| Abstract | This report provides a summary of the recommendations by the authors based on the results of a provision-by-provision analysis of select portions of the 2020 edition of the National Building Code of Canada (NBC 2020). The scope of the analysis was from the perspective of how the level of performance of Division B requirements may be clarified to better support the development and review of alternative solutions.
In alignment with the 2025-2030 code cycle work on the strategic priority of Performance-Based Solutions (PBS) and draft mandate of the National Model Code Committee on Performance-Based Solutions (NMCC-PBS) 2025-2030 code cycle, the analysis scope and subsequent recommendations for performance formulations of the requirements to be developed do not supplant the existing prescriptive requirements. That is, existing prescriptive requirements should remain and the new performance-based requirements would provide a parallel means of compliance for the acceptable solution requirement, within the current objective-based framework of the National Model Codes (NMCs).
The planning of this work occurred prior to the development of the scope of potential work for the National Model Codes 2025-2030 development cycle. Therefore, the efforts of the work summarized in this report were aligned as far as practical to help inform and accelerate the discussions on planning and initial work for 2025-2030 code cycle work on the strategic priority of PBS. In addition, there may be some future-looking perspectives or aspects towards performance-based building and fire codes in Canada.
The following provides a high-level summary of select highlights from recommendations by the authors arising from the analyses of the three select areas of the NBC 2020 for clarification of performance targets, evaluation methods, and/or background rationale and assumptions used in the development of requirements that would improve the ease of development and review of alternative solutions. The three areas of focus were:
- Structural including earthquake design,
- Fire safety, use and egress, and accessibility design, and
- Building envelope, energy efficiency and acoustic design. |
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