Designers have a responsible role in creating places in which people live and work. They constantly make decisions during the design process that potentially impact on the health and safety of people working in or around the structures they design.
Safe design is about the team working together using a systematic process to identify hazards early in the design process and providing creative and innovative solutions.
Read our eBook for information to assist designers meet their WHS safe design obligations.
Safe design is the integration of hazard identification, risk assessment and control methods early in the design process to eliminate or minimise risks to health and safety throughout the construction and life of the structure being designed.
By identifying potential work health and safety hazards early in the design process, designers can make informed design decisions to eliminate or minimise potential risks to health and safety.
Designers need to consider safety of people during the lifecycle of the structure when it will be used as a workplace. This includes systematically identifying potential hazards during lifecycle phases. The main lifecycle phases are:
The designer can improve the safety of their designs by understanding the proposed use of the structure and work processes, through research, testing and analysis, through selection of safer materials, through knowledge of methods of construction, maintenance and demolition, by consulting with others and by applying solutions from recognised standards. Information should be communicated to those further along in the lifecycle of the structure.
Safe Design Australia can provide you with more detailed information and training on how to implement safe design
in your practice as part of our safe design procedure and templates package.
* European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. (1991). From Drawing Board to Building Site. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.
Early consideration of potential hazards during the design process can:
