Building Design Variables Usage as a Tool of Value Engineering During Designing

¹ Civil Engineering Department, 57102 UM Surakarta, Indonesia
² Civil Engineering Graduate Studies, 57102 UM Surakarta, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: nur.Sahid@ums.co.id

Abstract

The deployment of construction economics has become more desirable today, mainly due to need to establish how building costs are spent, and be able to come up with the most optimum alternatives. This research article therefore, explored 1) the various costs inputs called design variables used by design consultants, plus their underlying factors, 2) how the practice of value engineering (VE) impacts on projects in Indonesia. A qualitative methodology, was used inform of a questionnaire, designed based on a 5 pointer liker scale approach, and distributed among 30 respondents consisting of consultants and clients in areas of Surakarta. The collected data was processed using statistical method of relative importance index, followed by descriptive analysis inform of bar and pie charts. The results obtained were that building plane shape (index 83.2), was mostly used, which itself depended on external features of building membrane and shape of building site (80.0 each), then other variables were building complexity (82.1); and building façade (77.9), meanwhile the least used was sharing walls (index 62.1), Lastly, VE was found to benefit the industry by producing designs which meet time, cost and quality targets, on the other hand material wastages and loss of confidence was reported once VE was neglected.