Project Planning & Design
Project Planning & Design
This domain moves from verified program to design decisions: concept, massing, spatial organization, circulation, structural and MEP integration, envelope, sustainability, and code compliance. Candidates must coordinate architectural, structural, civil, and MEP systems early; understand grid and bay sizing, ceiling plenums, shaft locations, and equipment rooms; and test egress, accessibility, fire separation, and occupancy. Design reviews, cost checks, and owner approvals keep the design within budget. Sustainable strategies should be evaluated for cost, performance, and local code.
Traps: calculating egress width from gross area instead of occupant load; forgetting that occupant load factors depend on use; missing the second means of egress; and ignoring travel distance, dead-end corridors, or stair discharge. Another trap is assuming a single exit is acceptable in a large space. Structural bay questions often hide a parking module or laboratory module constraint. Do not treat a design concept as code-compliant until egress and accessibility are checked.
Worked example: a 4,000 sf assembly space with an occupant load factor of 15 sf per occupant has 267 occupants. At 0.15 in of egress width per occupant, required width is 40 in; the code minimum corridor width (44 in) governs. Because the occupant load exceeds 49, at least two exits are required. Rule of thumb: compute occupant load first, then exits, width, and travel distance-never the reverse.