Factors Affecting Defects Occurrence in Structural Design Stage of Residential Buildings in Gaza Strip

Background: Residential buildings are an essential and significant satisfaction pillar for the human’s life to ensure a safe and durable residence. In addition, due to the rapid development and population growth in the Gaza Strip, many residential buildings and housing projects are being implemented in a short period of time especially after Gaza conflict during the year 2014. Therefore, various errors and defects are anticipated to rise during the design stage. Objectives: The aim of this paper is to identify and rank the factors affecting the occurrence of the defects in the structural design stage of residential buildings in the Gaza Strip. Methods: A survey was conducted for 134 respondents randomly selected as engineers, working for engineering consultant offices as designers, supervisors and projects managers in Gaza Strip. Results: The study reveals that the three most effective groups of factors are; the consultant administration and staff group, the drawings preparation group and the structural design group respectively. The most important factors were; ignoring soil investigation or poor soil investigation, poor or lack of engineering supervision or unqualified supervision and conflicts between architectural and structural drawings. These are the most common issues overlooked by the engineers and the contractors in the Gaza Strip. Conclusion: The study recommends to apply a strict quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) program during design phases, providing simple and readable drawings with sufficient details for contractors, raising the awareness of owners towards conducting soil inspections prior to the design process and paying more attention to the informal buildings sector from the related authorities.