Viewpoint: Which way now for codes and standards: Prescription, performancebased or what?
2019
Building regulations and construction
standards have been in the spotlight
recently, particularly as a result of a number
of fi re incidents around the globe, notably
in the UAE and the Grenfell Tower fi re
tragedy in the UK. These events are having
an important infl uence on the development
of building regulations and construction
standards.
Building control requirements date back
to antiquity. King Hammurabi of Babylon1 is
famously credited with the fi rst recorded
building regulation – this is his Law 229
dating from around 1750BC. Among other
matters, this defi nes various liabilities for the
builder of a house which collapses, with the
liabilities depending on the consequences of
the collapse.
Law 229 is eff ectively a performance
statement. It addressed structural safety
and performance in terms of the user
experience, with no mention of the material
or form of construction of the building.
However, it is also relevant to note that many
of the other Laws of King Hammurabi – of
which there are nearly 300 – were of a
prescriptive nature.
Today’s British Standards Institution (BSI)
grew out of the standards development
activities of the UK professional engineering
community in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries. The introduction of prescriptive
standards produced clear economic
benefi ts for the large-scale production
of manufactured goods and construction
materials.
However, to what degree is this
approach still relevant to current and future
engineering practice
and manufacture?
Now, concepts
such as ‘mass
customisation’,
backed by agile
bespoke design
and manufacturing
technologies, are
being proposed by
some as examples of
a potentially plausible
future production
philosophy. How
applicable will
these concepts
be to structural
engineering in the
future? What might
the implications be
if such approaches
became the new
paradigm for
construction?
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