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
ventilation
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.
ventilation
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.
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
Reduce embodied carbon from the start
Measure, compare and reduce upfront embodied carbon using trusted UK data and pre-built assemblies.
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
Will we ever achieve zero carbon homes?
In December 2006 the government made an ambitious pledge. It was a pledge that would have ensured that within a decade every new home would be a 'zero carbon' home.
SustainabilityVentilation
New standards for lifts (EN 81-20 and EN 81-50)
Two new European standards for the design and manufacture of lifts were introduced in August 2014 - EN 81-20: 2014 and EN 81-50: 2014.
Design and SpecificationStandards and Regulations
The NBS guide to damp
All material contains moisture to greater or lesser degrees. Those that are porous – concrete, mortar, wood – begin their life with their pores filled with water. As they dry, the water content drops ...
Design and SpecificationSustainability
What makes a passivhaus?
In recent years the term ‘Passivhaus’ has become a byword for an ‘eco-friendly’ dwelling. The evolution of the energy-saving home has taken leads from Scandinavian and mainland European ...
SustainabilityStandards and Regulations
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Gas safety regulations
The use of gas-fired heating appliances in buildings is subject to stringent regulations, and, as you'd expect, there is a wealth of information available on gas safety for householders and landlords ...
Standards and RegulationsVentilation
'Thermal comfort' in timber frame buildings
As thermal performance requirements get ever tighter, the construction industry is getting to grips with new SAP calculations, PSI values and novel construction products, to achieve reduced CO2 ...
Construction ProductsVentilation
How the Palace of Westminster gets rid of all that hot air
Images of the crumbling fabric and antiquated network of environmental services, including the mechanical ventilation and air-conditioning system in the Palace of Westminster, suggest that the ...
Design and SpecificationSustainability
What is a U-value?
Although the main focus of environmental performance of buildings is now on carbon usage, there is still a need to consider thermal performance of the building fabric as a contributing factor. ...
Construction ProductsVentilation
Excess heat (2/8)
This is the second in an eight-part series of articles, Climate Change Adaptation in Buildings, examining the impact of climate change on the built environment, and the responses that can be made to ...
SustainabilityVentilation
Learning lessons
One of the most important aspects of getting to understand how BIM works is to see what happens when you use it on a real project. Obviously, there are quite a few jobs that are now up and running ...
