eng Science and Education Publishing American Journal of Civil Engineering and Architecture 2328-3998 2016-11-14 4 6 199 210 10.12691/ajcea-4-6-2 AJCEA2016462 article B.A. Tayeh btayeh@iugaza.edu.ps 1 2 Khalid Al Hallaq 2 Fathi A. Sabha 2 Civil Engineering Department, Islamic University of Gaza, Gaza, Palestine The aim of this paper is to identify and rank the design phase faults/errors affecting on the maintenance of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)'s school's buildings in Gaza Strip, and to propose recommendations for minimizing the future maintenance problem related to the school buildings at Gaza Strip. A survey was conducted to collect the required data were adopted in this study. This study reveals the important factors that leading to defects in the design stage which includes: lack of workshops to discuss construction problems between project parts, Inadequate QA/QC programs during design stage, Lack of auditing and archiving of approved as-built drawing documents electronically after the completion the project. The study recommends several actions to improve maintenance performance of UNRWA's schools in Gaza Strip. The designer must take into account maintenance considerations during the design and supervision stages by choosing of durable materials. The UNRWA should conduct workshops or training courses for designers, supervisor, and maintenance engineers. http://pubs.sciepub.com/ajcea/4/6/2/ajcea-4-6-2.pdf construction industry construction problems design phase faults/errors gaza strip maintenance palestine schools buildings UNRWA schools