro Architects Limited’s

calculations are based on the total number of the space occupied by project. The following are a
number of services rendered by Maestro Architects Limited though categorized in modular form;
 Module-A involves a well carried design and the development of permit drafts for
holding the building structure. This is considered to be appropriate in situations where
construction design and the contracted contractors come from different parties (Johnson
and Gore, 2016).
 Module-B normally contains all design work, draft-permits and documented project
records from the project’s commencement to project are completion. It is applicable in
situations where project design, project feasibility and thorough supervision of project is
needed by the customer.
 Module-C includes all the design work, thorough supervision of the building and better
ways of managing construction works. Further, this module captures all available
amenities needed for projects to be upgraded from the start of project’s commencement
to its completion.
It can be estimated that sum-total budget of the project for designing Adam-Street office building
could be valued to $80 per-square-foot. From this based on the Maestro Architects Limited
valuation view point, the sum-total fee for the service rendered for this project would be
approximated to be $55,000 including GST (Kwofie, Amos-Abanyie and Afram, 2016). This
sum-total fee for the service levied is based on the total space covered because there is no pre-
defined financial forecast.

ETHICAL POSITIONS
The ethical standards requirements that is dealt with in this project-venture integrates all ethical
responsibilities as per RAIA as well as the copyright requirements well stipulated by the Institute
of Architects in Australia. There are some of the professional ethics and moral integrity issues
that one must consider when rendering construction services. This may include the following:
 An architect is required to exercise self confidence in project-system of public-equity.
The service to be rendered must be performed with duty of care, a high level of
brightness, focused-minds and keeping at heart the professional environmental ethics
ensuring meeting the expectations of the client as outlined in the project brief. The point
of view of client is to have his expectations met in the design (Lohne et al., 2017).
 In the code of ethics provided by RAIA, architects are expected to be in full compliance
of professional code of ethics that guides architectural work and exercising due diligence
it is associated with.
 All architects undertaking architectural work to be a keen follower of ethical regulations
that often guide the behavior of various professionals in the architectural profession.
Maestro Architects Limited has outlined various copyrights of building-plans, designs and
building upgrade services that must be executed by qualified architects and this has been
explicitly stated below;
 The engineering design created by architects is regarded as a way of discovery and the
act of art of architects and shall remain architectural-property that is not subject to
material-alteration by anyone without giving any information to owner (Mohamad,
Rahman, Usman and Tawil, 2015)

 Any adjustment to be in the current building plan, then the architect concerned must be
notified early before commencement
 An architect that comes up with the plan or layout of the building has right of copyright
and may not be subject its copyright-clarifications or copyright-notification where
possible
 Considering section-73 of National-Act of Copyrights (NAC), a project-firm has power
to make alteration without informing the engineer who created it
 Reproduction of the building plans that has been developed by Maestro Architects
Limited is not allowed and anyone found doing so will be legally challenged in the court
of law following that act of right-infringement.
RAIA ethical codes are useful in architectural work regulations and therefore architects are
required to follow such codes as indicated below;
 A professional architect should be openly interested in his work and exercise high level
of skill in architectural work (Pooley, 2015)
 This profession is guided by rules and principles that must be respected by architects as
well as those rules that may enable them to enjoy their legacy-rights, cultural and safety
protection-rights.

FEE/SERVICES PROPOSAL/ENGAGEMENT LETTER
REFERENCE ID: 12th April, 2018
Meladen Club,
Subject: Upgrade service-detail of Meladen Club
RE: Inquiry of services
The spirit of this letter is to give a suggestion that Maestro Architects Limited may be willing to
undertake the opportunity of the service to enable the management of Maestro Architects
Limited renovate the Richmond office building. The management of Maestro Architects Limited
has a lot and wide range of management tools contained in the TOR (Terms of Reference) for
better understanding and compliance (Preiser, Hardy and Wilhelm, 2017). The following
comprise of short notes on the services offered by Maestro Architects Limited;
Summary of design
A suggested project-venture is located at the Adam-Street, Richmond. It includes the
modification of the office building which draws its center of attention to the mentioned below
parts of the building:
 Managing the construction of office area for a particular building
 Suitable front desk and guests waiting and resting place
 Suitable washrooms for different genders factoring in people with disability
 Appropriate storehouse
 Housetop BBQ region
 Amble car park space

Summary of services
Maestro Architects Limited has full control of its work schedule to ensure that the office building
is upgraded as per outlined terms of reference and schemes of service contained in the section
therein. Administrative costs are understood to be GST. The total spending-plan and chargeable
fee is subject to uncertain situations and can be re-negotiated should need arise that is considered
important (Toffa, Osman and Bennett, 2015). The upgrading of the office building comprises the
following services:
 Office front desk
 Office-space area
 Washrooms space
 Storehouse region
 Housetop patio and BBQ space
 Adequate spring-space
Services needed
 Surveying the present situation at the actual site
 The estimated costs for the office building upgrade
 Documented record of the project work
 Permits needed
 Project-management and evaluation
It should be noted that sum-total of the fee needed for whole service-work has been
approximated to $80 per square-feet of the space covered. The sum-total service fee-levy
including GST has been estimated to be $50,000 to ensure project’s completion.

Service Schedules
It tends to describe the type of service to be conducted and in which order of events as per
building-design and documented records detailed in phases9. Below is a brief description of the
expected service from the time of commencement to its completion time;
Predesign project-phase
In this, initial survey of the project is performed giving the general over view of the project site
and a number of approaches to estimate costs associated with the whole project-cost. The
concept-design processing through service-evaluation is carried out in this project-phase (Wade,
Murtagh and Hitchings, 2018). Once the concept-design has been processed, a customer is
allowed to make a choice. Activities in this project-phase consist of:
 Preliminaries research and current research condition
 Approximations of project-costs
 Preparation of several concept-design derived from preliminary research
 Customer selection of the most appropriate detailed-design
Main design project-phase
It is the most important part of the design project-phase. This phase contains a lot of information
concerning project design as well as concept-design that customer or client is able to approve in
the first phase of the project. Further, drawing is very important in this phase where they used for
project construction-works. Below are some of the activities which are covered in this section:
 Production of well explained architectural and structure-plans of the office building
modification

 Design of elevations
 Inclusion of third parties
Once the design-work of the appropriate modifications of the office building has come to its
completion, engineer is allowed to share the design-work with the client to make final-approval
to facilitate issuance of certificates and documents regarding the project-work
Permits and documentation-phase
This is the phase where certificates for the design-works that had been given approval by the
client are produced. Drawings of the project design-works are equally approved and passed by
relevant building authorities to ensure project work commencement. Documents that are key to
administration and this exercise are completed (Wade, Murtagh and Hitchings, 2018). These are
the main activities here:
 Tendering method
 Issuance of permits
 Proper-documentation
 Establishment work-flow and analysis
Professional fee-levy
Contained herein, are the detailed records of fee-levy by Maestro Architects Limited for
construction project works. Included here, is a fixed professional fee-levy of $80 per square-feet
of the project design-work as herein in the contractual agreement8. Additionally, all surveys,
project-documentation, estimated costs and project design-work are all captured in this part as
well as project-management and project-evaluation. Also, included here is the sum-total service
fee of 50,000 dollars including GST. Below is the break-down of $ 50,000;

 Initial-surveys and preliminary research of the project=$ 3,000
 Approximated cost of the project work=$ 2,000
 Concept-design of the project work=$ 5,000
 Drawing of detailed-elevation in 2-D and 3-D forms=$ 25,000
 Documentation of the project work=$5 ,000
 Project work-management=$ 10,000
The break-down of the service cost above, adds up to $ 50,000 which form part of the project
total cost. The professional fee charged here is subject to fluctuations due to unexpected project
work delays and in such circumstances, it can be further re-negotiated where applicable.
Mode and Terms of Payment
Payment mode of each phase that has been well explained and illustrated above design-phase is
made by issuing a cheque indicating the title of Maestro Architects Limited. The following are
the ways of making payments using cheques to Maestro Architects Limited;
 An invoice that details type of transactions made when the project work was initiated to
its completion time
 Each design-phase has to be costed and payments to that effect
 In situations where there is a possibility of extension, say a period of one month,
payments must be done in the month stated in the work schedule depending on the part
completed of the design-phase of the project work (Wade, Murtagh and Hitchings, 2018).
 All pending bill must be cleared in a period not more than one week after generating a
receipt to that course

 At each and every phase is concluded, it is required that all the transaction charges
associated with such phases must be paid and failure to pay may results to delays.
 It is expected that 40% is made for every phase from the start of project and 60% paid
after project completion.
Remarks
The application forwarded and will be accepted based on terms of the contract agreement. It is
expected that the project specifications must be met before start of any project work.
Maestro Architects Limited intends to provide best-solutions to building upgradation of the
office building at Adam-street, Richmond.
Maestro Architects Limited is always in full compliance with professional ethical codes,
copyright laws and building regulations. Clients are always given first priority since key pillars
of the company.
Yours faithfully, Yours faithfully,
Signed…………… Signed……………
Maestro Architects Limited Meladen Club

References
Angral, A., 2019. Architect–client relationship and value addition in private residential
projects. Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research, 13(1), pp.58-71
Coetzer, A., Ryan, M.M., Susomrith, P. and Suseno, Y., 2017. Challenges in addressing
professional competence expectations in human resource management courses. Asia Pacific
Journal of Human Resources, 55(4), pp.454-475
Drevland, F., Lohne, J. and Klakegg, O.J., 2017. Ethical Dilemmas in Value Delivery:
Theoretical Conditions. In 25th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean
Construction (pp. 145-152)
Johnson, B.J. and Gore, N., 2016. What do the professions ‘profess’? Comparing architecture
and planning codes of ethics. Architectural science review, 59(6), pp.449-464
Kwofie, T.E., Amos-Abanyie, S. and Afram, S.O., 2016. Principal component analysis of
professional competencies of architects in the Ghanaian construction industry. Engineering,
Construction and Architectural Management, 23(5), pp.571-587
Lohne, J., Svalestuen, F., Knotten, V., Drevland, F.O. and Lædre, O., 2017. Ethical behaviour in
the design phase of AEC projects. International Journal of Managing Projects in
Business, 10(2), pp.330-345
Mohamad, N., Rahman, H.A., Usman, I.M. and Tawil, N.M., 2015. Ethics education and training
for construction professionals in malaysia. Asian Social Science, 11(4), p.55
Pooley, A., 2015. Transforming practice: Re-linking professional experience and the
curriculum. Local Economy, 30(3), pp.292-304

Preiser, W.F., Hardy, A.E. and Wilhelm, J.J. eds., 2017. Adaptive architecture: Changing
parameters and practice. Routledge
Toffa, T., Osman, A. and Bennett, J., 2015. Architecture and agency: ethics and accountability in
teaching through the application of Open Building principles. In CONFERENCE OVERVIEW
AND PUBLICATION OF THE PROCEEDINGS (p. 287)
Wade, F., Murtagh, N. and Hitchings, R., 2018. Managing professional jurisdiction and domestic
energy use. Building Research & Information, 46(1), pp.42-53
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