A study of the relationship between size and unit construction of residential buildings

The size of a building indicates the physical magnitude of total accommodation provided by the building. As a general rule, total project costs increase as the building size increases, but research evidence shows that increases in building size produce reductions in unit construction cost. This study is aimed at establishing the relationship between building size and unit construction cost. It used empirical data from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to investigate the relationship between size of residential buildings (of constant shape) and unit construction cost. The Saudi Arabian 'typical villa' was used as the base case design and the cost date used was average unit rates obtained from seven building contractors working in the eastern province of the Kingdom. The results can streamline the costs and cycle time associated with proposal preparation, evaluation, and negotiation processes; thereby assisting the design professionals in making more objective design decisions for the benefits of their clients.