Code Requirements and Sustainable Design - Project stakeholders should collaborate early in the design process to ensure building- and fire-code requirements are met

摘要

A societal shift to become better stewards of our environment is taking place all around us. As part of this "greening" shift, practitioners and stakeholders at all levels of the built-environment community quickly are realizing that innovative building-design solutions are outpacing the language/concepts that have been the foundation of model building and fire codes. Sustainable-design-project teams often are confronted with "roadblocks" when it comes to strictly meeting traditional building/fire-code requirements. These teams need to invoke provisions of codes that address alternate designs, materials, and methods of construction. For example, many sustainable-design projects include elements such as under-floor-air-distribution (UFAD) systems, exterior sunshades/light shelves, light wells, and atria. During a projects permit process, design elements often are met with questions and concerns from local building and fire authorities because they do not address the traditional prescriptive requirements of model building and fire codes, as well as the traditional process of schematic design, design development, and construction-document development.