ROLE OF ACCEPTABLE SOLUTIONS IN EVALUATING INNOVATIV DESIGNS

摘要

A lot of efforts has been invested internationally in support of the introduction in several countries of performance-based building regulatory systems. A performance-based system relies on clearly expressed goals/objectives and functional requirements, which are generally expressed in qualitative terms. Key to a performance-based system is a set of quantitative and measurable performance criteria appropriately linked to the qualitative portion of the system. Some areas of building regulations such as energy conservation, structural design, sound insulation, and some aspects of fire safety currently benefit from sufficient knowledge to support the expression of performance criteria in quantitative and measurable terms. Several areas however do not benefit from such knowledge, namely those areas of building regulations related to personal hygiene, comfort and well-being of people, access and movement of people - including people with disabilities, safety of people from injury, aspects of fire safety-more particularly those related to prevention of fires and human behavior in fire emergencies. The absence of quantitative and measurable performance criteria is these areas creates a need for alternate methods and tools to determine―and verify - the acceptable level of performance in order to satisfy society's expectations as expressed in the goals/objectives and performance requirements of the regulations. Several methods and tools have been developed and their use varies from one country to another. Expert judgment, historical in-service performance, statistical evidence, approved calculations, test methods, models and simulations are examples of such methods and tools that may be used to determine and verify performance of a building design. Another method relies on comparison of a proposed building design with acceptable solutions, those solutions (essentially - but not exclusively - prescriptive specifications) that are deemed to comply with building regulations. This is the method privileged by Canada in developing its objective-based codes concept.