Lesson 5.1.1
Introduction to CSI Specification System
Lesson 5.1.1 Specifications
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This lesson will introduce you to the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) system for writing technical specifications for an architectural project. Crafting comprehensive, detailed specifications is an essential part of translating a design into architecture. “Writing the Design” is not an inappropriate analogy.
The lesson will provide an understanding of the overall CSI system for Outline Specifications and explain the interrelationships between Specification Sections, and the Parts of a given Section.
Unlike construction drawings, specifications are called on to communicate the specific qualitative requirements of materials system and assembly methods, tolerances and finish qualities.
As will be presented, the language of specifications gives the architect a wide ranging and powerful tool to manage the quality of a building but also to set standards for the sustainable acquisition and use of materials as well as requiring healthy, inclusive and equitable working conditions for the workers involved in a building’s construction.
Often shunted aside by young architects as tedious work, the mature architect quickly realizes the power of specifications to precisely define design intentions and to accurately guide them to fruition.