What Specifiers Want 2017 articles

This year’s 2020 BIM report marks the 10th year of asking the industry for their views about BIM. Read the latest on the state of BIM, reflecting the views of over 1,000 industry professionals. See how usage and views of BIM have changed since 2011. What progress have we made as an industry and what changes do we anticipate in the next decade?

In this article, the process followed at AHMM, which aligns to this RIBA Plan of Work framework, is outlined. Complexities that relate to the following are covered: preparing for specification writing; providing clarity between descriptive and prescriptive specifications; and coordinating specifications with the wider set of project information.

Sustainability is arguably the most expansive strategy in the RIBA Plan of Work 2020. It is also a topic that is being asked about increasingly when specifiers are reaching out to NBS to know more about how our technical content can help them achieve sustainable outcomes for their projects.

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 information. However, the approach that contractors are taking is a reactive one which fails to make use or take the full benefit of the technology.

Over recent years, one of the most popular requests for improvements from construction professionals who use NBS has been the request for prominent evidence of third-party certifications regarding construction manufacturer products.

With the launch of our new platform, NBS Source, we at NBS have enhanced the data structure for manufacturer products and systems within our listings. We’re calling this ‘enhanced data’. 

Within NBS Source, each item (whether it is a product, a company, a case study or a PDF) has a short, permanent hyperlink. Within NBS, we are calling these short, permanent hyperlinks ‘permalinks’.

This is the latest in our quarterly updating programme for Uniclass 2015 and includes updates to five tables.

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 attendees. These questions are addressed below by Dale and Alex Tait, Head of Technical Practice at RIBA.

As part of a recent NBS webinar on collaborative specification writing, Chris Dixon (Associate Architect at Franklin Ellis Architects) described how he had worked with Dulux Trade to develop paint systems specifications for a complex building project.

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 budgets for reduction – this is usually a big mistake!

The UK Government has published their response to the ‘Building a Safer Future’ consultation. This outlines the coming changes to the regulatory system for building safety. Lee Jones, Head of Manufacturer Solutions at NBS, provides a summary of the report below.