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Choosing Building Systems
What impacts budget?
- Material costs: can you buy it "off the shelf?"
- Hard cost, delivery cost, labor cost
- Minimize waste and construction time by working to the readily available material sizes?
- Labor is often going to be at least half of the budget.
- Can you prefabricate parts of - or the entire - building? Will this help?
- Is special equipment needed for assembly? Cranes? Concrete pump?
- Do you have to spend labor time in pre-assembly and dis-assembly of support structures such as concrete formwork or complex jigs? Do you have the budge to support mock-ups for more experimental efforts?
- Does the structural assembly impact other parts of the budget such as thermal and sound insulation?
- Do you have a relationship with a builder who will take up the challenges you present without a high bid?
- Is the structural system commonly used in the area? Would the use of regional materials and techniques help?
- Regular vs. irregular forms
- Exposed or concealed structure
- Minimize walls and columns - long spans
- Floor systems
- Will the building be phased or changed over time?
- Location
- Construction time
- Size and time
- Structural appearance
- Dead loads on the foundation
- Poor bearing conditions
- Trades involved
- Integrated HVAC (concealed spaces for HVAC)
- Sustainablility
- Codes
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Choosing Building Systems: Budget
Regular vs. Irregular Forms
- Regular orthogonal forms such as basic hotels and motels or warehouses often use concrete masonry units
- Vs. irregular forms such as the Birds Nest where each piece is unique
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Choosing Building Systems: Budget
Exposed or Concealed Structure
- Do you want the structure to be the finished surface? Concrete, wood timbers for instance can be easily left exposed
- Are you controlling sound? This may lead to the need to hide the structure so you can control sound with finishes.
- Are you in wet conditions? Concrete or galvanized steel.
- Do you want to leave the structure exposed while achieving fire ratings? Wood timbers or concrete
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Choosing Building Systems: Budget
Minimize Walls and Columns (Long Spans)
- Are the structural components indoor or outdoor?
- Fire ratings
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Choosing Building Systems: Budget
Floor Systems
- Floor to floor heights and what sorts of demand will be made of the floor structure
- The floor systems are quite often the first structural issues to be determined
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Choosing Building Systems: Budget
Floor Structure Questions to Resolve
- How is the space being used? Heavy industrial loads, parking garages, showroom, residential...the live loads will be dramatically different.
- Height restrictions?
- Is a thin floor plate most important? More important than budget?
- Column layout (floor spans)?
- Fire rating?
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Choosing Building Systems: Budget
Phased or Changed Over Time
- If adding stories in the future, the foundation and the first phase structure must be designed to accept the future loads.
- If adding on horizontally the foundation must be designed so it is not undermined by the addition.
- The envelope should be made as easy as possible to alter and connect
- Movement joints should be considered.
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Choosing Building Systems: Budget
Location
- Climate
- Wet or dry conditions
- Warm or cold or temperate? Severe temperature changes?
- Mold issues
- Cool or heat passively?
- Regional materials
- Regional language
- Tornadoes - shelters f concrete or reinforced masonry or steel
- Hurricanes - ways to close up and be prepared for moisture and wind
- Straight winds - a little flexibility
- Earthquakes - a LOT of flexibility
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Choosing Building Systems: Budget
Minimize OFF Site Time
- Site cast concrete
- Light gauge steel framing
- Wood platform frame
- Masonry
- ICF's
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Choosing Building Systems: Budget
Minimize ON Site Time
- Steel frame
- Precast concrete
- Heavy timber frame
- SIP's
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Choosing Building Systems: Budget
Size and Time
1-3 Story building
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Choosing Building Systems: Codes
IBC
International Building Code
(most common)
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Choosing Building Systems: Codes: Use Group
Groups A-1 through A-5
Public Assembly occupancies: theaters, auditoriums, lecture halls, nightclubs, restaurants, houses of worship, libraries, museums, sports arenas, and so on.
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Choosing Building Systems: Codes: Use Group
Group B
Business occupancies: banks, administrative offices, higher-education facilities, post offices, professional offices, and the like.
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Choosing Building Systems: Codes: Use Group
Group E
Educational occupancies: schools for grades K through 12 and day-car facilities.
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Choosing Building Systems: Codes: Use Group
Groups F-1 and F-2
Industrial processes using...
- F-1: moderate-flammability materials
- F-2: noncombustible materials
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Choosing Building Systems: Codes: Use Group
Groups H-1 through H-5
Various types of High Hazard occupancies in which toxic, corrosive, highly flammable, or explosive materials are present.
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Choosing Building Systems: Codes: Use Group
Groups I-1 through I-4
Institutional occupancies in which occupants under the care of others may not be able to save themselves during a fire or other building emergency, such as health care facilities, custodial care facilities, and prisons.
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Choosing Building Systems: Codes: Use Group
Group M
Mercantile occupancies: stores, markets, service stations, and salesrooms.
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Choosing Building Systems: Codes: Use Group
Groups R-1 through R-4
Residential occupancies, including apartment buildings, dormitories, fraternity and sorority houses, hotels, one- and two-family dwellings, and assisted-living facilities.
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Choosing Building Systems: Codes: Use Group
Groups S-1 and S-2
Buildings for Storage of...
- S-1: moderate-hazard materials
- S-2: low-hazard materials
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Choosing Building Systems: Codes: Use Group
Group U
Utility buildings. It comprises agricultural buildings, carports, greenhouses, sheds, stables, fences, tanks, towers, and other secondary buildings.
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Choosing Building Systems: Codes
Structural Types
- Type I - Fire resistive, non-combustible construction
- Type II - Structure itself is made of non-combustibles
- Type III - Wood frame construction with fire resistive exterior, to avoid Chicago Fire-like conflagrations
- Type IV - Heavy timber or "mill" construction, slow burning
- Type V - Platform framing
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Choosing Building Systems: Codes
Behavior Modification
- Zoning for permitted useSetbacks - What you have to leave clear before you build.
- Easements - Where utilities go through (power lines, sewers, electrical, where you can't dig or sometimes build above)
- Height LimitationsCovenants - Restrictions imposed by neighborhoods or parts of a city.
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