Soft Landings for owners

[edit] Introduction

In June 2020, BSRIA (Building Services Research and Information Association) together with the Better Buildings Partnership (BBP), published the joint report: “Soft Landings: The Benefits to Commercial Property Owners.” The BBP is a collaboration of the UK's leading commercial property owners who are working together to improve the sustainability of existing commercial building stock.

[edit] Connecting design and operations

The commercial property sector is waking up to the fact that it needs to take responsibility on climate change and there is broad recognition that a significant gap exists between the design expectations and operational performance of buildings. Part of taking climate action involves minimising this gap.

Soft Landings is a BSRIA-led strategy which seeks to make the development of new buildings as smooth as possible, from inception to completion. The initiative complements the Design for Performance approach in that it seeks to address problems in construction before - and as - they arise to ensure there is no gap between design intent and actual performance.

Soft Landings champions transparency and continuity across all stakeholders.

[edit] Benefits to building owners

The report focuses on how property owners stand to benefit from implementing Soft Landings, featuring case studies and quotes from several Better Buildings Partnership members who have used the Soft Landings approach in one or more of their buildings. The report also outlines the necessary steps property managers need to take to make the implementation of Soft Landings successful.

The publication of the report aligns with BSRIA’s annual Soft Landings Conference. The 2020 conference focused on the topic of “culture change to combat climate change.”

BSRIA Technical Director Colin Goodwin says, "The built environment sector is complex, and the climate change challenges we face require collaboration across all disciplines. It is clear that we need to adopt a new way of working if we are going to create better places in which we can happily live, learn, work and enjoy our leisure time without damaging our environment. The Soft Landings approach can help the project team create better places, whether they are newly built, refurbished or repurposed, through increased collaboration."

BBP CEO Sarah Ratcliffe added, “Designing buildings to perform as intended requires collaboration and communication from project inception to occupation and beyond. We are pleased to publish this joint report with BSRIA which advocates the use of Soft Landings as a means of reaching sustainability goals.”

This originally appeared on the BSRIA website under the title, "BSRIA and The Better Buildings Partnership Publish Soft Landings Report for Owners." It was published in June 2020.

--BSRIA

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki

• 2020 Soft Landings Conference.
• Better Buildings Partnership.
• BSRIA articles on Designing Buildings Wiki.
• BSRIA Soft Landings Awards.
• Building owner's manual.
• Building users guide.
• Building performance evaluation.
• Building performance evaluation in non-domestic buildings guide – an introduction to the tests and methods in non-domestic buildings.
• Extended aftercare.
• Handover to client.
• Initial aftercare.
• Lessons learned report.
• Soft landings.
• Soft landings and business-focused maintenance.
• Soft landings and design for performance.
• Soft Landings and Government Soft Landings - A convergence guide for construction projects.
• Soft landings - helping clients lead contractors.

[edit] External resources

• Better Building Partnership, Soft Landings: The Benefits to Commercial Property Owners.