| Abstract | Building regulatory systems around the world are going through dramatic change in response to changing stakeholder needs and political environments. These changes are introducing greater flexibility through the explicit statement of the objectives of the regulations and an increase in expression of code requirements in performance terms. A common characteristic of these new regulations, generally referred to as performance or objective-based, is that they include or are supported by at least one set of acceptable solutions which are deemed to deliver the required performance. An alternative solution different from the corresponding acceptable solution may also be considered. This characteristic of these new building regulatory systems is an important feature for those wanting to encourage innovation and the advancement of new technologies.There are many issues and questions surrounding acceptable solutions, which must be addressed by those implementing performance-based building regulatory systems. CIB TG37, which is titled Performance-based Building Regulatory Systems, is working to gather information and experiences related to these issues and questions. These issues include the form of the acceptable solutions, what constitutes the minimum level of performance, relationship of the acceptable solutions to performance-based requirements and issues surrounding documentation and publication of the acceptable solutions. There are similar questions with regard to the acceptance of alternative solutions but the timeframe within which a building authority must respond is much shorter. In some cases the alternative solutions will be assessed against the objectives and performance requirements of the performance-based codes while in others the alternative solutions will be compared with the acceptable solutions. This paper will present the work to date of TG37 in studying these issues and questions. |
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