INTOTRODUCTION
United Arab Emirates is seeking to build several green houses botanical gardens using ETFE cladding. This articles shed some light on some preliminary but essential aspects of consideration.
Botanic gardens are a diverse community, fulfilling multiple objectives including attracting visitors, education, scientific research, horticulture, and conservation. They have the potential to maximize their societal impact by becoming better organized as a professional community, and effectively communicating their role and objectives in plant conservation and use to policy makers, funders, and the general public.
The design process marks the beginning of an inherently creative and exciting stage of the project, transforming the vision, mission and business case of a project to physical form. While the complexity, timeframe and outcomes of each project are different, the process outlined in this section can be applied to projects of many different sizes and levels of complexity
KEY MESSAGES
1-While every project is different, the steering group typically works with a designer or a design team to bring the project to life.
2-One of the most valuable investments that the project owner can make is to allocate the appropriate time, effort and resources to prepare a coherent and comprehensive request for proposals (RFP) document.
3-The design brief includes very detailed project information to guide the design process and is a valuable strategic design management tool. It is focused on outcomes and results of the design; the more detail, the better!
4-The goal of the master plan is to provide a comprehensive document that presents a possible solution to the intended project outcome and guides all subsequent design phases leading to project realization. The master plan is not just a drawing – it is a strategic document that includes sketches and illustrations as a key feature besides explanatory specifications and cost estimates.
5-The plant collections are the very essence of a botanic garden and should be based on a thorough collection policy. The ETFE thermal and optical properties shall be coordinated carefully during this stage.
WHO SHOULD DESIGN THE PROJECT
• Landscape architects or landscape designers;
• Architects;
• Botanists and horticulturist;
• Irrigation designers;
• Lighting designers;
• Interpretation designers and education experts;
• ETFE expert;
• Engineers;
• Transportation and circulation experts;
• Operational experts;
• Business planners;
• Other specialist designers and experts tailored to the project.
KEY STEPS TO SELECT THE DESIGN TEAM
1. Confirm the scope of work. What are the objectives of the project? What are you trying to achieve?
2. Determine if the professional services of a design consultant are required, or if the skills, expertise and availability to perform the design work exist within the project team.
3. Confirm the procurement requirements. What kind of process is required for you to enter into a contractual agreement with a design consultant?
4. Confirm who will write the request for proposals (RFP) document to solicit bids (proposals) from appropriately experienced design teams. Determine if the request for proposals can be written by the project team, or if an external consultant is required to write the document.
5. Prepare a comprehensive and detailed request for proposals document.
6. Develop a list of potential bidders who you may invite to respond to the request for proposals (this depends on your procurement requirements).
7. Confirm what method will be used to advertise your request for proposals.
8. How are you going to decide who you hire? Establish a proposal evaluation committee who will review the proposals.
9. Advertise your request for proposals.
10. Address queries from the bidders as required during the bidding process.
11. Organize and conduct a ‘bidders’ site meeting’ during the bidding process.
12. Review and evaluate the proposals.
13. Develop a short-list of preferred bidders, if required.
14. Arrange and conduct interviews with the shortlisted bidders, if required.
15. Visit past projects, call references, and thoroughly research the shortlisted bidders.
16. Award the contract to the most suitable design team.
Finally, this is only the tip of iceberg botanic gardens or green houses in UAE are not yet tested in public substantially. But a final word here is that since ETFE cladding forming the envelop which protecting the plants, it is of immense importance to select the proper ETFE expert.
Further reading on how to select greenhouse envelope go to below link post:
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