BSRIA updates design framework for building services
BSRIA has published the fourth edition of its ‘Design framework for building services’ (BG 6). This guide has become the industry-standard document for building-services and consultants to help them clarify and define the extent of their design activity and their design deliverables on any specific project. It is also used by clients and project managers to allocate design activity between members of a project team.
The design-activity pro-formas and drawing/model definitions in the guide are used to support contract documentation and encourage efficient collaborative working between building-services designers, architects, structural engineers, contractors and other specialists.
The principal changes in the latest edition reflect two key industry developments.
First is the publication of the RIBA plan of work 2013 and the draught of the digital plan of work prepared by the BIM task group. These two plans, which align with each other, are based on a new, more holistic view of the project life cycle. The new RIBA plan of work has stages numbered 0 to 7, which can be flexed according to the needs of a specific project, whereas the previous plan of work used letters A to L. Many of the new stages align with the old ones, but there are some significant changes that have required the structure of the BSRIA pro-formas in BG 6 to be amended.
Second, experience of using BIM has progressed since the third edition was published in 2012. Chapter 3 of the guide has been rewritten to reflect recent developments. In particular, the management of information and the project process for BIM level 2 is now defined through PAS 1192-2:2013. This revised section of the guide updates the design activities relating to BIM, especially the production of building-information models at different stages of design and the exchanged of structured information with a project client.
BG 6 is available in pdf, hard-copy and licensed versions (single or multi-site).
