Design and building work environment coordination

On this page, you who plan and design or work with health and safety coordination in construction projects can get support concerning how to prevent health and safety risks.

Parties that must comply with the regulations on design and building work environment coordination

This supporting material is aimed at you who have the role of

  • client (the one who commissions building or civil engineering works)
  • designer (architect, structural engineer and others who plan or design)
  • building work environment coordinator (Bas-P or Bas-U)
  • producer of prefabricated buildings or structures.

If you have one of these roles, you must comply with the stipulations in the Swedish Work Environment Authority's provisions (AFS 2023:3) on design and building work environment coordination – basic obligations.

Support for those with the role of client, designer or building work environment coordinator

This page of support material is focused on the joint provisions for these parties.

The purpose of the regulations is to prevent health and safety risks at an early stage of the construction project

The regulations on design and building work environment coordination set requirements for work environment management in the early stages of building and civil engineering projects.

The provisions contain rules on

  • overall responsibility for organising the construction project in order to create prerequisites for a good working environment
  • coordination of parties and organisation of work environment management
  • how each party is to prevent risks as early as possible.

Among other things, the rules stipulate that all parties must

  • adapt the health and safety work in accordance with the construction project's size, complexity and risk level
  • work pursuant to the basic principles for preventing health and safety risks
  • have routines for health and safety work in the construction project
  • check and follow the health and safety work as well as take measures if deficiencies are found
  • hand over the health and safety work in a structured way.

  • The regulations set requirements for coordination and aim to promote collaboration between the parties involved in a construction project. Everyone needs to collaborate to prevent health and safety risks – that is one of the cornerstones of successful work environment management in a construction project.

  • The basic principles to prevent health and safety risks entail an obligation to work methodically in a specific order on the work environment risks by

    • identifying and avoiding risks
    • assessing risks that cannot be avoided
    • managing the remaining risks.

    Through the basic principles, work environment risks in the construction project are prevented.

  • All parties need to assess the construction project's size, complexity and risk level to determine the extent and degree of detail the health and safety work in the construction project needs to have. Size, complexity and risk level can vary greatly between different construction projects, as well as over time within the same construction project. This means that all parties must make the assessment based on their different abilities and resources.

  • All parties must have routines for their health and safety work in a construction project. The routines are to support the work of preventing health and safety risks that can arise during the construction phase or in the completed building or structure. They create smoother processes, facilitate coordination and also often contribute to a more efficient production.

  • Both the client and the designers influence the work environment in the construction phase through their choices and decisions during planning and design. By taking health and safety in the construction phase into account as early as possible, they make it easier for the individual contractor to be able to plan and carry out their work in a safe and healthy way.

  • The planning and design must be carried out so that it becomes possible to create a good work environment in the completed building or structure.

    The work environment documentation that may be needed for future work on the building or structure must be sufficient to avoid ill health and accidents during the operation and maintenance, modification and demolition of the building or structure.

Here you can read more about your responsibilities and duties as a client, designer or building work environment coordinator in the work environment management of a construction project:

Who is responsible for what in a construction project

Here you can read about the work environment plan that the building work environment coordinators must develop from the start of the planning and design:

Work environment plan

Last updated 2025-09-17