The Heating and Ventilating Research Council was established in 1955 in the aftermath of the second world war to help the construction industry benefit from the latest research. It went on to become the Heating and Ventilating Research Association in 1959 and then in 1975, the Building Services Research and Information Association (BSRIA).

Now generally referred to simply as BSRIA, it is a non-profit distributing, member-based association, with profits invested back into its research programmes. Its trading company, BSRIA Limited, was established in 2000. This is a wholly-owned subsidiary that undertakes all trading activities, including research and membership services.

BSRIA employs 180 people at their head office in Bracknell (UK), at regionally based construction compliance offices throughout the UK, and at offices in China, USA, Germany, France and Spain.

It now describes its mission as ‘to make buildings better...’ by enabling ‘…the building services and construction industries and their clients to enhance the value of the built environment, by improving the quality of their products and services, the efficiency of their provision and the effectiveness of their operation.’

BSRIA undertakes activities that go beyond building services research and information:

• Design support.

• Construction compliance.

• Facilities management support.

• Testing.

• Instrument solutions.

• Market intelligence and management consultancy.

It offers corporate membership, with benefits including access to research and information, education and market research, as well as having member interests represented to the wider industry and government by the BSRIA council.

Articles contributed by BSRIA on Designing Buildings Wiki include:

• Achieving carbon targets and bridging the skills gap. August 2015
• Air conditioning inspection procedure.
• BIM and facilities management.
• BIM classification.
• BIM networking event. April 2015
• BIM roadmap. 2015
• Broadmeadows Primary School.
• BSRIA Networks. 2015
• BSRIA launch smart technology topic guide. January 2016
• BSRIA responds to UK Air Pollution Report. February 2016
• BSRIA support study into Australian solution to performance gap. November 2015.
• Building performance evaluation.
• Building performance evaluation in non-domestic buildings guide – an introduction to the tests and methods in non-domestic buildings. September 2015.
• Building performance metrics.
• Building services compliance with the building regulations. 2014
• Building services maintenance contractors’ role in reducing carbon emissions. 2014
• Building Services Research and Information Association BSRIA.
• Can relationships in and between organisations make tangible differences to business performance? April 2015.
• CIC BIM 2050 Group. November 2015.
• Closing the gap between design and as-built performance.
• Commissioning planning.
• Comparison of HSE ACOP L8 and HSG 274 guidance with previous versions of the ACOP. April 2015.
• Convergence and big data, The impact on structured cabling. December 2015.
• Corrosion in heating and cooling systems.
• Cyber threats to building automation and control systems. 2015
• Data centre cooling.
• Design of isolation rooms for infection control. 2015
• Devising an energy management strategy across disparate buildings. 2015
• Digital Built Britain v BIM. 2016
• Domestic ventilation systems performance.
• Energy storage.
• Energy supply disruption. November 2015
• European connected and smart home market. 2011
• European hydronic controls market. 2015
• General lighting v task lighting.
• Global Air Conditioning Study 2016. June 2016.
• Global Bathroom Market (2015). August 2015
• Global building energy management systems market. 2014
• Global pressures and the future of building technologies. August 2015.
• Global study of challenges and opportunities in the BACS market. 2014
• Guide to heat interface units. December 2015.
• HSG 274 Legionnaires' disease, Technical guidance. 2015
• Identifying the causes of trends in construction labour productivity. January 2016
• In-house or outsource maintenance. 2015
• Indoor air quality. 2014
• INSPiRe renovation solutions for residential and office buildings. January 2016
• Initial commissioning case studies.
• Innovation – the key differentiator. 2015
• Large hyper data centres demand for precision cooling. August 2015
• Life Cycle Costing (BG67/2016). March 2016.
• Measuring the success of smart cities. January 2016
• Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology soft landings project. June 2016
• Model Format for Building Services Specifications BG56 2016. March 2016
• NanoPigmy. 2015
• Overheating in homes – BSRIA residential network event. August 2015
• Planning the commissioning of buildings.
• Post Occupancy Evaluation: operational performance of a refurbished office building. 2015
• Products and Systems for Generation Z in Reduced Carbon Buildings. September 2015.
• Refrigeration market in Saudi Arabia. October 2015
• Refrigerant selection.
• Robotic total station.
• Seasonal and continuous commissioning.
• Smart cities and smart energy. June 2015
• Smart meters and building performance evaluation. 2013
• Smart technology.
• Stoke Local Service Centre post occupancy evaluation.
• Testing solid fuel stoves. 2013
• The changing nature of apprenticeships. November 2015.
• The future of the HVAC and building controls industry. 2015
• The history of non-domestic air tightness testing.
• The problems with smart buildings. January 2016.
• The use of batteries to store electricity for buildings. 2015
• TSI Environmental dust monitoring system. November 2015.
• Utilising life cycle costing and life cycle assessment.
• Who is the greatest engineer? November 2015
• Wireless vs wired building energy management system. 2013
• World Air Conditioning market study. 2015