Stimulate the sustainability debate by contributing to the BSD Project Wiki. Fear not, technophobes – we have a beginners’ guide, a cheat-sheet and a help team on standby

With sustainability now at the forefront of good design, every new construction project has the potential to teach the industry something, whether that is its unique approach to design or the technology it uses to minimise carbon emissions or become more energy efficient.

This is why bsdlive.co.uk is proud to unveil the BSD Project Wiki. This is a platform where users may upload and share information on sustainable building projects in the UK and around the world.

We invite you to upload project summaries, images and design team information to the database of projects already on the site. This sector by sector encyclopedia will be a valuable resource where built environment professionals can read about each other’s projects.

Each project page will have its own discussion area, to encourage the companies involved to talk about their experiences and encourage debate on good design practice.

What’s a wiki?

A wiki is a collection of web pages designed to allow anyone to contribute or edit content in markup language (html). The most famous example is the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. Like Wikipedia, the BSD site will be a database open to everyone, to contribute or scrutinize.

Anyone can start a page on a project that isn’t already on the site. Pages may be edited as it progresses from planning, goes on site, through to completion and EPC, DEC and BREEAM ratings.

The BSD Wiki is your chance to shout about projects your company has worked on and to discuss exemplary design.

You don’t have to register to contribute to the BSD Wiki, but it is recommended so you can keep track of changes you make and the pages you create. Some content is off-limits to non-registered users.


Upload CG shots, sketches and photos of up to 8Mb to the wiki site to illustrate your project.

Copy & Paste the infobox template and enter as much detail as you can. Add project background and summary text to complete your entry.

Save the page once the box is complete, images are uploaded and summary text has been entered. You can edit and update any page in the wiki at any time.

The first step is to check whether the project you want to add is already there. If you search the site and it isn’t listed, you’ll be given the option to set up the page.

If you have an image for a project, you can add it by clicking the upload file button on the navigation panel (left of screen). This uploads them for you to use later.

Entries are built from html, but we have a handy cheat sheet and beginners’ guide to help you, as well as the bsdlive team via bsdeditorial@ubm.com.

We’ve created an infobox with all the information the database needs. Details entered here are shown in a boxed summary at the right-hand side of the page.

Copy and paste the project infobox template from the wiki site, and fill as much information as you can. Don’t worry if you have to leave some fields blank, somebody else (or you) can fill them later.

The minimum information for any project should be its official name, location, sector, construction status, value and the engineering consultancy and architect.

There is room for more details such as client, contractor, subcontractors and suppliers. The idea is that other companies involved in the project can fill in any gaps, making the wiki a collaborative database.

When you upload an image to the site, copy and paste the image name into the infobox. There’s space for two. Once you’ve filled in the summary infobox you can include some background. For completed buildings this could be a project history, from design brief, construction, industry impact to post-occupancy data. Newly announced or incomplete buildings could list the basic sustainable credentials and predicted environmental ratings. You can preview your page then save it once you’re happy with it.

BSD Wiki is intended to be factual rather than promotional, so ideally all content should be verified by an external source if there is any debate. You can reference your content using the referencing tag (see the cheatsheet).

The point of the BSD Wiki is to act as a valuable resource of exemplary design and to stimulate debate between team members on individual projects and with the industry at large. You’ll be able to do that in the “talk” page of any project.

To start your wiki, log on to http://wiki.bsdlive.co.uk