History Performance-Based Building Codes Board (ABCB)

1.Introduction

Since the Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) released the first-in-history performance-based Building Code of Australia (BCA) in the year of 1996, the BCA96, the country's building industry has undergone a history for over two decades under a performance-based legislative (PBL) regime. The BCA is a part of the National Construction Code (NCC) Series, which set minimum requirements for national-wide building works to comply with. Performance Based Legislation (PBL) is developed world-widely, applied in a wide range of industries to different degrees. A predominantly performance-based legislative system lays the foundation for a industry to seek out for innovative solutions. Compliance of the BCA can either be the “Deem-to-Satisfy”

This type of performance approach has been long applied in the building and construction industry. Historical development of PBL can be traced back as early as in the Code of Hammurabi (c. 1795 to 1750 BC), where performance requirements were stated on construction safety along with associated penalties if the statements were failed to be met.

Although the human society has a history with performance approach for construction works for thousands of years, the formal performance methodology on a legislative level was not well-established or practised until the last century. The United States has leaded the introduction of PBL with early records of building codes in the 1920s, and then further developed the regulatory framework in the following decades (Gross, 1996). It was until the second half of the 20th century when the development of PBL started to spread out on a global scale. A worldwide interest in applying PBL was witnessed, starting from countries in North America and Europe. England, Sweden, Ireland, New Zealand, and Canada were ones of the firsts who adopted legislative codes to enable performance-based solutions in the building industry. The Inter-jurisdictional Regulatory Collaboration Committee (IRCC) was created in 1997 by leading countries in this area to discuss main issues

In the process of globalization, countries which only adopt prescriptive building codes will find it challenging to establish fair trade agreements in between. By contrast, PBL uses clearly defined performance expectations to avoid ambiguity. This would strengthen a country’s ability to operate in the international trades of building products. Revolutionary technological changes happening around the world is another example which requires more flexible systems to respond to. New techniques and products can be used as complied solutions under the BCA. Sourcing oversea lower-priced building products also becomes much easier and more feasible. A whole range of new possibilities and chances are enabled due to the adoption of