RIBA Plan of Work 2020 vs AIA phases: mapping design stages on Saudi projects

A Saudi project often has a mixed design team. The architect works to RIBA stages, the US-trained engineer says "schematic" and "design development", and the employer's brief uses its own stage names. Everybody agrees that the design is "at DD" and nobody agrees what that means for drawings, specifications and approvals.

The fix is a stage map written at the start of the project. This article compares the two frameworks that appear most often, the RIBA Plan of Work 2020 and the AIA phases in the B101-2017 owner-architect agreement, and shows how to build that map. The mapping is our working approximation. Neither institute publishes a one-to-one table, and the employer's documents take priority.

The RIBA Plan of Work 2020: eight stages

The RIBA describes the Plan of Work as a framework that organises the process of briefing, designing, delivering, maintaining, operating and using a building into eight stages. It is meant as guidance for preparing detailed professional services and building contracts, and not as a contract in itself.

Several details from the RIBA documents help in practice:

• Stages 0 and 1 do not need a design team. The client may appoint advisers to provide strategic advice before Stage 2 starts.
• The brief stays "live" during Stage 2 and is derogated in response to the Architectural Concept.
• Stage 4 overlaps with Stage 5 on most projects.
• There is no design work in Stage 5 other than responding to site queries.
• Stage 7 starts together with Stage 6 and lasts for the life of the building.
• The 2020 edition adds a sustainability project strategy, with sustainable outcomes agreed with the client during Stage 1 briefing.

The AIA phases in B101-2017

AIA Document B101-2017 is a standard form of agreement between owner and architect for building design and construction contract administration. Basic Services are performed in five phases:

1. Schematic Design
2. Design Development
3. Construction Documents
4. Procurement
5. Construction

AIA describes schematic design as the phase where the architect consults the owner to determine project goals and requirements, producing study drawings that show concept, spatial relationships, scale and form. Zoning and jurisdictional restrictions are also discovered and addressed here. Design development takes the schematic design further and lays out mechanical, electrical, plumbing, structural and architectural details. It often specifies design elements such as material types and the location of windows and doors, and commonly ends with a formal presentation to, and approval by, the owner. AIA says the deliverables listed in its guidance are examples; the contract may spell out exactly what is to be delivered.

B101-2017 divides services into basic, supplemental and additional services. That structure has no direct equivalent in the RIBA Plan of Work, which describes stages and not an architect's fee scope.

A working map

Treat the middle rows as approximate. A reader who moves from Design Development to Spatial Coordination will find that RIBA 3 expects coordination to be complete, while DD may leave detailed coordination to the next phase. That is the main reason for misunderstandings.

Where the frameworks differ

Coordination. RIBA names Spatial Coordination as a stage and ties its outcome to coordinated architectural and engineering information. AIA's description of design development lists mechanical, electrical, plumbing and structural details, but leaves the depth to the owner's request and the project requirements.

Procurement. AIA treats Procurement as a phase of the architect's basic services. RIBA treats procurement as a project strategy that runs across stages, together with cost, fire safety, health and safety, planning and sustainability.

Pre-design and post-handover. RIBA covers Stage 0 and Stage 7. AIA's basic services begin after the owner supplies the initial information, and the B101 does not set stages for use.

Overlap. RIBA says Stage 4 and Stage 5 overlap on most projects. If your contract has a hard gate between documents and construction, write it into the stage map.

Building the stage map for a project

1. Start from the employer's stages. Whatever they are called, they come first.
2. List the deliverables for each stage. Drawings, models, specifications, calculations, reports, and the level of development for each.
3. Add the approvals. Who signs off at the end of each stage, and which authority submissions fall within it.
4. Map each RIBA stage and each AIA phase to the employer's stage. One row per stage, one column per vocabulary.
5. Mark the coordination gate. State the stage at which architecture, structure and MEP are fully coordinated, and what that means in the model.
6. State the freeze points. When design is frozen for procurement, and how changes after that are controlled.
7. Issue the map as part of the design brief. Every consultant signs that they have read it.

What to check on Saudi projects

We do not assume that a Saudi authority or employer follows RIBA or AIA stage names. Confirm these items in the employer's requirements:

• Whether the employer defines its own stage names and deliverable lists
• Which authority or municipal submissions are required at which stage
• What the employer's design review procedure is and how many review cycles it allows
• Which codes and standards the design must meet, and in which edition
• Which party owns specifications and the BOQ at each stage

If the project's documents name a stage framework, use that framework. If they do not, propose the map and have it accepted in writing.

Quality assurance and quality control are separate stages

Do not write them as one item. ISO 9000:2015 defines quality assurance (3.3.6) as the part of quality management focused on providing confidence that quality requirements will be fulfilled, and quality control (3.3.7) as the part focused on fulfilling them.[5] In design management that gives two distinct stages:

• QA, before the work: the quality plan, design procedures, approval of the inspection and test plan (ITP) and audits.
• QC, checking the work: inspections, tests, hold, witness and review points, and non-conformance reports (NCRs).

Put QA in the stage map before the first design gate, and QC at each gate.

Common mistakes

• Using "design development" without saying what is complete at the end of it
• Assuming a stage name means the same deliverables to every discipline
• Freezing design for tender before coordination is finished
• Letting specifications trail the drawings by a whole stage
• Skipping a written approval at the end of each stage
• Merging QA and QC into one line, so neither is planned or owned

If you need a stage map and a design deliverables matrix for a project, send us the employer's requirements and the consultant list, and we will draft them.

Sources

1. RIBA, RIBA Plan of Work 2020 Overview
2. RIBA, 2020 RIBA Plan of Work template
3. AIA Contracts, Summary of B101-2017 Standard Form of Agreement Between Owner and Architect
4. AIA, Defining the architect's basic services
5. ISO, ISO 9000:2015 Quality management systems, Fundamentals and vocabulary, terms 3.3.6 and 3.3.7