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3rd and 5th Austrian Workshop

"Building Certification - Greater Value, Improved Environmental Quality, and Less Environmental Impact with Total Quality Management"
"TQ - Total Quality: The Austrian Building Certificate"
Key results

In the context of the project "ECO-Building - Optimierung von Gebäuden" ("ECO-Building - Building Optimisation") funded by the Austrian Ministry and the "Building of Tomorrow" program, criteria, planning aids, and an evaluation instrument are being developed for Total Quality Management in construction. The most important information are relevant for the issuing of a Building Quality Certificate. The workshops' goal was to bring together and involve potential users of such a certificate and to work jointly on the further development of the existing rough draft, making of it a market-oriented and user-friendly information instrument.

Total Quality - From target values in planning to the building certificate itself

For each assessment criterion, the TQ building assessment sets target values to be used in planning (see the categorised summary of criteria). For a particular building project, planning goals are formulated on the basis of the target values and the assessment of the building after construction serves to control whether the goals were met. The results include documentation of the building's quality as well as the creation of the data necessary for an assessment. In the end, not only does comprehensive information exist for building management and the planning of later renovation, but the developer or owner also has a building quality certificate in the hand which can be used for marketing purposes.

TQ Information package for professionals

The documentation and the building certificate require data that are as comparable as possible; these data will be provided by architects, building technology planners, and other specialists. These professionals call for the least possible increase in planning work due to TQ, and they call for assistance in integrating the TQ considerations into their planning process, so that they can achieve the best possible assessment results for the individual criteria.
For this reason an information package was developed which includes all material relevant to the process of integrated building assessment, thus demonstrating to public authorities, developers, planners, architects, and also consumers which practical ways and means there are to build more cost-effective and user- and environment-friendly buildings.

Standards for the Total Quality Building Assessment Tool

• Building assessments and certifications should be restricted to "service buildings", i.e., the residential and office building sector.
• The long-term goal of this building assessment tool is to promote innovative and sustainable buildings with a TQ marketing instrument. The usefulness of the tool for marketing purposes can be seen by developers to be to their advantage, thus motivating them to carry out an assessment of their building projects.
• Building assessments can only be used as marketing instruments when the results are presented in ways appropriate for the customer. The different assessment criteria should therefore be aggregated into a small number of figures which are understandable for non-professionals. These figures should be presented in an easily remembered visual form.
• An assessment category should document construction as well as future management and maintenance costs.
• Building performance should be assessed regularly, because the quality of operation, maintenance and service may change over time. A building certificate should therefore only be valid for a certain length of time, after which it must be renewed.

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