DesignXY Ltd Journal offering insight into the RIBA Plan of Work and how this offers a framework for projects that can be utilised to powerful effect by clients, consultants and contractors.

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Equal to the importance of an architect’s design skills, are their abilities to bring order to a project. To avoid the prospect of starting from scratch each time, or for every architectural practice to develop their own processes for contractors, clients and colleagues to follow, the Royal Institute of British Architects developed The RIBA Plan of Work.

https://www.architecture.com/knowledge-and-resources/resources-landing-page/riba-plan-of-work

The Plan of Work was made available to architects in its first guise, in 1963.  There have been a number of evolutions of the Plan of Work over the ensuing decades, with the most recent version, the RIBA Plan of Work 2020, adapted from the previous version from 2013.

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The current version of the Plan of Work recognises eight key stages of a project.

• Stage 0 :  Strategic Definition

• Stage 1 : Preparation and Briefing

• Stage 2 : Concept Design

• Stage 3 : Spatial Coordination

• Stage 4 : Technical Design

• Stage 5 : Manufacturing and Construction

• Stage 6 : Handover

• Stage 7 : Use

As might be expected, given the declaration by the RIBA that our world needs solutions to an ongoing climate emergency, the most recent version of the Plan of Work places a much stronger emphasis on sustainable design. 

The RIBA Plan of Work 2020 is designed to work seamlessly with a Green Overlay, which offers additional depth in terms of the questions to be asked, as well as the development of suitable responses.

Of comparable importance, is the integration of the BIM overlay.  Building Information Modelling is now a core component of a contemporary architectural practice’s design toolkit.

BIM is evolving towards the development of digital twins, which is the concept that a building is designed in a computer, but the model of the building remains in use throughout the life cycle of the physical building.

The building model can be used to develop and maintain building management (i.e. building services) systems, planning for extensive mid-life cycle refurbishments, or even for the safe planning and demolition of structures.

In addition to the BIM Overlay and the Green Overlay, embedded in the fabric of the RIBA Plan of Work 2020 are the threads of a number of strategies, which are reviewed and monitored through the respective stages of the project plan.  These are the Conservation Strategy, Cost Strategy, Fire Safety Strategy, Health & Safety Strategy, Inclusive Design Strategy, Planning Strategy, Plan for Use Strategy, Procurement Strategy and the Sustainability Strategy. 

The scope and extent of the Plan of Work can be tailored to the scale and complexity of individual projects, but there are questions relating to each of the strategies that are raised early in the Plan of Work, and then re-visited at each stage of the project.

This ensures that threads of decision making are recognised, recorded and the associated intent is carried through from a concept, into a building that manifests the values and decisions made throughout the process.

There is also a significant advantage from a health & safety perspective, ensuring that all stakeholders are able to use a common frame of reference for the stages of development of a project.  This reduces the likelihood that design terminology is used in a way that may be misinterpreted by another person, which might lead to otherwise avoidable mistakes, injuries or increased costs.

The recent introduction of the Building Safety Act 2022 has already led to changes in the construction industry that are intended to generate additional levels of scrutiny, accountability and safety within the construction industry; the Plan of Work provides a helpful framework of reference by which the ‘Golden Thread’ of safety can be followed, with respect to buildings that are considered to be of higher risk, and the procedural / statutory gateways that have been introduced through the Act.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/30/contents/enacted

DesignXY has incorporated the RIBA Plan of Work into our in-house project management system (utilising monday.com), which is at the heart of our planning, monitoring, billing and quality assurance procedures.  The system ensures that the key components are considered in the early stages of a project, and then reconsidered at every subsequent stage.