As businesses get ready to reopen their office buildings while keeping to social distancing measures, what might the impact be on energy efficiency in those buildings – and the climate emergency?.

The diagram below shows how detailed requirements can be documented and managed through the design process, and compliance validated in the manufacture and assembly phase:.Rigorous, automated QA gives total confidence in compliance.

Automatic generation of models ensures that the correct components are used and are performing within their defined parameters and also that the data is properly structured and follows all of the information management protocols.. NB Even if the models are not automatically generated, the same principles can be used to create automated workflows e.g.scripting or use of software such as Solibri.This helps ensure that even manually created models can be checked to ensure that again all of the technical requirements and constraints are being met..

This digitisation or automation of all aspects of the design and the data attached to it, allows an automated checking process that isn’t subject to human error, so teams can be confident that the testing and certification is rigorous and holistic..In traditional construction, data is manually tweaked, but this human interpretation and intervention can break the compliance thread.

When automated, it is easier to track even the smallest of changes and immediately understand the implications of substitutions.

The data remains ‘clean’..However, this process requires bravery.

There may be times when the answer to a problem is not known.It’s important to acknowledge that, and to trust that working together will lead to the best solution..

There are other benefits as well.Swapping one's normal, corporate working environment for a more interesting design office, liberates thinking and democratises the process.