18
ROUND TABLE REVIEW
This openly accessible record has the potential to protect specifications like never before, with ‘specification-switching’ to inferior products (based on spurious ‘value engineering’) having been an endemic problem in the industry for decades, and one present on Grenfell Tower’s refurbishment. A new approval regime (implemented on 6 April 2024) for 18 metre-plus buildings is overseen by the HSE’s new Building Safety Regulator, which will approve designs at key ‘Gateways’ through the process, effectively operating as Building Control for the buildings covered. With architects potentially poised to take a much bigger role
in ‘higher-risk’ projects, we decided to hold our third sponsored Building Insights LIVE construction round table on the subject of how the Golden Thread is working in practice. The multi- disciplinary meeting shared experience from projects, and designers, developers and product manufacturers were able to learn valuable lessons from experts in the field. Held at the Building Centre in London shortly before the new regime came into force, the meeting was another example of how as a publisher we are creating platforms to bring professionals together and support the growth of best practice.
The broad mix of professionals enabled a practical, nuts-and- bolts look at navigating the complexities of the Golden Thread in real projects. This included looking at what standards were being applied currently, and where standardisation could benefit professionals as they battle to comply with the BSA. We also asked our attendees to help shape the agenda, submitting questions to be included in the discussion, and also to provide recommendations for industry – these are captured at the end of this report.
Session 1: Unravelling the Golden Thread The first session of the round table looked at the features of the Golden Thread itself and the new procurement regime. In practice. The nature of this digital audit trail; what it covers, and how it is gathered, stored, shared and handed over to the client (‘Accountable Person’) at the end of construction, is being left to the industry to work out. At the same time, as architect Richard Harrison pointed out, “the client will be put in the hot seat, they have to drive the project right from the start – decide who is going to be involved, and whether they are the right people.” Principal Designers and Principal Contractors now embarking on
Golden Thread projects are still figuring out the data management competencies needed (and legal implications) of taking these roles. However, round table chair, Architects Datafile’s managing editor James Parker, kicked off the discussion by asking the delegates whether they thought the BSA had created a framework that was fit to support accountability and rigorous information management, thereby ensuring robust specifications.
Accountability Lucy Craig, an architect working for major developer Mace, said that identifying who is responsible for which decision was not straightforward in complex higher-risk schemes: “Saying who the accountable people are is quite a difficult task in multiple areas.” Craig added that she was not convinced that the RIBA Plan of Work was yet being used effectively to move design decisions to the front of such projects, as is the aim for the Golden Thread: “We are still getting to a point where Stage 4 is done, but there’s still a large portion of design that needs to be done by trade contractors and specialists.”
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“The Principal Designer role makes last minute value engineering and change far less likely” Ben Wallbank, Trimble EMEA
AECOM’s Peter Sutcliffe, who specialises in MEP aspects of major projects, said there were challenges to bring subcontractors and suppliers in early enough, and that “a number of things in financial and contractual models need to change; it is potentially going to extend programmes, and expectations have to be managed.”
BIM is seen as the key method for ensuring the collaboration and information sharing which the Golden Thread is predicated on, but Craig warned that key issues on accountability remained to be addressed, which were more related to contractual issues than BIM itself: “The procurement strategies aren’t quite right, and that’s inter-related to the contract. I don’t hear those in the discussion a lot; actually modelling isn’t a contractual mechanism, it’s a co-ordination tool.” She added however that “gaps in capabilities” around BIM design were “impacting what developers can make contractual.” Ben Wallbank, a BIM advocate, welcomed the BSA and the Building Safety Regulator’s role in vetting projects: “This is a degree of independence that frankly, no Building Control officer in the private sector will offer.” He also said that taking on the ‘Responsible Person’ role was no small undertaking: “Someone is going to get prosecuted, hard,” but qualified this later by saying added that whether we are the ‘Responsible Party’ or not, we all have a responsibility to collect and keep the relevant data.”
Evolving standards
The round table looked at how the industry was apportioning responsibility for co-ordinating the reams of building safety data required in large residential projects. Delegates discussed emerging best practice on storing and sharing data in a Common Data
ADF MAY 2024
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