The Importance of Room Data Sheets

Room data sheets provide systematic descriptions of the requirements of a building and they play a vital role in planning design, project development, and design. They help with communication and quality control as well as assist in managing change.

They are typically created during the briefing phase (architectural programming in the US) of the project, in order to convey the client’s requirements for each type of space. They are then used as the basis for a specification to help contractors and design teams know what is expected of the spaces, and to make sure that any proposed solution meets the specifications of the client.

Typically, architects create room data sheets through interviews with their clients and others. They are typically a work-in-progress and can be a “living document” until the design team has gotten their hands on them.

When creating a sheet of data for a space, it’s crucial to label everything as general or “specific”. For instance, a general requirement might be that the office needs to be soundproofed at a particular level, while specific requirements might include things like:

Layer’s digital room sheets and predefined picklists enable you to gather all necessary information in a logical and efficient way. This encourages designers to be logical and think about all needs, reducing the likelihood of forgetting or omitting something. Additionally, when you connect your room data sheets to an IFC floor plan you can automatically generate adjacency diagrams and see how requirements will be translated into spatial solutions.

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