Blueprint for Excellence: The Case for a Common Blueprint
Saudi Arabia has standardised what its buildings must achieve, through a mandatory building code, municipal permitting on the Balady platform and the Saudi Architecture Characters Map. It has not standardised the process a project team follows between the brief and handover. Developers and ministries each run their own stage gates, and consultants from Britain, Europe, the United States and Asia bring the plan of work of the market that trained them.
This SBJBC paper, produced in partnership with the Royal Institute of British Architects, examines how the RIBA Plan of Work and its Saudi edition could close that gap. It places the case against the Kingdom’s shift from giga-projects towards a larger pipeline of conventional public projects, the fixed deadlines of Expo 2030 and the 2034 FIFA World Cup, and research identifying change orders as the leading cause of delay on Saudi projects. The paper explains how the eight-stage framework fixes decisions earlier, works under any procurement route, and supports portfolio reporting, investor due diligence and local capability. It also sets out what a process framework cannot address.
Read the full document: [SBJBC x RIBA Plan of Work]
