Ethiopia has its own several ancient civilizations, from the 60s there is a great influence by the international style of architectural design. Because of these, every building is reduced to plain vertical and horizontal lines of concrete blocks, which is unimpressive and ugly, are a menace to the society and a cause of environmental degradation. They are also a cause of a complete break to traditional values and cultural patterns. Apart from that, because of the international style influence, the country cannot relate itself with tradition while we have not yet been to able satisfy the basic housing needs of our people even with modern solutions. But I think, it is very important to learn from mistakes done on built housing blocks that were implemented without a thorough study of function. And it is important to encourage the construction of buildings with local materials and of course with consideration of functional requirements and proper management.
The structure of the construction industry consists of various sectors. These are the building and residential development sector, civil engineering sector, professional services sector, and self-building sector. The construction industry consists of deferent types and sizes of firms. These operate in the deferent sub-markets characterizing the construction industry. Construction firms must be registered and licensed in order to undertake any construction work in Ethiopia.
Land development
Purchasing unused land for potential development is sometimes called speculative development. Subdivision of land is the principal mechanism by which communities are developed. Technically, subdivision describes the legal and physical steps a developer must take to convert raw land into developed land. The subdivision is a vital part of a community’s growth, determining its appearance, the mix of its land uses, and its infrastructure, including roads, drainage systems, water, sewerage, and public utilities.
Land development can pose the most risk but can also be the most profitable technique as it is dependent on the public sector for approvals and infrastructure and because it involves a long investment period with no positive cash flow.
After subdivision is complete, the developer usually markets the land to a home builder or other end-user, for such uses as a warehouse or shopping center. In any case, the use of spatial intelligence tools mitigates the risk of these developers by modeling the population trends and demographic make-up of the sort of customers a home builder or retailer would like to have to surround their new development.
Design of buildings
The design processes of the design process in building design enterprise (BDE) and other consultants of the design of buildings in the formal sector is a co-operative effort between the client and various consultants. The client provides a set of requirements and constraints that the consultants’ attempt satisfies during the design process. To satisfy the client brief, a design team is constituted which consists of all the consultants. The team in most cases is headed by the architect or by the consultant in recent times. The consultant is appointed by the client and takes care of the client’s interests according to the general condition of construction. The contributions of each consultant in the design process can be summarized as follows:
Brief Stage: The client provides the design brief that consists of the requirements and constraints to the design team.
Sketch Design: Stage Architect prepares a preliminary sketch to satisfy the designs brief and possibly provides an alternative proposal. The quantity surveyor prepares preliminary cost estimates based on the Architect’s design sketch. The quantity surveyor provides the initial cost plan that forms the basis of cost control and budgeting. The client approves sketch and cost estimates.
Scheme Design: Stage Architect designs to greater detail to meet the submission requirements of the local authority. The quantity surveyor undertakes various costs, checks and ensures that the budget is not exceeded.
