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.
Survey on amendments to the Construction Act
The Department of Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform had estimated in 2008 that it would take approximately three years after its commencement for the amendments to the Act 'to bed down and to ...
Contracts and LawSurveys
Reduce embodied carbon from the start
Measure, compare and reduce upfront embodied carbon using trusted UK data and pre-built assemblies.
Stanton Williams' Stirling Prize-winning Sainsbury Laboratory is a state-of-the-art facility for Cambridge University. This programme looks at how the Sainsbury Laboratory was built. It examines the ...
Design and SpecificationVideo
The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012
The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 came into force on 6 April 2012 (superseding the 2006 version) leading to additional requirements involving how asbestos-related work is notified and recorded and setting out a new need for 'medical surveillance'.
AsbestosVideo
Design incorporating work at height
The programme is a studio-based interview with architect and CDM-co-ordinator Paul Bussey from Scott Brownrigg. Against the backdrop of the current Working at Height Regulations, Paul sets out the dangers and explains the delicate balance that architects must strike between giving clients what they want and ensuring that those constructing and maintaining the building do not face unreasonable levels of risk while carrying out their work.
VideoHealth and Safety
The National Planning Policy Framework
The new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) finally came into force in England on 27 March 2012 following a high profile battle between pro-development stakeholders and environmental ...
VideoContracts and Law
Façade engineering
This programme will look at the general processes of façade design, issues to consider when designing as well as some glazing types.
Construction ProductsVideo
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Peckham Library revisited
The Will Alsop-designed Peckham Library won the 2000 Stirling Prize, wowing the judging panel with its ‘eye-catching’ design. We revisit the library to see how it was built and to remind ourselves of ...
Design and SpecificationVideo
What is Integrated Project Insurance?
A key aim of the Government's new Construction Strategy is a push for truly collaborative project procurement; however project insurance remains one of the most potentially divisive issues facing the ...
VideoContracts and Law
Facade Retention
Facade retention – the removal and renewal of a building's innards, walls, columns and floors while retaining its original front or outer walls – plays an important role in preserving the ...
Design and SpecificationConstruction Products
Designers' Health and Safety Responsibilities
Our guests – Giles Meredith from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and James Ritchie from the Association of Project Safety (APS) – discuss the role of CDM coordinators, including how and when they should be appointed, how one judges competency, and how existing risks such as lead paint should (and should not) be handled.
VideoHealth and Safety
BIM and construction law
One of the many undoubted benefits of BIM is its inherent ability to reduce the potential for disputes arising from clashing programmes and design details. However, by highlighting a landmark case in ...
Digital TransformationVideo
Fire risk during construction - design and specification implications
Following a number of recent major fires on construction sites, Neil Storkes, NBS Technical Author and Architect, summarizes the requirements of the CDM Regulations, current fire legislation and HSE ...
