- Author
-
Haviland, D. S.
- Title
- Toward a Performance Approach to Life Safety from Fire in Building Codes and Regulations. Final Report.
- Coporate
- Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst., Troy, NY
- Sponsor
- National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, MD
Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Washington, DC
- Report
-
NBS GCR 78-118,
January 1978,
191 p.
- Distribution
- Available from National Technical Information Service
- Keywords
-
building codes
|
building design
|
buildings
|
construction methods
|
fire prevention
|
fire protection
|
fire safety
|
life safety
|
standards
|
occupants
- Abstract
- Building codes in use throughout the U.S. contain mostly prescriptive provisions which specify how a proposed building must be designed and constructed. Prescriptive provisions tend to leave little latitude for the building's designer to exercise expert judgment or use modern materials and methods even though these might improve the finished building or reduce its cost. A solution to this dilemma is the use of performance provisions for building codes. Performance provisions state how the building is to function or operate to satisfy the needs of its occupants, and leaves much discretion to the building's designer as to how the specified performance is to be achieved. This report discusses the performance provisions which should be considered by building researchers, code authorities, and by those who enforce the Nation's building regulatory system. Hopefully, future building codes might be couched in performance terminology as recommended in this report.