Short answer: architecture, structural and MEPFS design aren't three sequential steps — they're three disciplines making decisions that constrain each other, at the same time, on the same building. A ceiling height decision limits duct routing. A rooftop chiller's weight becomes a structural load. An electrical room's size eats into the floor plan. A plumbing stack's route decides where a beam can and can't be penetrated. None of these get resolved by one discipline working in isolation and handing a finished drawing to the next.
Most coordination failures we see on projects that come to us mid-trouble didn't happen because any one engineer or architect did bad work — they happened because two disciplines made independent decisions that were each correct on their own terms and incompatible with each other. Here are four real categories of that clash, and who actually resolves each one.
Architecture sets the finished ceiling height for the space below and the structural floor sets the height above — everything in between (beams, ductwork, a suspended ceiling grid, sprinkler piping) has to fit in that gap. Drop the ceiling for a cleaner look or a lower budget, and HVAC may not have enough clearance to cross beam lines without either resizing ducts, rerouting around beams, or raising the ceiling back up. This has to be checked while the ceiling height is still a decision, not after the ducts are fabricated to a dimension that no longer fits.
A rooftop air handling unit, an elevated water tank, a standby generator or a chiller isn't a finishing detail — it's a point load (and sometimes a vibration load) that the structural engineer designs the supporting beams and columns for. If the equipment gets specified, resized, or relocated after the structural drawings are already sealed, the frame underneath it may not have been designed to carry it. The fix at that point is redesign, not a shim.
A building's electrical service size (see our electrical service sizing guide) determines how large the main electrical room, panel boards and vertical risers need to be — space that comes directly out of leasable or usable floor area. An architectural layout finalized before electrical loads are estimated risks an electrical room that's too small for the equipment it ends up needing, forcing a late floor-plan change in exactly the area hardest to move.
A beam's depth carries bending and shear capacity along its length, and a hole cut through it in the wrong location or at the wrong size reduces that capacity — sometimes seriously. Plumbing and sanitary stacks need to cross structural framing to get from upper floors to the building drain, so the structural engineer needs the plumbing routing plan early enough to place any required penetrations where the beam has spare capacity, or to size the beam to accommodate them from the start. This is a coordination problem that cannot be solved on-site with a drill.
Answer a few questions about how your design team is set up and get a plain read on where coordination risk sits on your project. This is a screening tool, not a substitute for an actual coordination review by your design team.
Every discipline above can be executed correctly in isolation and still clash with another discipline's correct decision. Coordination isn't a quality problem inside one drawing — it's a process problem between drawings, and it only gets caught by someone actively checking them against each other, on a schedule that happens before each discipline treats their drawing as final.
AEDO's role outside Negros Oriental. Nationwide, AEDO runs architectural, structural and MEPFS design as one coordinated team — the same team resolving the clashes described above, regardless of where the site is. A locally hired contractor performs construction under AEDO's remote oversight. In Negros Oriental, AEDO also builds the project directly.
Can a beam be drilled or cut for ductwork or plumbing to pass through?
Only where the structural engineer has designed for it. A beam's depth carries both bending and shear capacity, and penetrations in the wrong location or of the wrong size reduce that capacity, sometimes seriously. The structural engineer needs the MEPFS routing plan early enough to place penetrations where the beam has spare capacity, or to widen the beam to accommodate them — this cannot be resolved by cutting a hole after the beam is already poured.
Why does a ceiling height decision affect HVAC design?
Ductwork, structural beams and a suspended ceiling all compete for the same vertical space between the structural floor above and the finished ceiling below. A lower ceiling height, chosen for architectural or cost reasons, can leave too little clearance for ducts to cross beam lines without either raising the ceiling, resizing the ducts, or routing beams differently — a decision that has to be made jointly, not handed down from architecture alone.
Do heavy MEPFS equipment loads affect the structural design?
Yes. Rooftop air handling units, water tanks, generators and similar heavy equipment impose point loads and sometimes vibration loads that the structural engineer must design the supporting frame for. This only works if the structural engineer has the equipment's actual weight and location before finalizing the framing — a generator or chiller specified after the structural drawings are sealed can force a costly redesign.
Does AEDO coordinate design disciplines on projects outside Negros Oriental?
Yes. AEDO provides the complete design package nationwide — architectural, structural, electrical and sanitary/plumbing — coordinated as one team, regardless of where the project is located. Physical construction is performed directly by AEDO only in Negros Oriental; elsewhere, a locally hired contractor builds it under AEDO's remote oversight.
Statutes and codes underlying the coordination requirements described above.
The coordination examples themselves (ceiling/duct clearance, equipment loads, electrical room sizing, penetration routing) describe general structural and MEPFS engineering practice, drawn from AEDO's own project experience, not a single published clash-detection standard.
One team running architecture, structural and MEPFS together, not three consultants handed off in sequence.
