RAAC issue could be prevented by new building passports, engineers say

A new passport system for buildings could help to prevent another RAAC-style health and safety failing, according to engineers at the University of Sheffield. 

Called a Building Passport, the new documentation framework could better record information on how buildings are designed, constructed, maintained and modified. The system is being designed to store all of the key details about the construction of a building - such as what materials were used, when they were last checked and when their life cycle is due to end - all in one place.

Some building passports already exist, such as Material Passport frameworks that aim to help developers reduce waste and contribute to a more circular economy. Other proposals for new passports focus on building renovations to help improve energy performance, or to ensure that health and safety aspects of a building are properly understood prior to emergencies and in-keeping with changing policy - such as the requirement to upgrade facades following the Grenfell disaster.

However, the use of these passports is limited to only a few exemplar cases. Furthermore, this important data is fragmented across different systems, which makes it difficult to access, and often they have not been updated since a building was first constructed. 

The new system being developed at Sheffield, in the University’s Resources, Infrastructure Systems and built Environments (RISE) Group, is aiming to consolidate all of these existing passports into one standardised framework. Once fully developed and if rolled out nationally, it could provide a simple, more effective way of recording key information on all buildings throughout the UK.

Will Mihkelson, a Research Associate in the University of Sheffield’s Department Civil and Structural Engineering, and scholar in the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures, said: “The current RAAC issue is a trademark example of why we need a building passport system. The passports that currently exist are fragmented, which makes it difficult to use them to keep track of how buildings have been designed, constructed, maintained and modified. 

“What we’re developing here at Sheffield is a new framework that brings all of these existing systems together in one standardised framework that can be used by every developer across the UK on both existing and new buildings. Having this one, standardised system that is used by everyone, will make it far easier to monitor the condition of buildings going forward so potential issues such as RAAC can be identified and addressed much earlier and in a way that maximises the safety and sustainability of the building.”

Charles Gillott, a Research Associate in the University of Sheffield’s Resources, Infrastructure Systems and built Environments (RISE) Group, and scholar in the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures, said: "Building passports are a very simple concept that, with little additional effort, could revolutionise the way we view built assets. We have passports and medical records for people, and log books and MOTs for cars, so why shouldn't we collect and store important and up to date information for the buildings we live and work in? 

“The benefits of building passports are numerous. As well as recording exactly which materials and components have been used in different areas of a building, they can help us to understand how it was constructed, should be maintained and could be adapted or deconstructed in the future. In the context of RAAC, this would have allowed issues to be preempted, sped up the identification process, and enabled remediation works to be carried out much more cheaply and quickly."

In addition to helping avoid future health and safety failings, the passport system being developed at the University of Sheffield is also aiming to make it easier to reuse more buildings rather than demolish them.

Refurbishing rather than demolishing can help to reduce waste, lower the demand for new raw materials and help to reduce carbon emissions from the built environment, which is responsible for 40 per cent of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions and 60 per cent of its waste.

Will Mihkelson, said: “Our passport system is aiming to build on the passports that currently exist for materials, so it can be used to better inform the design strategies at different stages of the lifespan of a building. This can help to ensure that circular economy strategies - reusing materials rather than discarding them and using new ones - can be used in construction more effectively going forward.”

The Sheffield engineers have been developing and testing their passport system on a refurbishment project led by London-based Orms architects. The team has produced a template that is linked via Airtable software to the architect’s 3D building models.

The researchers have created a prototype template as a first attempt to create an industry-standard system. 

Will Mihkelson added: “We hope this will raise awareness of the need for a building passport system and create next steps towards developing an industry standard. We hope that building passports of the future will be stored on a central database, ideally through something like OS, so that they are accessible for decades to come and enable analyses of the UK building stock. Before this can be done, there is a clear need to consult with industry more widely so that there is consensus on the minimum required information and how this is effectively communicated to all stakeholders. For this to happen, the industry needs to come together to encourage the UK government in the right direction, as they have done already with the proposal for a Net Zero Carbon Building Standard."

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