代码要求问题已深深地嵌入建筑行业和斗争的永久来源。使用任何材料要求背后的意图始终是相同的：创建具有弹性，坚固和安全的结构。但是，由于各种原因，我们实现这些目标的方式是辩论的根源。

争论的再保险和性能quirements for concrete, by far the most widely used construction material in the world, center on whether it’s best for specifications to delineate the composition of the concrete mix to be used or to delineate the performance characteristics and requirements.

双方都有有效的论点，并且有不同的动机推动了偏好。自从文明黎明以来，具体就已经存在，因此可以利用大量的机构知识来用于规定规格。建筑也是一个奖励稳定性的行业，因此具有抵抗力的变化。对于一个基础设施项目，例如农村公路桥梁，可能几乎没有动力偏离过去用于类似桥梁的任何规格，而这些规格本质上可能具有规定性。如果以前起作用，推理就会解决，它将再次起作用。

Advocates of performance requirements will quickly note that prescriptions don’t necessarily serve the purpose for which they were created: chiefly, the performance of the concrete. Specified “recipes” are created to achieve certain material necessities such as strength per square inch (PSI) or permeability. But prescriptive specifications often outline the procedures and ingredients for what is desired, as opposed to specifying the actual desired result.

例如，具有相同的水含水材料比的混凝土混合物可能会导致强度截然不同的PSI结果，因此为什么要指定混合比而不是简单地指定必要的强度？在实际应用中存在尾wags-dog失败。

The concrete producer laments that if the desired result is not achieved, even if the prescriptive specification was employed, the producer is on the hook for the failure regardless—be it curling or shrinkage or suboptimal PSI. But there’s no space in the prescriptive model for the producer to apply expertise that will ensure delivery of the desired result.

仅仅因为我们是一个缓慢的行业不mean we haven’t moved or changed. The gradual introduction of chemical admixtures to concrete formulations over the past half-century has certainly extended the performance properties of concrete products immensely.

但是，许多现有的规定标准早于它们的引入，因此这些功能可能在现有的正统上没有任何责任。处方没有创新的津贴。在新参数提供激励措施的情况下，规定方法论更容易被放弃。

The need for greater speed, efficiency and creativity under increasingly tighter project constraints—such as on dense urban developments or emerging sustainability targets in cutting-edge design—can motivate specifiers to seek efficiencies. If a high-rise structure has to be completed in a matter of months instead of years, you’re less apt to rely on a known model that takes years to deploy.

If you’re aiming to reduce the carbon footprint of your city or your housing development, you’ll be more open to embracing the use of CO₂mineralized concrete in your specifications. But the technology for creating that concrete did not even exist 20 years ago, so it can’t be used by following past prescriptions. How we specify materials has to make room for what we are still learning if we hope to enable the future that we want.

拥抱绩效并不意味着放弃集体知识。这仍然需要明确定义的功能要求，质量控制和测试和预认证，以确保满足或超过绩效标准。但是，指定性能也为解决新情况或引入更好的方法论提供了空间。它为可能性打开了大门 - 这就是我们的发展方式。

可以在德克萨斯州奥斯丁的劳伦·克兰特（Lauren Concrete）的中部地区总经理马修·杰特莫尔CarbonCure@SterlingPR.com。

If you have an idea for a column, please contact Viewpoint Editor Richard Korman atkormanr@enr.com。