Today’s Topics:
- The Complexity of Building
- The Role of an Architect
- Feeling Accomplished
The Complexity of Building
When you look around your room, you are most likely going to see 4 walls, a ceiling, and a floor.
If you take away the first layer of a wall, you start to reveal the structure and how the building was made.
If you then go look at a building under construction, you will see all of the hard work that it takes to get buildings to the standard they’re at today.
The art of building is a long process with a lot of steps involved. There are many trades that have to get involved for specific work on a project. Then there are different phases of each project.
You never really think about it, but every building has strategically placed a structure, mechanical units, plumbing, air ducts? Electricity, wires, and much more.
The Role of an Architect
When you think about the timeline of an architecture project, the architect is always involved with practically every step of the project from start to finish.
Architects are the ones designing each project. They know what is on every page of a construction document set because they are the ones who created it.
Their impact on a construction site is to make sure everything is being built according to the plans, and when necessary, make changes to the project.
On any given construction site, there will almost always be errors to deal with, or something that doesn’t work right. When there are problems, the architect would need to look at it, and find the solution. Maybe even consult with the owner if there is a sudden increase in price or substantial change in appearance.
Feeling Accomplished
Through my internship this past week I was able to take a couple of site visits.
We started off with a project overview taking a virtual walk through of the project with pictures, construction documents, and demolition documents.
Then later in the week I was able to take a visit to the site and see the work being done on it.
Both projects this past week were adaptive reuse and historic preservation, so it was working with many existing elements of a building, many of which are essential to its preservation.
Even though I have never worked on these projects, taking the tours through them made me excited because I was able to look at how it has changed over time and the impact that it will have on the people that will use it.
Thanks for tuning into this week’s blog post, I hope you enjoyed it! Leave a comment about any of your construction experiences. As always, Dream Big!
Alonzo Colon 