Specification decisions have acquired new complexity in the era of the Building Safety Act. At a roundtable by Building magazine, our regional director Richard Dowdall joined other experts in sharing insights on the new challenges and opportunities the industry faces, in an article first published here:

The Building Safety Act has ushered in a transformative era for the construction industry, imposing stringent new requirements and fundamentally altering the landscape of building design and construction, particularly for higher-risk buildings.

The discussion, which took place prior to the publication of the Grenfell Inquiry report, delved into the complexities of balancing aesthetics, functionality and compliance with the new safety regulations, with Richard and participants sharing their insights into the challenges and opportunities that the new requirements pose.

Themes of the discussion included:

• Challenges and solutions – the changes brought about by the Building Safety Act, and why it presents an opportunity to relearn and respond to new requirements with a fresh mindset
• The role of specification in higher-risk buildings – and the risk of overspecification at Gateway 2, with Richard expressing how this could lead to inefficiencies and increased costs: “We have to be cautious about overspecification that can work against us”
• Early engagement and collaboration – Richard highlighted the need for engagement with the supply chain as early as possible, saying it is “essential to manage costs and ensure the right specifications are met”
• Future outlook and adaption – with Richard highlighting the need to be adaptable. “Ongoing collaboration and adaptation are essential to successfully navigating the changes brought by the Building Safety Act”
• Cost and resource management – Richard explained how, “with the new regulations, we might see a significant impact on costs and resource allocation, which needs to be managed carefully”

Our teams can help with navigating the Building Safety Act, so if you’d like to hear more please get in touch.

Around the table, participants included:

• Chair: Jordan Marshall, special projects editor, Building
• Ian Aldous, director, Mace
• Neal Allen-Burt, partner, Sheppard Robson
• Richard Dowdall, regional director, Civic Engineers
• Gary Farnhill, business development manager, Longworth Building Services
• Tom Kearsley, operations director, Glencar Construction
• David Kelly, associate director, Aecom
• Graham Kelly, managing director, Okana
• Mike Lee, specification manager, Equitone
• Nenad Manasijevic, principal director, TP Bennett
• Alan Morrissey, specification consultant, RLB
• Michael Riley, architect director, BDP
• Francesca Roberts, senior architect, Hawkins\Brown
• Lee Smith, contracts director, Longworth Building Services

As first published by Building, with image credit to the publication.