Developed by SC 3, the recently published ISO 19208:2016 Framework for specifying performance in buildings provides the necessary framework and principles to describe the performance of a building as a whole or a part thereof.
This is done either in terms of fitness of purpose or beneficial and adverse impacts and to provide the means of evaluation for solutions for a wide range of applications.
The performance concept has historically been used to address fitness for intended use of attributes of a building as a whole or a part thereof. Each characteristic is assessed in terms of whether or not it meets assumed performance.
Over the last decade, this concept has been expanded to be used to address the beneficial or adverse impact of choices made regarding building materials, construction methods and resources, operating energy, water services and sanitary systems on economic conditions, the environment, a society or the quality of life, i.e. the contribution which a building makes to sustainable development.
Specifying performance of a building ranges from fundamental to specific, and ISO 19208 is intended primarily to assist those who are involved in specifying performance in buildings by stating general principles. The standard includes tables aimed at identifying the main factors to be considered in their elaboration, such as user requirements and societal expectations, possible uses of the buildings and their spaces, building subsystems of which the product is a part, and agents, of any nature and origin, which are relevant to the performance of a building and related entities in use, and affecting factors.
SC 3 is chaired by Satoshi Kose (Japan), and the Secretary is Nobuaki Sakakura from JISC/IIBH.