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.
Has bendable concrete cracked the maintenance burden?
Billions of pounds are spent every year dealing with the resulting cracks and, in recent years, scientists have been experimenting with a range of self-healing technologies. Now researchers in ...
Design and SpecificationSustainability
Reduce embodied carbon from the start
Measure, compare and reduce upfront embodied carbon using trusted UK data and pre-built assemblies.
What is BS 5266? BS 5266 gives gives detailed guidance on the application and practice of emergency lighting. The standard’s recommendations have been drawn up to encourage uniformity of application, ...
Design and SpecificationStandards and Regulations
NBS research finds users value Approved Documents
Last year NBS Research, working with the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), asked for your views on the Building Regulations Approved Documents (ADs).
Design and SpecificationStandards and Regulations
What is the Internet of Things and what does it mean for construction?
What is the Internet of Things? In simple terms the Internet of Things (IoT) involves a whole world of connected gadgets and gizmos that interact with each other to monitor, report and switch things ...
Design and SpecificationSustainability
Passive fire protection: Specifying and maintaining fire doors
What is a fire door? How many of us fully appreciate the importance of fire doors as life-saving components in the buildings that we occupy and use every day, either at our place of business or home?
Design and SpecificationDigital Transformation
Wired-up roads will soon charge your electric car - while you're driving
It was Tesla Motors, more than any other company, that triggered the current interest in electric cars. The firm’s namesake, Nikola Tesla, a genius inventor and Thomas Edison’s arch rival, would no ...
Design and SpecificationSustainability
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Should Britain build on its green spaces to solve the housing crisis?
Back in the 1930s, English planners came up with a novel idea to prevent urban sprawl: a ring of countryside surrounding the city, protected from development by law. This “green belt” would preserve ...
Design and SpecificationSustainability
Big data is adding a whole new dimension to public spaces - here's how
Most of us encounter public spaces in our daily lives: whether it’s physical space (a sidewalk, a bench, or a road), a visual element (a panorama, a cityscape) or a mode of transport (bus, train or ...
Design and SpecificationDigital Transformation
Manufacturer's product data, why do we need consistent quality data?
Manufacturers looking to make it easy for designers and specifiers were able to get expert advice, courtesy of NBS at BIM Show Live. Designers and specifiers were also find out just how to use ...
Design and SpecificationDigital Transformation
Four things Mark Bew told us about the future of BIM and digital construction
Mark (pictured centre) with NBS CEO Richard Waterhouse (right) and NBS Director of Research and Innovation, Dr Stephen Hamil (left) joined the team at NBS for breakfast on Friday 27 January.
Design and SpecificationDigital Transformation
Uniclass 2015 - January 2017 update
Uniclass 2015 is a dynamic classification for the construction industry. Our latest update features minor changes to six core tables in response to user requests.
Design and SpecificationStandards and Regulations
Heat in non-domestic buildings: Help unlock carbon and bill savings
The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) sees significant potential for savings from heat, cooling and energy efficiency within the different non-domestic sectors (public, ...
