It is not enough to just hand over a building and leave the tenants floundering on how to operate it. But designers still have a long way to go regarding commissioning plans.
Reflecting on my early years with Oscar Faber, the whole principle of designing for maintainability was key and considered essential to the design itself. It is not enough to just hand over a building and leave the tenants floundering on how to operate it.
We knew then that designers have a responsibility in this area and we know now. Yet, after all these years, we still have a long way to go, but it is becoming increasingly important to think about commissioning plans and this is a principle recommendation in the proposed Part L 2010.
We have seen Building Regulations moving away from just design intent to actual operational performance. It is often said that if you can't measure it you can't manage it. To reflect this, CIBSE is currently overhauling TM39 on energy metering.
BSRIA has also recently launched its Soft Landings Framework for better briefing, design, handover and building performance in-user.
For truly sustainable buildings, they must be operated and maintained with delivering low energy/carbon outcomes in mind. This means designing and keeping up to date with the latest high efficiency equipment on the market and the most appropriate way to control it.
The new Building Services Compliance Guides for Part L outline the minimum performance standards and as we strive to exceed the minimum values, we must concentrate on how to maintain and fine-tune this equipment in operation to provide low carbon and low energy buildings in operation.
At the early design stage it is increasingly appropriate to engage with the facilities profession to ensure our solutions are robust, practical and simple to operate and that maintenance can be carried out in an efficient, cost effective and safe manner.
Professional facilities organisations can assist with this and give practical advice to ensure that we included into the design appropriate access and commissioning points, controls and monitoring equipment. It is cheaper to incorporate the requirements from day one than have to return post contract to address these deficiencies.
Let's always design with an understanding of how the building will operate in practice and then make sure that we pass on that understanding to our clients and to future tenants.