We spoke to Gary Matthews, a Senior Architectural Technologist at Church Lukas, to hear how the practice uses cloud-based specification platform NBS Chorus and product information platform NBS Source to maintain high standards and minimise risk.
Staying one step ahead
As a practice, Church Lukas has broad experience covering refurbishment projects, school facilities, residential schemes and purpose-built student accommodation. Gary, its Senior Architectural Technologist, sees creating solid specifications in NBS Chorus as the key to ensuring that designs will perform and to minimising risk to the practice, particularly for higher-risk buildings.
“The purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) sector is such a tight sector when it comes to all regulations. Therefore, our buildings need to perform to the highest standards; we need to make sure our specifications are robust and aligned to the functional requirements of the Building Regulations.”
The practice is also keen to encourage a culture of high-quality, robust specifications, and believes that this offers a competitive advantage in the PBSA sector. The practice has developed a ‘kit of parts’ strategy, with constantly evolving and improving construction details, which helps the team maintain quality across all its projects. The same philosophy is adopted for material specification, where sustainability, performance and quality of product testing are driving the creation of a quality-controlled materials library, supported by NBS clauses.
“One of our focuses is maintaining a robust specification for PBSA projects using NBS Chorus, that provides a benchmark we can be confident delivers compliance, is competitive and sustainable.”
Balancing planet and profit
Church Lukas takes a determined approach to ensuring that its designs not only deliver commercial and social value, but also consider the environment. The team and their clients are increasingly motivated by reducing embodied and operational carbon.
“We're trying as much as possible to design sustainably and to do that, you need to choose the right materials and methods.”
Gary has been working with NBS Source, to choose more sustainable materials and add them to his specifications. The platform provides immediate access to critical product data in what he calls a “fantastic addition” to his workflow.
“It’s such a smooth process. With NBS Source, you can very quickly check the certifications that products and systems carry. For example, BBA [British Board of Agrément] certifications, clear fire testing data, and EPDs [Environmental Product Declarations], which are among the first things we would look for. This can save time approaching a manufacturer or supplier directly for the same information. With NBS Source, it’s live, and you can also see straight away when the product or system was last verified by the manufacturer.”
Working more efficiently
Beyond enhancing safety and sustainability, Gary and Church Lukas use NBS Chorus and NBS Source because they greatly improve the efficiency of writing specifications.
“Throughout my career, I've had to work with manually written specifications without the help of NBS Chorus, and it was a time-consuming process. Having experienced this first-hand, I truly understand the value of NBS Chorus in completing specifications much more efficiently and in a fraction of the time.”
The ability to use building information modelling (BIM) objects directly from NBS Source has also proven to be incredibly useful for the Church Lukas team. When pushed for time, Gary can rapidly and confidently make changes to specifications, ensuring that the selected products meet both regulatory standards and design requirements.
“When there’s a BIM object in NBS Source for a particular product or system, it’s fantastic – I used one only yesterday for a roof system! It’s a very good process and means we can change a specification at the drop of a hat, as long as it’s within the NBS library. It’s a really good tool to have.”
For Church Lukas, this increased efficiency is an important way of staying ahead of its competition.
Overall, adopting NBS Chorus and NBS Source has significantly bolstered Church Lukas' commitment to both safety and sustainability. The ability to create robust, performance-focused specifications, access up-to-date product information and streamline workflows helps to ensure that every project is delivered with quality, value and the environment in mind.
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