Knowledge

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.

Park Theatre by David Hughes Architects

"It's a wonderful design" - Sir Ian McKellan

Design and SpecificationVideo
NBS-LCA

Reduce embodied carbon from the start

Measure, compare and reduce upfront embodied carbon using trusted UK data and pre-built assemblies.

Constructing the 2013 Serpentine Gallery

The 2013 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, by architect Sou Fujimoto, is a metallic mesh of 27,000 bits of steel joined together to give the impression of a light, cloud-like structure.

Design and SpecificationVideo

Scale Lane Swing Bridge, Hull

The Scale Lane swing bridge over the River Hull opened to the public in July, the result of a 2007 design competition won by London-based architects McDowell+Benedetti, engineer Alan Baxter ...

Design and SpecificationVideo

WRAP - Recycling and Waste Reduction

The government's Strategy for Sustainable Construction (published in June 2008) aims to reduce waste from construction, demolition and excavation (“CD & E” waste) to 50% of 2008 figures by 2012. ...

SustainabilityVideo

Breaches of planning control: the law

What constitutes a breach of planning control and how are they remedied? In this programme planning lawyer Linda Russell guides us through the topic looking at the concept of lawful development and ...

VideoContracts and Law

Unstabilised rammed earth

As well as looking at the properties of rammed earth, or pise, this programme asks whether concrete should be added as a stabiliser, the issue of cost, and along the way we look at some high-profile failures and successes.

SustainabilityConstruction Products

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BIM opportunities - Part 8: Is BIM worth it?

A variety of speakers – covering architectural practitioners, advisers, designers, academics, contractors (in UK and USA) and engineers, etc – answer a range of questions on BIM to explain the ...

Digital TransformationVideo

The NBS BIM Roundtable Legal Discussion: July 2013. Part 1: CIC BIM Protocol

In July 2013 RIBA Enterprises gathered together experts from various disciplines involved in the construction industry, to debate the development of legal documentation in response to the increasing ...

Digital TransformationVideo

The NBS BIM Roundtable Legal Discussion: July 2013. Part 3: Construction, Post Construction and Future Outlook

In July 2013 RIBA Enterprises gathered together experts from various disciplines involved in the construction industry, to debate the development of legal documentation in response to the increasing ...

Digital TransformationVideo

The NBS BIM Roundtable Legal Discussion: July 2013. Part 2: Technology, Procurement Methods and Processes

In July 2013 RIBA Enterprises gathered together experts from various disciplines involved in the construction industry, to debate the development of legal documentation in response to the increasing ...

Digital TransformationVideo

The Relevance of Ronan Point Today

Ronan Point, a tower block in east London which suffered a fatal partial collapse in 1968 due to a gas explosion, was a critical event that changed the way UK engineers considered robustness.

Design and SpecificationVideo

Code for Sustainable Homes - UPDATE 2011

This programme explains the main differences in the revised Code for Sustainable Homes and looks at where the Code is headed in the future.

SustainabilityVideo