Buildings are for people because, it is created environments and provide temperature, humidity, lighting and ventilation necessary for people to live and work productively” (Barrett 1992, cited Amarathunga, 2002). At one time, buildings were considered merely as an expensive overhead (Douglas 1996, cited Amarathunga, 2002). With the emergence of FM, buildings were seen more as enabler to core business activities (Nutt 1992, cited Amarathunga, 2002). For that reason people also consider the facilitators of organizational performance. Buildings, facilities, people and organizations are interrelated to the extent that a failing in one link of the chain will affect overall building performance (Amarathunga and Baldry, 1998). To support that statements James (1996) discussed the importance of buildings as follows.
Environmental: they provide suitable, internal environments which can resist the adverse effects of climatic conditions for people and commodities.
Economic: they are durable fixed assets with good capital growth potential.
Functional: they enable activities and tasks to be carried out and commodities to be housed under controlled conditions.
Cultural: they reflect the architectural aspirations and historical characteristics of the community within which they reside.
Legal: they are required to enable owners and users to comply with certain statutory requirements.
In simple terms “building performance” has been defined in BS 5240 as behavior of a product in use. It can also be used to denote the physical performance characteristics of a building as a whole and of its parts. It thus relates to a building’s ability to contribute to fulfilling the functions of its intended use (Douglas, 1996). Further, he stated that building performance is important both in an inter-building and an intra-building sense. An inter-building evaluation is where one building is being compared against another building. This is important where clients or occupiers are undertaking a comparative analysis of various properties for acquisition or portfolio assessment purposes. With an intra-building evaluation, the building is assessed on its own without direct reference to other properties. The goal here may be to ascertain how well the building is serving the needs of the occupier or to identify any major deficiencies in its overall performance. The relationship between building performance and the performance of facilities is outlined in Figure 2.1.
According to this figure, actual building performance inevitably declines over time owing to a number of influences such as wear and tear, user abuse or misuse, climatic conditions, inadequate maintenance, and so on. It seems that the law of diminishing returns affects buildings too. Point OX is where the building’s performance begins to fall below that of the facilities it is supposed to be supporting. After position OZ the level of building performance is such that the efficiency of the facilities themselves will be adversely affected (Dougles, 1996). Further, Kiritharan (2002, p.10) argued that “modern management seeks to target and measure the performance of individuals, work groups and equipment in a building to find out the building performance”. Following Figure 2.2 represents the elements of building performance and interrelationship among those elements
Environmental: they provide suitable, internal environments which can resist the adverse effects of climatic conditions for people and commodities.
Economic: they are durable fixed assets with good capital growth potential.
Functional: they enable activities and tasks to be carried out and commodities to be housed under controlled conditions.
Cultural: they reflect the architectural aspirations and historical characteristics of the community within which they reside.
Legal: they are required to enable owners and users to comply with certain statutory requirements.
In simple terms “building performance” has been defined in BS 5240 as behavior of a product in use. It can also be used to denote the physical performance characteristics of a building as a whole and of its parts. It thus relates to a building’s ability to contribute to fulfilling the functions of its intended use (Douglas, 1996). Further, he stated that building performance is important both in an inter-building and an intra-building sense. An inter-building evaluation is where one building is being compared against another building. This is important where clients or occupiers are undertaking a comparative analysis of various properties for acquisition or portfolio assessment purposes. With an intra-building evaluation, the building is assessed on its own without direct reference to other properties. The goal here may be to ascertain how well the building is serving the needs of the occupier or to identify any major deficiencies in its overall performance. The relationship between building performance and the performance of facilities is outlined in Figure 2.1.
According to this figure, actual building performance inevitably declines over time owing to a number of influences such as wear and tear, user abuse or misuse, climatic conditions, inadequate maintenance, and so on. It seems that the law of diminishing returns affects buildings too. Point OX is where the building’s performance begins to fall below that of the facilities it is supposed to be supporting. After position OZ the level of building performance is such that the efficiency of the facilities themselves will be adversely affected (Dougles, 1996). Further, Kiritharan (2002, p.10) argued that “modern management seeks to target and measure the performance of individuals, work groups and equipment in a building to find out the building performance”. Following Figure 2.2 represents the elements of building performance and interrelationship among those elements
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