Guide to Using the RIBA Plan of Work 2013 - Other - Page 82
Guide to Using the RIBA Plan of Work 2013
Design Responsibility Matrix
The Design Responsibility Matrix is an important BIM document, related closely
to the level of detail, which is considered further below. The Design Responsibility
Matrix addresses the issue of design responsibility between consultants in the
design team, but, more importantly, it also addresses the design interface between
consultants and the specialist subcontractors employed by the contractor.
The boundaries between structural and building services engineers and specialist
subcontractors have been clarified in recent years and there are common
expectations regarding the interfaces between the various designers. For the
architect, specific components, such as curtain walling, are exceptions to the rule
that there is no commonly agreed method of determining those aspects for which
the architect retains design responsibility and those where design responsibility
passes to a specialist subcontractor via the Building Contract. JCT Building
Contracts have facilitated the prescription of such elements for some time. The
RIBA Plan of Work 2013, through the inclusion of specialist subcontractor design
in Stage 4 and the Design Responsibility Matrix, encourages greater consideration
of this important subject.
The Design Responsibility Matrix is of particular importance on a BIM project as it
ensures that every party with design responsibilities is clear regarding the design
information they will be contributing to the federated BIM model and the level of
detail that this model will contain. The matrix is of particular importance to the lead
designer, who must ensure that it allows any design coordination obligations that
are allocated to this role to be undertaken.
Federated model
A holistic model of a project consisting of models from each member of the
design team that are linked together – the model may contain geometric and/or
data information.
Information Exchanges (and level of detail)
Chapter 3 examined why consideration of Information Exchanges is a crucial
matter in relation to the RIBA Plan of Work 2013 and how use of the Information
Exchanges template in assembling a collaborative project team will facilitate this.
It also clarified why level of detail is an important subject.
If we consider the typical development of a federated BIM model we can begin to
understand the complexities of the subject:
• The architect develops the concept design model and, following a number of
iterations using rendered visualisations, achieves client sign-off.
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