09 Ago The Importance of Room Data Sheets
Room information sheets provide an organized overview of a building’s needs. They are vital for design, planning, and project development. They help with communication and quality control, as well as facilitate change management.
They are usually created during the briefing (architectural programming in the US) phases of a project to explain the client’s requirement for each space type. They are then used as a basis for a specification to help contractors and designers know what is expected of the spaces, and to ensure that the proposed solution is in line with the requirements of the client.
Architects create room data sheets via interviews with clients and stakeholders. They are often still in the process and can remain a ‘living document until the design team have agreed to them.
When creating a data sheet for an area, it is important to to categorize all items as ‘general’ or “specific”. A common requirement could be that the office needs to be soundproofed to a certain alternate data stream extent and specific requirements could include:
With Layer’s standard digital room templates for data sheets and predefined picklists, you are able to record all the necessary information in a simple and efficient manner. This can help designers to think in a systematic manner about all possible requirements, while reducing the risk of missing or forgetting something. When you connect your data sheets to an IFC floorplan it is possible to create adjacency charts to understand how requirements are transformed into spatial solutions.