RIBA Plan of Works - Stage 3

RIBA plan of work

Stage 3 - Spatial Coordination

Intro

The RIBA Plan of Work is published by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and sets out the key stages of a building project.

Architects and construction professionals use RIBA work stages to denote stage payments and identify team members tasked with different responsibilities.

The RIBA Plan of Works is split into 8 key stages.

It is important to clearly specify what activities fall within which stage, and what level of detail is required in order to prevent any confusion.

Stage 3 - Spatial Coordination

Spatial coordination is a new stage introduced by the RIBA Plan of work 2020.

This replaces ‘developed design’ in the 2013 edition and might previously have been known as ‘detailed design’.

The spatial coordination stage is fundamentally about testing and validating the Architectural Concept.

To make sure that the architectural and engineering information prepared at Stage 2 is Spatially Coordinated before the detailed information required to manufacture and construct the building is produced at Stage 4

Stage 3 is not about adjusting the Architectural Concept, which should remain substantially unaltered, although detailed design or engineering tasks may require adjustments to make sure that the building is Spatially Coordinated.

Spatially coordinated design is in which the client’s Spatial Requirements and the spaces required for any Building Systems.

Such as structural and building services engineering aspects, including grids, risers and plant rooms – have been determined and fixed to allow Stage 4 to progress without any further iterations.