Implementing The Building Safety Act in collaborative practice
The Building Safety Act is long overdue and welcome shake up of the industry. However, how does this work in the day-to-day of a collaborative approach to practice?
Our collaborative approach to practice incorporates peer review, and we advocate for teams made up of specialists in their roles.
The requirements of the Act
The new role of Principal Designer under building regulations (PD Breg), not to be confused with the same name Principal Designer under CDM regulations (PD CDM), poses new direct accountability on designers, requiring that they have the competency to design in compliance with the Building Regulations, and that they demonstrate it.
A key consequence of this change, which appears to be missing from informative guidance to clients and the industry, is that this new role comes with an increased workload and liability in providing this evidence. It’s not that competent architects were not already ensuring their design was in line with the building regulations, but if they are acting as the PD Breg, they now need to have the systems in place to prove it. This requires documentation of compliance with all parts of the building regulations: an understandable but considerable undertaking.
To aid New-works understand how best to document competency, we collaborated with CDRM who provide the role of PD CDM for projects we work on. In their capacity as PD CDM, they are specialists in structuring and maintaining live compliance records through the life of a project.
We had multiple meetings to run through processes proving competency and the form of documentation to support that. The result was a a document that illustrates competency for each clause in every part of the building regulations. With this knowledge and process in place, we are able to quantify work required for each stage and advise the clients accordingly of the new role and why it was an additional service requiring dedicated resource.
How the role of PD Bregs works in a collaborative architecture team
An important consideration for New-works has been to understand how the role of PD Bregs is properly met where we collaborate with delivery practices and MMC manufacturers through delivery. There is more about how we see specialism and collaboration working here. Under this model the lead design role changes hands in later stages. How do we ensure the role of PD Breg is properly addressed with this crossover in the lead role?
Firstly, we will be ensure that the client is informed of the role and that it is an additional service to the rest of the architectural scope. How it is performed, and by whom, will vary to suit the project.
Secondly, from the outset we clearly set out who will act as PD Breg. Where we collaborate with a known delivery practice or MMC manufacturer from the outset, we advocate for them performing the PD Breg role throughout the life of the project. If we perform the role from the start, then we set out when this transfer may best take place between practices, which will vary depending on scale and complexity of project, and when the lead role changes hands.
Thirdly, if there is a handover of the PD Bregs role then it is important to ensure there are no gaps in responsibility and accountability. We expect evidence of compliance to be shared at each stage between both parties, with comments returned as necessary. We see this peer review as a benefit to the project, and both practices in ensuring all design decisions are safe, secure, accessible, and sustainable.
Our collaborative approach to practice incorporates peer review, and we advocate for teams made up of specialists in their roles. We believe this improves the quality of our buildings, and increases the competence of the professional team.
Ben Rowe, Director