In conversation with Dale Sinclair, director and head of innovation at WSP, and a leading figure in the adaptation of RIBA’s Plan of Work for the Middle East

The KSA Overlay – developed to align RIBA’s internationally recognised project delivery framework with Saudi Arabia’s regulatory environment, procurement culture and localisation agenda – arrives as the kingdom’s construction pipeline reaches unprecedented scale.

How does the KSA Overlay address the differences in procurement culture and regulatory process – and how does it position itself relative to the other project management frameworks already operating in the region?

There are no fundamental differences between delivering a project in the UK and in Saudi Arabia. The key differences lie in the international nature of the consulting firms working in the region, how municipalities navigate the regulatory process, and the information issued as part of procurement processes. Otherwise, design and delivery means and methods are substantively the same – which is, of course, why practices from many countries are able to set up and operate successfully in the region. 

The KSA Overlay maps a number of the frameworks used for managing programmes and projects across the kingdom, pointing out that they are similar in nature while highlighting the circularity of the Plan of Work and how it connects from design and delivery through to use.

How does the framework address clients’ digital requirements – and how should information needs be defined when handover may be years away?

The RIBA Plan of Work was developed alongside PAS1192 in 2013, a document that has since evolved into the international ISO19650 standard shaping BIM and information management approaches globally. It is crucial for clients to consider their information requirements at each stage – particularly at handover, when data may be required for digital twins, asset management software and smart building technologies. This ensures that professional fees include the preparation of this information. 

While it is difficult to determine the right solution at the outset when handover is years away, it should be possible to determine topics such as IT infrastructure and data requirements, making final software selections closer to handover commonplace. The RIBA’s introduction of Stage 7 assists this process by acknowledging the increasing importance of connecting the capital and operational phases of a project.

How does the framework manage risk and governance on major programmes – and are clients showing appetite for standardisation, or do they prioritise flexibility?

The established stages of the RIBA Plan of Work ensure that the key strategic, briefing, design, procurement and construction gateways are adhered to, with sign-offs required before moving from one stage to the next. The RIBA is seeing genuine appetite for greater standardisation across the region. The KSA Overlay makes clear that Designing for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) is a fundamentally different process to designing for traditional construction. 

As industrialised construction flourishes, greater standardisation will become commonplace, and designers will recognise that these constraints do not stifle good design. The stages allow innovation to flourish as part of each stage’s objectives and outcomes.

How can the framework actively support localisation goals and meaningful knowledge transfer to Saudi professionals, rather than simply being an imported model?

The KSA Overlay brings RIBA’s fifty-plus years of managing the Plan of Work to bear on the Saudi market, including adjustments made over time to reflect new procurement, design and delivery practices. It also ensures that local terms and processes are embedded throughout, allowing local trends and practices to sit comfortably alongside international best practice. Part of the work we are undertaking with the KSA Overlay is to create an educational training course that can assist built environment professionals working within government and the private sector to develop their understanding of the Plan of Work and how it can be applied. The course will serve localisation goals directly, but can equally function as an onboarding and annual refresher tool for HR professionals to roll out across organisations, ensuring consistency across projects.

If we revisit this conversation in five years, what changes do you expect to see in how architecture and engineering teams collaborate across the region?

It is always difficult to predict the future, but the three trends that will change how we collaborate are industrialised construction, programme approaches and AI. Industrialised construction will be the most significant, and as more work is transferred from site to factories, delivery timescales and costs will fall and clients will seek to aggregate content and work within programme approaches. The KSA Overlay sets out how this can be achieved. AI will increasingly shape design and delivery approaches and will break down the silos that continue to make innovation difficult to achieve.

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