At their core, building codes address the baseline requirements for safety, amenity and sustainability deemed acceptable by governments and society for new buildings and building work.

They are regularly updated to respond to observed problems and innovation, and to prepare for emerging subjects such as building resilience and new technologies. As such, they play an essential role in governing the development of the built environment.

However, in the constant march of progress, it is all too easy to lose sight of the past.

In general, building codes have limited application to existing buildings, despite these structures comprising the bulk of the built environment. For context, in 2012, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that new buildings only comprise around 2% of the nation’s total building stock in any one year.

With some exceptions (such as where the use of an existing building is changed, or where new safety features like swimming pool fences are mandated), existing buildings are rarely required to adhere to new code requirements once built.

This  arrangement is consistent with the principle that laws should generally not be applied retrospectively to structures that were compliant at the time of their construction. However, this approach has the potential to leave the owners and occupants of existing buildings to their own devices, subject only to a patchwork of regulatory, facility management and educational measures. There is no compulsion to properly maintain existing buildings or upgrade them to meet contemporary measures deemed necessary for new buildings.

Principles for Existing Buildings

The International Building Quality Centre (IBQC) recently released the Good Practice Existing Buildings Guidelines , an important resource for industry that highlights gaps, in the effective oversight of existing buildings, and establishes strategies to potentially address them.

This document shines a spotlight on the challenges of maintaining occupant health and safety, achieving ongoing performance throughout the design life of existing buildings, and resource depletion and carbon emissions.

In launching the Guidelines, Chair of the IBQC, Adjunct Professor Kim Lovegrove RML, MSE, noted existing buildings are often subject to inconsistent regulation and insufficient maintenance, a gap that can compromise health, safety, durability, and sustainability.

The Guidelines are especially timely as the built environment becomes denser, more vertically oriented and more complex, often managed by collective ownership structures that may lack complete knowledge or technical expertise. With an estimated global building stock of 252.7 billion square metres in 2021 and rapid growth projected through to 2060, the effective stewardship of existing buildings is a matter of global significance.

In addition to promoting important principles for existing buildings, including a strong safety and maintenance culture, the creation of building owners’ manuals, fire safety strategies, and digital information management to record a building’s DNA, the Guidelines also provide a checklist of implementation strategies to support the effective management of existing buildings. These include:

• Establishing an appropriate regulatory framework
• Mandatory inspections for regular maintenance
• Education and training programs
• Financial incentives and support
• Empowering local authorities and promoting community engagement
• Generating and managing building data
• Ensuring heritage values are appropriately considered
• Promoting resilience and the circular economy
• Monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness of strategies and programs employed

The IBQC notes in its analysis that these measures are particularly pertinent for high-risk and complex buildings, where it is essential to understand the consequences of failing to conduct regular inspections or act on the resulting recommendations. Although the cost of maintaining buildings correctly can be high, the cost of not doing so can be much higher.

Is there a role for an existing building code?

As mentioned, the global stock of existing buildings is becoming increasingly complex, with higher density, high-rise and often mixed use developments. Many of these buildings host inter-dependent systems responsible for internal air quality, fire safety and water quality, they are comprised of structural features that, if not properly maintained, could result in building failure or risk to the general public.

Contemporary developments such as the increasing incidence of extreme weather events and ongoing efforts to decarbonise the global economy also put existing buildings at risk of becoming unfit for purpose.

Although there are few international examples, codes for existing buildings can be designed to encourage their use and re-use, covering areas such as repair, alteration, addition, and change of occupancy.

For example, the International Code Council (ICC) publishes the International Existing Building Code (IEBC), which aims to achieve an appropriate level of safety without requiring full compliance with the stricter requirements for new buildings.

This measure ensures that important standards are not met once, but continually throughout the service life of a building, noting that the focus is not on applying code requirements for new buildings retrospectively.

Although most of Australia’s jurisdictions have requirements for the maintenance of critical life safety systems, this does not necessarily extend to the structural integrity of a building, or the continuing performance of HVAC systems, energy and water efficiency features, and the like. The implementation of a code for existing buildings would lead to improved outcomes for health and safety, sustainability and social equity.

While continual updates to energy efficiency standards are an effective way to reduce the environmental impact of the construction sector, the retrofitting and repurposing of existing buildings remains an important yet largely untapped opportunity.

Existing buildings constructed to conform to older standards are a substantial consumer of energy and source of emissions globally. To advance the sector’s progress on climate action, the reuse of existing buildings must be an important consideration by virtue of their embedded resources and embodied carbon.

The International Energy Agency highlights that improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings through retrofitting and repurposing is essential, as a large portion of today’s buildings are expected to remain in use by 2050.

Buildings are not merely material possessions or tradeable assets, but spaces that foster social cohesion, employment opportunities, access to infrastructure, safety, culture and community life.

A subset of existing buildings is poor-quality housing, which is associated with factors such as inadequate facilities, energy inefficiency, higher maintenance and repair costs and exposure to extreme weather events. This has the potential to negatively impact low-income households.

A 2019 report by the City Futures Research Centre at University of New South Wales highlighted that over 1 million people in Australia live in such housing.

The same report advocates for minimum standards for existing dwellings, noting that “aside from standards governing new construction and major renovation, there is little regulation of standards for existing buildings across Australia.”

Documents such as the IBQC’s Good Practice Existing Buildings Guidelines and the ICC’s IEBC provide practical resources for existing buildings to remain safe, efficient, and fit for purpose without requiring full compliance with new-build standards.

Neil Savery is managing director for the ICC Oceania

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