Design constraints

Social

When designing any building you must take into account the social factors involved. If you are building in an area with surrounding buildings you must be sure to not cover or cast any shadows over the existing buildings or block any views from windows. Also the building will need to be adapted in order to accommodate people with disabilities allowing them access to all parts of the building. Things such as ramps, side rails, wider doors and limited stairs if they are unable to walk.

The socio-cultural dimensions of the environment consist of customs, lifestyles, and values that characterize a society while population demographics, rising educational levels, norms and values, language and attitudes toward social responsibilities are examples of socio-cultural variables. These variables have the potential to influence or affect organizations that operates within the society.

Economical

The economic and financial aspect zeroed on the level of general economic activity, as well as the resources available to carry out the work and it includes the economic competition of various degrees around the appointment of all the parties of the building project. Financial limits always seem to exist on building projects according to Obalola whose study clarified that financial environment forces are distinguished from economic ones on the basis that economics is to do with the deployment of resources, whereas financial limitations are strictly to do with money.A challenging task for any project manager is to ensure that a project is financially viable within a fluctuating economic environment and since periodic economic cycles significantly affect the activities of the construction industry, accurate forecasting of economic trends both local and global is important.

Environmental

Considering environmental issues in the construction phase and its life cycle, some only focus on evaluation of products in terms of waste disposal. This is too narrow. A product’s “use phase” can account for as much as 90 percent of a product’s impact on the environment all together. Consider insulation. A host of factors and influences of a product’s impact on society should be evaluated and contrasted to the product’s performance. A systems approach allows determination of the environmental impact of a product in terms of energy consumption at each state of a product’s life cycle. This is good. Beginning at the point of raw materials extraction from the earth and going through processing, manufacturing, fabrication, use and finally disposal or reuse. Transportation of materials and products to each process step is also included in this.

Listed Buildings

When designing around or addition to a listed building there are far more constraints with what you can do with it. Many listed buildings cannot be demolished or changed in anyway and only in a few cases can you change areas but only to be as similar as previous as possible. The materials used will also be restricted, mostly to the original materials used on the building, but as many are very old, the materials used then are no longer being made today.

References

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1687404814000200

https://greenbuildingsolutions.org/life-cycle-assessment/environmental-issues-construction/