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RIBA PART 3

EXAMINATION IN PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

March 2010

Practice Problems

Day 1

Questions 1-5

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SCENARIO

NDG Architects Ltd is an established design consultancy organisation undertaking a broadrange of architectural services to clients from both the public and private sectors.

The company was established in 2001 following the merger of two North West based

architectural practices.

Following a fit out contract completed in January, NDG now occupy new office premisesin a converted mill building in Central Madchester. Their satellite office in the WestMudlands which was opened in 2008 is now fully established and framework agreementswith two major local education authorities have generated a number of commissions.

Never the less the companys turnover in 2009 had been significantly below budgetexacerbated by poor outturn figure for the last quarter. The directors forecast a similarlydifficult trading period during 2010 but their long term forecast based on economicresearch and supported by a new marketing initiative suggests a significant upturn incommissions and workload in 2011.

NDG Architects Ltd currently has three directors and two associate directors.

James Noble architect and MD of the company is largely responsible for practicemanagement and contractual issues. James contracted swine flu whilst on holiday andhas only recently returned to the office after a protracted period of sickness absence.

Belinda Carter architect. Her supplementary role within the company is to maintain themarketing operations, which hitherto have generated significant new multi million poundcommissions.

Jill Reading, architect; appointed as director in 2008. Jills primary responsibility is tomanage the activities of the practices satellite office. She relocated to the West Mudlandsarea in 2008 and spent the remainder of the year establishing their new office premises

which are located in the Black Country Enterprise Park.

Michael Hart AABC, an architect accredited in building conservation and recently listed onthe Diocese schedule of approved architects. His reputation in this field has resulted inthe practice being commissioned to carry out larger conservation projects attracting lotteryfunding. Michael is also listed as a Client Design Advisor on the RIBAs CDA register.

Sue Allen, architect and associate director is very largely involved in interior architectureprojects having completed an interior design course prior to embarking on a career inarchitecture.Sue acts as the companys quality manager, responsible for the ongoing development andmaintenance of the quality assurance system and manual .

Certain significant projects in the two offices:

New Area Office for Welsh Power, MadchesterNDG are currently acting as lead consultant and providing a full architectural service for anew area office premise for the energy company, Welsh Power. Belinda Carter is theDirector in charge at NDG Architects assisted by the candidate. John Watt is the clientstechnical director and the architects day to day contact point. The client has directlyengaged a structural engineer, mechanical and electrical engineer and quantity surveyorfor the project. The development is being procured under a traditional standard form ofbuilding agreement. JCT05 (SBC/Q) NDG are named as architect in article 3: thecontractor is Bmec plc. The project is currently 14 months into the contractors

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construction programme and already has been delayed by a period of approx two weeksfollowing the failure of the water authority to attend at site.

QuadraPac PLC UK Headquarters Building.Halls of Residence, St Clares College,Madchester

Works are currently progressing on site on a prestigious development for an internationalpackaging company to create their new UK headquarters complex. NDG Architects arenamed as architect in the articles of agreement of the contract which is the JCT05Standard Form of Building Contract (SBC/Q) Rev 1 2007. James Noble is the director incharge of the project assisted by the candidate. Construction works are currently welladvanced and the contractor appears to be adhering to his published programme. Theclient contact is Ronald McDonald, the companys Chairman and Chief Executive.

West - Grovesnor Mixed Use Development, Caistor.

Following their earlier commission to undertake outline designs and clients requirementsfor this 100 million mixed use development, NDG Architects have been novated to Lace

ORound who were successful in their bid for this design and build project.

Madchester Council Framework Agreement for Architectural Services.

NDG have received positive feedback on a number of their previous architectural designservices commissions and are hoping to secure further projects before their currentframework agreement lapses in 2012.

Development at Prescott Hall, Lamcashire

Prescott Hall, is an 18 century listed stately building standing in its own 2Ha estate in WestLamcashire. The property is owned by an IT entrepreneur who acquired the estate fromits former owner, Lord Leverage. NDG Architects have been commissioned to undertake a

limited architectural design service (RIBA stages C and D) on a project for the conversionand extension of the ground floor of the North wing to accommodate a small visitor shopand caf area.

Bottling Plant for Get Smashed Inc

James Noble has received a preliminary enquiry from a former client who has developed anew alcopop drink for the UK market.

Advisory Centre for the Charity, Caring for the Elderly and Infirmed

NDG Architects have received a limited commission to undertake a partial architecturalservice for a small extension and alterations to their existing NW premises.

Staff and Salaries

James T. Noble Director 65,000.00Belinda C. Carter Director 65,000.00Jill Reading Director 65,000.00Michael Hart Associate Director 45,000.00Sue Allen Associate Director 45,000.00Dareem Patel Architect 36,000.00Sven Berg Architect 36,000.00Tomas Hjeltnes Architect 34,000.00George Gee Architectural Technologist 29,000.00

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Ben Dooly Architectural Technologist 29,000.00Candidate Architectural Assistant 25,000.00Olga Poulicek Architectural Assistant 25,000.00Mark Jones Architectural Technician 23,000.00Jo Cheung Year out student 15,000.00Mary Watts Year out student 15,000.00Sarah Jane Key Administrative assistantSophie Bright Receptionist/ Clerical assistantJane Dudley Clerical assistantAnne Holding Accounts assistant

NB All of the characters, locations and projects of the scenario and the practice problemsare entirely fictitious and any similarity or resemblance to persons, places, projects orpractices is totally coincidental.

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QUESTION 1Page 1 of 1

ndg architects ltdInteroffice memo

Date: 10th March 2010

To: Candidate

Cc:

From: James Noble

Re:

Edward Gouldens son James has been in touch .He will be getting married in the spring of 2011 and has his eye on that delightfullittle cottage in Great Bundling. He tells me the property is Grade 2 listed and wasdesigned in 1867 by John Douglas, one of our famous Cheshire arts and craftsarchitects with a reputation for decorative brickwork and render gables . He wantsto demolish the old timber garage, and extend and renovate the original building tobring the thing up to 21st century living standards and wants us to look at it for him.

I have warned him that such projects in the villages conservation area can be timeand cost consuming, but hes in dreamland and nothing will deter him. The localvillages conservation group is chaired by one of my ex college pals who is as keenas mustard on the observance of high standards on his patch we will get a veryfair but rigorous ride on this one I promise you.

I dont want to end up with a problem leading to tears in this case, Edward was mybest man and indeed as you will recognise, he is one of the companys regular andloyal clients.

I would like to provide a short two/three page review of the actions to be taken anda programme showing the time line needed to be ready for a start on site .We need

to take care that all the statutory requirements are considered and set out withadequate time to deal with each. Please let me have a report to show James ( andcopy to Edward).

Thanks

James Noble

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ndg architects ltd

Interoffice memo


To: Candidate

Cc:

From:

Re: Bottling Plant for Get Smashed Inc

Having only recently returned to work from a protracted period of illness, I wasdisturbed to realise that our total bill for paying the staff, directors, and nationalinsurance contributions is so large. I am at a loss to know how we are going to findso much money during the current recessionary period. As however a significantproportion of our work has been postponed until after the election in May, wecritically need to keep our team together so we can respond when our clients areready. Clearly this further exacerbates the cash flow situation.

It seemed opportune therefore to be approached by one of our established clientswho has developed a new type of alcoholic drink which he believes will be a greatnational success. He is in a hurry to build a new bottling plant of approximately5,000 square metres in the Noselea Industrial Estate to cope with the expecteddemand. He wants the plant to be fully operational to cope with the Christmas rushin December this year: This, clearly, may be difficult to achieve. I know fromexperience that we will only be responsible for the building and for designing thefloor to accommodate the installation of machinery, which will cost much more thanthe building itself. In view of the short timescale he has offered us a lump sum feeof 250,000.00 to provide full architectural services for the project which unusually,given the nature of the development, is to be procured using a standard buildingcontract SBC/Q 2005. The total fee will be paid to NDG Architects Ltd as soon as

an appointment agreement is signed .

Having discussed this with my fellow directors I am willing to accept his proposaland have said so to him - even though the full scope of the works are not yetknown. It is not very often one receives money before one does the work and it willhelp our cash flow in the immediate future. Anne Holding was annoyed that wehave not yet calculated the work to be done or indeed the staffing requirements:Standard office procedure is to do this and then, and only then, to sign the feeagreement. I am afraid that I will be breaking our own rules but then again, theseare not normal times.

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You have a list of all the salaries so I would be grateful if you could first of all workout the cost of salaries plus NI per month for all the technical staff and then double

it to cover the office overheads. We will work without profit to keep our teamtogether for as long as possible. How long will 250,000.00 last us?Next, prepare a schedule of the staff that you will need to do the job, and a barchart based upon the RIBA stages, to show how and when they will be employed?You will be one of the team yourself. Remember that we have a lot of staff freebetween now and May/June.Finally draft out a letter to the client accepting the commission for 250,000.00 andstating clearly what is, and is not, included in our quotation and what other servicessuch as QS will be required to complete the job and their likely charges. Is therescope for us to be Project Manager as well and therefore earn an extra fee?I like the idea of having fees in advance for once but would the Inland Revenuetax us as if we had earned all the money in this financial year? Would there be any

advantage if we made a charge monthly for the fees instead of the generous offerof the total fee when we sign the agreement?

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To: Candidate

Cc:

From: Belinda Carter

Re: Caring for the Elderly and Infirmed Alterations and Extension to Premises

No.14 Whetstone Lane is currently an Advice Centre with a single storey extension to therear. It has a front entrance for the public onto Whetstone Lane. It also has access into arear yard, which in turn has access to a courtyard, which is not used, and side access intoa jigger, which is used, behind the properties in Borough Road. However, the yard isowned by no.4 Whetstone Lane.

The other properties onto Whetstone Lane consist of shops with flats over, similarly theproperties onto Borough Road. No.4 Whetstone Lane is a house in the courtyard withwindows facing into the courtyard.

Our client has received planning permission for the attached proposals and wishes us toprogress this project to building regulation application stage.

Ultimately we hope to take the project onto site, but the client only wants us to submit abuilding regulations application for the moment and will then have the project costed.

The client has also requested windows to rooms C2 and C6, which will be into the wallfacing onto the courtyard.Please could you draft a memo for discussion by the partnership, laying out whatinformation is required to proceed. Also, advise the partnership of all the searches andnotices that have to be served.

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QUESTION 4

Page 1 of 2



To: Candidate

Cc:

From: Sarah Jane Key

Re: Area Office for Welsh Power

Isnt it odd that whenever Belinda is away from the office for a few days, problems alwaysseem to arise on her jobs.

Anyway, I am attaching a letter that we have received from the contractor which I suspectneeds your urgent attention.

James has asked that you formally respond to letter and knock this on the head. Pleasecan you leave your letter on his desk for signature.

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Bmec plc

Building and Civil Engineering Contractors

Gayton Moor Industial EstateMadchester MA99 9BC

NDG Architects IC/223344/10Bridgewater MillPaccadilly WharfMadchesterAP PDA

8th March 2010

Dear Sirs,

New area office for Welsh Power, Ivor Way, Madchester.

We wish to formally advise you that the progress of the work has been furtherdelayed. This current delay has been caused by the insolvency of the mechanicalsubcontractor and our inability to agree a continuation plan with the receiver andmanager. We have however reached an agreement with an alternative contractorto complete the remaining mechanical installation and under clause 3.7.1 seek

your agreement to sublet these works to Heat Vent (Madchester) Ltd.

Once we have better information on the exact delay to the contract we shall applyfor a further adjustment (extension) to the contract completion date in accordancewith clause 2.26 and 2.27.

In addition we refer to your previous notification of a revision to the completion datewhich was issued subsequent to our request for an extension of time of 10 days(under relevant event 2.29.7) following a delay by a statutory undertaker ininstalling the water main. Under clause 4.23 we now give you notice that we haveincurred direct loss and expense as a result of the statutory authoritys non -performance and we shall be making an application for reimbursement of such

costs in due course.

Yours faithfully,

I M A CrookContracts Manager.

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To: Candidate

Cc:

From:

Re: West Grovesnor Mixed Use Development - Caistor

There is to be a meeting with the directors of Lace ORound next week to discussprogress for the 100m West-grosvenor mixed use development in Caister. Theywill want to hear how we will fit in with the novated integrated design teamoperations planned for the development from stage D Design and Build Tenderlevel to completion.I am aware they will have the state of the art information handling systems and willrequire us to make full use of these in working with the team, they have alsoexpressed the requirement to go out to package contracts for all the buildingelements which will follow the CPI elemental structure. They are talking aboutspecialist specifications being needed for different sections of the work, someprescriptive, some descriptive, and some performance. Quite frankly I am lost

since the last specification I wrote was in 1979 for the St Georges Schoolextension.I would greatly appreciate a briefing document from you explaining thebackground of what they will be looking for , including the latest integratedInformation systems and how they work, and what differing types of specificationsthere are and for what purposes.

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END OF DAY ONE

Please ensure that you hand a copy of your draft answersto your exam supervisor by 5.30pm

march 2010 day 1

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