Cost-derived indices for building design and construction

Abstract

Private or individual building developers ignorantly or deliberately have been
the source of violation of building safety or stability standards/codes in
Nigeria. This has resulted into serious consequences including high rate of
structural collapses, project abandonment, etc. To guide such developers and
various building consultants alike in planning, designing and execution of
building projects, this paper used twenty-four of the well documented
(designed and quantified by qualified specialists) buildings constructed in and
around Port Harcourt over the last two decades to derive useful cost-based
indices. These indices could also be used to match available fund with
project scope and achievable phase or stage. One of these indices, the
german floor cost index (gfi) when combined with prevailing (current) costs
of concreting materials (cement, sand, gravel, water) and labour could
predict fairly accurately the actual building costs. Also as multiples of gfi,
substructure cost index, sci and roofing cost index, rci could predict
componental costs of substructure and roofing for phased development
purposes.

Keywords: Cost Indices, Building Design, Building Construction

Journal of Modeling, Design and Management of Engineering Systems, Vol. 3 (1) 2005: pp. 15-23