I fully agree with the observations of Dr Dennis Mui (Letters 08/08) about the necessity of involving facilities managers from the beginning of a project in order to have a better sustainable building.

I worked as a design engineer for more than 13 years in a consultancy organisation in India and have been working as a facilities manager in Oman since 1997. As I have experience in both main fields of building services engineering, on many occasions I have realised the importance of strong interaction between design engineers and facility engineers at the design stage of a building. I too strongly recommend that building design engineers, architects and other industry professionals involve the facilities managers at the design concept stage.

The concept of facilities management is relatively new, particularly in Middle East countries, and the role of CIBSE in creating awareness among building service engineers is important.

Many young engineers who work in the countries of the Arabian peninsula still consider facilities management a low-profile profession. CIBSE could play a crucial part in eliminating this false thinking through the collaboration of various institutions.

I would like CIBSE to publish interesting case studies of facilities managers’ experiences in overcoming the difficulties created at the design stage.

Dr M Ramaswamy MCIBSE, hospital chief engineer, Ministry of Health, Oman

Source

Building Sustainable Design