QS With Purpose: Measuring What Truly Matters
Our principal, Datin Sr Eugena Braganza, contributed a featured article to Issue No. 33 of QS Link, the bulletin of the Board of Quantity Surveyors Malaysia. Written for the issue’s theme, Precision with Purpose: Safety, Sustainability and Quantity Surveying, it draws on her project experience to set out what precise, purposeful quantity surveying looks like in practice.
Datin Sr Eugena Braganza · QS Link Issue No. 33 (2025) · Pages 44–45 · Board of Quantity Surveyors Malaysia
Publication details
- Author
- Datin Sr Eugena Braganza
- Publication
- QS Link
- Issue
- Issue No. 33 (2025)
- Section
- Featured Article 3
- Printed pages
- Pages 44–45
- Publisher
- Board of Quantity Surveyors Malaysia (BQSM)
QS Link, pages 44–45
About the article
Safety starts on paper
Clear documentation reduces risk on site. On a Genting theme park project, critical safety items such as fire-rated materials, egress components and backup generators were kept while value engineering, and the article recalls a fire before opening where those choices mattered.
Sustainability beyond the buzzword
The real effect of sustainability lies in everyday choices of materials and fittings. Drawing on a GBI-certified project from 2016, the article describes how energy-efficient electrical fittings cost more at first, yet when operating costs were reviewed two years on they were markedly lower than at a neighbouring development without such measures.
A modern QS mindset
Digital tools amplify a surveyor’s judgement but do not replace it. On a Kuala Lumpur hotel project in 2017, BIM with Glodon let the team reprice layout changes almost immediately. The article also stresses passing that knowledge on to younger QSs.
Balancing trade-offs
Under tight budgets and timelines, a QS recommending value engineering should set out the safety and sustainability implications alongside the savings, and be open with clients about why the right option is not always the cheapest.
Looking ahead
Early QS involvement helps align safety, cost and environmental goals. Precision, the article concludes, is about clarity, fairness and looking ahead: shaping how and why a project is built, not only measuring it.