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.
Uniclass 2015 - July 2020 update
This is the latest in our quarterly updating programme for Uniclass 2015. It includes updates to eight tables.
Design and SpecificationStandards and Regulations
Reduce embodied carbon from the start
Measure, compare and reduce upfront embodied carbon using trusted UK data and pre-built assemblies.
Background In the past few decades, there have been a variety of approaches used to make construction greener and more sustainable. Examples include using solar panels and integrating eco-friendly, ...
Design and SpecificationSustainability
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
NBS for small practices
1. The importance of specification Many smaller practices work on less complex construction projects. While there is no universal definition of what a ‘small works’ project is, it is generally ...
Design and SpecificationDigital Transformation
Fire safety and the RIBA Plan of Work
Based on a webinar of the same name by NBS Technical Author James Smith, this article looks at the importance of having a robust fire safety strategy and why it should be integrated into your ...
Design and SpecificationRIBA Plan of Work 2020
RIBA Plan of Work 2020 and specification
The specification drives the look and feel of a project, and heavily influences its cost plan. New design review tools such as virtual reality (VR) place even more importance on illustrating the ...
Design and SpecificationDigital Transformation
Subscribe
Using NBS to specify sustainable outcomes on projects
Sustainability is arguably the most expansive strategy in the RIBA Plan of Work 2020.
Design and SpecificationSustainability
Construction verification – a revolution in accuracy
The increasing frequency for as-built point cloud scans as part of the delivery of a project is a sign that clients are no longer willing to rely on design models unchecked and issued as record ...
Design and SpecificationDigital Transformation
Uniclass 2015 - April 2020 update
This is the latest in our quarterly updating programme for Uniclass 2015. It includes updates to five tables.
Design and SpecificationStandards and Regulations
RIBA Plan of Work 2020 Overview – Question and answer
In April 2020 Dale Sinclair, Director of Technical Practice at AECOM gave a presentation giving an overview to the RIBA Plan of Work 2020. Following the session, a number of questions were raised by ...
Design and SpecificationSustainability
Five reasons why product manufacturers must go digital now
In difficult times, it is very easy to look at cutting back on what might be regarded as non-core expenditure. Training usually stops with marketing, with sales support also being seen as one of the ...
Design and SpecificationDigital Transformation
Review: 'Building a Safer Future'. The governments response and reformed building safety regulations.
As we heard from Dame Judith Hackitt at the recent NBS Construction Product Leaders’ Summit. The new regulator will be the HSE (Health and Safety Executive) and is confirmed in this publication. The ...
