Building Control and Performance: As if people and the planet matter

Conventional approaches to planning and building control focus on physical and technical issues and on design and construction. Alternative approaches, which see buildings in a social and environmental context, seek to assess their impact on people and the planet and address building performance as part of a complex eco-system. The paper charts a personal journey and a process of evolution of knowledge and thinking from building performance, through usability to a community-based approach to facilities management. It presents an action research programme to develop a community-based approach to facilities management in the context of regeneration in the United Kingdom. A case study of the evaluation of a community building is presented to introduce a model of community-based FM and to describe appropriate metrics and tools to assess performance. The paper concludes by addressing implications for the evaluation of building performance and for asset and facilities management the Malaysian context.