Room information sheets provide an organized overview of the building’s requirements. They are essential for design, planning, and project development. They aid in communication, quality assurance, and change management.
They are usually developed during the briefing (architectural programming in the US) phases of a project to communicate the client’s requirements for each type of space. They are then used to create specifications that assist designers and contractors comprehend what the client is expecting from the space, and ensures that any proposed solution meets the requirements of the client.
Architects make room data sheets by conducting interviews with stakeholders and clients. They are often an ongoing project and can be a living document until the design team have reached an agreement on the final version.
When creating a sheet of data for an area, it is crucial to label the items you create as ‘general’ or “specific”. For instance, a common requirement might be that the office must be soundproofed to a certain level, while specific requirements might include things like:
With Layer’s standardized digital room data sheet templates and pre-defined picklists, you can capture all required information in a simple and efficient manner. This allows designers to be logical and think about all requirements, thus reducing the possibility of forgetting or omitting something. In addition, when you connect your room data sheets to an IFC floor plan you can automatically create adjacency diagrams and see how requirements will be translated into spatial solutions.