09.04.2019
As the Senior Building Construction Manager, Xhevdet Mahmutaj is responsible for the overall organization of the KSB’s new building building. This represents a Herculean task, which the 37-year-old handles with astonishing calm. The Confirm AG (Ltd.) building construction manager having ‘cold feet’, everyday under working pressure and flexibility expectancies.
At the moment, it is practically easier to get an audience with the Pope than to make an appointment with the head of building construction management for the new KSB Building. KSB’s new building. Xhevdet Mahmutaj apologizes right at the beginning of the conversation: “At the moment, I’m rushing from meeting to meeting, phone calls here, appointments there. A man under pressure? Certainly. But, one who, as soon as an appointment has been arranged, gives information in an eloquent and sympathetic manner. His job? Building Construction Manager Mahmutaj is a central figure within the new KSB Building project. He is at the center of all operations, where all the threads come together.
From worker to building construction manager
Xhevdet Mahmutaj, now a Swiss Federally Certified Building Construction Manager (Polytechnic), knows both sides of the coin. He knows what it means to work on a building construction site all day at minus 5 degrees. “Sure, it happened during my apprenticeship as an electrician. After a while, you can hardly feel your hands and feet. But the human organism adapts to the given conditions.” Adapt, is a good keyword for Mahmutaj. As a building construction manager, he has to be flexible and able to react quickly to changing circumstances. Cold feet? Out of place! “Planning and executing a building construction project is a dynamic process. Improvising is part of everyday life.” Even more so in a lighthouse project like the new KSB Building: the site manager orchestrates dozens of companies, hundreds of people – from the planners to the “office workers”. Where others collapse under this responsibility and latent pressure, for Mahmutaj the “challenge” only then commences.
Costs, deadlines and quality
Without going into detail about the individual stages, the task of building construction management can be divided into five stages: the pre-project stage, the project stage, the preparation stage, the execution stage, and the final stage. The scope of assignments ranges from rough cost estimation, scheduling, contract awards, building construction management, to the commissioning of a construction project and the final invoice. “My building construction management team is responsible for ensuring that everything runs as smoothly as possible. Clear communication methods are crucial here,” says Xhevdet Mahmutaj. Especially since other companies with their own planning teams, specialists and, of course, KSB as the building developer are involved in every single stage of the process. The longer the building construction project takes, the more complex the coordination becomes. “Managing a 450-million-Swiss Franc building construction project over four years is basically an ambitious goal. After the civil engineering, and parallel with the shell construction stage, we already commence the extension stage – which is the biggest challenge of all, in the case of a hospital building construction project.”
“Everyone involved has to function as a unit. That is what makes my job exciting. Pressure? I take it in my stride.” – Site manager Xhevdet Mahmutaj
Building construction services at the heart of the building construction project
While the entire building construction process, with all its stages and milestones has to be designed flexibly, one thing is clear from the start: a huge amount of technology is installed in a hospital. “In a normal building, the building construction services account for only about a quarter of the costs. The rest is distributed among the other building construction components. In a high-tech hospital building, it’s roughly almost half.” Quality, security of supply and efficiency of building construction technology systems are crucial for a hospital project. On the one hand, of course, for the medical care of the patients, and on the other hand, simply for the general operating costs. “This has a direct influence on building construction coordination and therefore makes hospital building construction very complex.” Mahmutaj can refer back to much experience in this respect: as a building construction manager, he was already involved in the construction of the KSB-KUBUS hospital project, with its outpatient clinics, among other things.
Compensating for stressful everyday life
Achieving the target goals of the day and keeping medium- and long-term planning under observation: if that is the case, Xhevdet Mahmutaj’s working day was successful, then the building construction manager is no longer ‘on the go’. He finds relaxation at home in Neuenhof, Switzerland, where he has built a house for himself and his family. Mostly on his own, of course. “When I play with my two children, I can completely shut down. In contrast to the head-heavy work, the kids challenge me more physically, which is a good balance.” Let him have it, the man ‘on the go’, who will certainly be rushing from appointment to appointment again the next day.
The conversation with Xhevdet Mahmutaj appeared on #agnes22the web journal that accompanies the new Agnes building from start to finish and provides interested persons with exciting background information.
