Since publication of this note, WA passed a version of the model Work Health and Safety (WHS) laws, which became operational on 31 March 2022. See Safe Work Australia for further information.
(This note updates and replaces Occupational health and safety - safe design)
The Work Health and Safety (WHS) legislation is being harmonised across Australia. Seven states and territories including NSW, ACT, Queensland, NT, the Commonwealth, SA and Tasmania have enacted the legislation. WA and Victoria have delayed adoption.
Page contents:
The harmonised legislation requires providing adequate information on any conditions necessary to ensure that the structure is without risks to health and safety of persons for the purpose for which it is designed and when used as a workplace. The designer must provide this information to anyone who is issued with the plans. Additionally, a safety report is specifically required when the person commissioning the work is a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU). This report must specify the hazards unique to that particular design that create a risk to the WHS of persons who carry out construction work and any control strategies recommended.
At the date of preparing this note, Western Australia and Victoria had yet to enact the legislation. Designers operating in these states are encouraged to identify risks throughout the structure’s life cycle and to follow the industry best practice to ensure health and safety for workers.
Safe Design
All parties involved in a building project have a duty of care to provide a safe work environment and to ensure the health and safety of employees and other users. Safe Design considers issues throughout the lifecycle of a building:
- in the construction phase
- for those who work in the building (eg nurses, office workers) and others who use the building (eg hospital patients and visitors)
- for those who maintain and renovate the building, its equipment and services
- during demolition.
Safe Design is a process that eliminates or minimises hazard by involving decision-makers and considering risks throughout the lifecycle of the designed product/structure, at early stages. During design, decisions are made to eliminate or reduce hazards in the systems of work, use of materials or the methods of manufacture or construction involved in developing the designed product/structure.
With a lifecycle approach, consultation is an important process in which people with knowledge and expertise work together to share information, identify hazards and assess risks and make decisions about ways to eliminate or minimise those risks. Consultation can assist in identifying design solutions to issues that may affect the safety of works. It is a legal requirement for people with duties under the WHS Act to consult with each other and also to consult with workers or their WHS representative.
Section 46 WHS Act:
-
If more than one person has a duty in relation to the same matter under the Act, each person with the duty, must, so far as reasonably practicable, consult, cooperate and coordinate activities with all other persons who have a duty in relation to the same matter (Australian Government 2011).
Section 47 WHS Act:
-
The person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) must consult, so far as is reasonably practicable, with workers who carry out work for the business or who are likely to be affected by a matter relating to work health or safety (Australian Government 2011).
The extent of the building designer’s responsibility, however, differs markedly from product design, where the designer can test and redesign the product before its purchase and use.
Risk management
A systematic approach to managing hazards should be adopted and decisions documented by means of a thorough risk management process applied to all stages of design projects. The process includes identifying hazards, assessing risks, determining design controls and reviewing these control measures. For safe design, this process should also include testing and analysis and consulting with other duty holders or people with specialised knowledge. Designers should refer to Australian Standard AS ISO 31000:2018 Risk Management – Guidelines for detailed risk management process and requirements.
Hazard identification
The first step in the risk management process is identifying hazards. A hazard is a ‘situation or thing that has the potential to harm a person' (Safe Work Australia October 2018). Hazards should be identified during the lifecycle of the proposed structure including site considerations, demolition of any existing buildings or part thereof, construction, use for purpose, maintenance and repair, and demolition at end of life.
Hazards can be identified via research, testing and from various sources including:
- WHS and building laws and code of practice
- industry statistics regarding injuries and incidents
- previous or comparable projects' records
- consultation with different subject matter experts and their inputs
- hazard alerts or other reports from relevant statutory authorities, unions and employer associations, specialists, professional bodies representing designers and engineers, and
- research and testing such as geotechnical reports, hazardous material registers, etc.
Common examples of hazards in an architectural practice that designers will need to manage include:
- working on a construction site eg working at height, exposure to hazardous substance/ environment
- travel to/ from site, remote location, fatigue
- office safety related issues such as ergonomic, emergency response, manual handling
- occupational health including stress management, pandemics, etc.
Risk assessment
The second step is assessing the risk of injury or harm arising from the hazards identified. A risk is the possibility that harm (injury, illness or death) might occur when exposed to a hazard.
When assessing risks the designer must consider the likelihood of a hazard occurring and, if it did occur, the potential extent of any harm or injury (ie consequences). Risk assessment is a way of deciding which hazards need to be addressed first based on the highest potential risk of injury or harm. Risk assessment involves evaluating information and requires knowledge and experience of the work environment and the processes of work to take place in the workplace being designed.
A risk matrix is one of the many risk management tools that can be used to determine the risk levels of any identified hazard. The matrix below is from the Safety in design guide risk register template. Designers may develop their own risk matrix.
Controls
The designer should implement the most effective design controls that are reasonably practicable to eliminate or minimise identified risks to health and safety. The hierarchy of risk control will assist the designer in identifying the most effective way to control the hazard.
Hierarchy of risk control
When deciding how to implement design controls to eliminate or minimise the risk, the designer should choose the option that most effectively controls the hazard. The WHS Act and Regulation requires duty holders to eliminate risks to health and safety so far as is reasonably practicable, and if it is not reasonably practicable, to minimise them. Designers should work through the hierarchy of risk control when managing risks to determine the control (or combination of controls) that most effectively eliminates or minimises the risk in the circumstances.
Designers must, so far as is reasonably practicable:
- ‘First, eliminate risks by eliminating hazards; this is the most effective control measure. By designing-in or designing-out certain features, hazards may be eliminated. For example, designing components that facilitate pre-fabrication on the ground can avoid the need for working at height and therefore eliminate the risk of falls.
- Then substitute hazards with something safer, isolate hazards from people and/or use engineering controls to minimise any risks that have not been eliminated. For example:
- Substitute hazards with something safer, for example by using pre-finished materials in preference to on-site finishing.
- Isolate hazards from people, for example designing the layout of a building so that noisy machinery is isolated from workstations.
- Use engineering controls, for example including adequate ventilation and lighting in the design, designing and positioning permanent anchorage and hoisting points into buildings where maintenance needs to be undertaken at height.
- Then use administrative controls to minimise any remaining risks, for example using warning signs or exclusion zones where a hazardous activity is carried out.
- Then use of personal protective equipment to minimise any risks that remain’ (Safe Work Australia October 2018).
Review control measures
Reviewing is the final step in the risk management process. Designers should have a process in place to review the effectiveness of their design controls. This could include obtaining feedback from the client, principal contractor or maintenance personnel.
Regularly discussing safe design at staff and project meetings can be a great way to share knowledge on the types and efficacy of design controls. Lessons learned in one project can be shared with designers of future projects to ensure a process of continuous improvement.
Documenting the risk management process
Information on identified hazards, the risk assessment and design controls should be documented in the risk register or safe design report.
It is important to include a version control in the documents. Designers should update the version control if any changes are made and adhere to the risk management process to eliminate or reduce the risks of the change.
‘Buildability’
The principal contractor can provide feedback to designers about the ‘buildability’ of their designs. If the principal contractor alters or modifies a design without consulting the original designer then they assume the duties of a designer. Principal contractors must ensure that any changes they make do not create additional risks to health and safety.
Having an independent facilitator can help the safe design process and improve ‘buildability’. The facilitator will ensure that there are not any issues that may have been overlooked. This person should be sufficiently removed from the design process so that they do not take any suggestions as criticism or feel the need to defend the design concept. It is recommended that a diverse range of stakeholders and a systematic methodology be used to significantly reduce the chance of overlooking a major problem.
Acumen's Safety in design guide and accompanying design risk register are designed to address safe design issues. Designers should follow the process outlined in the guide and document design risks where applicable.
Responsibilities
Duties of designers
Designers are known as ‘upstream’ duty holders, meaning that they have influence over the safety of the structures that they design before those structures are used as a workplace and can have an effect on the safety of those who use them ‘downstream’ in their lifecycle. Their duties include:
- considering safety throughout lifecycle as workplace
- consulting with client, workers, principal contractor and other duty holders
- considering people in vicinity
- undertaking research, testing and analysis
- providing safe design report on construction hazard to client
- providing safe design information on lifecycle to anyone issued with the design and on request.
Duties of clients
The Code of Practice: Safe Design of Structures refers to a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) who commissions a design, construction work or a construction project as ‘the client’. The client has specific duties in relation to the safe design of structures. Their duties include:
- considering safety throughout the lifecycle of structure as a workplace
- consulting with designer, workers, principal contractor and other duty holders
- considering people in vicinity
- providing information to designer
- providing information to principal contractor on safety including designer’s safe design report.
Duties of Principal Contractor
A principal contractor is required for a construction project where the value of the construction work is $250,000 or more. The client can be the principal contractor or the client can engage a principal contractor (builder) to discharge their duties as a principal contractor.
‘The principal contractor has duties to ensure that the construction work is planned and managed in a way that eliminates or minimises health and safety risks so far as is reasonably practicable' (Safe Work Australia October 2018).
Their duties include:
- Ensure construction work is managed in a way that eliminates or minimises risk to health and safety
- Consult with other duty holders
- Manage risks associated with the construction work
- Secure the workplace
- Comply with all Safe Work Methods Statements (SWMS) for high risk work
References
- Australian Institute of Architects (2020) ‘Safety in design guide’, Acumen Practice Notes, Australian Institute of Architects website.
- Australian Government (2011) Work Health and Safety Act, The Federal Register of Legislation website.
- Safe Work Australia (October 2018) Safe Design of Structures: Code of Practice, Safe Work Australia website.
- Safe Work Australia (May 2018) How to manage work health and safety risks: Code of Practice, Safe Work Australia website.
- Standards Australia (2018) Australian Standard AS ISO 31000:2018 Risk management – Guidelines, Standards Australia.
Disclaimer
This content is provided by the Australian Institute of Architects for reference purposes and as general guidance. It does not take into account specific circumstances and should not be relied on in that way. It is not legal, financial, insurance, or other advice and you should seek independent verification or advice before relying on this content in circumstances where loss or damage may result. The Institute endeavours to publish content that is accurate at the time it is published, but does not accept responsibility for content that may or has become inaccurate over time. Using this website and content is subject to the Acumen User Licence.