by Brianna Crandall — April 5, 2013—As part of its ongoing efforts to raise the standards of the building design and construction industry in Singapore, the country’s Building and Construction Authority (BCA) introduced the Eurocodes as Singapore’s mandatory building codes on April 1, 2013. Primarily used by building professionals, the Eurocodes are an international set of standards for the structural design of buildings and civil engineering works and are considered one of the world’s most technically advanced and established building codes.
To help the industry move to the new codes smoothly, BCA will allow building professionals to submit the structural plans of a building using either the Eurocodes or the British Standards for two years beginning April 1, 2013. On April 1, 2015, BCA will withdraw its current codes—which are based on the British Standards—from use, and the Eurocodes will replace them as Singapore’s prescribed building codes for structural design. The British Standards have been withdrawn from use in Britain in 2010 and will no longer be updated, notes the BCA.
Comprising a series of 10 European Standards, the Eurocodes were developed over the last 30 years by experts from the European Union (EU) to cover the structural design of buildings and other civil engineering works, including their geotechnical aspects; structural fire design; and situations including earthquakes, execution and temporary structures.
All 27 member states of the European Union as well as Iceland, Norway and Switzerland are currently using the Eurocodes as their prescribed building code, according to the BCA. The agency notes that Singapore is one of the first countries outside Europe to introduce the Eurocodes as its building code.
According to the U.K. Department of Transports’ Web site explaining the standards, the Eurocodes allow each country to introduce a national annex that specifies parameters to customize its local requirements. The standards also provide opportunities for building professionals to import and export design expertise and products.
