The Golden Thread

Since the devastating effects of the Grenfell Fire, the UK government have worked with the Building Regulations Advisory Committee, to introduce a stringent requirement for recording crucial building safety information, from design phase to completion and throughout its operational life cycle. The information ensures the building and later building works adheres to relevant building regulations as well as identifying, understanding, managing, and mitigating building safety risks. It is required to be stored digitally and easily accessible for those who need it. This is known as the Golden Thread of the information.

As part of ensuring BCAL’s services are compliant with requirements of the new Building Safety Act, BCAL use BIM (Building Information Modelling) Stage 2 as part of its standard design process. BCAL’s 3D models, which are backed up by formal BIM certification through BRE Global now inherently capture safety information, available through a single source. Furthermore, the civil and structural designs are seamlessly integrated with the wider design team and therefore avoiding potential clashes at early stages of each project. BCAL’s dedicated BIM Management Service provide continued support with all project stakeholders to ensure all are working to a high standard through the BIM process.  

BCAL also offer its innovative Digital Building Manual, a cloud-based service, which integrates the BIM model with the asset information, all stored on a single platform. It also includes an easy-to-use facilities management tool. 

BCAL’s Digital Building Manual can be accessed by the clients/end users through a mobile app or computer with internet access, ensuring that up-to-date asset information is always on hand for the safe and efficient management of the building, therefore facilitating the Golden Thread of information. 

The Building Safety Act 2022 places more emphasis than ever before on the safety of people in and around buildings especially those buildings at a higher risk, the larger the building the higher the potential risk. Our Digital Twin Building Manual is certainly one simple way to meet the requirements of the Golden Thread.