contains answers

1. Video Case Study 2
a) Why was the project undertaken? Who was the project manager, project sponsors?
There are a number of reasons for undertaking the project, the first being the enthusiasm of
Joe for creating a tailor-designed property for residence. He was not able to commit
finances and time towards building his house earlier, but now both of those constraints
were off. Presently, Joe and Lina spent a lot of money on rent per year (about £20,000), so
this was a good step towards owning a property with relatively less expenditure in an
incredibly expensive housing market.
Joseph (Joe) Stuart is the project manager and finances the project to an extent.
Considering the overall project as a whole, Joe’s parents are the principal project sponsors
since they contribute majority of the funding.
b) Constraints faced by the project manager and how he plans to overcome them by
innovation?
One constraint faced by Joe was the space crunch of the site itself. He developed a three-
and-a-half-storey design to tackle the problem with different levels for different designated
purposes.
Another limitation was lack of insulation initially. He circumvented this by employing
structurally insulated panels (SIPs) and stacked them together to emulate a conventional
wall which provided additional effective insulation.
c) Risks (unforeseen) which materialized during the project execution? How where they
dealt with?
Before excavation, Joe had made an assumption that the dry earth would support itself so
they need not add steel shutters for support, but as the contractor’s team dug to the
required depth, they noticed it had wet silt and clay beneath it which was disastrous for the
basement. After two weeks of digging, the surrounding dry earth also began to collapse
which added to Joe’s problems. Since the digging was occurring in early autumn, the
commencement of rainfall fuelled the labourers’ difficulties. Eventually, Joe had to let Phil
(1st
contractor) go and search for a new contractor, which also delayed the project by three
months. These risks were unforeseen.
As for the loose wet earth surrounding the dug site, wooden supports were erected to stop
the walls from falling apart.
d) What mistakes were made? Who was at fault and how much it costed the project?
How it negatively impacted the progress of the project?
To alleviate the issues caused by rainfall and movement of surrounding earth walls over a
loose bed of silt and clay, Joe relied on Phil’s experience as he erected wooden barricades
to stop the movement of earth, but Phil failed to buttress the roof and the wall shifted by
about 250 mm which was too much. Phil’s failure to see this through costed Joe £30,000
and resulted in Joe letting Phil go. Joe had trouble finding a new contractor and until he
found a second one, the project was delayed by three months. This way, Joe’s original
schedule of completing the project in one year was delayed since the basement took nine
months to complete.
The transporting vehicle operator handled the SIPs poorly which damaged the panels
slightly. Fortunately, this was not severe and damage control was done immediately.
e) How did the project manager save money?
- Joe’s primary vision of building and assembling materials instead of purchasing
readymade equipment was financially prudent
- Joe managed the assembly of SIPs himself, which saved more than £10,000
- Joe and Lina moved closer to their site and halved their rent in turn, which was a good
decision financially

2. - In the later stages of assembly and building, Joe’s neighbour supplied power to them
which was beneficial for cost saving
f) Was there any scope creep (slow widening of the scope of the project)?
- Joe was learning as the project ran its course and this caused him to make
modifications as he deemed necessary. For the windows leading to the roof, he asked
them to be made quadruple-glazed instead of triple-glazed which delayed the delivery to
the end of December.
- He tweaked the design of the cladding, which delayed the fitting from scheduled one
week to four weeks.
- In an attempt to not compromise on quality, he increased his work by installing a
sprinkler and a hot water system in place.
g) Was project finished on time and on budget? Was the project a success?
The project finished neither on time nor on budget. Because Joe was the project manager
and the client, he made modifications on the fly and also faced issues which delayed the
completion of the project. From the massive blunder with the basement or the cladding
modification or any other increase in scope, Joe’s decisions delayed the completion to a lot
more than one year. As for the expenditure, he went way overboard and spent about
£250,000.
In terms of quality, the project was a shining success. Joe got what he wanted and his
design for the house paid off as he erected a property which was innovative and
sustainable.
h) How sustainability was incorporated in the design?
- Small footprint of the property was turned into a comfortable usable space
- It was financially sustainable in the sense that cost of building and assembly was much
lesser than cost of purchasing readymade equipment
- It required minimal resources; it has ample storage space and power consumption even
in winters is about 650 watts, which is very less
i) Innovation during construction?
- Usage of Structurally Insulated Panels (SIPs): This was innovative in the sense that
every panel is cut and profiled according to design and measurement, only assembly
was needed
- Joe’s innovative use of brackets for insulation enabled him to insert insulation between
the wall and concrete floor
Video Case Study 3
a) Enumerate all the risks in the project? What were their mitigation strategies and
contingency plan?
- The risk of being faced with a strong cyclone would bring torrential rainfall and overlap
with the pouring of concrete. This would have damaged the slab structure and in turn
destroyed the integrity of the base. The mitigation strategy was to speed up the
scheduled work by working on a Saturday. Their contingency plan was to put a
waterproof membrane in place so that even if it rains, the water will not enter the base in
a highly damp land area.
- Another risk which could have impacted the progress severely was the unavailability of
consent for laying the roof from the local authorities. The documents were not submitted
but on the other hand, work was in full sway. The mitigation strategy adopted was to

3. gather support from the mayor of Coromandel, but Gus had no firm contingency in place
if the consent didn’t come through.
- Gus faced the risk of exposing his cob walls to the damp weather because of change of
season. His project was delayed contrary to his expectations, but the cob walls did not
dry quickly as opposed to in the summer season and suffered mould and damage due
to moisture. He did not foresee this impending issue and had no mitigation strategy but
only the contingency that if it occurred, the walls would have to be cobbed again.
b) There are instances when the project manager took some decisions to complete the
project early (project crashing). Identify those and the options taken to crash the
project.
- To put 1300 tyre-based walls which was very labour-intensive, Gus put forth the idea of
a workshop to enlist cheap labour where interns would live on the job and learn on the
job from skilled experts. He was able to keep his scheduled work in full sway for eight
weeks.
- Gus and the workers worked on a Saturday to keep ahead of the impending cyclonic
storm which would set them back by one week.
- Because of the change of season and remaining work, Gus brought back some interns
and paid them so that he could fasten the building process.
c) Appreciate the sustainability incorporated in the project. What features of sustainability
did you like the most?
The whole Te Timatanga Earthship is replete with instances of sustainability. The use of solar
panels, mud bricks, shells as insulation, tyres within walls for heat regulation, recycled glass
bottles in walls for natural lighting, angled glazing for more sunlight, green house with plants
and recycling water all use energy prudently.
The aspect of sustainability which appealed to me most was the use of mud bricks which are
made of natural materials like earth, clay and straw and provided applications such as being
fireproof, durable and non-toxic.
d) Think about the personality traits of the project manager. What were his positives and
where could he improve?
Gus, the project manager is passionate about building a sustainable residence. He is
completely invested in all the project activities and remains on-site to supervise work at all
times. He takes decisions prudently so that the project stays on track and also ensures that all
workers are motivated towards the objective. He had arranged for entertainment on-site via the
services of a DJ which would keep the workers on their feet. He did make arrangements for all
workers to live on- site and took care of their meals by enlisting caterers.
In my opinion, if Gus were to improve somewhere, he could start by being a little more realistic
about deadlines and subsequently plan or modify the schedule accordingly. He did not see the
issue of damage due to moisture and mould occurring in response to the change in season
until it was too late. He was lucky to get the consent from local authorities and not stop work for
the same reason, but if the consent hadn’t come through, the whole project would have come
to a halt. He could have prepared the documents and submitted them in advance to be on the
safer side.