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.
Pricing specifications and drawings for small works
1. The contract documents 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 ...
Design and SpecificationDigital Transformation
Reduce embodied carbon from the start
Measure, compare and reduce upfront embodied carbon using trusted UK data and pre-built assemblies.
As part of their ongoing publishing programme, the Joint Contracts Tribunal (JCT) released the first batch of their ‘2016’ contracts towards the end of June 2016. This included the Minor Works (MW) ...
Contracts and Law
NEC4 Contracts and NBS - What's new? May 2018 update
A number of changes have been made to NEC4, with the intention of streamlining terms and operation across the whole suite. These include amendments to terminology, as well as provisions concerning ...
Contracts and Law
The CIC BIM Protocol: Introducing the second edition (2018)
Models are not new! Representations of buildings in model form have been around for centuries. Come to think of it, BIM is not new either. It’s been around ever since the technology was available to ...
Digital Transformation
RIBA Building Contracts 2018 - What's new?
The Basics The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) have published new “2018” versions of their two Building Contracts, originally released in November 2014. The contracts come in two ...
Contracts and Law
JCT Contracts 2016 and NBS - an update
As part of their ongoing publishing programme, the Joint Contracts Tribunal (JCT) released the first batch of their ‘2016’ contracts towards the end of June 2016. This included the Minor Works (MW) ...
Contracts and LawJCT Contracts 2016
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NEC4 Contracts and NBS. What's new?
NEC was last fully reviewed in 2005, and in the intervening 12 years, the producers have been gathering user feedback, leading to the 2017 launch of the NEC4 suite which has been updated and extended.
Standards and RegulationsContracts and Law
JCT Contracts 2016 and NBS
Eagle-eyed users of NBS specification tools may have noticed that the Joint Contracts Tribunal (JCT) issued a press release in February heralding a new 2016 edition of the JCT family of standard ...
Contracts and LawJCT Contracts 2016
Green contracting: can it exist?
At NBS, one of the requests we receive on a regular basis is for advice on how to specify sustainability or, sometimes, how to write it into a contract. Before we tackle this, however, let’s address ...
SustainabilityContracts and Law
2014 Budget and the construction industry
Given that the main purpose of the Chancellor’s budget day task is actually to balance the books, it’s perhaps not surprising that in monetary terms, there’s rarely much that could be said to be ...
Government policyContracts and Law
EU procurement: does the new directive mean a new direction
Public procurement is one of the major items of expenditure for purchasing authorities in Europe and an important element of the European Single Market. We take a look at what’s new...
Contracts and LawProcurement
Payments under the amendments to the Construction Act
In a keynote speech to a DTI conference in 2005, the Hon Barry Gardiner MP commented on a report in the press which claimed that SMEs spent the equivalent of more than 14 years chasing payment.
Contracts and LawThe Construction Act - One year after
