Developing a Framework for Risk-Responsive Building Codes of Office Buildings: A Healthy Building Perspective

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped our understanding of office buildings’ designs and operations, particularly in response to airborne transmission risks and occupants’ health. While building codes are intended to ensure safety, protect occupants’ health, and minimize risks, they lack adequate responsiveness to airborne transmission risks, including COVID-19. Additionally, there is a dearth of studies on the ability of building codes to mitigate airborne transmission. In response, this dissertation introduces a novel Risk-Responsive Framework (RRF) to evaluate and enhance building codes’ risk responsiveness, with a specific focus on providing healthier office environments. The specific objectives of this research are to: (1) identify the key factors that determine building codes’ risk responsiveness to mitigate airborne transmission, including COVID-19; (2) develop a framework to assess the risk responsiveness of current building codes; (3) apply this framework to U.S. case studies to determine their effectiveness; and (4) provide recommendations to improve building codes in preparation for future public health crises. A mixed-methods approach was employed, combining qualitative and quantitative data through content analysis, expert interviews, and the Delphi method. A multi-criteria analysis method of simple additive weighting was used to weigh and rank the final factors that determine a building code’s risk responsiveness. This comprehensive approach led to the identification of four criteria and eleven key factors influencing building codes’ risk responsiveness. These criteria include prevention effectiveness, associated energy costs, and ease of monitoring, reporting, implementation, and enforcement, while key factors such as increased ventilation rates, higher air filtration, space design, clean air delivery rates, and bringing in outdoor air were identified. These factors were used to construct RRF, which aims to evaluate building codes’ effectiveness in mitigating airborne transmission risks. RRF was applied to 30 U.S. cities and 30 states to assess their current responsiveness to airborne transmission risks. The findings revealed that most existing building codes are not sufficiently responsive to these risks. Only a few states and cities scored relatively higher due to the inclusion of relevant health-focused factors, such as higher air filtration, in their building codes. This underscores the significant need for integrating health considerations into building codes to enhance their responsiveness to airborne transmission risks. This research provides significant insights by identifying gaps in current building codes and proposing the novel RRF to enhance their responsiveness to airborne transmission risks. It also highlights the importance of integrating health-focused requirements into building codes to ensure safer and healthier office environments in the post-pandemic era. Finally, this research offers recommendations to improve building codes’ risk responsiveness to future airborne disease outbreaks.