Performance Based Building – A state-of-the-art with respect to healthy buildings.

Within the European funded project PeBBu (Performance-Based Building), a state-of-the-art report on the performance-based building (PBB) approach with focus on healthy buildings is prepared. It deals with methods, guidelines, protocols and tools to design, evaluate and measure the health status of buildings or designs for buildings. The health of buildings in this context relates to air quality, ventilation, thermal comfort, noise and visual comfort. After an introduction into PBB, this paper summarizes the state-of-the-art with respect to performance and healthy buildings. An important part of this summary is devoted to the definition of PBB and to the procedure that has been developed to gather the information. Based on the information gathered thus far, the main conclusion is that the PBB approach already has a firm basis in the building process, but that some specific aspects are lacking that currently impede the further integration of PBB in the total building process. Indoor environmental attributes appear specifically suited for the PBB approach.