National Building Specification

NBS is a UK-based system of construction specification used by architects and other building professionals to describe the materials, standards and workmanship of a construction project.[1] It was launched in 1973 and is now used by over 5000 offices.[2]

National Building Specification logo

A specification often forms part of the tender documentation along with architectural drawings for a contractor to price and then forms part of the contract documentation for the builder to construct the building. Since 1988 the NBS has been structured on the Common Arrangement of Work Sections.

In 2012, the NBS launched the National BIM Library, featuring a range of generic and proprietary construction elements suitable for building information modeling.[3]

Until 2018, the NBS was owned by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) via its RIBA Enterprises subsidiary.[4] In June 2018, the RIBA announced it was selling a £31.8 million stake in RIBA Enterprises, to LDC, the private equity arm of Lloyds Bank.[5]

In 2019 NBS released NBS Chorus, a fully online specification platform for construction.

In 2020 NBS released NBS Source, a brand new tool that creates a single source for product information.

References
  1. Building Contract Dictionary By David Chappell 2001
  2. Constructing Excellence 8 January 2006
  3. "National BIM Library launches this week". New Civil Engineer. 19 March 2012. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
  4. The NBS
  5. Jessell, Ella (12 June 2018). "RIBA sells £31.8m stake in its commercial arm to Lloyds Bank". Architects' Journal. Retrieved 15 January 2019.


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