Life's Lessons from Flooring

Life's Lesson from Flooring

Looking at some flooring drawings, a thought flashed thru my mind. Technically speaking floorings in large areas like metros need to be treated with care. This is required in view of long life of flooring and making it damage proof. And I found a life's lesson hidden in this technicality.

If you want the flooring to last long given below are some qualities for selection of flooring material.
1. Good abrasive resistant
2. High impermeability
3. Good strength
4. Good visual appearance

A flooring material in public place like metro shall have good abrasive resistance i.e. ability to withstand high traffic without getting scratched. This property imparts a long lasting sheen on flooring without dust generation. _In life also you have to be resistant to when people try to trample you. You shall not let circumstances or others wrong treatment affect you._

High impermeability means resistant to stains, almost nil absorption of staining materials. This property does not allow flooring to appear poor with bad stains and makes it easily cleanable. _In life also one should be careful not to let the bad company or dishonesty malign your image with stains of sinful acts_

Good strength of flooring is needed to take the heavy loads and impacts. A brittle flooring which can break easily is of no use. Only a strong flooring material can withstand heavy traffic load and remain intact. _In life also one shall have strong moral character so that one does not give away under pressure_

Good visual appearance requires the flooring material to welcome the public by its aesthetical appeal. The flooring shall be charming and blend with overall harmony. _In life also one has to keep smiling while dealing with others. An open and charming outlook is more receptive and increases social acceptance_

The fifth quality which I have not listed above is very important and I am sad to tell you that Architects are ignoring it. Most of them being unaware of its importance. This is called as Flexibility provision. Large flooring finishes applications require margins of flexibility which is provided in form of movement joints.*In metros due to train vibrations or temperature based expansion / contraction movement joints shall be provided normally at 8m distances. This allows flooring to adjust without breaking the panels. These are different from expansion joints in structure. You can see these in MC1A metro and T3 Airport at Delhi.

_And my friend in life also you need to flexible as well, even if you are very strong and charming. Unnecessary rude attitude without any margin of adjustment with others is only going to break your own self._

*Try looking at things differently - there is always something out there to learn*
🙏🏽Satyakam Garg

The Unforeseen Element

The Unforeseen Elements

Some years ago I was designing Dubai Outlet Mall, 20 Lac sq.ft. development in middle of the desert some 15kms away from Dubai. In Dubai, the Architect has to work to guidelines of Dubai Municipality and Dubai Electric & water authority. I was worried a lot that how in this desert my project will get these utility connections. So I took an appointment and met department officials. And my worries were gone.

I saw that they had planned and provided along the main road underground utility corridors below footpath and at regular intervals they had provided hume pipes crossings across the road. Based on my proposal, the official marked the nearest crossing and provided me locations of utility connection chambers. My job was done.

And this is what I call designing for unforeseen.

On the contrast we see our roads and pavements regularly digged for cables and pipes laying. This not only becomes hazardous, it makes our cities unsuitable for disabled wheelchair users besides being an eyesore everywhere. Similarly in metro stations you will find wires and pipes being installed in unplanned manner defacing aesthetics and uneven floors.

This could have been avoided by just making a suitable provision by embedding routing provisions for future.

For example, we do it for AFC gates provision but we forget about Xray scanners. Nobody designs or leave extra pipes or conduits for future provision so that no disruption happens.

Technological changes may require retrofitting or refurbishing in future. A 5℅ extra provision for such future services will not affect the project financially, but will be economical in long term. Architects shall ask their MEP designers to ensure that they take a margin for the unforeseen. Afterall we have to design for India's future.

Climate change and its impact on metro design

If you have followed today's news of Chandigarh getting flooded with floating cars only within 3 hours of rains, you will realise that we are seeing a change in weather pattern and metros are also affected by it.

Normally, metros are designed for highest flood level recorded and average rain fall of a particular place.

Architects in most cases leave all this to plumbing designer. But this year itself reports from various metros in country established that all is not right. Across the country many stations were flooded and leakages damaged critical installations in many cases.

I did a study of plumbing design of some cases. Infact I asked one of trainees with me to help me carry out the design from scratch for an elevated station and when we compared it to actual provisions done on some stations in country, results were shocking.

As a strategy, in line with IGBC requirements, we modelled the design from rainwater collection to rainwater harvesting. And a summary of the same is given below for all of you to check and consider in designs.
1. Inadequate provision of stormwater drainage on stations.
2. Violation of National Building Code - part 2, clause 4.5.11. There is detailed requirements given here for storm water drainage.

3. Violation of code of practice for  fixing rainwater gutters and downpipe for roof drainage IS: 2527.

My advise to Architects is to atleast once read through these above references. Trust me you will realise that things can be made better if you knew about these.

For example as per code every 90 degree bend makes efficiency of a rainwater pipe lesser by 25%, which means that if you provide 2 bends in a RWP you are going to need double the number of downtake pipes.

Hope you find this advise useful and utilise the knowledge for better coordination and checks with plumbing design.
☔☔☔

The Original Architect

Not so long ago, an Architect was overall controller of design.

With megastructure projects like metros came so many Architects on same project. DDC Architect, Clients Architect, GC Architect and Contractors Architect. Not only each stakeholder has an Architect but a team of Architects.

It is an irony that the original Architect gets to spend lesser time in churning out the designs, while all others so called reviewer Architects spend more time in finding faults. Which defeats the purpose actually.

I trust with my heart, that the original creator Architect of designs is at disadvantage over here. In my practice I have seen many people falsely claiming that they have designed the metro. They write it in their CVs.

It is to be remembered that the Architect who has conceptualised, prepared the design basis and visualised the first space allocation remains the Original Architect. And in my view he or she is the only one entitled to be called as Architect of the project. Rest all are mere design facilitators, suggestors, reviewers or in worst cases problem makers. Even a fancy designation like that of mine i.e. Chief Architectural Expert of GC, does not undermines the importance of original Architect.

In todays metro design scenario it is important that others respect the original Architect and try to facilitate the designs as fast as possible. To err is human and even a reviewer is not free of making mistakes.

Recently as this trend of multiple Architects has picked up, clients have noticed the delays happening due to such clashes in name of review and comments, whereas actually Architects other than the original one have been kept to expedite error free design deliveries. On some projects such trouble makers have been removed also.

My own personal thinking is that the originator of designs and reviewers are required to work hand in hand for a timely project completion.

Luckily for me my projects have finished on time or before time and in most cases I was not the Original Architect.

I have seen in my life wierd ideas developing into master landmarks and I never underestimate the power of original designer.

The Empty Boat

This I read a long time ago in a book by Osho. The story tells about a general behaviour of humans. I got inspired to share it with seeing beautiful message sent by Anjali.

So the story goes..  Imagine you are at a beautiful lake and decide to take a boat ride. You rent a boat, pick up the oars and setout to explore the nature around and enjoy the blue waters of the lake. While you are enjoying the boating, a stray boat without anyone sitting in it, is drifted by water currents and hits you. What do you do? You smile and gently shove the other empty boat to a side and continue with your ride. You are at total peace.

Now imagine the second scenario instead of first one. This time you see another boat with a man rowing it, coming towards your boat.  You become alarmed and start shouting -- "Abe saale marega kya... iye takkar ho jaaegi.. andha ho gaya kya...."  Even if the other boat hasn't still hit yours. In case it made a hit, a quarell follows you and other blaming each other.

So the story is now over. But what have we learnt?

The beautiful lake and scenery is your life god has given you. The boat ride indicates your experience and existence in this beautiful life. The boats represent your physical being the body. The drifting boat represents events not under our control. And the boatmen are the individual EGOS.

It is the ego when present creates the conflict. It is the ego which gives birth to your own fears. It is your own ego which makes you behave in a particular way. It is your own ego which affects your vision and intellect. And it is your own behaviour and own ego which is responsible for your condition.

For being a better human the ego has to be done away with, like an EMPTY BOAT. You are then ready to enjoy life as it is.

The great Architecture

While so called intellectuals see things differently, people and public see the things as they appear to naked eye. Thats what makes some buildings getting timeless fame for being Architectirally great.

Architectural journals and books talk about concepts, aesthetics and structural systems, while buildings which are listed as great Architecturally have been mainly functional ones which have stood against time. These are seven wonders of the world. Tajmahal, Mysore Palace and likes come in this category.

Can you think of one aspect what made them great?

I can think of 3...

1. These buildings have been massive impacting the public admiration by their sheer size. All great Architecture well known to normal public is massive. Big size meant domination. These building have dominated the comparative admiration by their size.

2. Artistically impressive. History provides us evidence that Art has been always man's way of impressing others. Art was promoted on massive buildings mainly as part of building structure itself. Art on buildings also manifested social structure of those times in a grand way, again to hold the viewer mesmerised by the beauty. Konark temple, Khajuraho, West Minister abbey and like are still most photographed buildings.

3. Permanency
This is one of the main reasons for buildings which have stood against time are in list of great Architecture. Without computers or technical colleges, builders of these great buildings knew what specifications to use to build such structures.

Whether Qutub minar or Pyramids, not so much of functional building for their purpose, but get worldwide tourists to visit them. They have all 3 aspects of being great.

We do metros, while aspect 1 is not so important in contemporary world, Architects and Engineers are overlooking other 2 aspects. Even  very few Architects are aware of or able to generate performance based specifications. Art part is pasted upon not engineered.

Think of it. Are we even capable of what our historical counterpart could do.

Above thoughts occured to me some 28000 feet above in the sky on flight to Delhi, inspired by a tourism advert in flight magazine.

Planning tools for excellence

I was one of the first person to setup the Lucknow Metro GC office. We started when first part consisting of 8 stations was 45℅ complete and things were disorganised. The new GC had limited resources and no office space to start with. Project was moving with fast pace to break all records of the metro history. I had the challenge of setting up a management system and I did it on my personal laptop and my own webspace. The system is currently fully functional and backbone of GC's operations. We call it PMIS system and it was featured in Ace Update magazine last year.

*But what made me develop it?*
Coming from a trained and desciplined background with international experience on projects, I knew instantly that it will be difficult to handle a project like Lucknow Metro without a proper system. I applied my educational trainings from MBA in construction management and my six sigma certification to develop the PMIS system. Made it simple enough for office core team secretaries to use this with least training and made it secure enough so that quality is not  compromised.

To users these seem to be simple set of excel sheets. But the idea behind them had a deep methodology of subsystem called as DMAIC.

DMAIC means Define, Measure, analyse, improve and Control. I defined all the processes, made them measurable, created them in a format which could be analysed, results are used to improve productivity and control.

And I used zero cost to build it (except my working cost to company and net usage). The system is better than Aconex (Commercial software service costing upwards of Rs. 5 lacs per month) as far as analysis and control is concerned.

Remember when we talk of quality it is comparative. For comparison you need to analyse things. For analysis you need to measure it. To measure it you need to define parameters. By now I have developed and made money out of similar setups on many projects of Architectural and Non Architectural fields. And a new term for the same has been coined as well.

Welcome to *Construcinformation*

visit www.agakgc.com

Satyakam Garg