Involving the people who will operate a building throughout design and construction, and supporting them after handover, so the building works as intended, now set out in BS 8536:2022.
Soft landings is an approach that keeps the end users and operators involved from briefing to the first years of use, so the building performs as intended instead of being handed over and forgotten. It covers setting realistic performance targets, involving operators in design reviews, preparing them before handover, and an aftercare period with the design and construction team still engaged. In the UK it is set out in BS 8536:2022 and the Government Soft Landings framework.
A new school's design review includes the site manager who will run it. Walking the model, she notices the boiler room has no route for replacing the boilers without removing a wall, and that all the classroom ventilation controls are in a locked plant room. Both are changed at design stage. In the first year of aftercare, the engineers find the heating schedules were set for a 24-hour building; corrected, the gas bill drops by a quarter. The model's data, already loaded in the CMMS, makes both findings easy to act on.
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