Building Codes 101
These are the minimum standards for how buildings are designed and constructed to protect public health, safety, and welfare.
What are building codes?
The practice of fulfilling current requirements while ensuring that future generations can also meet their needs.
What is sustainability?
This type of door saves floor space by sliding completely inside the wall when it's opened.
What is a pocket door?
The most fundamental structural system, it consists of two or more vertical posts supporting a horizontal beam.
What is post-and-lintel?
This ancient style, seen in the Parthenon, is known for its orderly columns (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian) and post-and-lintel construction.
What is Greek architecture?
This organization, known as the ICC, publishes the set of codes adopted by most states.
What is the International Code Council?
The three "pillars" of sustainability that must be balanced for a holistic approach.
What are Environmental, Social, and Economic?
This standard window has two sashes that slide up and down past each other.
What is a double-hung window?
This structure, perfected by the Romans, can span a wide opening by redirecting forces down through wedge-shaped stones.
What is an arch?
This style, seen in the Hagia Sophia, is famous for its massive domes, complex spaces, and use of mosaics.
What is Byzantine architecture?
This federal law ensures equal access for people with disabilities through requirements like ramps and wide doorways.
What is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)?
This certification system provides third-party verification for green building practices and uses a point system to rate them.
What is LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)
This type of door is split horizontally, allowing the top and bottom halves to operate independently.
What is a Dutch door?
This structural element is essentially an arch that has been extended in one direction to create a tunnel-like roof.
What is a vault (or barrel vault)?
This medieval style, seen in Notre-Dame, is characterized by pointed arches, flying buttresses, and tall, light-filled spaces.
What is Gothic architecture?
These two code sections are noted as having the largest effect on the design and construction of a residence.
What are the Fire and Life Safety and Structural codes?
Building orientation to maximize solar gain, natural ventilation, and shading devices are all examples of this type of design.
What are passive design strategies?
This is the most basic light switch; you flip it in one location to turn a light on or off.
What is a single-pole switch?
This structure, seen in the Pantheon and US Capitol, is an arch rotated 360 degrees around its center.
What is a dome?
Meaning "rebirth," this style returned to the classical principles of order, proportion, and geometry seen in ancient Rome.
What is Renaissance architecture?
This is the term for clear, properly sized, and unobstructed exits required for safe evacuation during an emergency.
What is an egress?
Energy-efficient HVAC systems, rainwater harvesting, and using locally sourced materials are examples of this type of green building strategy.
What are active systems (or active design strategies)?
This window is hinged on the side and swings outward like a door, often operated by a crank.
What is a casement window?
In a post-and-lintel system, the horizontal beam is under compression at the top and this force at the bottom, which pulls it apart.
What is tension?
This early 20th-century German school of design, part of the Modernist movement, operated on the principle of "form follows function".
What is the Bauhaus?