A wide range of interesting articles that help you make informed decisions and deliver the best projects for your clients authored by our team of NBS subject specialists and construction industry contributors.
Sustainability
NBS Guide: Embodied Carbon Calculations
Learn how to align your carbon assessments with BIM workflows. This guide to Embodied Carbon Calculations, developed by NBS and Circular Ecology, sets out a practical, standardised approach to calculating the embodied carbon of building materials and products, and how to apply this data to BIM objects.
Must Reads
The hidden cost of compliance: why architects are demanding a new era of product transparency
Few pieces of legislation have reshaped the UK construction industry as significantly as the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA). Introduced to improve accountability, traceability and safety standards ...
Design and Specification
Brick slip cladding systems – the need for robust specification
This article from the NBS technical team outlines specification for brick slip technology, including history, technology, design, safety and testing.
When product data creates risk, AluK delivers the clarity and support architects need
The need to build more homes, more quickly, has not changed. If anything, the pressure has intensified. However, the conversation around Modern Methods of Construction has evolved.
Failing to adopt BIM could be hurting your practice
The UK government’s mandated Level 2 BIM compliance across all public sector projects by April 2016 has now passed and the cynical observer could be forgiven for questioning the fuss. So much has ...
Digital TransformationCOBie
Reduce embodied carbon from the start
Measure, compare and reduce upfront embodied carbon using trusted UK data and pre-built assemblies.
Straw bale construction first came to prominence in the mid-19th century in the USA as a cheap indigenous building material, and has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years as an ecological alternative ...
Design and SpecificationSustainability
Buying into BIM: industry response to the call to arms
Update: Since this article was first written, all the content from the NBS National BIM Library has moved across to NBS Source. ...
Digital TransformationGovernment policy
What makes a passivhaus?
In recent years the term ‘Passivhaus’ has become a byword for an ‘eco-friendly’ dwelling. The evolution of the energy-saving home has taken leads from Scandinavian and mainland European ...
SustainabilityStandards and Regulations
Gas safety regulations
The use of gas-fired heating appliances in buildings is subject to stringent regulations, and, as you'd expect, there is a wealth of information available on gas safety for householders and landlords ...
Standards and RegulationsVentilation
Fire safety design
Designing for fire safety in construction can be a complex subject. Successive revisions to the Building Regulations over the past 30 years have tightened up rules and learned lessons from notable ...
Design and SpecificationStandards and Regulations
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Creating the 'smart cities' of the future
The prospect of the ‘city of the future’ has long tantalised designers, writers and film makers alike. From the utopian ideals of the Italian Futurists to the dystopian rain-drenched canyons of ...
Design and SpecificationSustainability
Retrofit insulation (2/2)
Introduction Besides the continual drive to build new dwellings to ever most stringent thermal performance requirements, running in tandem is the push to improve the existing building stock. This ...
Design and SpecificationSustainability
Retrofit insulation (1/2)
Introduction Besides the continual drive to build new dwellings to ever most stringent thermal performance requirements, running in tandem is the push to improve the existing building stock. This ...
Design and SpecificationSustainability
Are you BIM ready? What your business needs to do before 2016 (Part Ten)
The process of implementing BIM is about change management, first and foremost. To do this successfully, the process needs to be carried out methodically. The best way is to make a ‘BIM ...
Digital Transformation
Are you BIM ready? What your business needs to do before 2016 (9/10)
The process of implementing BIM is about change management, first and foremost. To do this successfully, the process needs to be carried out methodically. The best way is to make a ‘BIM ...
Digital Transformation
Building Regulations update 2015
The latest round of updates to the Building Regulations (England) come into force on 1 October 2015. As well as raising performance requirements in a number of areas, this update is unique in that, ...
