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Technical Note (National Research Council of Canada. Division of Building Research), 1960-05-27
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Legget, R. F.
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DIVISION OF BUILDING RESEARCH
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF CANADA
ｾ
ｾｉ
NOTlE
'fEClHIN lICAlL
NOT FOR PUBLICATION FOR INTERNAL USE
PREPARED BY CHECKED BY APPROVED BY
R.F.Legget
R. F. Legget DATE 27 May 1960
PREPARED FOR
R.A.I.C. Committee on Building Research
SUBJECT
Performance of Buildings - a Progress Report
The performance of buildings has been a matter of concern to the Division of Building Research since the very start of its work. The term is used to indicate an examination of completed buildings, preferably by the architects responsible. associated with others such as members of building research staffs, in order to see how the buildings have performed their intended functions and to examine any defects which may have made themselves obvious in the course of time. This is regularly done in the case of major engineering structures. It is abundantly clear that much can be learned about the techniques of building, the durability of various combinations of materials and components, and the performance of exposed materials by such critical and constructive examinations.
The writer of this note first discussed the matter with Professor W. C. Voss in his office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in April 1949. He was encouraged to find that
Professor Voss fully endorsed the rather vague idea voiced by the writer, doing so against the background of his vast experience in the building field. From that time on the subject has been
continually before the Division. It has been mentioned from time to time to individual architects. Unfortunately DBR has never had members of staff free to make a real start at such studies of
their own and in any case preferred to wait until the matter
received some general recognition from the architectural profession in Canada.
Accordingly the Division welcomed the Qpportunity of discussing this matter with the R.A.I.C. Committee on Research. It was encouraged to find a favourable response to the idea. As promised during this mutual discussion, the writer has inquired
2
-from his friends, the Directors of Building Research in most of the major countries of the world as to their experience in and knowledge of this subject. This is usually the first step taken by DBR at the
initiation of any new research project. It avoids duplication of effort and sometimes provides information of unusual value that is not available in printed form.
In this particular case, however, and rather as expected, the result of this inquiry has not produced much information that will be of assistance in getting Canadian studies of the
perform-ance of buildings well started. The inquiries are continuing. This progress note has been prepared for the information of the R.A.I.C. Committee at the time of its meeting during the Annual Convention of the Royal Institute in Winnipeg on 1-4 June.
United States of America
The most significant development here was the holding of a meeting by the Building Research Institute in New York during April 1960 at which the first known American papers on the subject of the performance of buildings were presented. The meeting was
attended by Professor Raymore of the University of Toronto and Mr. C. R. Crocker of DBR. It is hoped that a joint report by
these two observers will shortly be available summarising their impressions of the BRI meeting as a supplement to the actual papers which will eventually be published.
The Chief of the Building Technology Division of the National Bureau of Standards has kindly looked into the matt0r but was unable to advise of any recent check list or similar publication that might be of use for the Canadian study. There is available, however, through the National Bureau of Standards a "Field
Inspectors Check List for Building Construction" (BMS Report 81 published in 1942). This report was prepared by a sub-committee of thE Central Housing Committee on Research, Design and Construction. Although now almost twenty years old, this document is the closest
approach to the sort of check list that DBR has been considering. Great Britain
It is only in Great Britain that some progress appears
m
have been made. The Director of Building Research advises that some years ago an architect on his staff did a considerable amount of work in gF.tting architects to look critically at their buildings after a reasonable lapse of time. As a result of this work BRS had carried out a study of ｴｨｾ durability and functional purpose of thirteen buildings of importance in the London area. A report will be published in due course on this work and DBR will see that members of the R.A.I.C. Committee obtain copies. Some advanceinformation has been sent privately to DBR and this is being studied as a start towards the preparation of the necessary working
3
-By a strange coincidence there has just appeared in
"The Architects' Journal" for April 7 1960 another of the progress articles that have appeared in this Journal summarising exactly the type of examination that DBR and R.A.I.C. have under review. This
article will be found on pages 535-544. It deals with a careful study of the Mayfield Comprehensive School at West Hill, London, S.W.15. The paper records the performance of the school after
five years of hard use. DBR would be glad to have photostat copies prepared of this article for the use of members of the Committee if they would be useful.
There are probably similar articles available in British architectural journals but no record has been found of any
co-ordinated summary. It is clear, however, that British architects are actually doing what is now being contemplated in Canada.
India
The Director of the Central Building Research Institute advises that he knows of no performance studies of buildings in his country but expresses his great interest in the matter and
asks to be kept in touch with further Canadian developments. South Africa
The Director of the National Buildinq Research Institute expresses similar interest and is going to discuss our inquiry with the South African Institute of Architects with a view to
possible parallel development. The Director draws attention to an interesting publication "Planning of Primary Schools" a report of the South African School Buildings Committee 1927, published by the Government Printer in Pretoria, which contains some suggestions as to the sort of thing that should be looked at in any study of
actual buildings. This publication is in the DBR Library and will be used for further DBR studies.
Australia
The Director of the Commonwealth Experimental Building Station states that he has been aware of the desirability of
performance studies and that some architects in Sydney have given some thought to the idea. Nothing appears to have been done along this line in Australia on any organised basis but they also wish to be kept in touch with progress.
Denmark
One of the Directors of the Danish National Institute of Building Research has kindly indicated great interest in his country in this matter and has given some leads for further inquiry in other parts of Scandinavia. He is sending a scheme worked out by a Danish architect for the USA of property administrators in connection with
maintenance costs but this has not yet been received by DBR. It is clear that there is real interest in this matter in Scandinavia and further information is expected.
4 -Sweden
Valuable information has b0en received from the Director and a member of the staff of thF Swedish State Committee for
Building Research. Amongst the interesting facts which they report are that a group of five Swedish Directors were asked (presumably by the Committee) to study buildings which they had erected. When they tried to prepare a check list they found that so many items would have to be listed that the result was not very effective. Accordingly the method of insp€ction has been changed and any building details which are not functioning as intended are now being studied.
The Swedish Committee has been responsible for comparable studies of flat roofs and kindly remind us of the Existence of a CIB Working Group on Flat Roofs which should develop some informa-tion of great value on this one aspect of building performance. The Director kindly summarises their thinking by suggesting that th following five steps migl t form the pattern of a research
programme:-1. Find out th0 damages.
2. Collect detailed data. 3. AnalysG the caUSGs.
4, ｄｩｳｳｾｭｩｮ｡ｴ information of the caUSES.
5. Elaborats r0commendations of better performanc2s. Norway
Although no communication has yet been received directly from Norway, it is known that the Chairman of tho Norwegian
ｂｵｩｬ､ｩｮｾ Research Institute (whom RFL had the pleasure of meeting
in 1951) has publishEd an excgllent booklet entitled "Bedrafasader". A copy of this will be procured if possible and it will provide
further information of use.
All that this report does is to show that a start has b en made at study of what is clearly a most complex matter. As time and opportunity permit, DBR will carryon with this study under the personal direction of Mr. Ferguson and the writer. It is hoped that by the fall of this year a preliminary pap0r will be available.
