Building designer

A Building designer brings:

• qualifications and experience appropriate to the project, jurisdiction and scope;
• experience taking building projects from requirements through coordinated design;
• professional contacts among specialist designers, consultants and other competent people; and
• the judgement to recognise when specialist input is required and who should provide it.

Prior experience of ExoSett is useful, but is not a requirement.

The Building designer is the principal coordinator of the overall building design. They are responsible for:

• turning the client’s goals, constraints and site information into an initial building specification;
• establishing the high-level building configuration;
• identifying the specialist design roles required;
• providing their common design inputs;
• coordinating the interfaces between design interests;
• working continuously with the Safety officer; and
• maintaining the coherence of the building specification as it develops.

Coordination does not replace specialist design. Each specialist remains responsible for the work and approvals appropriate to their role and competence.

Building configuration

The Building designer establishes the high-level shape of the building: the number and arrangement of frame pairs and the number of accommodation cells in each pair.

Module dimensions, cell dimensions and module jigs

The building specification defines the exact module envelope and the related accommodation-cell dimensions. Cell dimensions also allow for the installation mechanism, tolerances, fire-safety barriers and other required interfaces.

A building-level module definition can provide the default for all frame pairs, while individual frame pairs may override it. The specification should not prevent a project from defining a more unusual arrangement where properly coordinated.

Every module definition has a corresponding module jig specification, owned by the Building designer and recorded in the building specification. The module jig is a two-sided physical interface gauge. One face presents the interface a module encounters in an accommodation cell; the other presents the interface an accommodation frame encounters when a module is installed.

Module designers and manufacturers can use the gauge to prove that a cassette fits. Installation frames can lift the jig beneath a module, so a module that does not fit the installation jig will not fit the building. Frame designers, manufacturers and construction crews can use the opposite face to verify the accommodation frame. The jig definition is therefore a critical contractual input to both the Frame designer and the Module designer, and should be fixed before dependent design and manufacture proceed.

Services requirements

The Building designer defines the services that the building and its modules are expected to receive, together with the standard interfaces through which an installed module connects to them. This becomes common input to the Services designer, Frame designer and Module designer.

The Services designer and Frame designer coordinate the physical delivery of services through the building. The Module designer uses the same definition to provide the expected connections at the module interface.

Foundation context

The specification captures the high-level requirements for supporting the building, informed by the client’s intentions and the site. The building might be freestanding, supported on a podium or use another foundation or supporting arrangement. Detailed design of the foundations—or definition of the interface requirements for a separately designed podium—belongs with the Foundation designer.

Safety

Safety develops continuously rather than arriving as a final-stage approval. Information flows between the Building designer and Safety officer throughout design, and resulting decisions and requirements are reflected in the building specification.

The Building designer helps establish the initial building specification and remains one of its principal coordinators as specialist design develops. It is the shared source through which design decisions and dependencies are communicated.

A change in one area may affect many others. The Building designer identifies and reconciles those consequences, particularly before dependent elements are signed off. Reopening a signed element may affect completed design, manufacture, cost and programme and may require a further client decision.

The Building designer is not personally responsible for approving every specialist element. Qualified approval belongs with the appropriately competent person. The Site office controls the document and confirms its administrative state—including its validity against the applicable format and schema—but does not approve the engineering decisions it records.

The ExoSett modelling repository is the authoritative technical source for the specification format, schema, examples and versioning guidance.

Copy this prompt into an AI model of your choice. It helps turn the client proposal into the essential coordinated inputs for the building specification.

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Guide me through the Building designer role for an ExoSett building project. Use the ExoSett modelling repository as the primary technical reference for the building specification, schema, examples and versioning guidance: https://github.com/ExoSett/modelling Before guiding me through the specification, inspect the current repository, including the applicable schema, documentation and examples. Do not assume that they have remained unchanged since this prompt was written. If I provide an existing building specification, identify its schema version and work with that version unless an explicit migration is agreed. If you cannot access the repository, say so and ask me to provide the relevant files. Do not invent its current structure or XML elements. If the current schema cannot represent information required by this process, identify the gap clearly and capture the required information in a structured draft rather than pretending that invalid or invented XML conforms to the schema. Base your description of ExoSett on current ExoSett sources rather than assumptions about conventional modular construction. When information is not defined, identify it as something to be established for this project and ask for it. Begin by introducing the Building designer as the principal coordinator of the overall building design. Explain that the role works with the Project client to turn the client’s goals into an initial high-level building specification, then coordinates specialist design as that specification develops. The Building designer does not replace the specialist designers or personally approve every specialist element. Establish whether I have qualifications and experience appropriate to the project, jurisdiction and scope, experience taking projects from requirements through coordinated design, access to suitable specialist designers and consultants, and the judgement to recognise when additional specialist input is required. Do not require prior ExoSett experience. Ask me to provide the Project client’s proposal and any existing building specification. Identify missing information, unresolved decisions, assumptions and conflicts before treating the proposal as an agreed design input. Help me establish the high-level building configuration, including: * the number and arrangement of frame pairs; * the number of accommodation cells in each frame pair; * a default module envelope and related cell dimensions at building level where appropriate; and * any frame-pair-level overrides or unusual arrangements that require explicit coordination. Keep module envelope and cell dimensions distinct. The module envelope defines the exact external space occupied by a module. Cell dimensions must also account for the installation mechanism, tolerances, fire-safety barriers and other required interfaces. For every module definition, help me prepare the corresponding module jig specification. Treat the module jig as a two-sided physical interface gauge owned by the Building designer and specified in the building specification. One face presents the exact interface a module encounters when installed into an accommodation frame. Module designers and manufacturers use it to prove cassette fit, and an installation frame may lift a module through the jig. The opposite face presents the exact interface an accommodation frame encounters when a module is installed. Frame designers, frame manufacturers and construction crews can use it to prove that the frame is correct. Identify all information required to define that contractual interface using the current schema and technical sources. Do not invent dimensions, tolerances, datums, attachment details, installation clearances or connection positions. Ask for them or identify the competent designer who must provide them. Make clear that the jig definition is a critical common input to the Frame designer and Module designer and should be signed off before dependent design or manufacture proceeds. If a signed jig definition must be reopened, first explain the likely effects on dependent design, tooling, manufactured work, cost and programme and identify the client decisions that may be required. Help me define the high-level services requirements for the building and its modules, including the standard interfaces through which an installed module connects to those services. Prepare these as common inputs to the Services designer, Frame designer and Module designer. Explain that the Services designer and Frame designer must coordinate the physical delivery of services through the building, while the Module designer needs the standard service interfaces expected at installation. Help me capture the foundation context from the Project client’s intentions and the characteristics of the site. Establish whether the building is expected to be freestanding, supported on a podium or use another supporting arrangement. Keep this at the level required to brief the Foundation designer. Leave detailed design of the foundations to that specialist; where a substantial podium or other conventional supporting structure has its own design team, leave the Foundation designer to define and coordinate the ExoSett-to-support interface rather than assigning them the design of the whole supporting building. Work continuously with the Safety officer. Identify safety questions and dependencies as each part of the design develops rather than treating safety as a final-stage check. Reflect resulting decisions and requirements in the building specification. Identify which other specialist designers, consultants and competent people are required. Prepare the common inputs each needs, record the questions they must resolve, and track the interfaces between their work. Distinguish coordination by the Building designer from technical design and approval by the relevant specialist. Treat the building specification as the shared source for design decisions and dependencies. Help me classify information as an assumption, proposal, unresolved decision, agreed input or signed element where the current specification system supports those states. Do not treat valid XML or Site office confirmation of the document’s administrative state as approval of the engineering decisions recorded in it. The Site office controls the specification and confirms its validity against the applicable format and schema. Appropriately competent people sign off the design elements for which they are responsible. Work in a sensible sequence. At each stage: * ask for missing information rather than inventing it; * identify decisions still to be made; * identify the specialists who need to be involved; * prepare their required inputs; * highlight dependencies and conflicts between design interests; * state which elements are ready for review or sign-off; and * explain the consequences before proposing changes to signed elements. Use the current schema to show how agreed information should be represented in the building specification. Keep the guidance aligned with that schema. If the schema changes significantly, say that this process guide may also need to be reviewed rather than silently adapting its role definitions or inventing new requirements.

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