WHY ARE THESE IMPORTANT?


IMPORTANCE OF BUILDING BYLAWS

Building bylaws are defined as the standards & specifications designed to grant minimum safeguards to the workers during construction, to the health & comfort of the users and to provide enough safety to the public in general. The regulation set out the basic requirements to be observed in the design and construction of buildings. They are applied to new building and also to extensions, material alterations, and certain changes of use of existing buildings.

In the absence of suitable bylaws and the correct methods and measures to enforce these laws, the city will be a mess (activities such as visual order, traffic becoming uncontrollable, uncomfortable living, environmental problems etc.)

The main objectives are to make it easier to pre-plan building activities, give guidelines to the designing engineer or architect, prevent haphazard developments and gives safety to those who work and most importantly to those who live in the buildings against health hazard, noise, structure failure and fire.

 

INCORPORATING BUILDING LAWS IN DESIGN

I have been studying and working in the architectural field for almost 2 decades and what I’ve noticed is that some tend to overlook and don’t take into consideration the building laws during the design stage.  This mistake normally happens because some focus more on the façade rather than its use.

Once clients have approved the designs, problems entail as extreme changes may occur because the approved design does not abide by the building laws.  These errors could have been avoided had the building laws been part of the designer’s consideration while designing.

As I follow some notable Architects like Adolf Loos, Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Gropius and Mies van de Rohe who adapted “form follows function” as moral principles and applied them to design.  This should be adapted by every designer.

The laws of design, like design itself, are ever changing. Design thinking is migrating from fields where it historically resided from business, science, and beyond. As our work starts to blend between disciplines, we have a great opportunity to create designs that bring communities and people together, and that is something to be excited about.

In general, my opinion is that a designer should not only understand, but should analyze the creative processes to be able to create solutions to satisfy not only our clients but society as well.

 

References:

Form Follows Function?

Form Follows Function (Wikipedia)

Importance of building bye-laws

5 Laws Every Designer Can Live By