ISO/PAS 22539:2007

PUBLICLY ISO/PAS
AVAILABLE 22539
SPECIFICATION
First edition
2007-12-15

User guidance to ISO 15928 — Houses —
Description of performance
Lignes directrices pour l'utilisateur de l'ISO 15928 — Constructions
d'habitation — Description des performances



Reference number
ISO/PAS 22539:2007(E)
©
ISO 2007

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ISO/PAS 22539:2007(E)
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ISO/PAS 22539:2007(E)
Contents Page
Foreword. iv
Introduction . v
1 Scope . 1
2 Objective of the ISO 15928 series . 1
3 Performance-based standards . 2
3.1 General approach advocated in International Standards. 2
3.2 Framework for performance provided in ISO 15928 . 2
3.3 Performance-based regulatory frameworks for buildings . 3
3.4 Relationship between ISO 15928 and performance-based regulatory frameworks . 4
4 Structure of the ISO 15928 series . 4
4.1 General. 4
4.2 Scope, normative references and definitions. 5
4.2.1 Scope . 5
4.2.2 Normative references . 5
4.2.3 Definitions . 5
4.3 User needs. 5
4.4 Performance description . 5
4.5 Principles for describing performance. 6
4.6 Parameters for the description of performance . 6
4.7 Evaluation. 6
4.8 Commentary and bibliography. 6
Annex A (informative) Format for each part of ISO 15928 . 7
Annex B (informative) User needs and performance descriptions for attributes addressed in the
ISO 15928 series . 9
Annex C (informative) Example of a procurement specification for houses based on ISO 15928. 12
Annex D (informative) Definitions for descriptors . 17
Annex E (informative) Application of the standards to procurement . 18
Bibliography . 21

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ISO/PAS 22539:2007(E)
Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies
(ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out through ISO
technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical committee has been
established has the right to be represented on that committee. International organizations, governmental and
non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work. ISO collaborates closely with the
International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of electrotechnical standardization.
International Standards are drafted in accordance with the rules given in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2.
The main task of technical committees is to prepare International Standards. Draft International Standards
adopted by the technical committees are circulated to the member bodies for voting. Publication as an
International Standard requires approval by at least 75 % of the member bodies casting a vote.
In other circumstances, particularly when there is an urgent market requirement for such documents, a
technical committee may decide to publish other types of document:
⎯ an ISO Publicly Available Specification (ISO/PAS) represents an agreement between technical experts in
an ISO working group and is accepted for publication if it is approved by more than 50 % of the members
of the parent committee casting a vote;
⎯ an ISO Technical Specification (ISO/TS) represents an agreement between the members of a technical
committee and is accepted for publication if it is approved by 2/3 of the members of the committee casting
a vote.
An ISO/PAS or ISO/TS is reviewed after three years in order to decide whether it will be confirmed for a
further three years, revised to become an International Standard, or withdrawn. If the ISO/PAS or ISO/TS is
confirmed, it is reviewed again after a further three years, at which time it must either be transformed into an
International Standard or be withdrawn.
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent
rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
ISO/PAS 22539 was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 59, Building construction, Subcommittee
SC 15, Performance criteria for single family attached and detached dwellings.
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ISO/PAS 22539:2007(E)
Introduction
Traditionally, the construction of single-family houses has been a local or regional on-site activity, dominated
by local builders and local forms of building control, with the latter often based on prescriptive codes and local
practices. The approach to the regulation of buildings has shifted to a performance-based approach,
reinforced by national commitments made in terms of the World Trade Organisation’s Technical Barriers to
Trade Agreement. Initiatives to standardize requirements at a national or federal level have also contributed to
this shift to the performance-based approach.
There are locations where, due to cost constraints and rationalization of production, limited local resources, or
where innovation is encouraged, markets have developed for standardized products in relation to the
construction of houses. This is reflected in the increasing mass production of houses according to
standardized designs. In some situations, this leads to the supply of houses assembled from sub-assemblies
manufactured off-site, with on-site activity limited to site preparation, foundation construction, connection of
services, and the assembly of the sub-assemblies. There has also been a growing international trade in
housing, particularly where demands exceed the capacity of local resources to deliver, such as following
disasters or as a result of rapid local population growth and development.
Because different countries, and often different regions within a country, have different ways of specifying their
requirements in documents such as codes, standards and technical regulations, it can be very difficult for
manufacturers to determine what exactly is required, and very difficult for purchasers to know whether what is
being offered meets the requirements. This has led to a need for an internationally agreed form of
communication, which will enable the various parties to exchange information using a common language. The
ISO 15928 series is designed to provide this common language. The basis of this language is the specification
of the requirements in terms of required performance, rather than in the form of prescriptive solutions that tend
to be limited to local forms of construction. The objective of the ISO 15928 series is to define performance
parameters for a range of attributes of houses.
The standard is not concerned with specifying the required levels of performance or the details of the
methods of evaluation. The specification of the required levels of performance is the prerogative of the users,
while the detailing of the methods of evaluation is the role of International Standards or other national or
regional standards.
A major driver for the development of these standards has been the directive from the World Trade
Organization (WTO) regarding the reduction of technical barriers to trade through the use of international
performance-based standards and regulations. Although the primary purpose of the ISO 15928 series is to
facilitate international trade for housing, its applicability is not limited to this. Anticipated users of the standards
are expected to include the following factors:
⎯ Purchasing organizations and specifiers, as an efficient and effective way of defining their needs in terms
of the various parameters described in the standards.
⎯ Regulating authorities, as an efficient and effective method of specifying their minimum performance
requirements in terms of the parameters described in the standards.
⎯ Designers, who will need to relate the performance requirements expressed in terms of the parameters in
ISO 15928 to the detailed design standards and design methods used in the design of the houses.
⎯ Certifiers, who will need to determine that the actual constructed house will meet the performance levels
expressed in terms of the parameters described in these standards.
⎯ Technical assessment organisations tasked with the establishment of the fitness for use and continuing
quality of innovative housing systems that deviate from established standard specifications.
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ISO/PAS 22539:2007(E)
⎯ Lending organizations that incorporate performance requirements in their conditions for providing loans.
⎯ Insurers who base their premiums and policy conditions in part on the certified performance levels of
houses.
⎯ Researchers and product developers who need to describe, in quantitative terms, the performance of
housing systems or components thereof that are researched or developed.
This user manual is intended to provide these potential users with information on the background to the
standards, and how it is intended that they be used.

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PUBLICLY AVAILABLE SPECIFICATION ISO/PAS 22539:2007(E)

User guidance to ISO 15928 — Houses — Description of
performance
1 Scope
This Publicly Available Specification provides user guidance to ISO 15928, which provides the framework
within which performance specifications for houses can be developed.
The ISO 15928 series is confined to buildings occupied for residential purposes which may be separated or
linked horizontally, but not linked vertically, which have their own access and do not share any common space.
2 Objective of the ISO 15928 series
The objective of the ISO 15928 series is to identify the methods that will be used to describe the performance
of houses. Each standard relates to a separate housing attribute. The standards do not specify levels of
1)
performance and are not intended to replace national building code standards or technical regulations , but to
provide a standardized framework to enable documents and regulations to be developed. The standards do
not provide design methods and/or design criteria.
Based on the framework provided by these ISO 15928 standards, users can describe their requirements in
standardized performance terms. Additionally the suppliers and constructors will be able to respond by
describing the performance of their products in a similar manner. The purpose of these standards is to provide
a standardized system that can be used to specify performance requirements and performance levels, or to
2)
rate houses in terms of a range of attributes .
The series when completed will address the principal attributes (the performance characteristic which
identifies a basic user need being addressed by an individual performance standard) in houses, to facilitate
the evaluation of the design and construction of houses in the international trading of houses or their sub-
systems, and in developing quality systems for houses.



1) In this document, the terms Building Code, Standards and Technical Regulations are generic terms describing the
local requirements. The actual terminology used varies internationally.
2) World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreement on technical barriers to trade (WTO 1997) Clause 2.8 states that
'Whenever appropriate, members shall specify technical regulations based on product requirements in terms of
performance, rather than design or descriptive characteristics'.
Paragraph 2 of Article V (Technical Specifications) of the World Trade Organisation's Plurilateral Agreement on
Government Procurement requires that technical specifications, where appropriate, be in term of performance rather than
design or descriptive characteristics.
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ISO/PAS 22539:2007(E)
3 Performance-based standards
3.1 General approach advocated in International Standards
ISO 6240 requires that each performance requirement shall be defined in terms of a function which is to be
fulfilled, together with the properties on which verification and assessment will be based, and that each
requirement shall have specified methods of assessment or verification of performance values, as follows;
⎯ the means (measurement, calculation, test or method of examination) by which the achieved performance
of the component or assembly will be assessed or verified;
⎯ the means of predicting the performance over time of the component or assembly.
ISO 6241 (1984) (Performance standards in building — Principles for their preparation and factors to be
considered) suggests that the method of assessment or verification of each performance requirement may be
made by means of a test, calculation or judgment.
ISO 15928 is consistent with the requirements of both ISO 6240 and ISO 6241.
3.2 Framework for performance provided in ISO 15928
The performance-based approach advocated in the ISO 15928 series has a hierarchy that starts with a user
need for each house attribute, followed by a performance description and performance parameters. (See
Figure 1.)
Each part of ISO 15928 establishes, in respect of a range of housing attributes:
⎯ user requirements (design objectives) (see Annex B);
⎯ performance descriptions (see Annex B);
⎯ the principles for describing performance;
⎯ the parameters for quantifying performance; and
⎯ the evaluation methods for confirming that the nominated performance will be achieved.
NOTE ISO 15928 provides the framework within which performance specifications for houses can be developed (see
Annex C).
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ISO/PAS 22539:2007(E)

Figure 1 — Performance-based approach to the specification of houses as advocated by ISO 15928

3.3 Performance-based regulatory frameworks for buildings
The Nordic five-level structure, which is illustrated in Figure 2, has had a significant influence on the
development of performance-based building regulations
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ISO/PAS 22539:2007(E)

Figure 2 — Nordic five-level structure for performance-based codes

3.4 Relationship between ISO 15928 and performance-based regulatory frameworks
ISO 15928 has adopted a modified form of the Nordic model to performance-based standards as shown in
Figure 1. The common descriptions applied in the systems based on the Nordic model are compared with
those contained in ISO 15928 (see Table D.1 of Annex D).
4 Structure of the ISO 15928 series
4.1 General
This Clause provides information and background on the structure of the ISO 15928 series. An example of the
structure of clauses is provided in Annex A.
Each standard follows the same basic format, only differing in applications specific to the attribute in question.
The format comprises the following major clauses.
a) Scope, normative references and definitions.
b) Performance specification, comprising
⎯ user needs,
⎯ performance description, and
⎯ principles for describing performance.
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ISO/PAS 22539:2007(E)
c) Parameters for description of performance:
⎯ for example, for structural safety, parameters for describing actions and parameters for describing
resistance.
d) Evaluation.
e) Annexes for Commentary and Bibliography.
The following subclauses show how this format is applied in the first part of the ISO 15928 series, Structural
safety.
4.2 Scope, normative references and definitions
4.2.1 Scope
The Scope of each part of the ISO 15928 series is a brief statement of content and its relationship with other
parts.
4.2.2 Normative references
Normative references are those documents, usually other International Standards, which are an integral part
of the standard.
4.2.3 Definitions
The definitions are, as far as possible, consistent with current International Standards and are included in
each part.
4.3 User needs
The needs of the user are the key to the use of the standards. This clause sets out, in definitive terms, what
the user’s expectations are.
For example, in ISO 15928-1, the structural safety user needs are described as follows:
“the risk of collapse or other kind of severe damage resulting from structural failure, which may affect the
life safety of the house occupants, or people in its vicinity, shall not exceed a level acceptable to the user”
In ISO 15928-1, it is pointed out in the commentary on this subclause, that the acceptable level of
performance will vary from user to user. In this case, the anticipation is that, in terms of structural safety, the
people inside the house would not want to be hurt by structural collapse and those outside by flying debris.
Additionally, there is, of course, concern for the potentially high cost of repairs in the event of structural failure.
4.4 Performance description
This clause introduces the method by which the required performance will be described.
For example, in the case of structural safety, it is expressed in terms of the capacity of the whole house and
its parts, with an appropriate degree of reliability, to maintain their resistance and equilibrium under all actions
likely to occur during its design working life.
In the commentary, it is indicated that the degree of reliability is up to the user. There will, of course, be
external constraints (such as building regulations), but the appropriate degree of reliability can be judged with
due regard to the possible consequences of failure and the expense level of effort and procedures necessary
to reduce the risk of failure.
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ISO/PAS 22539:2007(E)
4.5 Principles for describing performance
This clause simply states the principles under which the performance will be described.
For example, in the case of structural safety, it is by nominating the required structural actions (e.g., wind,
earthquake, etc.) and the resistance of the structure under those actions.
4.6 Parameters for the description of performance
A group of variables used to quantitatively describe the performance.
For example, in the case of structural safety, these parameters cover both the description of the Actions and
the description of the Resistance.
For example, in ISO 15928-1, the standard requires that the parameter for describing the wind performance is
the design wind speed.
4.7 Evaluation
Evaluation sets up the framework for demonstration of compliance with the performance requirements. This
can be accomplished by a number of means such as:
⎯ analysis;
⎯ testing;
⎯ service experience; or
⎯ a combination of them all.
Where appropriate International Standards are available, these will be referenced.
4.8 Commentary and bibliography
Each of the standards in the series is provided with a comprehensive commentary. The commentary is solely
to provide guidance and information on the use and application of the standard. Compliance with the
commentary is not a requirement of the standard.

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ISO/PAS 22539:2007(E)
Annex A
(informative)

Format for each part of ISO 15928
A.1 Scope


A.2 Normative references


A.3 Definitions


A.4 (Attribute) performance
A.4.1 User needs


A.4.2 Performance descriptions


A.4.3 Principles for describing (attribute) performance


A.5 Parameters for the description of performance


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ISO/PAS 22539:2007(E)
A.6 Evaluation


Annex (including Commentary)

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ISO/PAS 22539:2007(E)
Annex B
(informative)

User needs and performance descriptions for attributes
addressed in the ISO 15928 series
The ISO 15928 series will address a range of attributes as tabulated below. Currently, user needs and
performance descriptions have been developed for 8 parts.
USER NEED (DESIGN OBJECTIVE) PERFORMANCE DESCRIPTIONS
Part 1: Structural safety (published)
The risk of collapse or other kind of severe The performance description is the capacity of the whole
damage resulting from structural failure, which house and its parts, with an appropriate degree of reliability,
may affect the life safety of the house to maintain their strength and stability under all actions
occupants, or people in its vicinity, shall not likely to occur during its design working life.
exceed a level acceptable to the user.
Part 2: Structural serviceability
The following characteristics of a house, for The performance description is the ability of the whole
normal use and conditions, under all expected house and its parts, with an appropriate degree of reliability,
actions, should be kept within levels to perform within established parameters under all expected
acceptable to the user. actions for normal use in terms of:
a) The functioning and appearance of the a) local damage (including cracking) (which may affect the
house and its components. efficiency and appearance of the house and its
components);
b) The functioning of the occupants in the
house. b) deformation (which may affect the efficient use or
appearance of the house or the functioning of the
c) The functioning of the equipment in the
people and equipments); and
house.
c) vibration (which may cause discomfort or affect the
d) The comfort of the occupants.
activity of occupants or the functioning of equipment).
e) The asset value of the house.
Part 3: Structural durability (Approaching CD stage)
The structural safety and serviceability The performance description is the ability of the whole
performance of the house shall be acceptable house and its parts with an appropriate degree of reliability,
to the user over the specified design working to fulfill its intended safety and serviceability performance in
life used in ISO 15928-1. the environment in which it is located over the specified
design working life when subject to its intended use in terms
of one or more of the following:
a) external and internal environmental agents;
b) maintenance schedule and specified component
design life;
c) changes in form or properties

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ISO/PAS 22539:2007(E)
Part 4: Fire safety (proposed as a work item)
The fire safety performance of a house shall be The performance description is the ability of the whole
such that the vulnerability of the house to fire house and its parts, with an appropriate degree of
ignition and the time for escape in the event of reliability, in the event of a fire for:
a fire are at a level acceptable to the user.
a) fire detection and alarm;
b) fire suppression and spread;
c) means of escape; and
d) external and internal fire behaviour of the building
envelope in relation to degree of fire resistance and
emission of smoke and toxic gasses.
Part 5: Energy efficiency (to be proposed as a work item)
The energy consumption of the house, under The performance description is the ability of the following to
normal use and conditions, should be kept conserve energy:
within levels acceptable to the user, in relation
a) the building envelope to maintain the indoor
to the following:
environment with or without the use of equipment, with
a) thermal comfort; an appropriate degree of reliability, in terms of:
b) lighting; and 1) the function and use of the house;
c) hotwater services. 2) the geographic location of the house;
3) the direction of solar radiation; and
4) the internal environment; and
b) lighting and hot water services.
Part 6: Sustainability (to be submitted as a work item)
The house over its lifetime, should, within levels The performance description is the ability of the house to
acceptable to the user: respond to the following:
a) be affordable to access, maintain and live a) economics;
in;
b) employment opportunities;
b) minimizes the harmful effects on the
c) energy efficiency;
environment;
d) the biodegradability and non-noxiousness of demolition
c) conserve resources; and
waste, embodied energy, recyclability, and renewability
d) provide employment opportunities in its of construction materials;
construction, alteration or refurbishment.
e) disposal of waste; and
f) water efficiency.

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ISO/PAS 22539:2007(E)
Part 7: Safety, accessibility and usability (possible future work item)
The following characteristics of a house, for The performance description is the ability of the whole
normal use and conditions, should be kept house, and its parts, to enable occupants to:
within levels acceptable to the user in respect of
⎯ reside safely within the house with respect to:
the following:
⎯ slipping and tripping;
⎯ safety in use;
⎯ impact with glazing;
⎯ ease of access;
⎯ protection against explosions;
⎯ circulation routes; and
⎯ falls from a height;
⎯ spatial geometry.
⎯ equip and furnish rooms for their nominated purpose;
⎯ move freely betwee
...