We’ve been hearing the terms “green building” and “going green” in the realm of architecture for a while now. Building material and equipment suppliers and construction service providers in the U.S. often boast the environmental friendliness, efficiency and economy of their products and services. But what is green architecture really, and how does it affect architectural design for us in the Caribbean? In an article entitled “Green and pleasant...Read More
Many years ago house plans were done as a set of Blueprints, pages with white lines and lettering on a dark blue background. Today, house plans are printed on large format digital printers but are still referred to as Blueprints. They are often provided in five or eight sets. The Government Planning Authority will often require at least three sets of plans, and the bank may require one if the...Read More
The cracked walls and foundations, sagging roof lines and uneven or tilting floors can be symptoms of major structural problems. Two common causes for structural problem are Differential Settlement (when the building foundation settles unequally) and Poor Renovations (when changes are made to the structure of a building without proper support). These can put great stress on the foundation, wall, floors, ceilings and roof of a building. If you have...Read More
Do you know what an Environmental Impact Assessment is? This is a formal process used to predict the consequences of a plan, program, policy or project (which we will refer to as projects in this article) prior to making final decisions and execution. What is the purpose of performing an Environmental Impact Assessment? The objective of Environmental Impact Assessment includes predicting the impacts a project will have on the environment,...Read More
The traditional approach of home owners when building a home is to develop an idea or plan of what they want their home to look like, then hire a contractor to execute the plan. Building a home calls for a lot more than just that. A significant amount of time, financial and material resources go into a construction project and considering the scarcity of these resources, their proper management...Read More
