Design Factor

BUILDING PLAN SHAPE

According to Seeley said, the shape of the building is one of the factors that will affect the unit
cost. For instance, the simpler the shape of the building, the cheaper the unit construction cost
will be. Besides, shape of building has significantly affected by the number of building
elements such as foundation, wall, ceiling and floor. For example, what type of foundation
should be used and the numbers of piling will be used. However, the irregular shape of the
building will have a higher cost which the perimeter/floor area ratio increased. For instance,
an irregular building will also has complicated setting out, ground work and drainage work
which are not economical to build. (Seeley, 1997)

Moreover, square shape and circular shape are the both shape that are the most
economical design for the building. The reason is both of them has minimum enclosing wall.
However, circular shape is not suitable to decorate by the furniture while square shape is not
look nice and just suit for the stores or warehouse these kind of function room which need less
natural lighting. It also is difficult to design the internal part for the large square building. In
conclude, square shape and circular shape are economical but they are not suitable for people
to stay as a house. (Seeley, 1997)

Furthermore, unit construction cost decrease not only benefit for the owner but also
the national economy. The reason is when designing the building, construction cost and
building heating cost are both must consider other than the building’s shape. This is to ensure
that the building construct need less energy consumption and the environmental pollution will
also decrease. These will also affect the life cycle cost and maintenance cost. Lastly, construct
a building which generates less pollution is very important either for the environment or
human’s health. (Bostancioglu, 2010)

In a nutshell, architect and client must be aware that the cost of the building will
increase even though the changes of the building are small. Furthermore, they need to
consider all aspect around the building before doing decision. (Surveyors, 2017)
 Principle: Building W is more economical compared with Building V. The reason is Building
W has the smaller ratio compare with Building V which has higher ratio. This cause
Building W has cheaper construction cost, operation cost and maintenance cost. For
instance, the length of wiring around the Building B is shorter than Building V.
GROUPING OF BUILDINGS

Grouping of buildings is a pre-processing procedure of structure approval for contextual

cartographic generalization which based on the similarity and regularity of geometric,
structural characteristic of buildings and relationship between them. Therefore, building
generalization is one of the hard task in automated map generalization. Furthermore, maps
depict the configuration with varying degrees of abstraction relying on scale and dimensional
context by means of generalization skill. It includes two subsequent stages such as separating
buildings into groups (building grouping) and performing generalization tasks on building
groups (generalization execution). (Cetinkaya, 2015)

Building grouping can be classified into 10 groups which are assembly (Group A) the
venues where people assemble for eating and drinking such as restaurants; business (Group
B) the locations where offer services such as banks; educational (Group E) the places where
people get the basic knowledge such as school; factory (Group F) the locations where the
product produce such as factories; high hazard (Group H) which the venues produce poison
materials (fireworks); institutional (Group I) the places where people are physically unable to
leave without ministration such as hospitals; mercantile (Group M) the venues where products
are displayed and sold such as grocery stores; residential (Group R) the places where provide
places to stay overnight such as hotels; storage (Group S) the locations where materials
stored for a certain period such as warehouses and utility and miscellaneous (Group U) such
as water towers. Moreover, in Group A, it can divide into small part again such as A-1, A-2, A-
3, A-4 and A-5. (Council, 2016)

When the buildings are constructed in grouping, the cost of construction will be saved
where the costs for party wall is shared by two units. Therefore, the more the buildings grouped
together, the cost of construction will become lower as well. Furthermore, the cost for narrow
fronted buildings are cheaper compare to the broad fronted buildings. The reason is the
wirings and plumbing that use in the narrow fronted buildings are shorter compare to broad
fronted buildings. Therefore, the cost such as maintenance costs will be cheaper.

Other than party walls and external walls, the layout changing and span of roof
structure will also affect the cost of the buildings by influencing the installation of rainwater
drainage and the amount of concrete and timber used.

In a nutshell, grouping of buildings can help to reduce the cost construction and
maintenance cost which according the requirement that stated in the law section.
 Principle: Building R is the most economical among all the buildings. The reason is Building
R has the cheapest total cost among all the buildings where the construction cost,
operation cost and maintenance cost are all shared by two units. For instance, the length
of wiring around the Building R is the shortest.
BUILDING SIZE

Building size will affect the economics of design. For example, the smaller the project in term
of range or square footage, it will make the cost per square root become higher. As the size
of buildings increase, it means that the unit cost will tends to decrease. This is because the
more efficient perimeter ratios, better use of high-cost service elements and a greater impact
on contractor purchasing power. Therefore, increasing or decreasing the size by given a
percentage may result in increase or decrease in cost by approximate a few percent.

Since the fixed costs of the project does not change with the extension of the size of
the building, the cost will not increase proportionally with the increase of the building plan size.
Fixed cost is the cost of total change that does not change occur within a reasonable range of
activities. Example of fixed costs are transportation, erection and dismantling of site building,
temporary water supply arrangements and storage of materials. When the costs are fixed,
whether your building are 500m2 of gross floor area (GFA) or 100m2 of GFA are also the
same price. Besides that, compared to the cost/ m2 GFA, the 500m2 GFA building shows that
is cheaper than 100m2 GFA building. Thus, the larger the building size are less costly as the
wall/ floor ratio reduces.

In addition, a big building is more economical to construct than a few small buildings.
For example, a 400m2 gross floor area (GFA) lift is less costly than four 100m2 GFA lifts.
Although both lift is same total GFA, 400m2 GFA lift just need do one time of finishing work,
but four 100m2 GFA of lifts need to do four times of finishing works. It takes more time and
worker to finish the work, therefore group them together are more economical. Moreover, the
cost of high-rise building may increase due to the increased planned area of the lift serving
larger floor areas and more occupants.

On the other hand, wall/ floor ratio may affect the economics of building size. Wall/
floor ratio is a mean of expressing the efficiency of a building plan and may influenced by the
plan shape, size and storey height of the building. As a result, the lower the wall/ floor ratio,
the more economical will be the proposal.

𝑬𝒙𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒘𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒂 (𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒍𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒅𝒐𝒐𝒓𝒔)

𝑹𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐 =
𝑮𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒔 𝒇𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒂 (𝑮𝑭𝑨)
 Building J and Building K are two difference size of buildings shows as above with
calculation of wall/ floor area ratio. The height of the both building is the same, but
according to table above shows that the gross floor area (GFA) for Building J is larger
size than Building K which is 17,500m2 and 12,000m2 respectively. Although Building
J is larger size than Building K, but based on the calculation above, the wall/ floor area
(GFA) ratio for Building J is more economical compared to Building K which is 0.183
and 0.217 respectively.
CIRCULATION AREA

Circulation area is one of the factor will affected the construction cost. Circulation area is the
square footage in a building which provide people with access to the all spaces within the
building. Circulation area is an asset of one room to another room as having a connective
function between the space. It also a dead space without any profitable purposes but need to
spend money for installing light and maintain it. Example of circulation area are entrance halls,
corridors or walkways, elevator, staircase and so on.

Different types of buildings will be allocated for different [proportions of the building
area for circulation purposes. Shopping mall, shop lots, hotel and commercial area require
more circulation area. This is because it is a place that everyone can go, therefore it needs
more corridor, more elevator installation, more staircase and fire protection, so that everyone
can walk and use at the same time. Besides that, when the shopping mall in a fire, people can
escape through many ways.

When the circulation area is less mean that the usable area is more, therefore the
owner may rent out more room and get more money from others. In conclusion, the lesser the
circulation area will result in reduce the construction cost.
 Based on table above, the percentage of circulation area for single-storey building and
five storey building are 15% and 43% respectively. This represents that single-storey
have more usable area and less circulation area compared to five storey building. In
other way, it means that 85% of space at single-storey building can be rented out to
get more profit, while five storey building just having 57% space are usable area. The
more usable area, the more people can stay and make more money. Therefore, single-
storey building is more cost effective than five storey building.
STOREY HEIGHT

According to the City Plan, ‘storey’ is a place that located between two floors level or from one
floor level to ceiling or roof above. However, it does not include lift shaft, staircase, bathroom
and other sanitary compartment which have not covered by a roof. For instance, mezzanine
and the roofed building on or part of the rooftop that does not solely accommodate the building
plants and equipment can be said as storey but basement is not included in storey.
Furthermore, storey is the level of the building that used by people to work, live and used as
storage. (Coast, 2017)

Storey heights of buildings are determine by the customers’ demands. Besides, storey
height of the buildings will affected various aspect such as walls, partitions and their finishing
works, length of the pipes and wirings become longer, waste pipe to provide sanitary
appliances, hoisting increase cause the roof cost become expensive, costs to build staircases
and lifts become higher and the cost of foundation become expensive due to the number of
piling increase to have enough strength to support the load.

However, it brings advantages also. For example, higher ceiling heights have a better
natural light and ventilation. Therefore, we will feel more comfortable when the temperature is
high since the circulation of air is carried out well. Furthermore, the sense of spaciousness will
be establish within a smaller room since it has higher ceiling height. Besides, when the storey
height of the building increase, there will has a better view to view the surrounding of building.
Moreover, if it is a double storey buildings, bedrooms, it has better privacy security and less
noise. The reason is when there has guests, they will arrange to stay at downstairs. (MAnual,
2017)

Other than that, it brings a few disadvantages, if the ceiling height is too height. For
instance, intimacy is lack if the ceilings is too high. According to “Log Home Living Magazine”,
people will feel more comfort in the space that equal to the sense of scale. This will let them
to have a feeling of protection. The reason is the higher the ceiling height, the further the
voices sound make, the lower the sense of intimacy. Furthermore, the warmest part of a room
is at ceiling level since the heat rises. The reason is when the floor level is warm enough, the
warm will accumulated at ceiling level. Therefore, people need to use ceiling fans to push
down the warm air. (Uhlig, 2016)

In a nutshell, storey height is decide by client according to the function of the buildings
are. The higher the ceiling high will bring advantages to the user as well as the disadvantages.
BUILDING HEIGHT

Building height is one of the design factor that will affect the cost of building construction. The
building height means the number of storey contained between the roof and the floor of the
first storey. A widely recognized construction economics show that as building height increase,
the cost per square meter of construction will also increase. Even if, the gross floor area (GFA)
of high rise building and low rise building are the same, the construction cost of high rise
building is expensive than low rise building. In Malaysia, most of the buildings are built in high
rise buildings due to the limited land area and high price.

For example, if you spent RM100,000 to construct a five storey building, doubling the
height of building means that the cost of construction will also double. A 30 storey building has
a high cost per square foot of usable floor area compared to a 3 storey building. Normally,
installing 2 elevators for a residential building or commercial building are not enough, therefore
we need to increase the number of elevator for the building. It is because, a tall building will
require more stops and each floor requires construction work, finishes and adjustments to
ensure the elevator works properly, so the cost will be more expensive. Besides that, the
distance travelled by the elevator will affect the height of the shaft. The longer the distance,
the longer the shaft and the higher the cost will be.

Every floor must support all the floors above therefore every additional floor must be
supported by everyone below. The average floor of high rise has to support half the building,
thus it need more foundation and concrete work to support the load of the building and the
price will also be affected. In addition, increase in height of the building, which mean the
services system will be affected. As number of building storey increase, this mean that longer
pipes are needed to connect and the price of building will increase as well. Moreover, high
rise buildings required larger, more complex and some custom designed of mechanical system
and temporary work equipment. Therefore, the higher the buildings, the higher the installation
cost. For example, high rise buildings require expensive equipment such as tower cranes due
to it can lifting heavy things and transport them to other places or up to each floor. Last but
not least, the height of the wall increases with increasing height of the building. When the
height of wall increase, the more the finishing work need to be carried out. Besides that, the
higher the wall height will require more additional scaffolding to supported it, so the cost of
finishes will increase and more scaffolding will need to be rented.

In conclusion, in order to reduce the construction cost, we need to limit the height of
building to be construct.
SITE FACTORS

EFFECT OF SITE ON BUILDING SIZE

1. The size of site

If the site is small, the building is not opt to build a large area building size, it means
that the building can only choose the option to build higher. Therefore, the building will
have more storey height if the site has limited space. Example, the limited site space
in town area that packed with a lot of buildings such as Kuala Lumpur or Singapore,
the size of the building to be constructed is fairly smaller. The solution for this issue is
increase the height of the building to meet the functional requirement as well as in
terms of financial profitability. In the scenario of bigger site area, the size of building to
be built is more flexible and size of the building will be lower and comparatively larger
in size. Example, project site located in between Jalan Getting Kelang and Middle
Ring Road 2 is large, the size of building is large but due to the nature of mixed
development of the project, the height of the building is also tall. Therefore, due to the
large size of the building, the unit cost for the building will be lower and more profitable
as the fixed costs for the construction of the building will be greatly distribute as more
units can be build.

2. The condition of site

In the case of condition of soil, the bearing capacity of soil is low, then the size of
building can be built is small as the land of the site cannot withstand huge loads coming
from the building. The solution for this soil problems can be achieved by soil
stabilisation or other method to strengthen the mechanical strength of the soil. The
design of foundations will also be affected by the condition of site as well as affecting
the size of building. In the case of foundation cannot be built on such condition of soil,
the size of building can be built will also be affected due to limited loads. For example,
if the project site has the soil problems that may affect the size of foundations, the size
of the building to be built will face limitation that may affect the economical design of
the project.
EFFECT OF SITE ON THE DESIGN OF BUILDING

1. The shape of site

The shape of site usually provides a standard or reference for the design of the building.
Therefore, the design of the building will take place based on the site plan showing
weather the site is circular, triangular, square, rectangular or polygonal. For example,
the shape of the project site located between Jalan Genting Kelang and the Middle
Ring Road is hexagonal shaped, so the building is design based on hexagonal shape,
such as split the building into two parts because the hexagonal shape of the project
site is irregular.

2. The topography of site

The level of the surface of the site may also affect the design of building. There might
be a slope or uneven ground that need to be consider whether to remove or keep it as
landscaping purpose. If such topography of land cannot be removed, the design need
to consider it as a part of the outlining of building. In such case, the topography of land
may also affect the design of foundation. With the requirement of foundation designed
to meet the bearing capacity of the building on the site, the issue of the land of site
need to consider in the design weather to use normal foundation or special foundation.
For example, if the project site has a problem of uneven ground, cut and fill excavation
may require thus, the design of foundation need to consider the materials of filling of
earth to meet the minimum bearing capacity.

3. The size of site

As the size of site greatly affect the size of the building, it may also consider as one of
the factor affecting the design of the building. In the case that the size of site is small,
the design of building may need to consider build the building higher to maximum the
profit. Therefore, the design for storeys of the building and distribution of such area for
both commercial and services need to be fairly considered as well. For example, the
project site is large, so the size of the building is large, thus the design of the building
is more flexible and can consider much more different design as the space is not limited.
EFFECT OF SITE ON PLOT RATIO

According to Town and Country Planning Act 1976, there stated that plot ratio means
the ratio of the total floor area of the building to the area of the building plot as measured
between the survey boundary lines or, if there are no survey boundary lines, between
provisional boundary lines. Plot ratio also can define as is a ratio that maximum the built-up
area that allocated to build on site.

Determine plot ratio is very important for design team and client because it can enable
design team will not design the building exceeding the plot ratio that regulated whereas design
team will prepare a drawing of project according plot ratio that permitted. Design team shall
be aware of the limitation of plot ratio and storey height control. If the plot ratio of actual building
is exceeding or oversize than permissible plot ratio, client subject to pay extra in floor area
development charge rate. (Ali, n.d.)

If there is the higher plot ratio, the greater gross floor area that will be allow to build
within the site or higher storey of building can be built. For this project where located within
Kuala Lumpur area, plot ratio for Setapak area is regulated by Dewan Bandaraya Kuala
Lumpur (DBKL) is among 1:6 to 1:10. Area of site for this project is around 28,500m2. In order
to calculate total building built-up area and assumption for plot ratio is 1:6,

so the area of whole building can be built is around 171,000 m2. By this calculation, Architect
can based on this maximum building built-up area to design the building in order to avoid
design over the maximum built-up area that regulated by Local Authorities.

Architect can assume 15% of built-up area as commercial space (25,650 m2) and the
remaining area consider as residential space. According to UBBL 1984, open space for
buildings abutting a street and back lane shall be in respect of other buildings used for non-
residential purposes, not less than one-tenth of the built-on area of the building lot. Architect
can determine storey height approximately based on the built-up area, it is necessary to
consider the setback requirement as well. For calculation of built-up area for each storey,

If fully utilise plot ratio stated by Local Authorities, this would increase the value of the building
because client able to build and sell more units on the site. But, there also need to consider
the storey height which to prevent over the storey height control. Commercial space for this
project can be built in one storey and storey of residential space is among 5 storey.

In the other case, if the client need to provide additional or extra setback area for car park
services, such area will indirectly affect the building area and the gross floor area to be built.
EFFECT OF SITE CONDITION ON DESIGN

Site condition on design considered as site factor may influence the construction
project site. Vegetative cover is the most important key point in order to avoiding erosion.
Vegetation such as grass, truck or tress that grew lushly is also costly to remove in project
site. Based on our proposed project which is located in between Jalan Genting Kelang and
the Middle Ring Road 2, clearance of site unusable vegetation is required that will be cause
increasing of construction cost because of the removal of vegetation to dispose from project
site to suitable places is far. It might be extra charge from lorry to travel along the distance.
(Lynn Betts, October 2007)

The design is affected by the land topography. This impacts the design procedure as
it influences how the building will be erected and whether it tends to be on the plot of land.
The proposed project is a sloping surface site can be covered by cutting and filling work to
form a balance contour on the slope and this will rise the price of construction cost in order to
proceed the works. The project can be delayed or cancelled due to the possibility of flooding
the build that the level of such land area is fairly lower than the area surrounding. The chances
of flooding of proposed site is low due to the level of land area is much higher than the area
surrounding. (UKEssays, November 2013)

A high water table means the water pressure in the soil is high and that the soil is
probably going to be correspondingly weaker. High water pressure will also badly influence
the stability of sloping ground and increase the loading on a wall retaining the sloping ground.
Therefore, the design of the building on such ground area should be include the considerations
of special foundations. The design for retaining wall also need to be considered by the design
team for sloping ground as well. The water tables must be obtained to see how deep the
foundations can be excavated and if there is a lot of water in the soil, some treatment or
construction of special foundations need to be implement in the design. The previous services
in the ground can likewise influence the build as digging probably won't be conceivable on the
area as a result of the utilities and services crossing the site, they may should be diverted or
re-arrange to prevent any overlapping with the building foundation. Although the arrangement
can be made, the design for embankments or foundations should consider the existing
underground services as well. (UKEssays, November 2013)

Soil quality can likewise impact the design procedure as the soil probably not be strong
enough or compact enough to hold a substantial load of a building or keep the foundations
stable. The soil quality can be discovered from the site investigation report. Therefore, analysis
on the condition of site and soil should be made before the start of design of the building so
that proper measure can be made to reduce error thus maintain the economic design of the
building. For example, if the soil condition of the project site is found to be loose and not
suitable for construction of the project building that involve mixed development of commercial
and service area, which may require to allow for a certain level of loads bearing capacity, the
design of foundation or the design of excavation for foundations need to considered.
(UKEssays, November 2013)
EFFECT OF SITE LOCATION ON DESIGN

One of the site factor that give impaction to the design of construction project is site
location. During initial design stage, Architect shall consider the site location. Architect shall
carry out an architectural site analysis whether to see what type of best design suitable at the
location. Architectural site analysis enable gets to know about site prior in order to start of our
design process so that the initial design thinking about a site can incorporate considered
responses to the external conditions.

The project site is located in between Jalan Genting Kelang and the Middle Ring Road
2 which is nearby Tunku Abdul Rahman University College. The building can be located within
a walkable distance to a range of other destinations such as places offering goods and
services. It is suitable to build as condominium and shop lots at the site because there will be
high demand for property due to customer will buy property as investment to rent out for
college students to stay nearby the college, students will able to walk to college within short
distance and faster. Students also can have their lunch and dinner at nearby restaurants. For
example, college students mostly will choose PV10 and PV12 as their hostel because the
nearest hostel from TAR College is about 3.0km compare to the distance from proposed
building to TAR College is about 1.8km. Therefore, there will be increase of demand for the
property.

The public transportation needs of occupants commuting such as Rapid bus

transportation is available at the area of the project site. The Rapid bus will arrive every 20
minutes approximately started from early morning. This is much more advantage and
convenient to the workers to go to work and can save car petrol.

Greater value sites will lead to high value developments of construction and it is
improper to construct low value projects on valuable sites. The project site is situated at the
location with a lot of high-rise buildings such as PV8, Saville@Melawati, 3 Residen
Condominium@Desa Melawati. The proposed building shall be tend to compete with the
existing buildings so that will able to get the competitive and reasonable price for customers.
However, this competitive nature to attract attention may affect the economical and practical
aspect of the building to be ignored.