Room data sheets offer a thorough overview of the building’s requirements. They are vital to design, planning and project development. They support communication as well as quality control. They also assist in managing change.
They are usually developed during the briefing phase (architectural programming in the US) of the project, to outline the clients’ requirements for each type of space. They are then used as an initial basis for a specification to assist contractors and design teams understand what is expected of the spaces, and to make sure that the proposed solution is in line with the client’s requirements.
Architects make room data sheets by conducting interviews with stakeholders and clients. They are usually a work in progress and may remain a living document’ until the design team has agreed to the final version.
When creating a data sheet for a space, it is important to remember to categorize the information as either general or “specific”. A common requirement could be that an office must be soundproofed to a certain degree however, specific requirements might include:
Layer’s digital room data sheets and predefined picklists enable you to collect all the required information in a well-organized and efficient manner. This helps designers think systematically and consider all needs, reducing the likelihood of omitting or ignoring something. When you connect your data sheets with an IFC floorplan you can create adjacency charts that show how requirements are transformed into spatial solutions.