Performance methods allow the architect to design outside the boundaries formed by prescriptive codes and standards. The ability to obtain both design and functional flexibility while maintaining a high level of fire and life safety has added value to the architectural design process. Associates Inc. Likewise, building owners and developers will realize benefits from performance-based methodologies. Construction and life cycle costs may be reduced through a performance-based evaluation. Prescriptive codes can sometimes be quite conservative in providing layers of protection and redundancy since it takes a wide application to all buildings and situations by evaluating the unique conditions of a specific building.
Risk accounts for probability of an event as well as the potential loss.
On the other hand, similar performance-based analysis may just as easily identify an unacceptable risk or potential for failure that the prescriptive code has not accounted for. In this case, the owner benefits from the analysis by reducing exposure to liability and loss of business. A significant contribution was made by SFPE in the late 1980s with the publication of the SFPE Fire Protection Engineering Handbook. This handbook documents the fundamentals as well as methods and practices encompassing all aspects of fire protection engineering, including fire performance of buildings and materials and life safety issues such as evacuation and human behavior. A new document, published in March 2000, is the SFPE Engineering Guide to Performance-Based Fire Protection Analysis and Design of Building.