The influence of architectural form on the subsequent running costs of office buildings in the Central Business District of Nairobi-Kenya
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Date
1996Author
Bernard Otoki Moirongo
Type
ThesisLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
This is a study of form of office buildings in
relation to their subsequent running costs in an urban
setting. The key issue in this study is how the form
perceived at the planning stage of the building
facilitates the after-care of the building once
constructed. The hypothesis of this study is that
architectural form has an influence on the subsequent
running costs of office buildings.
The literature review has established twenty three
main form parameters that influence subsequent running
costs. In this' regard, the existing and documented or
implied relationships between these form parameters and
the subsequent running costs (or maintenance costs which
is part of running costs) have been documented. These
form parameters have been broken down into fourteen
quantitative variables and twenty qualitative variables
for purposes of data collection and analysis. This
assisted to cover form of office buildings
comprehensively. Eventually, these thirty four
independent variables-are regressed against the annual
mean subsequent running cost per square metre; the
dependent variable.
The analysis of the .data collected has revealed
fundamental issues that would be beneficial to the
building industry. These include the establishment of the
proportions of the subsequent running costs for various
aspects that require running in office buildings. At the
same time, it has also been established that eight out of
the above thirty four variables explain about 65.830
percent of the variation in the annual mean subsequent
running cost per square metre. The multiple regression
cost model has been used to establish a relationship
between these independent variables and the subsequent
running cost. This relationship has been found to be
significant at 95 degrees confidence level.
The study has concluded that a relationship exists
between subsequent running cost of office buildings and
archi tectural form parameters and hence form. At the same
time, appropriate architectural form parameters have been
recommended so as to minimize subsequent running costs.
It is also hoped that, this study will heighten the above
awareness to the building industry especially to those
groups of people that play a key role in the design of
office buildings to facilitate the creation of less
costly designs with regard to running, especially in
third world countries that to a large extent lack
finances for maintenance and running purposes
Citation
M.A.Publisher
School of the building Management, University of Nairobi
Description
Masters of Arts in Building Management