International Standards for Design Life of Constructed Assets | NIST

In 1993, a working group aimed at developing standards for design life was established in ISO Technical Committee TC59, Building Construction. The working group was later elevated to subcommittee status as ISO/TC59/SC14, Design Life. The purpose of the activity is to document steps to be taken at various stages of the building cycle to ensure that the resulting building, or other constructed facility, will last for its intended life, the design life, without incurring large unexpected expenditures. It is needed to facilitate the making of objective estimates of the service lives of buildings and facilities. The activity has progressed to the stage where the first three parts of the developing standard, Buildings and Constructed Assets – Service Life Planning, are expected to be approved as International Standards or drafts (FDIS/DIS) by the time of the congress. They are: Part 1, General principles; Part 2, Service life prediction procedures, and; Part 3, Performance audits and reviews. Additional parts addressing data requirements and life-cycle costing are being drafted. Recently, three new parts have been proposed, covering condition assessment, incorporation of life cycle assessment data, and service life design of concrete structures. Of these, the first is intended as a semi-generic support standard, in particular for Part 2. The last could become the first international product standard addressing service life planning issues explicitly, simultaneously serving as an example or a template how to cope with other building products in this context. Furthermore, proposals for new work items on maintenance and on characterisation of degradation environments are being drafted. This paper describes each of the approved parts and outlines what will be included in the remaining parts; it also contains a section on future developments and prospects.