Assignment Guidance Note

Contents
1 Guidance on Design Project for Coursework ..................................................................... 2
1.1 General Guidance on Layouts ..................................................................................... 2
1.2 Page 1 .......................................................................................................................... 3
1.3 Task 1, Layout, Access and Escape: (Page 2,3,4,5 and 6) ............................................ 3
1.4 Task 2, Structural System: (Page 7, 8, 9, and 10) ........................................................ 3
1.5 Task 3: Cladding and Roofing (Page 11, 12, and 13) ................................................... 4
1.6 Task 4: Fire Protection (Page 14 and 15) .................................................................... 5
1.7 Task 5: Sustainability Report (Page 16) ....................................................................... 5
1.8 Task 6: Health and Safety Report (Page 17) ................................................................ 5
1.9 Chose Just One of the Task 7, 8 or 9: (Page 18) .......................................................... 5
1.10 Task 10: Student Performance and Reflective Practice (Page 19) .......................... 6
2 Submission Guidelines ........................................................................................................ 7
2.1 Presentation file format (is it doc or pdf?)................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
2.2 Scaling Issue ................................................................................................................ 7
3 Conclusions ......................................................................................................................... 8

1
 Assignment Guidance Note

1 Guidance on Design Project for Construction

Coursework
You must come up with a brand new design, so do not attempt to adopt or apply a
previously existing design. There should be approximately equal number of students dealing
with each building function.

This guidance aims to help students achieve higher marks in this new assessment briefing.
The coursework submission must not exceed 19 A3 pages including cover page and the
references. This guide will explain what you can include in these pages. Depending on the
specific requirements of your own design, you can change this configuration as you like, but
you cannot exceed 19 pages, and you should not skip any task. Because everyone is limited
to the same number of pages, and the format has certain limitations, your final mark will be
determined solely based on the quality of your drawings, creativity of the design and the
analytic value of the report output.

Do not use any appendixes. If you have used company documents or catalogue items, just
name them in your reference list. There is no point in attaching the actual catalogue items.
You should however demonstrate how your chosen materials look, therefore including their
images inside your reports make sense.

Assessors acknowledge that some students are good at drawings; others are good at
reporting while some can be excellent at both. Try producing a well-rounded submission in
order to maximise your score by looking at your own strengths. If you are not too confident
in one of the two aspects of this portfolio, you can still score a reasonably high mark by
demonstrating that you have put the necessary effort to improve your weaker side.
However; students omitting either of the drawings or reports cannot pass.

1.1 General Guidance on Layouts

You must make your whole submission portfolio in word format (PDF has proven to be
unreliable in this assignment). The finished work will include the graphical content,
necessary images and reports together on these 19 A3 pages in landscape settings. Please
note that the university would require text sizes that are not smaller than 12, therefore
please do not squeeze more words than necessary using smaller text. Go for high quality
drawings and good analytical and evaluative reports, rather than large quantity and
descriptive content.

Remember to use APA style referencing consistently whenever required.

When you are presenting drawings, the page must include the border lines and a
professionally designed title box.

2
 Assignment Guidance Note

1.2 Page 1
Every University of Technology Jamaica (Utech) coursework submission must start with a
Coursework submission sheet. This standard sheet is in A4 format; whilst you are using A3
pages. Therefore you can use the left side of the first page for cover sheet and the right side
for some creative opening page design and table of contents.

1.3 Task 1, Layout, Access and Escape: (Page 2,3,4,5 and 6)

The first task includes the following drawings:

Ground floor plan (1 A3 page): The land size is chosen so that it fits an A3 page in landscape
when the scale is 1/200. You must professionally design drawing sheet borders and the title
box. Together with all the necessary annotations, dimensions and nearby vicinity of the
building, the page must be fully utilised and everything should be visually balanced.

Cross-section (1 A3 page): A cross section in the long direction must be provided using the
scale of 1/200. At 1/200 scale, a good cross-section must include the outline roof structure,
outline foundation, stairs, floors, suspended ceilings, outline structural details, windows,
doors, furniture and very high quality annotations.

Elevation (1 A3 page): A well annotated elevation from the longer façade should be
provided using 1/200 scale. Remember, how good and creative your design will influence
your final score. Beyond its technical importance, an elevation demonstrates the appeal of
your design. So when you are producing the elevation, it might be good practice to ask
yourself if you would like to see this building in your own neighbourhood.

You must also produce a report which identifies the strategy adopted for evacuation of the
building and fire fighting in the event of an emergency. The report must identify the number
of occupants that might be in each area of the building and how many escape routes are
required. In this report you can use the smaller versions of the plan drawings to mark
escape routes. Your report must justify your design decisions using published data and
regulations. You can use up to 2 A3 pages for this purpose.

1.4 Task 2, Structural System: (Page 7, 8, 9, and 10)

Page 7: Evaluate the alternative methods for constructing the basement of the building and
select the one you consider to be the most appropriate using the balanced scorecard
approach. Present in a short professional report on a single A3 sheet. Both the analysis and
the 500 words report should be on a single A3 page.

Page 8: Analyse the alternative methods for constructing the basement using a 500 words
report and the “Balanced score card” approach. This is a grading rubric where the selection
criteria have multipliers for their significance. The essential criteria may have pass/fail
impact on the result instead of multipliers.

3
 Assignment Guidance Note

Page 9: Produce a cross-section at 1:20 scale (A3 in size) through the basement wall showing
the junctions between wall and floors, and your proposals for water exclusion. You must
avoid using some generic details. All the standard details you may find from books and
catalogues must be adapted to your own design. The drawing must occupy the A3 page fully
together with the border lines, title boxes, annotations and dimensions. A good detail
drawing may refer to catalogues and company drawings, but you must not copy any
company drawings here. You will be marked down if you are just replicating details by
others. The key for this exercise is being able to adapt standard details to your own design.
This requires synthesis of various standard details into one drawing. One important issue is,
after justifying the type of foundation construction in the previous written report, your
foundation detail drawing must match to the one you have justified and chosen in your
report.

Page 10: Produce a foundation layout plan (1:200 scale, A3 in size), which is consistent with
the structural arrangement.

1.5 Task 3: Cladding and Roofing (Page 11, 12, and 13)
Page 11: Prepare a short professional report on the selection of cladding and roofing
systems for the building on a single A3 sheet.

Page 12, and 13:

Produce 2 working construction drawings at a scale of 1:20 A3 in size, annotated to describe

how water exclusion, continuity of thermal insulation and locational fixing are achieved,
each showing a cross section through your proposed cladding and roofing systems at the
following locations.

Detail 1 will show the junction between the chosen transparent (glazed) cladding system, the
roofing system and the structural frame.

Detail 2 will show the junction between the chosen cladding system and an upper floor, with
suspended ceiling, raised access floor (if used) and structure.

Important point about the detail development:

These detail drawings must be specifically developed for your own design. The aim is to lead
students to think how various standard detailing solutions can be used to work together in a
single design. You must avoid replicating some generic detail drawings in isolation. However
you must also avoid inventing detail solutions of your own. This means, for example, you
will find some standard flooring detail, a cladding detail and a structural detail and
synthesise these 3 sources of information into one detail drawing page to form a functional,
airtight, dry, sustainable, aesthetical and reliable detail solution. For example, in order to
achieve the detail 1, you will need to find innovative, functional and aesthetically pleasing
details from various catalogues and books including the following: Transparent cladding

4
 Assignment Guidance Note

system of your choice, the roofing system of your choice and the structural frame you have
chosen for this project within the task 2. You must not put these details in isolation, but
adapt them with each other, into a single drawing titled as detail 1. You must present it in a
high quality professional format consistent with the rest of the pages.

1.6 Task 4: Fire Protection (Page 14 and 15)

Page 114:

A short report on a single A3 sheet which outlines the rationale for the choice of products /
materials selected for both the active and passive fire control measures that should be
considered for the building.

Page 15:

Produce one layout drawing developed from the General Arrangement drawings for the
active fire protection systems in the ground floor (1:200 scale, A3 in size).

1.7 Task 5: Sustainability Report (Page 16)

Page 16:

A short report on a single A3 sheet (max 1000 words) which

1. describes the criteria that have been used to assess the sustainability of your design
proposals, through the building’s life cycle of selection and procurement (including
transport) of materials and components, construction processes, operation and end of life
(demolition/recycling), and

2. tabulates the comparison between the sustainability criteria and what has been achieved
in your design, either quantitatively using benchmark figures obtained from any convenient
source, or qualitatively using a descriptive assessment.

1.8 Task 6: Health and Safety Report (Page 17)

Page 20:

A short report on a single A3 sheet (max 1000 words) which

1. describes the criteria that have been used to assess the health and safety aspects of your
design proposals, and

2. tabulates the comparison between the health and safety criteria and what has been
achieved in your design, thus confirming the extent to which risks have been minimised in
your design.

1.9 Chose Just One of the Task 7, 8 or 9: (Page 18)

These tasks will apply depending on the discipline you are studying. You will only do one of
the following three tasks to form page 21:

5
 Assignment Guidance Note

Construction Project Managers will do only the task 7:

A short report on a single A3 sheet (max 1000 words) which

1. describes the main stages in the construction process for your design, and outlines any
particular requirements for each stage.

2. shows the detailed construction programme as a Gantt chart or network diagram,

showing the sequence of the stages, their inter-dependencies and the timeline for
construction.

You will get better marks depending on the sophistication level of your programme and
report. This programme can be in the shape of a network diagram or a Gantt (bar) chart.
Everything including the report and diagram must fit into a single A3 page; therefore the
detail level of the programme must be adjusted to include major milestones of the
construction work only.

Quantity Surveyors will do only the task 8:

A short report on a single A3 sheet (max 1000 words) which describes the process by which
you have generated this cost from the information in the database and shows the estimated
cost of your building at current prices.

You will get better marks depending on the sophistication level of your cost estimate and
the report. You can use reliable data you may have in your home country. The important
issue is, while you are expected to use historic data to estimate costs, the mark you get
depends on how reliable and sophisticated the approach you took.

Facility Managers will do only the task 9:

A short report on a single A3 sheet (max 1000 words) which

1. outlines the maintenance plan for the building and explains how your design minimises
the maintenance required whilst ensuring that maintenance tasks are facilitated.

2. shows the maintenance schedule in the form of a Gantt chart or similar timeline

1.10 Task 10: Student Performance and Reflective Practice (Page 19)
Your portfolio of submitted work must finish with a single A3 sheet which:

contains a personal reflection on your learning experience in relation to all the tasks
completed. This can be based on the separate document entitled ‘Reflective Practice’.
Essentially this is your opportunity to think about what you have learnt, how well you did the

6
 Assignment Guidance Note

tasks, what you would have done differently and what lessons you have learnt for future
learning opportunities. It should be no more than about 500 words and can be written in a
personal (“I”) style, unlike the rest of the work which should avoid using “I”.

lists the reference sources for the contents of your portfolio, whether books, technical
manuals, manufacturers’ websites

Page 19:

The final page will be divided between the reflective practice and list of references used in
this assignment. Use the reflective practice section to think about what you have learned
and how you have achieved it. What progress have you made? What were the challenges
and how did cope with them? This will help you absorb these fresh learning experiences into
your long term memory.

Referencing style must be APA style, and it has to be consistently adhered to.

2 Online Submission Guidelines

Once you are finished, you should have a single word doc made of 19 landscape A3 pages.
This single file will be submitted online and by hardcopy.

2.1 Scaling Issue

Drawings must be in 1/200. This does not only mean the size of the output, but the drawing
technique as well. The plans, elevations and sections must be produced in 1/200 technique
and detail level.

Because you are submitting electronically and in the word doc format, you cannot really
ascertain that the scale in your submission is perfectly 1/200. However the marker will be
viewing these files from the PC screen during the marking too so you cannot be penalised
for this. Do your work in the correct scale and proportion in the CAD space or on the paper,
it should look fine when it is transferred to landscape A3 pages. The building size was
chosen so that the project fits comfortably in 1/200 @ A3.

You have a few options about how you can export these drawings into the word submission
file. Have a look at the following links;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y1aCqb70To

http://www-old.me.gatech.edu/docs/frankkweb_autocad_copypaste.pdf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG-IWY4DgU8

If you are not using AutoCAD, there will be similar solutions elsewhere on the internet or
just use a scanner.

7
 Assignment Guidance Note

3 Conclusions
Follow this guidance so that you can increase your chances to get higher marks. This should
also help to ascertain that your work is assessed for its true substance.