Architectural Principles

For reasons unknown the architect appointed by the head office is usually funny. Funny is not funny as in case of a stand up comic, but funny as in case of a person who does not make appropriate decisions as required of his qualification and job description. I had written about the fellow who used to say he was giving us world class architectural service before. It was probably the third world or may be a fourth world he was speaking of. Now we have another fellow who gets architectural drawings done using CAD software, as anyone does these days. The funny part is that he makes us sign our approval on the plans submitted, and then whenever anything is found to be wrong with the work done by his contractor, he says it is as per plan approved by us. The other day they put a wall between the sitting area and examination area of our emergency receiving room, with a door in between. Originally there had been no wall and no door. But the Architectural Guru felt there should be both the structures. Unfortunately the door was so narrow that a trolley with a patient on it couldn't be wheeled in. We asked him to correct it. He said it was as per the plan signed by me. Hats off to a guy who expects a doctor to understand the dimensions of a door in inches on an architectural plan of 10000 sq ft put on A4 size paper. After explaining the need to him he randomly decided a width and asked us if that would be sufficient. I told him that he had to understand the location of the door and the width of a trolley both so that the width of the door could be decided to permit the trolley to be wheeled in. I would not state the requirement in inches myself because I was not expert on that topic. If I made a mistake, he would claim it was done as per my specifications. If he could not judge it, he could take our trolley and see if it would go in through the door made by him. I was a gynecologist. I did not ask a patient with a lump in abdomen if the size of the abdominal incision I proposed to make would be sufficient to remove that lump. He refused to go around with us any further to see what other errors had been committed by the architect-contractor duo. He must be assured of payment irrespective of whether the user department is satisfied with the work done.