ARCHITECTURAL | Design & Site Planning | 20 Questions (MODERATE-CHALLENGING)

PROPOSED REVIEW CENTER & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT TRAINING FACILITY

(20 Questions, Difficulty Level: MODERATE to CHALLENGING)

by Raison John J. Bassig

As an architect, you were commissioned to design a Review Center and Professional Development Training Facility on a two thousand and seventy-square meter (2,070-sqm) regular lot situated along a newly-developed thirty-two-meter (32-m)-wide Road Right-of-Way (RROW) in a certain municipality in the Philippines. The lot frontage is forty meters (40m) and faces west, while the entire site and RROW, slopes down at seven percent (7%) towards north.

Per the municipality's Zoning Ordinance (ZO), the project is located on a block, zoned as General Institutional (GI), with a six (6)-storey Building Height Limit (BHL) and an angular plane limit of thirty-two degrees (32°) measured from the centerline of the RROW. The ZO also indicates a minimum car parking slot requirement of one (1) slot per one hundred square meters (100sqm) of Gross Floor Area (GFA). At the adjacent lot south of the property, a multi-floor parking garage is provided and operated by the municipality, having leased parking slots available for use by other buildings within the immediate vicinity.

Your client has given these Terms of Reference (TOR) as design criteria for the project:

1. The Facility should have four (4) floors, one (1) basement, and one (1) roof deck. The Ground Floor (G/F) finish line should only be two hundred millimetres (200mm) above the established grade line for ease of access to the building. The Second Floor (2/F) finish line should be three thousand five hundred millimeters (3500mm) above the G/F. The other remaining upper floors should have a typical floor-to-floor height of three thousand one hundred millimeters (3100mm). Basement finish line is located eight hundred fifty millimeters (850mm) below the lowest point of the sloping property. The Roof Deck shall be provided with a parapet wall all-around, with the highest wall height allowed, so that a large visible signage can be mounted, if possible.


2. There should only be three (3) typical sizes of Classrooms, all air-conditioned, for lecture and instructional purposes: Small-sized at twenty-four square meters (24sqm), Medium-sized at fifty-six square meters (56sqm), and Large-sized at one hundred fifteen square meters (115sqm). Classroom distribution for each floors of the Facility are as follows:


1. Three (3) small, one (1) medium, and one (1) large Classrooms should be located at the 2/F.
2. Two (2) small, six (6) medium, and two (2) large Classrooms must occupy the third floor (3/F).
3. Eight (8) small, five (5) medium, and one (1) large Classrooms must be found at the fourth floor (4/F).


3. The Facility also features two (2) large Laboratory-style air-conditioned rooms: a four hundred-square meter (400-sqm) Lab/Workshop located at the G/F, and a three hundred-square meter (300-sqm) Lab/Audio-Visual Library located at the 2/F.


4. The Entrance Lobby at the G/F should be six meters by six meters (6m x 6m), with an adjacent ninety-two and seven tenths-square meter (92.7-sqm) Exhibition Hall. The Administration Office must also be located at the G/F with an eighty-five-square meter (85-sqm) floor area. However, a seven meters by nine meters (7m x 9m) Conference Room is preferred to be located at the 2/F.


5. Toilets, for use by all building occupants, should have a typical eighty-square meter (80-sqm) layout on every floor, except the basement and roof deck.


6. The Basement should have slots for vehicular parking, ramps/driveways, circulation areas, and utilities, while the roof deck will be used entirely for utilities and special equipment accessible only by authorized personnel.


7. Circulation areas (such as stairs, corridors, elevators, egresses, etc.) for the 3/F and 4/F have an area of two hundred sixty square meters (260sqm) in each of those floors. However, for the G/F and 2/F, the allotted circulation areas are computed at twenty-eight percent (28%) of the footprint of such floors.


8. The other remaining floor areas inside the Facility in each floor will be dedicated to utilities and service areas.

The structure's footprint should maximize the given lot area as allowed by the code but must not have any abutments along its property lines to ensure maximum light and ventilation. It is desired that the front yard be as large as possible to accommodate a ramp leading to the basement, driveways for temporary drop-off of commuters in public utility vehicles, vegetation, landscaping, pathways, and pedestrian circulation. The façade of the building should have no projections whatsoever.

All other restrictions in designing and locating the structure within the lot, including the allocation of spaces within the structure, must adhere to the client requirements, the local zoning regulations, and the provisions of the 2004/2005 Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the National Building Code of the Philippines (PD 1096).


Q#1: The occupancy classification of this project is categorized as:
a. Group D, Institutional
b. Group G
c. Group E
d. Group C
e. Group I, Assembly

Detailed solution for Q#1 (with illustrations and in-depth explanations) is found in the video below:

Q#2: What is the Allowable Maximum Building Footprint (AMBF)?
a. 1,242.00 square meters
b. 1,035.00 square meters
c. 1,162.50 square meters
d. 1,453.50 square meters
e. 1,449.00 square meters

Detailed solution for Q#2 (with illustrations and in-depth explanations) is found in the video below:

Q#3: What is the actual depth of the building footprint?
a. 34.50 meters
b. 42.75 meters
c. 30.00 meters
d. 41.40 meters
e. 38.75 meters

Detailed solution for Q#3 (with illustrations and in-depth explanations) is found in the video below:

Q#4: What is the distance of the Outermost Faces of Building (OFB) from the front property line?
a. 6.00 meters
b. 8.00 meters
c. 12.25 meters
d. 24.46 meters
e. 17.32 meters

Detailed solution for Q#4 (with illustrations and in-depth explanations) is found in the video below:

Q#5: Considering the BHL, the angular plane restrictions, and the client requirements, what is the maximum height of the parapet wall?
a. 3,100 millimeters
b. 1,150 millimeters
c. 2,000 millimeters
d. 1,500 millimeters
e. N/A (providing a parapet exceeds the BHL)

Detailed solution for Q#5 (with illustrations and in-depth explanations) is found in the video below:

Q#6: What is the maximum actual angular plane of the structure, considering the sloped site, measured from the RROW centerline
a. 45.43°
b. 31.19°
c. 37.25°
d. 32.07°
e. 27.97°

Detailed solution for Q#6 (with illustrations and in-depth explanations) is found in the video below:

Q#7: What is the height from Basement floor finish line to the G/F finish line?
a. 2.80 meters
b. 3.85 meters
c. 3.50 meters
d. 3.00 meters
e. 3.80 meters

Detailed solution for Q#7 (with illustrations and in-depth explanations) is found in the video below:

Q#8: The project is considered to have how many actual storeys?
a. 4 storeys
b. 6 storeys
c. 5 storeys
d. 3 storeys
e. 7 storeys

Detailed solution for Q#8 (with illustrations and in-depth explanations) is found in the video below:

Q#9: Determine the minimum ceiling height of the Administration Office if it is to be provided with artificial ventilation.
a. 2.45 meters
b. 2.40 meters
c. 2.10 meters
d. 2.85 meters
e. 2.70 meters

Detailed solution for Q#9 (with illustrations and in-depth explanations) is found in the video below:

Q#10: What is the actual Total Gross Floor Area (TGFA) of the Facility?
a. 6,063.12 square meters
b. 6,210.00 square meters
c. 6,815.37 square meters
d. 6,037.02 square meters
e. 6,975.00 square meters

Detailed solution for Q#10 (with illustrations and in-depth explanations) is found in the video below:

Q#11: Determine the maximum number of occupants for a given large-sized Classroom.
a. 63 persons
b. 92 persons
c. 115 persons
d. 82 persons
e. 53 persons

Detailed solution for Q#11 (with illustrations and in-depth explanations) is found in the video below:

Q#12: What is the maximum allowable Gross Floor Area (GFA) of this project?
a. 5,231.25 square meters
b. 7,245.00 square meters
c. 5,175.00 square meters
d. 5,812.50 square meters
e. 3,519.00 square meters

Detailed solution for Q#12 (with illustrations and in-depth explanations) is found in the video below:

Q#13: If the rear yard is designated entirely as Unpaved Surface Area (USA), and the side yards is entirely of an Impervious Surface Area (ISA), how much USA is still required for the front yard?
a. None (minimum USA has already been achieved)
b. 421.00 square meters
c. 241.50 square meters
d. 248.50 square meters
e. 227.25 square meters

Detailed solution for Q#13 (with illustrations and in-depth explanations) is found in the video below:

Q#14: What is the Maximum Allowable Construction Area (MACA) of this project?
a. 1,035.00 square meters
b. 1,576.50 square meters
c. 1,449.00 square meters
d. 1,656.00 square meters
e. 1,783.50 square meters

Detailed solution for Q#14 (with illustrations and in-depth explanations) is found in the video below:

Q#15: If both sidewalks along the RROW are equal in width, what is the minimum width of the unpaved (planted) portion on one (1) sidewalk fronting the property?
a. 1.20 meters
b. 0.80 meter
c. 0.30 meter
d. 0.60 meter
e. Optional

Detailed solution for Q#15 (with illustrations and in-depth explanations) is found in the video below:

Q#16: Calculate the 2/F occupant load of the Facility for exit/egress purposes.
a. 336 occupant load
b. 243 occupant load
c. 423 occupant load
d. 542 occupant load
e. 163 occupant load

Detailed solution for Q#16 (with illustrations and in-depth explanations) is found in the video below:

Q#17: Specify the minimum number of exits allowed by the code if the G/F will be the main egress that serves the entire floors of the building.
a. 2 exits
b. 3 exits
c. 4 exits
d. 10 exits
e. 1 exit

Detailed solution for Q#17 (with illustrations and in-depth explanations) is found in the video below:

Q#18: Suppose the client allows projections on the façade, and a decorative horizontal canopy, the top surface of which is at the same level as the 4/F line, was approved to be built in front of the Facility, what is the maximum projection of such canopy considering the Outermost Limits of Building Projection (OLBP)?
a. 905.0 centimeters
b. 560.5 centimeters
c. 1,241 centimeters
d. 480.0 centimeters
e. None (the canopy will exceed the OLBP)

Detailed solution for Q#18 (with illustrations and in-depth explanations) is found in the video below:

Q#19: Determine the actual Floor-to-Lot Area Ratio (FLAR) of this project.
a. 2.94
b. 2.25
c. 2.50
d. 1.70
e. 1.85

Detailed solution for Q#19 (with illustrations and in-depth explanations) is found in the video below:

Q#20: Specify the least number of actual car parking slots required in the Basement.
a. 37 slots
b. 30 slots
c. 47 slots
d. 61 slots
e. 39 slots

Detailed solution for Q#20 (with illustrations and in-depth explanations) is found in the video below: