The RIBA Plan of Work is a go-to for architects and many disciplines within the built and natural environment, defining; stage outcomes, core tasks and information exchanges across eight stages of the design and construction process. Most will also make use of its extensive suite of Plan of Work guidance on core strategies such as fire safety, sustainable outcomes and procurement.
But there is now a library of Plan of Work overlays offering practical guidance on six more specialist approaches to design, all structured to align with the familiar work stages. These overlays do not require the readers to be specialists, but instead help support appropriate and timely considerations, expertise and activities to support successful project outcomes in line with the RIBA Plan of Work stages in these helpful additional resources.
Smart Building Overlay
The Smart Building Overlay sets out a roadmap for coordinating smart building systems at every work stage to create opportunities to enhance and innovate how we interact with, manage, and improve our built environment. It calls for specialist engagement within the design process as early as possible.
The overlay resource was developed for RIBA by specialists at ScanTech Digital, Glider Technology, Kier and Hoare Lea to support anyone involved in the design of newbuild, retrofit or refurbishment projects. It can be applied to any building typology.
Smart technologies can offer a number of advantages, such as managing building occupancy more efficiently – tracking users, reducing the number of meeting spaces, reducing desk space – and so reduce the size of a planned building. Designers might even find they can satisfy a client’s needs with a refurbishment project rather than a new building.
Engagement Overlay
The Engagement Overlay offers architects and other built environment professionals a framework for meaningful stakeholder engagement at every stage of a project. With over 30 different organisations offering insight and best practice into engagement, it was welcomed as the first comprehensive guide to what an exemplar engagement process should look like.
The overlay supports better project engagement outcomes for everyone involved in the procurement, design, delivery, management, maintenance and use of the built and natural environment. The guidance provides a set of core tasks and advisory tasks that can be applied with proportionality, throughout all work stages.
The Engagement Overlay was developed in collaboration with the Association of Collaborative Design (ACD) and Sustrans, and is supported by the Landscape Institute. It guides professionals at the earliest stages of a project through to management and stewardship of completed buildings and spaces.
Inclusive Design Overlay
The Inclusive Design Overlay seeks to embed inclusive design across all stages of construction projects and empower each of the teams involved, from clients to asset managers, as well as encouraging engagement from users of the built and natural environment to contribute to successful outcomes. The intention behind the overlay was to put an end to the practice of seeing inclusive design and accessibility as an add-on, perhaps directed by an arm’s length specialist.
With over one hundred professionals from 25 professions contributing to the overlays’ detail, it was seen as the first industry-coordinated technical framework for delivering inclusive design.
The overlay highlights the value of engaging with an Inclusive Design Lead (Consultant or Champion) to drive inclusion within the design agenda, alongside five project roles: Client, Project Management Team, Design Team, Construction Team and Asset Management Team.
Security Overlay
The Security Overlay is for everyone involved in the safe and secure design, construction and operation of any building.
For architects and design teams, integrating security measures into the design as early as possible, including physical and technological features, can leverage the expertise of the wider security landscape.
The overlay brings a structured approach to security-focussed project briefing and design and encourages clients and design team members to look afresh at each new project from a security perspective, from residential projects to public buildings where there could be a threat to national security. It recognises that every location will present a different set of potential security risks.
The overlay was prepared in association with the National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) with assistance from Police Crime Prevention Initiatives (Police CPI). The agencies say the overlay offers practical guidance on the best ways to approach security and highlights how threats and security considerations are not static, but are evolving all the time.
Passivhaus Overlay
Jointly commissioned by the Passivhaus Trust and RIBA, the Passivhaus Overlay sets out key actions and processes at each work stage for clients and project teams aiming to deliver Passivhaus certified projects.
The focussed guidance outlines the key differences between Passivhaus workflows and 'conventional' project approaches. The overlay aims to help clients and project teams avoid risk and make informed, intelligent decisions at the right time in order to achieve Passivhaus certification in a streamlined and cost-effective way.
The guidance draws on the expertise of experienced Passivhaus designers and certifiers and synthesises the lessons learned from delivering projects across scales and typologies to highlight crucial windows of opportunity and workflow interactions.
Also highlighted are the synergies between the Passivhaus design process and strategies for reducing whole-life carbon in pursuit of RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge targets.
Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) Overlay
The second edition of the Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) Overlay published in 2021 built on five years of evolution and defined the seven categories of Modern Methods of Construction (MMC). This overlay built on the success of the first edition, that quickly became adopted by the industry as the definitive project management guide to implementing MMC.
As much as DfMA is a technical process, it can also be seen as a philosophy that extends the designer’s ordinary way of working. The DfMA Overlay sets out to explode the myth that MMC is a barrier to great architecture or should be reserved for limited sectoral building typologies.
The overlay comes with a supporting report explaining the drivers of change towards a manufacturing mindset and makes the case that DfMA will have to be increasingly adopted if the industry is meet future outcomes.
Case studies demonstrate how DfMA can produce extraordinary, award-winning architecture with few limits to where it can be applied. The overlay is relevant to all kinds of projects, including small projects and work on existing buildings.
Plan for Use Guide
The Plan for Use Guide is RIBA’s interpretation of the Soft Landings Framework produced by the Usable Buildings Trust and BSRIA. Its aim is to encourage a more outcome-based approach to briefing, design, construction, and handover, both within the architectural profession and (by extension) to the construction industry as a whole. The Plan for Use Guide is embedded within the RIBA Plan of Work 2020.
The guide is framed around three components;
- setting realistic and measurable targets for greater focus on defining performance outcomes or targets as part of the Project Brief
- completing Plan for Use activities to ensure that both the design and its construction are capable of meeting the agreed targets (these should be revised as necessary, as the understanding of the design and the client requirements develops over the course of a project);
- a commitment to measuring and evaluating the performance of the building in use to understand which targets have been met.
Sustainable Outcomes Guide
The Sustainable Outcomes Guide defines a concise measurable set of eight sustainable outcomes that correspond to key UN Sustainable Development Goals and can be delivered on building projects of all scales.
The guide explains each sustainable outcome and their key metrics, and provides design principles to achieve the outcome and describes approaches that can be used to verify performance using post occupancy evaluation and certification. The guide supports architects in taking the RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge (which will be reviewed when the UK Net Zero Carbon Building Standard is launched later this year).
Visit Practice in a Box to see our suite of Overlays to the RIBA Plan of Work and other guidance, tools and resources essential to architecture practice and project management.
Text by Neal Morris. This is a Professional Feature edited by the RIBA Practice team. Send us your feedback and ideas.
The guidance within our RIBA Plan of Work overlays support a number of RIBA Core Curriculum topics.
As part of the flexible RIBA CPD programme, professional features count as microlearning. See further information on the updated RIBA CPD core curriculum and on fulfilling your CPD requirements as a RIBA Chartered Member.
