Construction is the creation (erection) of buildings, structures, and structures. The products of construction are completed and prepared for commissioning new or reconstructed buildings and structures.

In a broad sense, construction (as an industry) also includes major and current repairs of buildings and structures, as well as their reconstruction, restoration and renovation.

The construction process includes all organizational, survey, design, construction, installation and commissioning works related to the creation, modification or demolition of the facility, as well as interaction with the competent authorities regarding the performance of such work.

Construction projects

Industry classification

• Industrial construction facilities (plants, factories))
• Civil engineering facilities (residential buildings, public buildings, shopping malls, warehouses) )
• Agricultural construction projects
• Objects of transport construction (roads, linear objects, bridges, tunnels))
• Military Facilities (Military Construction)
• Hydrotechnical facilities (dams, dams, canals, bank protection structures and devices, reservoirs))
• Irrigation and drainage facilities (irrigation and drainage systems)

Functional classification

Buildings

Buildings are three-dimensional building systems with above-ground and (or) underground parts, including premises, engineering and technical support networks and engineering and technical support systems and intended for the residence and (or) activities of people, the placement of various production, the storage of products or the keeping of animals.

Structures

Structures are volumetric, planar or linear building systems that have ground, aboveground and (or) underground parts, consisting of load-bearing, and in some cases enclosing building structures and designed to perform production processes of various types, storage of products, temporary stay of people, movement of people and goods:

• towers, towers, cooling towers,
• tanks,
• power lines,
• communication lines (including line-cable structures),
• pipelines,
• highways,
• railway tracks,
• bridges,
• aerodromes,
• tunnels,
• Temporary structures.

Structural classification

• • frame-binding;
  • beamless bonding (with reinforced concrete diaphragms, stiffening cores or steel ties);
  • Without beams without diaphragms and stiffening cores;
  • frame with piece masonry filling;
  • frame without filling;
• wall (the enclosing walls and part of the internal walls are load-bearing) — the load-bearing elements (walls) have a planar characteristic;
• volumetric block (the building is formed from blocks-cells manufactured in the factory) — load-bearing elements (blocks) have a volumetric characteristic;
• Shell.

There are combined schemes, as well as a barrel scheme (a subtype of frame scheme, where the load-bearing structure is the stiffening core) and a shell scheme (all enclosing structures form a single spatial shell). At the same time, the load-bearing skeleton of buildings built on a wall and frame system can be prefabricated (assembled from individual elements manufactured in a factory) or monolithic (walls, columns and floors are manufactured directly at the construction site and form a single whole).

Construction and technological classification

• Prefabricated buildings are constructed from prefabricated structural elements at the factory or construction site.
• Prefabricated monolithic – erected from prefabricated elements and monolithic concrete laid directly into the building structure.
• Monolithic — with the main structures (floors, walls, frame elements) made of monolithic reinforced concrete.
• From small-piece elements (bricks, ceramic and concrete blocks, etc.), laid by hand or using machinery.
• Products of additive construction production (for example, construction 3D printing) according to GOST R 59095-2020 "Materials for additive construction production. Terms and Definitions".

Classification according to load-bearing materials

• Wooden;
• Stone;
• Brick;
• made of polymeric materials;
• Reinforced concrete;
• Metal;
• made of lightweight metal structures.

Construction entities

Construction (in the broad sense) includes the activities of the following entities:

• An investor is a person who invests his own or borrowed funds in construction.

Individuals who specialize in capital investments in construction for the purpose of making a profit are called developers.

A special form of investment activity is shared construction, when funds from citizens are raised for the construction of apartment buildings.

• A developer is a person who provides construction on a land plot owned by him, a person authorized by investors, who implements investment projects. The customers can be the investors themselves.
• Contractors are persons who perform work under a contractor agreement (direct contractors) or intermediaries who enter into subcontract agreements with subcontractors.
• Self-regulatory organizations (SRO) of surveyors, designers and builders.
• The state, represented by state authorities and local self-government, is a specific subject of construction activity. It determines urban planning and housing policy, carries out legal (including technical) regulation, as well as state construction supervision.

In simple cases (e.g., individual housing construction), the investor, the developer, the customer and the contractor may coincide in one person.

In the context of management, it is necessary to distinguish between the concept of "project" in the sense of "a certain task with certain initial data and the required results (goals) that determine the way it is solved" and the concept of "design" specific to the construction industry in the sense of "project documentation".

An investment and construction project (ISP) is a system of formulated goals created for the implementation of physical objects (real estate), technological processes, technological and organizational documentation for them, material, financial, labor and other resources, as well as management decisions and measures for their implementation.

Pre-investment phase of the project

This phase includes:

• Marketing research;
• Development of the concept of an investment and construction project;
• Acquisition of rights to the site for the placement of the object;
• Selection of the person implementing the investment and construction project (customer);
• Selection of contractors

Exploratory works

Engineering surveys are carried out before the start of design work in order to obtain objective and up-to-date information about construction conditions.

For reconstruction objects, engineering surveys also include inspection of the technical condition of soils, foundations of buildings and structures, their building structures.

Design works

Design Stages

Construction and installation works

Construction and installation works are works on the construction of new facilities and the installation of equipment in them. A distinction is made

• Earthen;
• Stone;
• Concrete;
• Reinforced concrete;
• Roofing;
• Painting;
• Plaster.

Commissioning

Commissioning is a set of measures for the commissioning of installed equipment.

Commissioning tests are a set of measures aimed at bringing the equipment to design modes, as well as ensuring the economical operation of this equipment.

Commissioning works are divided into works on adjustment of technological equipment and automation facilities.

Commissioning and commissioning tests are carried out according to the program of commissioning and commissioning tests approved by the customer, which stipulates the terms of work, the modes to which it is necessary to bring the main technological equipment.

Development stage

This stage is identified in the scientific literature and includes:

• use of equipment in idle mode;
• mastering technological processes;
• Reaching design capacity

Global practice of regulatory regulation in construction

The construction of buildings and other structures is carried out according to projects developed in accordance with building codes and standards.

Model (typical)

In some economically developed countries of the world, the use of the so-called model codes is practiced, i.e. model building codes, which contain standard requirements affecting the design, construction, installation, operation, repair and reconstruction of building structures, as well as requirements for their structures, engineering and technical systems and other components. The Model Code itself does not have legal force, it is intended to be adapted as a normative document of mandatory application. Once adapted, the model code becomes the building code of the administrative entity that adapted it.

In addition to building codes, voluntary application standards can also be model documents. At the international level, the standards of ISO and other international standardization organizations are model standards and are intended for national adaptation. In Europe, model standards are Eurocodes, which are regional European standards that are applied after they have been adapted as national standards.

Examples of model norms/standards

International

For a number of objective reasons, there are currently no building codes (building codes) in world practice, which are developed and applied everywhere at the international or regional level and at the same time cover all aspects of the regulation of construction projects. Nevertheless, there are precedents for efforts to develop regional building codes, but there is no long-term experience in the practical application of the results of these efforts^.

In contrast to international building codes, the practice of developing and applying international building standards has a long history. Standards for the construction industry are developed by a number of non-governmental, international self-regulatory standards organizations, including ISO, IEC, AISC, ASME, ASCE, ASTM, IEEE, NFPA and ^{many others.}

ISO standards

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) ISO) It is one of the international organizations whose activities include standardization in the field of construction. The development of these standards is subordinated to the general objective of "promoting the development of standardization and related activities in the world with a view to ensuring the international exchange of goods and services, as well as the development of cooperation in the intellectual, scientific, technical and economic fields".

In the structure of the International Organization for Standardization, there are separate committees that develop the norms of a particular industry. Committees, in turn, are divided into subcommittees.

In the International Classification of Standards (ICS), sections 91, Construction materials and building, and 93, Civil engineering, as well as other sections, are allocated for construction and related industries^. For example, subsection 91.040.01, Buildings in general, includes, among other standards, a series of ISO ¹⁵⁹²⁸ standards, Houses — Description of performance, containing requirements for residential buildings.

Among the ISO standards, there are also documents intended directly for users of construction projects, for example, the ISO 15928 standard ISO/PAS 22539: User's guide ISO 15928. At home. Description of performance characteristics.

Due to ISO's inertia in responding to the rapidly changing needs of markets, which is reflected in lengthy procedures for the harmonization and approval of regulatory documents, ISO standards only partially meet the regulatory needs of the construction industry and quickly become obsolete^. Among the subject areas partially covered by ISO standards are building materials and products made of wood, steel, aluminium, glass, concrete; requirements for project documentation; construction production; as well as the problems of energy efficiency of buildings (ISO 16818:2008), ensuring the accessibility of the built environment for persons with disabilities (ISO/TR 9527:1994) and other areas.

European codes (Eurocode)

The European Codes (Eurocode) Eurocode, Eurocode) – a set of harmonized European standards (hEN) concerning the design of load-bearing structures of building structures and the protection of structures from the effects of fire. As Eurocodes are model standards, they are not intended for direct application and must be adapted to local conditions. For this purpose, national annexes to the Eurocodes are developed in each country where they are applied, which specify the parameters (numerical values) specific to that country. Once adapted, the Eurocodes acquire the status of standards (usually national standards) of voluntary application.

At present, ten Eurocodes have been developed, which are divided into 58 parts^. For each part, there are national annexes of the country in which they are adapted. The annexes may also provide additional clarifications on inaccuracies arising from the translation of the standard from English, as well as rules of application, etc. Each of the above-mentioned Eurocodes refers to other European and international standards and standardization documents, thus covering a wide range of issues related to the design of load-bearing structures of building structures aimed at ensuring their sustainability. reliability, fire resistance.

The system of implementation of the Eurocodes in European countries provides for a transition period (about 5 years), during which they are valid in this country in parallel with the previously applied national standards. After the expiration of this period, only the European Codes remain in force.

League of Arab States building codes

The Arab Unified Building Codes have been developed since the 1990s under the auspices of the Council of Arab Housing and Construction Ministers, formed by the League of Arab States. By 2011, 14 instruments had been developed for adaptation in the Arab world^.

Other interstate norms and standards

• Interstate norms and standards of the CIS and EurAsEC
• Joint Australian-New Zealand Standards