RIBA and BSI (British Standards Institution) have teamed up to offer eligible RIBA Chartered Practices access to the BSI’s digital standards library through its Knowledge Platform.
The pilot program is aimed at start-ups and micro businesses, and aims to make BSI’s wealth of essential content available at affordable prices.
Why British Standards are important to architects and the built environment?
British Standards set out best practice for key elements of design and construction, having been agreed, formulated and updated as necessary by leading industry experts. Under the new building safety regime, for instance, BSI standards have taken centre stage by redefining safety standards - such as the new BS 9991:2024 for fire safety in the design of residential buildings - and creating the framework for professional competence requirements for statutory dutyholders, PAS 8670:2024.
They continue to give architects access to emerging and leading-edge best practice across industry sectors. In April, BSI published PAS 8700:2025, the first standard specifically designed to define the effective use of Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) and Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) in residential building projects.
Deborah Brown, Knowledge Sales Director UK at BSI, underlines the importance of British Standards.
“Since its inception, BSI has been a staunch supporter of the built environment with 100 built environment national committees that oversee a portfolio of over 8000 standards,” she says. “Working with built environment professionals and stakeholders, BSI transforms consensus into documented national good practice as well as catalyses innovation through our PAS and Flex standards. This benefits society by ensuring buildings are constructed safely and to the highest quality.”
In fact, standards are crucial when it comes to navigating new legislative regimes, such as the recent introduction of the new building regulations.
Deborah continues: “Most RIBA members will interact with BSI standards on three fronts as they look to:
- satisfy the building regulations;
- perform their duties as a CDM or BSR principal designer; and
- satisfy a specification citing our standards.
“For (1), they will likely interact with our circa 350 standards cited in the statutory guidance to the building regulations (eg. the English Approved documents). For (2), they will likely refer to PAS 8671. For (3), they may see a plethora of voluntary standards that the specification has conveyed status upon.”
What kind of architecture practice is eligible for the offer?
The offer is open to Chartered Practices classed as small and micro businesses.
Deborah says: “RIBA members may require access to several standards concurrently and only need to reference part of a standard without requiring the whole document.
“With the average cost of a single standard at £150 and subscriptions costing thousands per year, the cost barrier has proven a barrier to entry for smaller businesses. This new solution for micro companies allows members to access the complete BSI standards library (circa 90,000 current, historical, withdrawn, and draft documents) from a single digital library platform for a cost effective flat fee.”
Small Practices - defined as businesses with six to ten employees and a turnover less than £632,000 - can subscribe to the pilot programme for £720 per year (plus VAT).
Micro Practices – defined as businesses with one to five employees and a turnover less than £632,000 – can subscribe for £360 per year (plus VAT).
Chartered Practices classed as small and micro practices can sign up for the programme by completing the RIBA Expression of Interest Form for BSI Micro Offer. Once completed, applicants will then be contacted directly by a representative of BSI. Larger Chartered Practices who do not qualify should refer to BSI’s other subscription services.
Practices should note that BSI will verify that a practice satisfies a declared small/micro business status by checking against Companies House records before processing the applicant’s subscription.
What does the BSI programme offer include?
BSI’s pilot programme offer includes:
- access to full text viewing of the complete BSI Knowledge online library core content set of BS, BS EN, BS EN ISO/IEC, PAS (excluding BS 7671 Wiring Regs, which are co-published with IET)
- circa 90,000 full-text documents (current, historical, withdrawn, draft)
- ability to set up alerts to track standards and receive email notifications if a standard changes
- unlimited searching and viewing (does not include downloading or printing)
- video of the Knowledge Library functionality: BSI Knowledge for Micro Video
RIBA's Director of Commercial Development Steven Cross says the Institute is extremely pleased to be able to announce this pilot program with BSI: “This is a great opportunity for RIBA Chartered Practices with less than 11 employees to get digital access to circa 90,000 documents in the BSI Knowledge online library at a fraction of the standard cost.
“British Standards are crucial for ensuring quality, safety and sustainability in various fields – from manufacturing to construction and services – and it is great that smaller RIBA Chartered Practices that might not normally have the budget now have online access to this wealth of essential content.”
Additionally, Christine Cavanagh, RIBA Director of Membership Experience UK, says the pilot programme arrangement with BSI is the result of working with RIBA’s small and emerging practice group networks to understand their business needs and challenges.
“Commitment to capturing insight and feedback from members is a priority for the Membership Experience team,” she says. “Sharing this insight and working together within RIBA to find solutions is vital, and this pilot is the latest example of RIBA finding a way to offer tangible and valuable support for members.”
Further questions can be sent by email to RIBA’s Business Team: business@riba.org.
Thanks to Deborah Brown, BSI.
Text by Neal Morris. This is a Professional Feature edited by the RIBA Practice team. Send us your feedback and ideas.
RIBA Core Curriculum topic: Business, clients, and services.
As part of the flexible RIBA CPD programme, professional features count as microlearning. See further information on the updated RIBA CPD core curriculum and on fulfilling your CPD requirements as a RIBA Chartered Member.
