Tags: #architecture #buildingdesign #buildingdurability #buildingenclosures #buildingenvelopes #buildingproducts #buildingscience #construction #EIFS #maintenance #manufacturing #planning #resilience #stucco
What is durability? Can it be defined unequivocally? Can it be defined without consideration for climate, costs, maintenance, use, and expectations?
Deprived of stated constraints and conditions, durability falls flat. And calling it by another name (aka resilience) renders it even more formless and less real. Indeed, without explicit requirements for service life, and evidence thereof, we have no basis for comparison and no means for true measure.
Each day, a decision is made based on assumed durability. It’s then repeated, and precedence is set. After years of perpetuated error, the industry self-corrects. Then the process repeats itself though in a different direction.
Codes imply various aspects of durability but do not make it explicit. Product warrantees offer recourse to defects but advance little towards actual performance and longevity. To breathe life into durability, it’s time to consider durability plans as routine facets of city planning, design, product manufacturing, and even our construction documents. A durability plan articulates what we hope to achieve but what is somehow lost in the minutia of codes, testing, and performance criteria.