Often the MEP Engineers have the predicament to request to the Arch or Structural team for some modification which can ease the workforce life in the project during the installation stage. Most think that "you are given a room and you have to design things with whatever constraints the room has". A civil designer may not be (or rather is not) an expert in the functionality of MEP. So, a MEP designer can get into the structure and architecture at the early stage of design(or atleast before approval of Civil/MEP shop drawing) and communicate with the counterpart designer regarding his requirements.
One of my boss used to say that if the project is led by MEP, then the life of engineers at site would not be this tensed. This is because, the complexity of MEP is not easy to understand and especially for the Civil team(excemptions are there). And I had felt it right many a times...
As I have mentioned previously, a project is led by an Architect. And hence, the structure and architecture of a building can play a major role in conditioning the MEP co-ordination to a greater extend.
Usually, as you know what happens is the MEP designers has to accomodate all his services in the allocated space by Architect. I am not saying that all the architects are stringent in this case, I personally have worked with some brilliant Archs who knows what MEP is... but most of the time you dont have this boon (here again comes the importance of educating them about MEP and equally important is that we understand their point of view also).
As far as MEP co-ordination is concerned, there is a void above false ceiling to run our services horizontally and service shafts to run vertically.
These two areas are the most conjusted areas where we can get some lineancy from the Structure/Architecture team if we provide the details during the interim stage itself. For this we need to have a good study on the Civil part of the building.
Once, this is done, the areas where we can put our foot are:
Void above RCP
Request for more void space to run the services with proof. If required, we can even request to lower the False ceiling. But then we will have to do some brainstorming sessions with Architect to get this approved.
Mentioning that, the lowering of RCP or adjusting the levels of bulk heads of RCP can be obtained but again we have to convince the Architect with sufficient backups (like a 3D model would do). A 5cm lineancy is no harm for anyone. But if not requested at the very early stage, later it would lead to unwanted clashes b/w departments.
Sunken slab requirement and required extra space to run the services.
Similarly, the supports of RCP are versatile. If the MEP designer can provide relevant details to the Architect on how the routing of our services are, this will help them to design the support accordingly.
Shafts
The vertical shaft for Mechanical and Electrical has to be seperate. And if possible plumbing shaft to be isolated. So, check for sufficient number of shafts in the building.
Along with the quantity of shafts, it will be better if we can check for its size and see if the services are accomodatable. These numbers and size are important because the openings in the void has to deal with the design of reinforced bar in the concrete. So, an early assessment will help the Civil team.
The position of shaft can be changed to a more logical location if needed. This can be checked and requested with the Structural/Architectural designer.
The accessibility to the shafts including the size of shaft door can be discussed and finalised.
Others
The utility rooms of MEP (Electrical Room, small plant rooms) can be requested to be added/moved to a different location, in terms of a better distribution point of view. Any non-utilised space can be asked for this.
But for all the above negotiation's, we as MEP has to keep our design final and then communicate as above.
I hope the above topic will surely change your attitude on the Architecture/Structure stringency and you will communicate with them effectively to get the cumbersome MEP Co-ordination task under control.
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