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
fire-safety
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.
fire-safety
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.
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
Reduce embodied carbon from the start
Measure, compare and reduce upfront embodied carbon using trusted UK data and pre-built assemblies.
The Building Safety Bill is being developed as part of the new safety regime to prevent any events similar to the Grenfell Tower disaster, which killed 72 people in 2017. It will overhaul existing ...
Design and SpecificationStandards and Regulations
Our top summer reads on smart cities, big data and more
You took BIM for Dummies to the Bahamas last year, so what should you read this time around? In advance of the holiday season we’ve compiled ten of the most popular paperbacks on big data, smart ...
Fire safetyVentilation
12 of the biggest health and safety risks in construction
According to HSE, within the UK there are 80,000 construction workers who suffer from work-related bad health each year and 64,000 who suffer non-fatal injuries.
Fire safetyVentilation
Emergency safety lighting - revisions to BS 5266
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
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
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Fire extinguisher types - How to choose, identify, maintain and use firefighting equipment
The catastrophic consequences of fire taking hold cannot be underestimated. Taking time to develop a robust risk assessment and identifying the most suitable firefighting equipment is likely to be ...
Design and SpecificationStandards and Regulations
Fire safety design
Designing for fire safety in construction can be a complex subject. Successive revisions to the Building Regulations over the past 30 years have tightened up rules and learned lessons from notable ...
Design and SpecificationStandards and Regulations
Eurocode 1 - Actions on Building Structures
BS EN 1991, Eurocode 1: Actions on Structures provides information and guidance on all the actions that it's usually necessary to consider in the design of buildings and civil engineering structures. ...
Standards and RegulationsFire safety
Building Regulations Explained - Overview
Parts L, J, F and G of the Building Regulations Approved Documents have been amended. From October 2010, energy efficiency standards, improved ventilation rates and significant carbon reduction ...
Standards and RegulationsFire safety
Fire Stopping
High profile fires like the one at Lakanal House in Camberwell in 2009, re-emphasise the fundamental importance of fire safety measures. This programme takes a look at principles of fire safety, ...
Standards and RegulationsFire safety
Fire safety and heritage buildings
Peter Barker, Senior Consultant at Chiltern International Fire , outlines the issues and offers practical advice on managing the fire risk in historic buildings.
