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

  • design-and-specification

    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.

  • design-and-specification

    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.

Passenger or platform lifts - Which is best?

If your building has multiple floors or spaces where the floor levels change then its likely that you'll need to consider some kind of lift to quickly and efficiently move people through your spaces. ...

Design and SpecificationHealth and Safety
NBS-LCA

Reduce embodied carbon from the start

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

T-level programme for construction to begin in 2020

The government is pressing ahead with the launch of T-level courses and has confirmed that a course in construction will be among the first to be offered to students from 2020/21, two years later ...

Design and SpecificationGovernment policy

What are Plain Language Questions (PLQs)?

Plain Language Questions (PLQs) are posed by a client/employer at various stages throughout a construction project and responded to by the supplier(s).

Design and SpecificationDigital Transformation

Help shape the construction knowledge on theNBS.com

Tell us what you think about the Knowledge section of theNBS.com. It'll only take a few minutes and help shape the service we offer construction professionals.

Design and SpecificationSustainability

The NBS guide to raised access floors

What is a raised access floor? A raised access floor system consists of load-bearing floor panels that are laid in a horizontal grid supported by adjustable vertical pedestals. As well as raising the ...

Design and SpecificationDigital Transformation

The construction industry expos and conferences you have to attend in 2018

January February March April May June July August September October November December February 2018 28 February and 1 March BIM Show Live Where? Boiler Shop, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne What? Over the course ...

Design and SpecificationSustainability

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Uniclass 2015 - October 2017 update

Project Management Table Following an extended period of consultation, the Project Management Table has been published. The Project Management table consists of Uniclass 2015 codes which provide a ...

Design and SpecificationStandards and Regulations

What is lifecycle assessment?

All products (or systems), including those used in construction, have some impact on the environment. This impact can occur from the point at which raw materials are extracted, through processing, ...

Design and SpecificationSustainability

UK smart cities study updated for 2017

Huwaei's Smart Cities Index has been updated for 2017 with Bristol leapfrogging London as "leaders" at the top of the table.

Design and SpecificationSustainability

Introducing the smart crossing - a new kind of pedestrian crossing

The days of the paint-on-the-floor pedestrian crossing could be numbered. A new smart crossing, which alerts drivers to people stepping out unexpectedly and widens in response to demand, has been ...

Design and SpecificationConstruction Products

What we learnt at Digital Construction Week 2017

After a VIP reception on Wednesday evening, the show proper got underway on Thursday with a 'state of the nation' address from Digital Built Britain's Mark Bew.

Design and SpecificationSustainability

7 things you just can't miss at Autodesk University Las Vegas 2017

AU explores the "future of making things - an ideal chance to experience what's next for your field, connect with fellow professionals and generally immerse yourself in the future of the industry.

Design and SpecificationSustainability