Over 100 Years of Quantity Surveying in South Africa

From humble beginnings in 1908, quantity surveying has grown in South Africa to become a flourishing profession which has contributed significantly to the built environment and the economy as a whole.
Quantity surveying in Britain
Quantity surveying as a profession can trace its roots to 18th-century Britain. The earliest known records show a Reading firm operating in 1785, although no doubt there were other firms in existence at the time. In Scotland, too, quantity surveyors met in 1802 to produce the first method of measurement. Up until 1850, it was standard practice to measure and value building work after it was completed, bills of quantities had not yet become the norm.
Prior to this in the 17th century, the architect was responsible for both the design and execution of buildings. A number of master craftsmen each performed their role on site, whether it was bricklaying or carpentry. Once the building was completed, each craftsman would submit his bill, which included labour and materials.
The rise of the general contractor
As the volume of building work increased, clients become increasingly unhappy with the way they were being charged. It became difficult to reconcile the material used in constructing a building compared with the bills the client received. Surveyors were employed by master craftsmen to prepare their bills and some made exorbitant claims about wastage of material on site, which were duly contested by surveyors acting on the architect’s behalf.
But the time of the master craftsman was drawing to an end and in its place rose the general contractor. During the Napoleonic Wars, Britain needed to build massive barracks and decided to save time and money by awarding tenders to single builders. Later, as the Industrial Revolution gathered momentum in the 1830s, the government did away with separate trades contracting altogether, having been put off by the high cost of building Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, and general contracting began to dominate.
General contractors thus became increasingly common. Their job was to estimate how much it would cost to construct buildings, based on the work of all the trades. Later they employed surveyors to prepare bills of quantities for them based on their estimates. Architects, acting on behalf of their clients, also employed surveyors to prepare bills of quantities for competitive tendering purposes, as well as to measure any discrepancies in costs that arose during the building process. Eventually, these dual roles merged and the single, independent quantity surveyor emerged.
Quantity surveying in South Africa
In 1908, the South African Institute of Quantity Surveyors was established, the first organisation of its kind in the country representing the built environment. It later became known as the Association of South African Quantity Surveyors (ASAQS). Its membership included 11 members from the Transvaal, one from the Orange Free State and five from the Cape.
It was amazingly proactive for its time and helped to firmly establish the profession – so much so that the SA Standard System of Measurement was published before the British equivalent. Today ASAQS has grown from the original 17 to over 3 700 members. Moreover, the profession has evolved beyond its earlier narrow scope as construction consultants to extend into the financial, mining, shipbuilding, infrastructure development and property sectors. Quantity surveying has indisputably played a significant role in South Africa’s transition to a modern economy.
Sources
- Seeley, Ivor H, and Winfield, Roger. Building Quantities Explained. Fifth ed. London: Macmillan Education UK, 1999.
- Cartlidge, Duncan. Quantity Surveyor’s Pocket Book. Third ed. Florence: Routledge, 2017.
- Van Rensburg, Chris. Association of South African Quantity Surveyors. A Century of Quantity Surveying in South Africa. Johannesburg: Chris van Rensburg Publications, 2008.