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Introduction
This volume, the Design Manual, is intended to be a basic document for
the VA and for A/E contractors working on systems hospitals. The Manual
describes the Building System Prototype Design, and in this section,
suggests a general procedure by which it may be utilized in a building
project. The intent of this section is to provide an outline guide, both for
VA staff and for A/E contractors, to the use of the Manual by all parties
concerned in the design of a VA system hospital.
It must be stressed that there is no substitute for a thorough
understanding of the content of the Design Manual by all participants of a
building design team. The nature of the Design Manual is such that it
cannot be compressed or organized into a step-by-step book of
instructions. Each participant must use the materials in the way most
appropriate to his area of responsibility. Only he can decide the precise
way to use the material, because only he is familiar with his role in the
design process, and the impact on that role of the concepts presented in
this manual.
This outline guide, however, relates the concepts of the Prototype Design
to a typical design process. The design process is divided into three
broad phases: problem analysis, design development, and contract
documents. The problem analysis phase is the analysis of the VA master
plan. The design development phase consists initially of studies of
building configuration and building schematic design which are
comparable to the typical VA block plan layout phase. The essential
difference between a building schematic design and the typical VA block
plan layout is that the building schematic design contains a significantly
greater degree of detail in terms of the structural and mechanical aspects
of the building organization; in fact, considerably more detail than the
typical VA preliminary drawings. This degree of engineering detail allows,
if desired, an early start to working drawings while the preliminary
drawings that show detailed room layouts are being completed. The
contract documents phase is comparable to the VA working drawing
phase. The discussion of these phases (Sections 420, 430, and 440) are
deliberately kept general so that the participant, whether he be VA staff
member or A/E contractor, can relate these phases in detail of his own
activities and terminology.
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