The building condition assessment : a national benchmarking exercise to guarantee building performance for construction : a Maltese case study

Abstract

As standards and green practices become more widespread and important, one aspect which must be considered is how these standards are enforced, and are effectively used in construction methodologies. Having the tools readily available must work in tandem with the aim of implementing these standards. The research being presented in the paper, seeks to determine whether buildings are compliant to such demanding criteria when systematically analysed using local Maltese parameters and European Regulations. In this context, this research paper attempts to respond to this by conducting a critical analysis of local building codes and their enforcement, relating the results to the efficacy, variance, and certainty of the codes once they have been implemented. Based on this premise, a Building Condition Assessment is proposed through which one can observe the presence or absence of such attributes. From the initial studies, conducted on a number of buildings, it is clear that the versatility of the Building Condition Assessment could allow users to focus on specific elements, as well as identify patterns that can predict potential defects. This process could in turn be used to create benchmarks, allow stricter enforcement in certain building practices while simultaneously building upon existing regulations, and finally be able to provide users with guarantees of the building’s performance. Results were split into three stages. The first set of thematic results indicated that habitable spaces offered new indicators for assessment that had to be inbuilt into the exercise. In the second set of results, building assessments were used to determine if respondents thought that the evaluation carried out accurately reflected the building's genuine state through collecting observational data followed by a rating classification. In the third set of results building simulation was used to analyse thermal comfort showing that in a well-designed building, a high level of thermal comfort was achievable in a Mediterranean climate, guaranteeing that living spaces may thoroughly be enjoyed not just to fulfill obligatory assessment procedures but also as proof of quality spaces for end users.