A holistic approach to building

Earlier this year CIBSE released the first update to its foremost publication on environmental design, Guide A, in nearly a decade. We spoke to the Chair of the Guide A steering Committee Derrick Braham , to find out the whole story behind the changes to the Guide . What is different about the new guide? First and foremost, the new Guide A is a holistic and comprehensive update of the old. It’s taken nine years of hard work to achieve, but as our flagship guide on environmental design, it’s imperative that care is taken to ensure all the changes of the past decade have been taken into account. And a lot has changed; from new EU regulations to altered Government targets, new research and new techniques, and these all must be taken into account in each chapter to ensure that there is consistency in the design process. There has also been a second driver behind the process of updating Guide A: The building services industry’s response to climate change. This is an aim that...