notes

When I began my career as an architect in 1971 the Building Regulations comprised a single small-format paperback volume about 10 or 12mm thick and gave pretty clear guidance on the rules and ways of complying. I am now retired and very pleased I no longer have to deal with the current regs (shorthand for brevity). Over the years the scope of the regs has expanded to include topics such as energy conservation, electrical safety and, most recently, broadband provision and electric car chargers. The PDF file for the current regulations is more than 28MB and includes 18 volumes from Part A to Part S (that's the one about chargers). Not only are there far more rules than there were, covering many more factors, but their complexity has (in my opinion I must add) grown in proportion. Where there were once simple formulae for angles of light to windows or tables of limiting spans for floor joists there are now lists of other documents - British Standards and the like - which designers hav...