The document discusses strategies for designing cost-effective buildings, emphasizing the importance of reducing whole life costs through thoughtful architectural choices that minimize resource usage and environmental impact. Key principles include optimizing site conditions, efficient space planning, and utilizing sustainable materials and technologies. It advocates for a holistic approach to building design that balances functionality, aesthetics, and economic efficiency, ultimately leading to healthier and more productive environments for users.

1. Making Buildings
Cost- Effective
Through
Architectural
Design
 Jit Kumar Gupta
 mail- jit.kumar1944@gmail.com

2. DESIGNING COST-EFFECTIVE BUILDINGS
 A building design is said to be to be cost-effective if it--
 - has a lower whole life cost, including
 -- low initial design and construction cost
 -- low operational and maintenance cost
 -- low parts replacement cost
 -- High disposal cost or salvage value and
 -- high useful life of system or building
 -- without compromising with the quality of life
 --Using minimum resources
 --Consumes minimum energy
 -- consume minimum water
 - Generates its own energy
 -- generating minimum waste.
 - providing high indoor quality
 -Making users healthy and productive

3. DESIGNING COST-EFFECTIVE BUILDINGS
 Building Design -- most powerful tool to achieve cost- effectiveness –
 Buildings need to be designed by adopting integrated approach to
building design which include;
 Optimizing the macro climate- climatic zone
 Optimizing the local climate
 Optimizing the Orientation-
 Optimizing the Solar movement-- to maximizes use of free solar
energy for heating /lighting- Generating electricity
 Optimizing Wind direction-air flow
 Optimizing site planning--- planning with nature, making best use of
site climate/ site potential/ climate, orientation, landscaping
 Optimizing space planning in building-
 Optimizing Design of Building envelop- Height, openings, projections,
shading devices -- with minimum energy implication
 Designing buildings which facilitates the use of cost-effective materials
and cost effective technologies

4. PROMOTING ECONOMY THROUGH GOOD DESIGN
 Good Architectural design based on following principles—
 Buildings to be the product of site- driven by its shape, size,
dimensions, physical features, surroundings, accessibility,
location, neighborhood, views , architects vision etc
 Doing a detailed analysis of the site through a SWOT
 Making best use of the strength of the site
 Overcoming through design all the prevailing weaknesses
 Respecting site and the existing physical features
 Avoiding tempering with the site through minimizing
disturbance
 Avoiding cutting the existing trees, flora and fauna- making them
integral part of designing of building
 Minimising cutting and filling of the site
 Making best use of materials available on the site
 In case of rebuilding- using maximum demolished material in the
new building
 In the contoured site- try to plan along the contours and not
across the contours- to avoid cutting and filling

5. PROMOTING ECONOMY THROUGH GOOD DESIGN
 Good Architectural design based on following principles—
 Define clearly the goals/agenda of building right in the beginning.
 Building performance must be monitored even after the building is
made operational.
 Design a compact building with minimum footprints
 Workout the building details right in the beginning
 Involve all the professionals right in the beginning for designing and
detailing
 Avoid changes during construction
 Design buildings based on specified norms and standards to avoid
their over/under-designing
 Adopt a shape which leads to minimum length and area of walls
 Building must achieve high space efficiency-- carpet area x100/gross
area--- with minimum area under walls, circulation and amenities
 Evolving design having-- low wall area/floor area ratio
 Evolving design on optimum structural grid
 Planning room sizes based on the available product sizes of flooring-
to avoid wastage

6. REDUCING CONSTRUCTION COST- DESIGN
 Design with least amount of wastage & negative spaces.
 Stick to right angles and simple room shapes to minimize
complexity of construction.
 Where design is form based- avoid negative spaces or spaces having acute
angles
 Build multi- storied construction- foundation and roofing
costs per square foot are high.
 Don't increase slab heights
 Design Lean- Decrease self -load of building
 Don't design for additional floors if not required
 Use same flooring in all rooms/ toilets, --to reduces
wastage.
 Plan Electrical/Plumbing- services carefully- .
 Don't compromise on quality--reduce requirements to fit
your budget
 Look at the life-cycle cost rather than initial cost to achieve
real cost effectiveness- Initial cost only 10%, operational
cost- 90%

7. ECONOMY THROUGH GOOD DESIGN
 Promote Sharing--Adopt a system of building common walls between
adjoining houses to economise on space, materials, time / structure
 For multi-storeyed buildings--- repeat floor plans one above other –
with no change in structural componenets
 Keep/club your spaces that need plumbing --close together or above
each other to minimize cost
 Design all public health services near to supply / drainage network to
reduce length of pipes and cost
 Design Green Buildings – saves lot of water and electric energy- makes
building cost- effective over entire life cycle
 Provide standard sized doors with limited variations- minimise sizes of
doors provided
 Minimise number of doors
 All finishing/fittings- floor, windows, glass, paneling etc designed
based on standard size products available in market- to minimise
wastage etc-- Build to match standard material dimensions.
 Using pre-caste /pre-fabricated products to the extent possible- doors/
windows cupboards etc
 Avoid fancy/false/decorative structures in building

8. ECONOMY THROUGH GOOD DESIGN
 Make your rooms versatile to optimise space utilisation—
 -- example - do you really need a living room --same space can serve
many uses. A guest room can be an expensive luxury
 Design spaces based on living and non-living areas- with living areas
placed in the best possible orientataion
 Avoid corridors to extent possible- Corridors can be dead space-- only
used for moving between adjacent spaces
 -Avoid single loaded corridors- to optimize space
 Where unavoidable- provide optimum width of the corridors
 Think long term-- as cost of ownership spans may be many years. Some
extra insulation and passive heating / cooling may be beneficial over the
length of your home ownership. .
 Select your window placement well-- they are costly - in first cost and in
energy loss---select standard window sizing.
 Keep bathrooms to a minimum, --- most expensive room per square foot in
home.
 Try to design multi use bathrooms--- with private enclosures for shower,
toilet and sink-- have 3 people using one bathroom at same time.
 Keep indoor quality of spaces high
 Make optimum use of courtyards in narrow sites and in the hot climate
 Make courtyard spaces multi-functional

9. PROMOTING ECONOMY THROUGH GOOD DESIGN
 Building envelop needs to be designed with care
 Avoid unnecessary projections and balconies- make buildings
expensive and consume large amount of space.
 Openings- windows and doors need to be placed carefully- looking
objectively the requirement of sunlight, air and ventilation.
 Sizes and placement of the windows need careful study- they are
expensive
 Shading devices have to be carefully worked out and can be largely
avoided based on careful study of the orientation and the site.
 Make best use of the vegetation and trees to shade and make
buildings cool
 Avoid multi-layering of projections to protect openings
 Make best use of arches instead of Concrete lintels to reduce cost
 Use of Jallis to cover large/small openings can help in achieving dual
purpose of providing light and ventilation besides avoiding large glass
windows
 Avoid cladding of external walls and allow the natural materials to
define the building envelop

10. PROMOTING ECONOMY THROUGH GOOD DESIGN
 Minimizing area under walls to make buildings lightweight
and to increase carpet area.-- using pre-cast concrete
blocks, reducing width of walls-7 1/2 “ instead of 9” walls/
pre-cast concrete blocks
 Use innovative technologies-- Rat-Trap brick walls to
reduce quantity of material used
 Evolving design on optimum structural grid
 Use new cost- effective materials ---aerated cement
concrete blocks to reduce the width of walls, weight of wall,
number/ size of joints, use of cement etc
 Use local & contemporary materials
 Use materials in the natural form- avoid using additional
layers on natural material
 Use materials having minimum maintenance cost
 Use UPVC or Aluminium Windows instead of teak wood,
same goes for doors, use flush doors instead

11. PROMOTING ECONOMY THROUGH GOOD DESIGN
 Minimise provision of dead/storage spaces in the usable
areas- make use of negative spaces- making multiple uses
of space under the stairs etc
 Adopting Solar Passive Building Design makes building
cost- effective over entire life-span
 Limiting the scope of building--Build What You Need
 Makes building effective, efficient and cost-effective.
 Adopting the approach-- less is more-- will always make
buildings more compact and efficient
 Adopting the principle in designing-Simple is beautiful -
will always make buildings cost- effective
 Designing lean and smart makes a building cost-effective

12. SITE PLANNING-IMPACT OF BUILDINGS- MINIMIZING
BUILDING FOOTPRINTS