Audit of Public Housing Construction Projects (At the Design Stage)

By In-Ho Hwang, Director, Board of
Audit and Inspection, Korea

1.    INTRODUCTION

The public construction works, including the housing industry, not only play an important role in social change, economic growth and industrial development, but also have a great influence on technical innovation and employment. Therefore, audits on public housing projects should be carried out, as is the case of other public construction projects, through each phase of planning, designing and construction, etc. However, the audits have not been properly conducted in each phase but mostly during the period of or after the completion of the construction works. It has been attributed to the shortage of audit personnel or the difficulty in arranging audit schedules.

In carrying out audits on housing projects in the past, audit priority was placed on egality or compliance. Recently, however, the audit strategy for housing projects has been transformed into efficiency audit with its focus on the macro-aspect which covers the rationalization of planning and design, and technical development such as improvement of structure, construction methods, proper materials selection, etc. Thereby auditing has greatly contributed to the development of housing construction in the public sector as well as in the private sector indirectly.

In this article, the transition process of housing construction projects in Korea and the related audit methods, mainly with regard to the auditing at the design stage, are to be analysed and reviewed.

II    STATUS OF PUBLIC HOUSING IN KOREA

Until now, rapid urbanization has caused problems such as an acute housing shortage in urban areas, a sharp increase in housing costs, etc. Therefore, public housing projects have been concentrated on the construction of iow-cost urban housing. The underlying objectives of the housing policy proposed in the Second Comprehensive National Physical Development Plan during the period of 1982 to 1991 may be outlined as follows:

1. Supply of low-cost housing on a large scale for those who desire to get actual occupancy.
2. Enhancement of house purchasing power for the houseless low-incomers through inprovements on the housing financing system, etc., arici the maximum utilization of existing housing stock.
3. Development of the housing construction methods for the savings of resources and effi cient management.
4. Lessening of housing expenses for the low- income class

Public houses have been constructed mainly by the Korea National Housing Corporation (KNHC) and local government as well as by the private housing companies and individuals. The KNHC has concentrated on the construction of low-cost housing for low-income people while private builders have mostly constructed large-size houses for middle and high income people. Public housing construction by the KNHC dates back to 1950s, when it was established to provide the houseless people with single-detached house right after the Korean War. However, in the late 60s and 70s,apartment houses were mainly built on a large scale instead of single-detached houses, resulting in a rapid increase of construction volume. During this period comparatively huge apartment complexes such as Banpo, Jamsil, etc., began to appear.

it is expected that the construction of huge apartment sites will be expedited furthermore in the 1980s. The housing supply by the public sector, especially by the KNHC, has consistently increased its share in the total housing construction in Korea.

The process of design improvement for public housing is as follows. The types of public houses constructed in the early 1960s were mostly the single-detached houses with the masonry structure and the 3-4 storied corridor-type apartments built with concrete block and cement brick. At that time, public apartment houses using a reinforced concrete consctruction method also appeared in some areas. However, from the iate 60s the KNHC began to change public housing structure from such relatively conventional structure to modern one by adopting reinforeced concrete structures.

In the late 1970s, the KNHC endeavoured to improve some weaknesses for energy conservation by using insulating materials. Toward this end, -he KNHC formed a basis for supplying better-quality houses by taking into account various conditions at the design stage. Thus, a mass-production system for prefabricated housing materials was introduced resulting in the economy of cost and shortening of the construction period. The KNHC introduced a Modular Coordination System (lM=10Cm) for housing construction materials, housing floor plans, and structural standardization in 1980 and 1981. Thereafter, the MC System has been applied to housing units con structed by the KNHC and other builders to reduce construction cost of public housing. In the process of such development, the Board of Audit and Inspection has played a supportive role by encouraging them to improve the quality of public housing.

lll    NECESSITIES OF AUDIT ON PUBLIC HOUSING CONSTRUCTION

As housing construction activities are concerned with public living conditions or the right of property, main factors that must be considered in the audit are conven ience, function and saving in housing costs. It is also desirable to study and examine all the phases of the housing projects to achieve the objectives, to correct any contradictions or irregularities, and to prevent wasteful trial and error.

A design process can be divided as follows.

1. Setting the Goals and Programming
2. Making out a Master Plan
3. Drawing Design
4. Ordering and Constructing

Design work begins with general conception which is to be drawn out into a form of specification on the basis of data collected at the planning phase. Design process may be classified into a program analysis, preliminay design or schematic design, drawing, and general examination about drawings. We should be careful not to judge the appropriateness of the design only by the previous experience. That is, in case of the public works, all decisions should be made in the rational way to cope with the foreseeable changes in residential requirements. As long as we inflexibly adhere to traditional concepts of construction, we cannot achieve any real progress in public housing.

IV.    MAJOR POINTS TO BE AUDITED IN THE DESIGN PROCESS

1.    Analysis of Planning and Basic Designing

(1)    Programme Analysis

1. Compatibility of the project programme with the current social conditions
2. Possibility of making convenient and comfor table residential environment
3. Reasonableness of the land and house price as a commodity

(2)    Site Analysis and Investigation of its Surroundings

1. Harmony of the project site with neighbour ing areas
2. Review of survey results on surrounding soil
3. Validity of location analysis
4. Validity of analysis on the physical condition o"f the site area.
5. Validity of study on the target group and environmental conditions

(3)    Analysis of Constraints

1. Regulations on the site area and coordina tion with agencies concerned
2. Validity of construction conditions analysis
3. Reasonableness of housing price

(4)    Choice of Housing Type

1. Optimum housing size in the light of the income level of the target group and the regional economic conditions
2. Occupants' housing preferences
3. Appropriateness of building performance criteria
4. Reasonableness of the building height, floor plan design, structural design and heating system design

2.    Design Implementation and Review

(1)    Design of Fioor Plan and Building Facilities

1. Appropriateness of room size and room- layout
2. Appropriateness of building height in view of the land price and portion of public space in building
3. Appropriateness of design of lighting, ventila tion and sanitary facilities
4. Appropriateness of taking precautions against such hazards as fire, gas explosions, pollution, accidental falls of children, etc.

(2)    Structural Design and Construction Method

1. Utilization of new construction methods
2. Efforts to intorduce low-cost construction techniques
3. Optimal structural design
4. Appropriateness of foundation work design

(3)    Housing Quality and Building Performance

1. Appropriateness of housing size and finish ing work
2. Quality level of thermal insulation, water proofing, condensation and sound insulation
3. Quality level of fire-proof, fire-resistant structures and other fire-fighting equipment and facilities
4. Appropriateness of civil defence facilities such as dugout shelters

(4)    Heating System, Sanitary Facilities and Electric Facilities

1. Appropriateness of heating system design and installation of heating equipement
2. Durability, maintenance, and thermal effi ciency of heating system
3. Appropriateness of water supply and drain age system design
4. Electric capacity and safety of electric facilities
5. Prevention of disasters

(5)    Building Materials and Construction Methods

1. Quality of building materials and their flexibility
2. Cost and workability of materials
3. Practicability of detailed design
4. Maintenance works

(6)    Site Planning

1. Efficiency of road system such as access roads, pedestrian paths and parking places.
2. Securing adequate space for children's play grounds, gardens, etc.
3. Economy, performance and maintenance of finishing materials

(7)    Specification

1. Consistency of specifications with design drawings
2. Quality standards of building materials
3. Construction method

(8)    Cost Estimate

1. Practicability of the programme within the budget
2. Validity of standard work-amount assesment
3. Validity of material and labour cost estimate
4. Expenses due to laws and regulations

V    AUDIT CASES

An analysis of various audit findings on the housing construction works by the KNHC during the last 5 years reveals that the audit strategy is under the process of putting more emphasis on the initial phase, rather than during the period of or after the completion of the construction. The analysis also shows the fact that the inspection of the preliminary design phase has significant effects on the accomplishments of the public construction projects. i

The main audit cases of planning and design are as follows:

1. In the planning of 82' low-cost housing construction, the structural plan for 3,050 family units was designed to include the use of a masonry structure which used calcium silicate bricks in spite of the demerits of this material, such as the weakness of bonding strength on the finishing surface, the absorption of moisture, and the consequent ineffe-ciency of construction. Furthermore, it was indicated that the masonry structure was 305 million won more expensive than the reinforced concrete structure for the construction of 3,050 units.
2. Since the sensitivity of T.V. antennas for collective use on apartment buildings varies depending upon the topography of the area, the specifications for the type of antenna needed should be based on the characteristics of the area in which it will be used. But the type of antenna adaptable only to the Seoul area has been unilaterally applied to other areas (ten areas besides Seoul area) due to the improper specifications.
3. Small and medium-sized earth-work equipment which are normally used in small project, were inefficientlyapplied to a large apartment construction project involving a large amount of groundworks.
4. The project of changing voltage from 110V to 220V is a long-range plan requiring more than 5 years and has a great impact on the use of electric appliances. Therefore, the voltage conversion project should have been designed to provide the user with an option of using 220V or 110V systems by adopting a single phase 3-line dual voltage sypply method which can reduce energy loss and additional cost of installing equipment to reduce voltage. However, the KNHC inflexibly designed to supply only 220V to the houses to be built. The corrective measures were requested by the Board of Audit and Inspection.

VI    CONTRIBUTION OF AUDIT ON DESIGNING PROCESS

The audit a-t the design stage of a project makes it possible to check out and correct errors which would otherwise be impossible to correct after the completion of construction.

1. Better design through the communication between auditor and designer.
2. Efficient implementation of the project by solv ing the problems in design and preventing inade- quateness of the function of the building.
3. Reduction of construction costs through the encouragement of using new construction mate- rials and methods.