General
Since the client generally lacks any professional qualification for the construction project to be realized and is rarely able to meet the official and public law obligations, a project manager is commissioned for most construction projects to remedy this, in order to be able to act on behalf of the client vis-à-vis all other project participants, planners and executing construction companies. The construction project manager is thus appointed as a representative in matters that would essentially concern the client or building owner, in order to relieve the building owner in terms of time, organization and expertise. All tasks such as the creation and updating of schedules, the financial control over the budget as well as the coordination of the people and companies involved in planning and construction are now performed by the project manager. Further necessary and supplementary
tasks in the area of controlling within the project team are carried out by him alone
(cf. Preuß & Schöne 2010: p. 45). Since, from a legal point of view, no minimum professional requirement is placed on a project manager to this day, it is up to a building owner alone to appoint a suitable project manager. Ideally, the project manager can demonstrate the necessary competencies and solid construction management knowledge to ensure the smooth running of the construction project. Depending on the complexity of the construction project, it is quite common in private construction projects for the architect or general planning contractor planning for this to also take on the tasks of a project manager. However, this form is rare in public buildings, as the project control is used here as an independent instance vis-à-vis the other project participants, if only for reasons of impartiality.

Meanwhile, project control for more complex construction projects is divided into specialist areas. Thus, in addition to the actual construction project manager, the HVAC project manager is quite conspicuous, who specifically takes care of the complex HVAC events / coordination of the HVAC specialists/engineers, with whom the construction project manager himself can no longer communicate at eye level on such a complex specialist level.

It is also not uncommon for one or the other construction project to involve purely specialist measures / renovation and conversion measures in certain specialist areas, such as, for example, the complete renovation of the sanitary facilities in a school building or the construction of a solar park. Especially for this, the actual construction project manager (with the specialist background knowledge of a civil engineer) is not exactly the ideal choice, which is why one resorts to technically experienced HVAC project managers here.

Tasks & Service Package Project Control

The AHO
As with classic engineering services (which are based on the HOAI), a kind of set of rules and fee structure also exists for project control in the construction industry. Based on the fields of activity of the AHO (Committee of Associations and Chambers of Engineers and Architects for the Fee Structure e. V.), the range of services as well as its contents and remuneration can be better understood and compared.

The AHO areas of action
The areas of action of the AHO are structured as follows:

A – Organization, Information, Coordination and Documentation
B – Qualities and Quantities
C – Costs and Financing
D – Dates, Capacities and Logistics
E – Contracts and Insurances

A further deepening of these areas of action will not be discussed further in this article, but can be found in a corresponding reading.

The AHO project stages
The AHO not only knows areas of action but also individual project stages, in which the individual areas of action actually take place. The project stages of the AHO are more or less based on the typical service phases of the HOAI (on which specialist planners/engineers base themselves during specialist planning and construction supervision) and is divided as follows:

1 – Project preparation
2 – Planning
3 – Execution preparation
4 – Execution
5 – Project completion

Further details can be read from a corresponding reading for this purpose.

Our engineering office for the HVAC
As an engineering office in the field of technical building equipment, we stand by your side solidly and professionally throughout the entire planning and construction process.
We also offer you specialist project control / HVAC project control in the field of technical building equipment and energetic overall renovation (energy efficiency) in order to accompany your project from A – Z in all aspects – for your safety.