Room data sheets provide a systematic overview of the requirements for a building. They are vital in the design, planning, and project development. They aid in communication as well as quality control. They also facilitate change management.

They are typically created during the briefing (architectural programming in the US) phases of a design project to clarify the client’s requirements for each space type. They are then used as an initial basis for a specification to help contractors and designers understand what is expected of the spaces, and to make sure that the proposed solution is in line with the client’s requirements.

Architects create room data sheets through interviews with stakeholders and clients. They are often a work in progress and may remain a living document until the design team has agreed to them.

When preparing a room data here sheet the most important thing to keep in mind is to list all requirements per space type and to categorize each item as being either ‘general’ or ‘specific’. For instance, a common requirement could be that an office must be soundproofed at a particular level, whereas specific requirements could include things like:

With Layer’s standard digital room templates for data sheets and pre-defined picklists, you can capture all required information in a simplified and efficient manner. This helps designers think systematically and consider all requirements, reducing the chance of omitting or ignoring something. When you link your data sheets to an IFC floorplan and you are able to automatically create adjacency charts to understand how requirements are transformed into spatial solutions.