There has been effort to review and revise the MasterFormat about every
7 years to reflect new design and construction requirements. For example, the pre-
vious version of the MasterFormat had 16 divisions, but scant mention of technol-
ogy. This spurred the use of the “Division 17” for almost anything that did not fit
into the other specification divisions. Technology was one of the factors consid-
ered in the latest revision of the MasterFormat which was released in 2004.
The MasterFormat contains a “Procurement and Contracting Requirements”
and a “Specifications” group. The Specification group has the following
subgroups:
n General Requirements
n Facility Construction
n Facility Services
n Site and Infrastructure
n Process EquipmentThe designs of integrated systems reside in the Facility Services subgroup.
This subgroup has seven Divisions, three of which (25, 27, and 28) are related
to building technology systems:
21—Fire Suppression
22—Plumbing
23—Heating Ventilating and Air Conditioning
25—Integrated Automation
26—Electrical
27—Communications
28—Electronic Safety and SecurityDivision 25—Integrated Automation
This division covers building automation systems including facility equipment,
conveying equipment, fire-suppression systems, plumbing, HVAC, and electri-
cal systems. It addresses the instrumentation and terminal devices for these
systems as well as network equipment such as network devices, gateways, con-
trol and monitoring equipment, local control units, and software.
In addition, the division deals with system operation, maintenance, sequence
of operation, schedules, cabling and cable pathways, commissioning as well
as integration with other related Divisions such as Communications and
Electronic Safety and Security systems.
Design, Construction, and Renovations 147