What Specifiers Want 2017 articles

The situation that the construction industry is confronted with today would have been beyond anyone’s perception or comprehension at the start of 2020.

On the 20th July 2020, the Government published the ‘Draft Building Safety Bill’: the most radical proposed overhaul of building safety regulations for decades. In the wake of recent tragedies, much work has been conducted under Dame Judith Hackitt’s leadership to make way for a better, safer future for buildings and those who occupy them.

The construction industry operates under a considerable amount of health and safety legislation – and for a good reason. Before the Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act 1974, the industry regularly had more than 300 health and safety-related worker deaths per year.

Classification is needed in the construction industry. It was needed in a pre-BIM environment (an early example being the Swedish Samarbetskomittén för Byggnadsfrågor, SfB, which was launched in 1950), and it is needed even more in a BIM environment where the benefits of digital interoperability are likely to be huge.

Within the construction industry, there have been advances in the way we look at how we create buildings. Environmentally conscious building, also known as sustainable construction, is an innovative modern idea introducing more environmentally, socially and economically aware construction methods.

This year’s 2020 BIM survey marks the 10th year of asking the industry for their views about BIM. In this article, we’ve picked out ten of the key things that we’ve learnt about the latest state of BIM from this year’s survey.

When working on basic construction projects, where the work is of a simple nature, then typically this work will be undertaken using a ‘small works’ standard form construction contract. Generally speaking, contracts for small works do not support the use of bills of quantities as pricing documents because the extra cost of preparation is not usually justified when the level of detail is not required.

Many smaller practices work on less complex construction projects. While there is no universal definition of what a ‘small works’ project is, it is generally characterized by being simple, using straightforward methods, and it is typically procured following a traditional methodology.

Based on a webinar of the same name by NBS Technical Author James Smith, this article looks at the importance of having a robust fire safety strategy and why it should be integrated into your specification.

The specification is the backbone of any project. Products must be researched, selected and agreed with the client, with finishes and facades requiring careful consideration and discussions with clients, planners and other stakeholders.

CPD is a crucial part of any architects role. As it’s usually delivered in person, lockdown proved a challenge for those wishing to attend CPD seminars. As a result, as the construction industry shifts online, so has CPD. Phil Ward, at Lee Evans Partnership, shares his experience of attending his first virtual RIBA CPD seminar.

In this article, the process followed at AHMM, which aligns to this RIBA Plan of Work framework, is outlined. Complexities that relate to the following are covered: preparing for specification writing; providing clarity between descriptive and prescriptive specifications; and coordinating specifications with the wider set of project information.