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
smart-cities
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.
smart-cities
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.
4D Hyperlocal - A cultural toolkit for the open-source city
4D Hyperlocal: A Cultural Toolkit for the Open-Source City Guest edited by Lucy Bullivant
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 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
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
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
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
How to ensure smart cities benefit everyone
Technology has the power to help people live in communities that are more responsive to their needs and that can actually improve their lives. For example, Beijing, notorious for air pollution, is ...
Design and SpecificationSustainability
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The cities of the future could be built by microbes
Image: Illustration of pressure sensing bacteria in soils from the ‘Computational Colloids Project’. Carolina Ramirez-Figuroa, Luis Hernan and Martyn Dade-Robertson, CC BY-SA
Design and SpecificationSustainability
BIM Level 2 - Was it worth it?
Six months after the Government’s deadline, how well is BIM Level 2 working in practice? And, with the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy's planned £15m investment in Level 3, ...
Design and SpecificationDigital Transformation
Smart Cities, Future Cities, Sustainable Cities
Currently, the Earth is home to over 7.4 billion people, with over half of those living in an urban setting and using 80% of the planet’s resources. By 2050, the population is forecast to be just ...
Design and SpecificationSustainability
Top 10 UK smart cities named - London and Bristol leading the way
London and Bristol are Britain’s leading “smart cities”, according to new research commissioned by Huawei UK and conducted by Navigant Consulting.
Design and SpecificationSustainability
The future will be built on open data - here's why
Data has the power to revolutionise and disrupt the way societies are governed. None more so than open data, which is free to access, free to use and can be shared by anyone. It’s non-personal and ...
Design and SpecificationStandards and Regulations
Creating the 'smart cities' of the future
The prospect of the ‘city of the future’ has long tantalised designers, writers and film makers alike. From the utopian ideals of the Italian Futurists to the dystopian rain-drenched canyons of ...
