Engineering Fundamentals: An Introduction to Engineering, 4th ed.c

3.1 Engineering Design Process 49

procedures, regulations, and standards that are established by local, state, or federal agencies.

Moreover, the design procedure will be different for a bridge than say for a building or a mass

transit system. To shed some light on how a civil engineering project may be carried out, next,

we will cover the basic steps that are followed to design a building. The design process for build-

ings such as schools, offices, shopping malls, medical clinics, and hospitals usually includes the

following steps. Note that the description in parentheses corresponds to the design steps we

discussed in the previous section.

1. Recognizing the need for a building (Step 1: recognizing the need for a product or a service)


2. Define the usage of the building (Step 2: problem definition and understanding)


3. Project planning (Step 3: research and preparation)


4. Schematic design phase (Steps 4 &8: conceptualization and presentation)


5. Design development phase (Steps 5, 6, &8: synthesis, evaluation, and presentation)


6. Construction documentation phase (Steps 5 & 7 : synthesis and optimization)


7. Construction administration phase

Step 1: Recognizing the Need for a Building

There could be a number of reasons for wanting a new building. For example, due to demo-

graphic change in a district, a new elementary school may be needed, or an existing building

may need to be expanded to accommodate the increase in population of children between 6 and

12 years old; or a new medical clinic is needed to address the growing need of an aging popu-

lation; or the reason could be that a factory needs to be expanded to increase production to meet

the demand.

Civil engineers design and

supervise the design of

buildings, roads and

highways, bridges, dams,

tunnels, mass transit

systems, and airports.

Source:Elena Rooraid /

Photo Edit

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