Most building projects are won or lost long before anyone gets to site, in how clearly the early decisions are made and how well each stage hands over to the next. The RIBA Plan of Work is the framework the profession uses to hold that order. It breaks a project into eight stages, from the first question about whether to build at all through to the building in use, and it gives everyone involved, client, architect, engineers and contractor, a shared map of what happens when. We use it on every project at RISE, whatever the size.
It's worth understanding even if you aren't an architect, because it tells you what to expect from each phase of your own project, and where the decisions that actually matter get made.
The RIBA Plan of Work 2020, the framework that structures a project into eight stages. Document and diagram © RIBA. RISE Design Studio.
It's tempting to picture a building project as a line: idea, design, construction, handover, done. The RIBA Plan of Work is deliberately drawn as a loop instead. Stage 7, when the building is in use, feeds back to Stage 0, where the building might later be adapted, extended or repurposed for something new. That matters more than it sounds. A building designed with its later life in mind, one that can change use without being demolished, is doing the single most useful thing a building can do for its carbon footprint. The most sustainable building is usually the one nobody has to knock down and start again.
Every project moves through the same eight stages, whether it's a rear extension or a school.
The value of the structure is that it forces decisions in the right order. A lot of expensive problems on site come from something that should have been settled at Stage 2 or 3 being left open until Stage 5.
The Plan of Work is updated from time to time to keep pace with how buildings are actually procured and built. Three changes in the 2020 version stand out, and all three match the way we had already been working.
The first is sustainability. It is no longer a separate workstream bolted on near the end, but something carried through every stage, from the material choices and energy targets set early to the performance checked after handover. The plan now expects you to think about the whole life of the building, not only how it performs on day one.
The second is information and modelling. Building Information Modelling is treated as central rather than optional, because it is what lets architects, engineers and contractors coordinate properly and catch clashes before they reach site, and it lets a client walk through their building in 3D before anything is built.
The third is the language, changed to reflect how construction has moved on. What used to be called Developed Design became Spatial Coordination, because the work at that stage is really about aligning the different disciplines rather than just refining a drawing. And Construction became Manufacturing and Construction, recognising how much of a modern building is now made off site and assembled rather than built from scratch in place. These are not cosmetic changes. They describe the job more accurately.
Here is what each stage involves in practice, and where we put the effort.
Before any design, we start with whether the project is the right one at all. That means defining what you are actually trying to achieve, asking honestly whether an existing building could be reused instead of building new, and running feasibility work to test whether the idea stands up on the site and the budget. Getting this stage right is what prevents the expensive mistakes later, the ones that come from committing to a direction before anyone checked it was sound.
Once the need is clear, we develop the brief: the priorities, the constraints, the budget and the sustainability strategy, with everyone who matters, client and consultants, aligned from the outset. A vague brief is the most common reason projects drift, so this is time well spent. Most of what follows is only ever as good as the brief underneath it.
This is where the building takes shape: sketches and massing studies to test how the spaces sit together, early material and energy decisions, and a planning strategy that anticipates the council's likely concerns rather than discovering them later. We use 3D models and VR walkthroughs here, not to impress but to help you make decisions, because it is far easier to move a wall in a model than on site.
The concept now gets stress-tested. Structure, mechanical and environmental systems are brought into the design, compliance with building regulations and any planning conditions is worked through, and the cost is checked against the budget. This is the stage where design ambition meets reality, and where the two have to be reconciled honestly rather than hopefully.
Everything is resolved to the level a contractor can build from: construction drawings and specifications, the structural and MEP systems detailed, and the building's performance tested through simulation. The more thoroughly this is done, the fewer surprises, and the fewer extra costs, appear once construction starts.
The building gets made. Our job through this stage is to keep what is built faithful to what was designed: visiting site, holding the quality and the material and sustainability standards, dealing with the inevitable unforeseen issues quickly so they don't become delays, and keeping you informed as it goes up.
Completion is not quite the end. We see the building through final inspections and snagging, make sure you are left with proper documentation for running and maintaining it, and check the energy performance against the targets set back at the start. Handover done well sets the building up to work for years, not just to pass inspection.
The real test is how the building performs once people are living or working in it. Where we can, we carry out post-occupancy evaluation, looking at comfort, energy use and how the spaces are actually used, and we feed what we learn back into the next project. No building is ever quite finished. It carries on being used, adapted and eventually reworked, which is where the cycle begins again.
The Plan of Work isn't bureaucracy for its own sake. It is what keeps a project moving in the right order, with the decisions that matter made when they are cheapest to make and easiest to change. If you are planning a project and want to understand how it would run stage by stage, please do get in touch.
→ Email us at architects@risedesignstudio.co.uk
→ Or call the studio on 020 3947 5886
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