An interesting talk regrading to 'Tasawwur Melayu' is given in the class. We are told to understand the language before understand the culture. From the Malay World view, they talk about one humanity on year 1969. From sejarah Melayu, malay are originated from Sri Wijaya (orang Jawi). But some of the people believe that malay are came from Yunan Province, South China. Every races have their own culture as well as malay. Malay has its uniqueness of their culture, its show how Malay life and the activity that malay ancient did such as gotong royong.
After that we are given project 9 which we need to pass up the part A on the monday. Our group consists of Nelson Wong, Loh Jin Bok, Chin Wei Rong, Yvonne Lai and me. The topic is given about mind shift and spread the factual info to the world.
Project 9A : Soul Shift
As global population and affluence has increased, so has the use of various materials increased in volume, diversity and distance transported. Included here are raw materials in construction. Sustainable use of materials has targeted the idea of dematerialization, converting the linear path of materials to a circular material flow that reuses materials as much as possible, much like the cycling and reuse of waste in nature. Quantity Surveyor has the responsibility to recommend to use the suitable materials which in other words that Quantity Surveyor has also the responsibility to the environment.
All the Quantity Surveyor should be unite and hold on the concept of green construction. Green construction is the practice of creating structures and using processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-effcient throughout a building’s life-cycle: from siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and deconstruction. This practice expands and complements the classical building design concerns of economy, utility, durability, and comfort.
Project 9B : 1500 words
Introduction
Construction industry is one of the most booming industries in the whole world. From the prospect of architecture, construction is commonly or simply known as a monumental process which ranges from building, assembling and alteration to the demolition of infrastructure. The scale of construction industry is usually large and it involves a complex interaction among different actors with various objectives and roles.
To ensure the execution of a successful project, rigorous yet effective planning is needed and one of the most important processes is to determine the cost or the budget of a particular project. When it comes to money, most people will immediately think of quantity surveyors. Well, what do they know about quantity surveyors? How much understanding do they have for the role of a quantity surveyor?
As far as I know, most people tend to relate money with quantity surveyors especially in the construction industry as quantity surveyors are widely known as the actors which will manage all the cost relating to building and civil engineering projects. So, is this the only role played by a quantity surveyor or are there more? Of course there are more, and now we are going to spread the factual information related with the role of quantity surveyors to the world.
What to spread?
There are several things that we can spread to the world. For examples, the works of quantity surveyor, sustainability and also cost (construction cost). A quantity surveyor’s job is not only majored in cutting down the cost, it depends on which area they worked. Many people don’t know how their houses or apartment’s price was count, so they need to know basic costs that were considered into the price.
Sustainability
As global population and affluence has increased, the use of various materials also increased in volume. Included here are raw materials in construction. Nowadays, our environment becomes more and more polluted. Hence, green construction was introduced. Green construction is the practice of creating structures and using processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building’s life-cycle: from design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and deconstruction.
Quantity Surveyor has the responsibility to recommend the use the suitable materials especially green building materials such as bamboo in construction. Green building materials are composed of renewable, rather than non renewable resources. Green materials are environmentally friendly because the impacts are considered over the life of the product (low maintenance). Sustainable use of materials has targeted the idea of dematerialization, converting the linear path of materials to a circular material flow that reuses materials as much as possible.
All the Quantity Surveyors should unite and hold on the concept of green construction. Green building is not only eco-friendly but it also reduced maintenance costs over the life of the building.
Employment Opportunities
There are usually two major types of employers for quantity surveyors which is Consultant Quantity Surveyor and Contractor’s Quantity Surveyor.
Consultant Quantity Surveyor traditionally referred to as a Professional Quantity Surveyor or Private Practice Quantity Surveyor. They are broadly concerned with contracts and costs on construction projects. The methods employed, however, cover a range of activities which may include cost planning, value management, feasibility study, cost benefit analysis, lifecycle costing, tendering, valuation, change control, dispute resolution and cost estimation. Quantity surveyors control construction costs by accurate measurement of the work required.
However, the role of a contractors QS will extend further than the day to day running of building projects and will cover such other areas as sub-contract formation, forecasting of costs and values of the project, cash flow forecasts and the collation of the operation and maintenance manuals of the project.
MANUFACTURING COSTS
Manufacturing is a process of converting raw materials into finished goods through the use of labour service and other facilities in factories. In a manufacturing company, manufacturing costs will include material, labour and factory overheads, while non-manufacturing costs will include distribution and administration expenses. Quantity surveyors need to know all this.
MATERIALS COST.
Materials are physical commodities/raw materials that enter into the making of a product.
LABOUR COST
Labour is also classified as direct and indirect like material. Direct labour directly involved in converting raw materials into finished goods, for example, factory worker. Indirect labour is required to perform manufacturing activities generally, but is not directly involved in the conversion of raw materials into finished goods. For examples, foreman and clerk.
FACTORY OVERHEADS
Factory overhead including all indirect manufacturing costs which cannot be identified with specific units of finished products.
COST OF PRODUCTION
Cost of production is the supply of a commodity.
PRODUCTION COST
Production costs refer to the total amount of money spent in the production of goods.
SELLING COSTS
Selling costs are the costs of marketing, advertisement and salesmanship. These costs are incurred to attract customers.
All developers should just take 10% of benefits from all the costs mentioned above. We should not be greedy and only put profit as 1st priority and neglected the environment. By telling all these costs to the people, then developer have no choice but to be care in determining the price of the buildings.
Why we need to spread?
As a first year QS student, we think the professional QS should spread the real fact to the world. The main reason is the status-quo for the building construction is not sustainable; one of the ways to overcome it is to educate the students as what my lecturer did for this moment. In our opinion, we think the 7 elements of APEX should be recognised to the whole world. ‘Sustainable’ is one of the element of APEX and it makes a better life and conserve the beauty of the earth to our next regeneration, which is the main element of APEX, ‘Future’.
As far as we concern, sun will emit high radiation on the coming 2012 and the whole galaxy will experience the global warming, but from the point of view of QS, one of the things we can do is try to change those unsustainable to sustainable on current construction which means we can try to use more sustainable material like bamboo, salvaged, refurbished, remanufactured and et al.
Another important element is ‘Sacrifice’. QSs are generally talking about money, but the fact is not all of the QS did it. Regarding to ‘sacrifice’, we are trying hard to shift our mind, for us to survive on 2012 disaster; we need to sacrifice which mean the wealth and power system in our world is an unsustainable system. We need to unite.
From our opinion, QS should not work for money; QS should work for the world, ‘sustainable’. As to face 2012 disaster, whole the QS over the world should unite, we cannot decide the conclusion before we did, maybe after unite we cannot make any changes to the earth but at least we change the soul of all QS.
The conclusion is the intention to save the earth and for instant our action is to spread the factual information about what we know to the world. For future, our aim is to unite the soul of QS so that sustainable is achieved. The product should be the sustainable and comfort of nature of the earth.
Ways to Spread
There are several ways to spread the facts. One of the effective ways is through the organisations such as ISM (Institute Surveyor of Malaysia) and RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors). From these organisations we can find extensive information through their free guides to a range of property problems and issues. Besides that, we can search theirs database of members to enable us to find a surveyor offering the services that we required, in our area. Besides, talks and conferences often been held to let everyone, especially the professionals like the architects and engineers to know about the latest information.
They need to know more sustainable materials such as bamboo. BIG (Bamboo Interest Group) is one of the effective organisation to let the world know about the beauty of bamboo. It’s a very strong material which is durable. Bamboo has many uses – not only on building materials but also the component of buildings such as doors.
Simultaneously, road shows also can be held in shopping complexes to educate customers about the new construction materials. Therefore, the customers will be able to gain more knowledge to about this matter and know what materials can be use and what is no longer sustainable.
Moreover, competition among quantity surveyors by encouraging deserving candidates to register and open firms will ensure that members aspire for newer technology to remain relevant or competitive on the construction market.
