Basic Study of Performance-Based Design in Civil Engineering

Abstract

Although performance-based design, procurement, and construction management are now spreading rapidly in the building construction field, full-fledged study of the method for public works has barely begun. At this time, therefore, the concept expressed by the term “performance-based design” (which in this article, for simplicity, will include procurement and construction management) varies from person to person. This article is a basic study of the concepts of performance-based standards, performance-based standardization, and performance-based ordering, which are all necessary to introduce the performance-based design approach into the civil engineering field. It is proposed that performance-based design be defined in terms of two conditions: attainment level of objective of use, and degree of freedom. The article introduces the bottom-up and top-down methods as basic performance standardization methodologies.