• Progress has been made in the built environment towards achieving positive changes in culture
• The Building Safety Act provisions and Building Safety Regulator registration should accelerate change at a faster rate
• BIM creates transparency and a ‘golden thread’ of information, enabling management of building elements through a single platform

Paul Thompson, BIM Manager at ASSA ABLOY Opening Solution, has said that the introduction of the new Building Safety Act provisions and Building Safety Regulator registration should help to accelerate change in culture in the built environment at a faster rate.

The Building Safety Act

The 2022 Building Safety Act has recently introduced new provisions, which were enforced on 1st April 2023, including the duty to regularly review the safety and quality standards of buildings, facilitating the improvement of industry competence and building inspector standards, and establishing a system to provide building safety information.

The Act is due to be fully implemented by October 2023 and those responsible for the safety of high-rise buildings in England must register with the new Building Safety Regulator and have their building safety regime in place by this deadline. Failure to comply could lead to investigation and possible prosecution.

In order to establish an effective building safety regime, especially in high-risk environments like high-rise buildings, there are recommended methods to follow, including the ‘golden thread’ approach proposed by Dame Judith Hackett in her report, ‘Building a safer future’.

The ‘golden thread’ is a comprehensive tool for managing buildings as holistic systems, providing valuable information to design, construct and operate buildings safely and effectively. It encompasses the necessary steps to keep both the building and people safe, now and in the future.

Creating greater transparency

“There has been some progress made in the built environment towards achieving positive changes in culture, and the introduction of the new Building Safety Act provisions and Building Safety Regulator registration should help to accelerate change at a faster rate,” said Thompson

“BIM has the ability to create greater transparency and produce this ‘golden thread’ of information, allowing building elements such as doorsets to be managed through a single platform – from specification to installation and ongoing inspection.

“BIM applications also help to lock in positive behaviours from the very start of a project and support an increase in trust and confidence that safety is paramount throughout a building’s specification, construction and maintenance.”

ASSA ABLOY’s Openings Studio

ASSA ABLOY’s Openings Studio BIM app works with design software to create and show door openings, along with the schedule and specifications for the door, frame, and hardware, making it easy to create complete door requirements that meet building regulations.

Product, performance, and budget info is saved within the BIM design environment. Through real-time collaboration, designs can be validated for compliance, function, and appearance, and shown as 3D views that can be integrated into the overall project design.

ASSA ABLOY uses the final schedule of information to manufacture the complete doorset solution, including the leaf, frame, and all hardware specified.

An extension to Openings Studio is now widely used in the industry, which offers a mobile app that directly accesses this data for use during the door installation process, ensuring full validity of the finished product prior to project completion.

The app also offers an easy to use ‘check box’ system to carry out and capture detailed inspections based on the specific details of each door included in the schedule.

This report validates if a door has remained compliant, or identifies what elements need to be corrected or replaced to return the product to the standard required, providing full traceability and ownership of all changes at all stages.

This means the doorset is managed as a holistic compliant solution and connects all components through a single platform. This eliminates the risk that doors are pieced together as an assembly of parts from various sources or maintained and repaired as a collection of individual parts.

Thompson added: “This is a unique collaborative tool for all project stakeholders, helping to minimise costs and streamline the data sharing process throughout the entire project lifecycle – from the initial design, right through to construction, delivery, asset management and beyond.”