The History of CIB

The CIB was founded in Geneva in June 1953. It replaced the International Council for Building Documentation — Conseil International de Documentation du Bâtiment (CIDB), which had been set up in Oct 1950 in Paris on the recommendation of a Conference on Building Research convened by E-XE4176 – United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). CIDB was replaced following a suggestion of the Housing Sub-Committee of UN ECE, the sphere of competence being enlarged to include research work.

The present name International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction was adopted and the current constitution and by-laws approved on 10 June 1998 in Gävle, Sweden; the acronym ‘CIB’ was retained.

50th anniversary special publication

To mark CIB’s 50th anniversary a special publication was released, this can be viewed or downloaded here.

A detailed history of the first 40 years

In 1995, soon after the 40th anniversary of CIB’s formation, Dr. Gyulya Sebestyén and colleagues wrote a comprehensive history of the organisation to that point. This is reproduced below as a matter of historical record. (Some links to more up-to-date information as of 2020 have been added for reference).

Introduction

CIB was formally established in the early fifties which means that it has now passed the fortieth anniversary of its existence. While it must be conceded that from the historical point of view this is not really a long period, it is already sufficient justification to attempt a summing up of these 40 years.

As a broad simplification five periods can be identified:

• The Fifties: 36 institutes come together to establish CIB which then embarks on the postwar road of development.
• The Sixties: CIB activities progress; a first peak in the number of Members (215); CIB is ambitious to assist the building industry to satisfy the high demand.
• The Seventies: The oil crisis exerts a downward pressure on the demand for new houses and buildings; this and internal problems result in a temporary slump; the number of Members falls back to 179.
• The Eighties: Building research gradually adjusts to the changing conditions; staff numbers in large research institutes are reduced but CIB develops in a signal way; the number of Members exceeds 450.
• The Nineties: CIB carries out internal reforms in order to respond effectively to new requirements: increasing concern for contacts with industry; for problems of management, maintenance, quality, environmental and sustainable development.

A more detailed account of these forty years will follow with a break-down of CIB’s life into its main components: the nature of CIB, activities, publications, and structure. Selected lists of Commissions, publications and events are annexed: these unavoidably repeat some data in the main text.

CIB’s history is obviously not comparable to histories of nations or other major subjects; the time period anyway is limited. Even so, this report does not seek to cover everything in CIB’s past, rather it concentrates on the major trends.

It reviews CIB’s life during the years 1951-1993 and highlights events and publications within this timespan which still have relevance today. This frequently means that the first twenty to twentyfive years are accorded a more comprehensive treatment.

1. The Beginnings of CIB

International scientific and technical contacts had been severely disrupted by the war; in any case they had never been as close in the building field as in most other sectors of the economy. In pre-war days there was very little international trade in building materials and components. Yet governments, municipalities, private corporations, and individuals were spending vast sums of money on all kinds of buildings in the reconstruction period.

This is adapted from the Opening Address by Professor Gunnar Myrdal, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) in the fifties, at the 3rd CIB Congress in 1965.

Officials in the United Nations and specifically in the UN ECE as well as leading experts in some countries set up the ECE Housing Committee (which later became the Committee on Housing, Building and Planning and is currently the Committee on Housing Settlements).

Attention soon turned to the wider field of the building and building materials industries and support was forthcoming from among the representatives and experts of these industries and member governments in the ECE for promoting international cooperation, first in the field of building documentation and later extending to building studies and research.

Two years of preparatory work culminated in the setting up in 1950 of a new international non-governmental organisation, the International Council for Building Documentation (CIDB ). The purpose of that Organisation was to provide a link between national centers or committees for building documentation and to promote the establishment of common principles with regard to terminology, classification, and methods of arranging and presenting building documentation. Its headquarters were in Paris and its role soon took on a definite form.

It was appreciated from the outset that similar arrangements ought to be made for collaboration on building research and the close connection between documentation and research had always been emphasised.

In November 1950 the Housing Sub-Committee of the Economic Commission for Europe called a Conference of Building Research, which met in Geneva. There was clear evidence of the need for and potential usefulness of new arrangements to stimulate international collaboration in research and a small ad hoc group of experts, known as the Building Research Organising Committee (BROC) was given the task of making detailed recommendations. Once again emphasis was laid on the importance of appropriate national facilities as the prerequisite for and basis of work on the international level.

The Committee worked for over a year and presented its final report to the ECE Housing Sub-Committee in September 1952. It realised that the creation of an entirely new organisation should be avoided if possible, and, cognisant of the close relationship between research and documentation, recommended that the International Council for Building Documentation should be transformed into a body capable of dealing with both documentation and research and embracing three main fields of activity:

• experimental research studies,
• the application of the results of research, and
• documentation.

The new body, the International Council for Building Research, Studies and Documentation (CIB) held its first General Assembly in June 1953 in Geneva with the main purpose of adopting statutes. Eleven founding members were present; seventeen countries were represented. During the meeting numerous institutes came forward to register themselves as members and so the global evolution of CIB started. As CIB was then constituted, it had three sections identical to the three recommended by the Building Research Organising Committee: experimental research, studies and the application of the results of research and documentation.

The role which the Founding Fathers clearly envisaged for CIB, was as the vehicle for channelling the contributions of its national members into an effective system of international collaboration in its three fields of activities.

CIB was expressly founded as a non-governmental body, closely associated with the building industry and the related professions.

CIB was conceived as a decentralised organisation, with the burden of the work resting primarily on the constituent national member institutes. This arrangement has characterised CIB to date and even now it is only subject to marginal change.

The above description emanates from a former highly placed UN Official and does emphasise the role of the UN in setting up CIB. It also demonstrates why the UN has always pinned high hopes on the functioning of CIB, an aspiration to which CIB has attempted to respond adequately.

The beginnings of CIB could also be described from the point of view of the research institutes themselves which felt the need for an organisation of the type of CIB. This, then, would emphasise the devotion of CIB’s Founding Members to the Organisation.

2. The Nature, Objectives and Functions of CIB

When CIB was established, concrete expectations lay behind its perceived role. These were grounded in the confident belief that research had the capability to come up with solutions to many of the problems which beset war-ravaged Europe at that time. International co-operation in building research, studies and documentation was regarded as an instrument for promoting a more rapid and cheaper rate of construction and the role of CIB was as the tool for this. This view was reinforced by the then President of CIB, Dr. F.M. Lea, who wrote in his Preface to the Proceedings of the 1962 CIB Congress:

“New materials, new forms of structure and new methods of construction have come from advances in science and technology; their adoption has been, and is being, stimulated by the economic pressures on the industry to raise its productivity and to keep pace with the rate of advance of other industries … We can learn by the mutual interchange of knowledge between different countries and different people and this is the typical purpose of this International Congress.”

It might be inferred from what Dr. Lea says that “knowledge” can be held to be an immutable commodity possessing fixed and measurable value that can be imported and exported and all that CIB has to do, is to provide the appropriate market place.

With the effluction of time, a less all-embracing confidence in research’s ability to be the universal panacea for ills came to prevail. An example of this mode of thought is the following passage taken from the Proceedings of the 1965 Congress. It is by a distinguished deceased Past President of CIB, Mr. Ph. Arctander:

“A building research institute is today believed by many to be the place that should be able to supply all the right answers. This is both over-optimistic and un-progressive. In many cases the institute will serve progress better by acting as the place that formulates the right questions … Nor is the research institute always solving the problems. At least it is frequently uncovering more new ones in the process.”

The caution which Mr. Arctander voiced may be seen as the consequence of certain high expectations which had been no more than partially fulfilled. Simply to state what CIB could not deliver, however, was not enough.

A more positive statement was required. Thus, following several years which witnessed a development of CIB even if not always oriented towards the original objectives, in 1983 action was decided grounded on the following statement (CIB Publication 100, 1986, page 1/1):

“CIB had been in existence for more than 30 years without any intervening fundamental overall policy review.”

The 1986 CIB Publication on the future of CIB judged it necessary to stress the essential basic difference between the nature of CIB members and the nature of CIB itself. While most of the members of CIB are operational entities or agencies, CIB is a voluntary, co-operational entity. It has no effective or operational research resources of its own. In fact its resources are the resources of its members over which it can exercise no direct control. CIB exists to create a favourable cooperative environment for its members and to guide, encourage and facilitate the cooperative activities of its members to their mutual benefit.

These cooperative activities are to be found in a number of areas such as:

• research and studies
• conferences, symposia
• interaction with other relevant international organisations
• members’ services including information exchange.

CIB Publication 100 reaffirmed the statement of purpose incorporated into the Constitution of CIB, which is:

“To encourage, facilitate and develop international cooperation in building, housing and planning research, studies and documentation covering not only the technical but also the economic and social aspects of building and the related environment.”

It might be appropriate at this juncture to add that CIB has successfully worked towards these objectives, perhaps with the exception of housing and planning research where it has not succeeded in acquiring the same important position as it has for building research.

By the time of the examinations in the 80s it had become evident that:

“The main activities of CIB are carried out within the Working Commissions. The role of the Working Commissions and their Coordinators is fundamental to the existence and welfare of CIB” (CIB Publication 100, page 5/17), and:

“CIB must thrive … to ensure that the highest possible quality of product is obtained and sustained… The main products of CIB are its reports, its working papers within Working Commissions and its published papers from symposia, seminars, conferences and Congress.”

The next major re-assessment of CIB by itself was conducted in the years 1989-1993 and its basic findings were set out in the Document “The CIB Strategic Plan: A Discussion Paper” which was written by Professor P. Lansley on the basis of work carried out by an ad hoc Group. The paper was submitted to and approved by the CIB General Assembly in 1992. Its Summary is quoted in full:

“The environment of CIB is changing quickly as a result of the new expectations and pressures on research organisations, universities and companies and changes in their relative size. CIB will respond to these changes by offering more clearly defined benefits. These will take the form of better quality fora, higher quality reports and documentation which is more readily accessible and useable by the research community, its clients and industry.

The pre-eminence of CIB as the major building research and documentation network is threatened by the proliferation of stand-alone networks focussed on particular issues. In order to be attractive to those endeavouring to establish networks focussed on particular themes CIB will be more pro-active in securing those networks and more attractive to those who will run them.

CIB will refocus its activities to ensure that it provides services appropriate to its members’ needs and in particular that these are of a very high quality. This will require an assessment of all of its existing operations, including an overhaul of its committee structure, an assessment of the value of existing Working Commissions, re-appraisal of the role of the Secretariat, and a review of membership and fee structures.

A major concern will be developing better links between the Board and the Working Commissions. This will be achieved by the development of better guidelines concerning the outputs expected of the Working Commissions and a more thorough review process. This will be matched by the provision of more support from the Board for new activities and new Working Commissions and consideration of monetary support to Coordinators.

CIB will implement a system of Quality Assurance as a means of attaining better outputs.

The membership categories, benefits derived from each of these and the associated fee structure will be reviewed so that the fees are geared to the benefits received rather than the ability to pay.

The Programme Committee will play a major role in monitoring performance of the Working Commissions and sanctioning initiatives.”

One important follow-up was the definition of the function of the CIB Programme Committee (PC) and its relations with the CIB Working Commissions. Mr. R.G. Courtney, Chairman of the PC prepared a draft which was approved with slight amendments by the PC and published in the Nr. 3/93 issue of the CIB Information Bulletin. As a formulation of policy it merits being reproduced below.

Entitled “The Role and Activities of the Programme Committee” it states that (abridged text):

“The principal function of CIB is to be a network through which those engaged in generating or using information gained from building research may advance their subject areas through exchanging and discussing that information.

To facilitate such contacts, CIB establishes Working Commissions and Task Groups. The main interactions take place through these and their related events: symposia, workshops etc. [All references to (Working) Commissions in later sections include Task Groups where this is not stated.]

Different Commissions have different ways of working. Such diversity is acceptable provided the work of the Commission advances the state of knowledge and understanding in its particular field. An important objective for many Commissions will be to establish and document a common view on important issues, based on relevant findings.

All Commissions will seek to make future research more effective through the exchange of ideas and information.

CIB’s publications provide a record of each Commission’s conclusions and the symposia and other events that assist their generation.

CIB maintains an active interest in the development of systems for storing and disseminating the results of research. Prominent amongst its initiatives is the creation and support of the ICONDA database. More generally, the development of information handling systems for the whole construction process constitutes an important field of research which falls within CIB’s scope.

The CIB Programme Committee reports to the Board of CIB and works within a framework of strategies and policies approved by the CIB General Assembly and Board. The key policies

 endorsed by the General Assembly in 1992 which bear upon the work of the Committee are summarised below.

Firstly, CIB must consciously serve the interests of its members, who provide its income. The Board and the Committees of CIB, therefore, need constantly to examine the way in which their activities serve the interests of the many and diverse individuals and organisations who pay membership subscriptions to CIB.

Secondly, CIB needs to stand for high quality in all its operations. Any activity taking place under CIB’s auspices should be held internationally in high regard and CIB’s members should have no doubts about the benefit obtained from the time that they as individuals or their staff put into such activities.

Thirdly, CIB needs deliberately to identify the growth areas of interest in building research, and seek to establish new activities in these areas. There will otherwise be a continued trend towards fragmentation of research groupings, and the interlinking that is facilitated by one network, which is a key benefit to members, will be lost.

The main role of the Programme Committee is, therefore, to provide the Board with an assurance that all CIB’s technical activities are of high quality and that Working Commissions are conducting  worthwhile work programmes in an effective way. In addition, there is an important supporting role of stimulating and assisting new activities that will serve CIB members and enhance the international standing of CIB.

The link between the specialist groupings where the main work of CIB is done and the centre needs to be strengthened in order that members of Working Commissions, and their organisations, may feel more part of a world-wide research-based network and can take advantage of the opportunities for links with research interests in related fields.

Reinforcing the concept of CIB as a network of members involved in taking forward and using the results of building research, the Committee has established a new policy on membership of Working Commissions. In principle, all members of Commissions should be in one of CIB’s categories of membership. This has not been the case until up to now, with the result that it has been difficult to argue that an individual or organisation should come into membership of CIB when they may participate in its activities without joining.

Since Working Commissions and Task Groups are fundamental to the quality of CIB’s operations,the first task of the Committee will be to assure the Board that these are all operating successfully. The Committee will undertake a formal review of all current activities with a view to establishing the ‘mandate’ for each Commission for a finite (probably three years) period.

Further, as part of the Programme Committee’s oversight arrangements, a reporting system will be established, with Coordinators sending a brief report each year on their Commission’s work.”

What has been described before within the context of history constitutes a clear remit for the future. Implementation of these policies is a task on which CIB is concentrating its attention.

3. Fields of Activities. Commissions and Groups

Since its establishment CIB has regularly defined topics for work. In the first period selected topics were dealt with by a designated expert or by groups of experts. At a later stage, the system of Working Commissions was introduced and this has remained the basic working formula up to the present.

There was a time when an attempt was made to differentiate between real Working Commissions (WCs) and others which restricted their activities to holding Symposia. This second category received the name of Steering Groups (SGs) and several WCs were reclassified as SGs. Experience, however, showed the impracticability of this differentiation. Several entities began to have both: working programmes and Symposium-organising actions. The system of SGs was consequently abolished.

In the late eighties a new form: Task Groups were introduced. Whereas the scope of a WC generally extends over a larger area (e.g. acoustics) thereby implying a long life span for the Commission concerned, Task Groups were set up to tackle narrower topics and for a more limited lifetime.

Working Commissions (and later Task Groups) are assigned code numbers originally starting with “1”. The practice has always been followed not to reallocate the numbers of terminated Commissions to new ones. Thus although at the present time the highest number for a Commission is around 100 (for Task Groups around 20) no more than 60 entities are actually functioning.

Prior to introducing numbering for Commissions the first topics in CIB (for W1) were: modular coordination; terminology/classification; users’ needs; use of new building materials/technological development of the building industry.

Some years later, at the CIB Executive Committee Meeting in 1956, seven topics were defined:

1. The impact on costs of height and of the number of floors in a block of flats.
2. Determination of temporary loads in residential buildings.
3. Study of a harmonised code on reinforced concrete structures in residential buildings.
4. Efficiency of standardisation and its impact on costs of residential buildings.
5. Study of measures to modernise building operatives.
6. Study of methods on the needs and wishes of the population concerning housing.
7. Study of efforts to modernise rural housing.

The concentration of interest on problems of housing was typical for that period. Later this changed.

In the following activities in some (or: in certain groups of) Commissions are summed up. Assessments are purposely kept short and are restricted to perceived main points.

The achievements of Commissions obviously differ in character and quality and in the degree to which they could become innovative and even world leaders.

The following areas of CIB activities will be dealt with (covering the work of most but not all CIB Commissions):

• Design and Execution of Buildings
• Structural Materials and Design
• Fire
• Environment and Climate; Building Physics; Energy; Services of Buildings; Health
• Management and Economics
• Research on the Future
• Research Management
• Information, Documentation
• Developing Countries’ Problems.

After each section a bibliography is provided. The lists of unnumbered references are selective only. In some cases reference will be made to now defunct Working Commissions in order to demonstrate interest at some time in certain fields although these Commissions may not have produced reports of any current significance.

3.1 Design and Execution of Buildings

For the first twenty years or so the selection of topics was dominated by the sizeable post-war demand for new houses and buildings. It was also assumed that it was only industrialisation (mechanisation: W75; prefabrication: W19) that could effectively increase supply (W34).

W19 and W66 worked on the development of precast concrete in new housing and industrial buildings.

Technical solutions stemmed mostly from innovation in the construction industry but research, including that associated with CIB, contributed to good practice, e.g. by developing the theory and practice of open joints (“vides de décompression”: W11) providing protection against “driving rain”.

In some (but not all) countries the importance of the “users’ requirements” (human requirements: W45) and the performances to be achieved were well recognised. CIB (W60), based on the work of some of its Members – together with RILEM and ASTM – took on an important function in developing and introducing the “performance concept” (W60).

By defining required performance codes (standards etc.) the description of technical solutions can be avoided thereby opening the door to alternative competing solutions including new solutions. A number of CIB Publications and Symposium Proceedings feature research results of CIB W60 work, the basic one being ‘The Performance Concept and its Terminology’ (CIB Report 32; 1975).

As a result the performance concept has come to be universally accepted in the preparation of codes, standards and briefs.

W24 – Dimensional and Modular Co-ordination worked in cooperation with the International Modular Group (IMG), and also with CIB Commissions on joints, tolerances and measurements (W49, W50). A significant outcome was international agreements (including ISO Standards) on modular coordination.

Following the successful completion of work (in W24 and W49), attention shifted towards application aspects. W24 was transformed into W24 – Open Industrialisation and it set itself the task to work out the impact on design of buildings, prefabrication and assembly, and on modular coordination and tolerances.

In W49 new topics were introduced: flatness of surfaces ; computer-aided measurements including measurements from space.

As intimated earlier research on Housing developed perhaps less than was originally planned. Even so W69 – Housing Sociology held several Meetings in its field and there were of course several Commissions which worked on matters impacting on housing to varying degrees.

Quite recently W66 – Industrial Buildings has started its work in new directions. Whereas earlier it concentrated on the technologies of constructing industrial buildings, it will now focus its attention on requirements and performances and as a consequence on functional design rather. Its scope will take in various types of workplaces and concurrently its title has been altered to: Industrial Buildings and Places for Work .

The widely shared concern for quality was reflected in the setting up of two new Commissions: W86 – Building Pathology and W88 – Quality Assurance.

In its early years CIB was a pioneer of research into climate’s impact on building design (CIB Reports 1, 2, 11, 15, 25). The global interest in climate meant that CIB was able to restrict its work on implications. Its Commissions W4, W6, W7 and W71 were dissolved and a new Task Group established: TG13 – Consequences for Buildings of Climatic Variability and Climate Change. Another related development was to create W94 – Design for Durability.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND REFERENCES

• CIB Reports 3, 11, 16, 17, 18, 21, 23, 24, 26, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 43, 46, 50, 56, 60, 64, 67, 68, 69, 79, 92, 93, 109, 112, 139 and 157
• Performance Requirements in Buildings (CEC/CIB/CSTB Colloquium Proceedings, Luxembourg, 26 – 27 May 1988; Volume 1: 264 pages; Volume 2: 441 pages)
• Implementation of the performance concept in building in education and training (International Workshop, Lisbon, Portugal, 14-15 February 1989)
• Open industrialisation. A solution for building modernisation (ECC + CIB Conference, Stuttgart, Germany, 21-23 February 1990)

3.2 Structural Materials and Design

Structural design was based up to the early 1960s on elastic analysis. Plastic analysis soon became dominant (although it should not be forgotten that the basic knowledge for this was created before World War 2) and this also meant a switch from permissible stresses to analysis of the ultimate limit state of structures.

The finite element methods became the basis of structural analysis and of computer programmes for the design of structures.

Engineers in this way have been able to design structures which earlier caused insurmountable difficulties.

Building research and CIB work played an important role in this development, always proceeding hand in hand with creative structural engineers from the practice.

CIB’s W9 – Structural Safety had as its objectives (quoted from the 1981 CIB Compendium):

• To improve the general knowledge and understanding of structural safety;
• To advise on the interpretation of current international regulatory work and documents in this field;
• To provide a sound basis for formulation of structural design recommendations.

CIB was, however, far from being the only player in this field! W9 became the Joint Committee on Structural Safety (JCSS) sponsored by CEB/CECM/CIB/FIP/IABSE and RILEM.

The weak performance by another CIB Commission (the original W23 – Structural Requirements), but following on from a productive period, also by the JCSS, necessitated a fresh impulse. W9 was terminated, W23 changed into W23 – Wall Structures ; and W81 – Actions on Structures and W85 – Structural Serviceability (a direct response to the recent increased concern for serviceability) were brought into being. The JCSS itself was relaunched. The combination of these actions provided a new thrust to research progress in this field.

W81 set in motion preparatory work for sixteen reports of which the first three have already been published (CIB Reports 115, 116 and 141).

An initiative that considerably enhanced the effectiveness of work on durability , service life prediction, design life of buildings, was the setting up of a joint CIB-RILEM Commission W80 – Prediction of Service Life of Building Materials and Components.

The results of W80’s work have been used in ISO standardisation work.

It is noteworthy that W18 – Timber Structures and the (new) W23 – Wall Structures (later complemented by W18B – Tropical and Hardwood Timber Structures) all consolidated CIB’s position in structural engineering for these types of materials.

W18 – Timber Structures served as an interface between researchers, design engineers and codes/standards writing bodies (ISO and CEN) in the development of methods for the design of safe and economic timber structures, based on rational analysis and well-defined material properties that can readily be obtained by testing.

It held regular annual meetings and made a point of publishing the papers presented at each of these.

W18 drew up a design code on timber structures, various aspects of which were continually subjected to refinement. Among topics examined were: structural safety; strength determination; trussed rafters; tension members; structural panel products; creep; joints; seismic design; serviceability; juvenile structural timber; plywood and others.

W18 has essentially contributed to the development of Eurocode 5 and participated actively in a CEC Conference to discuss its introduction.

W23 – Wall Structures has within its scope the structures of load bearing walls; prefabricated panels; in-situ cast concrete walls; masonry walls, of both new and existing buildings.

W23 compiled design manuals on concrete walls and on formwork. It researched compressive strength; tension; shear; concentrated loads; seismic behaviour of masonry walls; hollowunits masonry walls; strengthening of damaged masonry. It defined topics for future research, e.g. effect of slenderness and eccentricities on wall strengths; relations of mortar strength measured in conventional ways to that in walls; stiffness of masonry buildings; safety margins; lateral strength of masonry; cavity walls; serviceability; lightweight concrete walls; robustness.

W23 was also one of the Groups which regularly published papers of its annual meetings.

The first CIB attempt at a structural design manual on the use of plastics resulted in CIB Report 59 on lightweight sandwich panels. Much later the setting up of Task Group TG9 – Structural Design of Plastics added a new dimension to this work.

W29 – Concrete Surface Finishings published reports on finishes, defects, blemishes, colour uniformity (CIB Reports 5 and 24). These have turned out to be very much sought-after CIB Publications, a demand which has lasted right up to the present time. W29 ceased its work some seven years ago but new problems would justify a re-activation of its work.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND REFERENCES

• CIB Reports: 5, 8, 9, 24, 58, 59, 66, 75, 84, 85, 88, 94, 96, 98, 110, 115, 116, 127, 128, 131, 133, 141, 150 and 154
• Working Papers of W18, W23, W80, W81 and W85
• Structural Serviceability of Buildings (CIB W85 + IABSE Colloquium, Göteborg, Sweden, June 1993; IABSE Reports; Volume 69; 342 pages)
• W80 Proceedings of RILEM/CIB Conference: Durability of Building Materials and Components (Brighton, UK, 7-9 November 1990)
• Industrial Processes. Building and Civil Engineering. Timber Structures (CEC; EUR 12136 EN-DE-FR; 1989; 346 pages)
• Joint Committee on Structural Safety (JCSS): General Principles (Publisher: IABSE; 1981; 64 pages)
• JCSS: Working Documents (Publisher: IABSE; May 1991)

3.3 Fire

Dr. Philip Thomas , whose distinguished spell as Coordinator of CIB W14 – Fire spanned many years, stated:

“It is perhaps platitudinous to state that building fire safety is a complex problem, but the fact remains that it is complex.”

Fire, traditionally, was dealt with in an empiric way. W14’s work greatly contributed to changing this into a new approach: to that of fire safety engineering. New international standardisation work (in ISO) is in large part the result of specific stimuli and less formal measures amanating from W14.

W14 has done an excellent job in determining the behaviour of materials and components in fire; in modelling fire and smoke propagation and in generating the necessary knowledge for producing regulations for the design of buildings, thereby achieving higher levels of fire safety.

W14 evolved into an acknowledged global center of excellence in fire safety engineering research and its results can justifiably be counted among those which match what is expected from CIB.

Much of the fire content in CEN Eurocodes is based on a fundamental document prepared within W14 “The design guide (model code) for structural fire safety”.

Several W14 Workshops on fire modelling have been held: these advanced solutions to a number of problems while identifying other questions for research, e.g. how to model the generating Carbon Monoxide; industrial fires; flame spread up vertical surfaces and others.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND REFERENCES

• CIB Publications: 20, 41, 42, 48, 72, 81, 104, 111, 129 and 148
• W14 Working Papers

3.4 Environment and Climate; Building Physics; Energy; Services of Buildings; Health

Pre-eminent among the factors that influence the choice of topics for building research have been the need to modernise after World War 2 changes in building technology, a gradually increasing concern for the environment and for conservation of resources.

Thinner multi-layer envelopes caused surface and interstitial condensation: to combat this, building physics modelling was necessary.

Water seeped through joints of large panel buildings: the driving rain phenomenon had to be studied and the theory and practice of open and closed joints were developed.

Some classic delusions (e.g. on breathing of walls) need to be refuted. The energy crisis entailed the development of new energy conserving equipment (condensation boilers; heat pumps; heat storage; solar collectors; heat recuperation; new methods of ventilation etc.).

Almost from the beginning CIB Commissions (W4, W6, W7, W8, W11, W17, W40, W67, W77, W79) were engaged on these topics and by internationalising results contributed significantly to a global advance of knowledge and good practice.

W40 – Heat and Moisture Transfer in Buildings has been a CIB Commission which has a long history of successful operations in its defined area. It has explored the phenomena of heat, moisture and air transfer in buildings, components and materials; formulated laws governing building physics; developed knowledge on hygrothermal properties of materials and components.

Its Meetings and Workshops have facilitated emerging international consensus on thermal conductivity and moisture flow; interstitial condensation by diffusion; moisture flow as a bipotential phenomenon; air flow and hygrothermal behaviour; moisture design; flat roof design; crawl spaces. It also defined further areas of future work: better heat and moisture transfer modelling; hygric and air properties; thick insulation layers; active insulation; transparent insulation.

W40 developed de facto into an international forum on heat and mass transport in buildings.

Commissions published Reports on driving rain and climate (W4, W7, W8, W11) on building in tropical climate; on heat and moisture in buildings (W40); noise (W51); water supply and drainage (W62); heating, ventilation, air conditioning (W17).

At a later stage, energy conservation (W67) became an important focal point absorbing HVAC (W17) and control of building services (W79). In recent times, Task Groups have taken up specific topics (radon: TG1 – now W97; super-clean air: TG12; climate change affecting design: TG13).

Since 1976 W67 has mounted several international Symposia on energy conservation:

• Garston, UK, 1976
• Copenhagen, Denmark, 1979
• Dublin, Ireland, 1982
• Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 1990
• Stuttgart, Germany, 1993.

In between Symposia and Meetings were combined with Workshops:

• Ottawa, Canada, 1984
• Lisbon, Portugal, 1986
• Vienna, Austria, 1988
• Sophia Antipolis, France, 1989
• Heidenheim, Germany, 1990
• Trondheim, Norway, 1991
• Manchester, UK, 1992.

Commission W62 – Water Supply and Drainage provided a meeting place for researchers (and industrial representatives) working on water supply systems and treatment of drinking water (e.g. peakflow calculation; water conservation; water quality etc.); drainage systems and waste water epuration (e.g. drainage hydraulics; air admittance valves; recycling of used water etc.).

Concern over recent years increased for h y giene and h e al t h in buildings and CIB work was commenced in W67, W77 and TG1.

“Healthy Buildings” and the Sick Building Syndrome may be cited as topics requiring increased Co-operation between building and medical research. The first CIB Healthy Buildings Symposium was held in Stockholm in 1988. A Report on the sick building syndrome (CIB Publication 99) was prepared within W77. The second one will be held in Budapest in 1994.

CIB work has started on various new environmental problems: contaminated construction ground; environmental assessment; wastes and by-products; protection against electromagnetic radiation.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND REFERENCES

• CIB Publications (Proceedings): 1, 2, 15, 23, 25, 27, 37, 39, 45, 51, 52, 53, 62, 74, 77, 80, 82, 89, 95, 99, 103, 105, 107, 113, 117, 119, 121, 130, 137, 140, 148, 149, 152 and 153
• W67 Proceedings of Workshop: Development and Validation of Modelling and Simulation in Energy Conservation Links with Laboratory and Field Studies (Sophia Antipolis, France, 17-18 April 1989)
• Proceedings of Healthy Buildings Symposium (Stockholm, Sweden, 5-8 September 1988; 3 volumes: 210 + 734 + 754 pages; Abstract Guide 446 pages)
• W67: Energy Efficient Buildings. Design, Performance and Operation (Symposium Proceedings; Leinfelden-Echterdingen, Germany, 9-11 March 1993; IRB, Stuttgart, 592 pages)

3.5 Management and Economics

It was an inevitable consequence that just as soon as supply overtook demand (i.e. in the midseventies) building research would have to change its orientation.

Industrialisation, new materials, components and techniques became targetted not on extensive but on intensive development: not how to build more but how to build cheaper and to a better quality?

Within CIB the disciplines of management, economics, maintenance, quality obtained the frameworks of a Commission (W55, W65, W70) in order to serve this new orientation.

These became areas where research was immediately confronted with industry and their cooperation became mandatory. This changed CIB basically: henceforth it had to deal not only with traditional laboratory and theoretical research but also with practice-oriented industrial research.

The construction industry retained until quite recently features of its medieval guild system. The small contractors were dominant, most of construction was carried out by domestic or even by local contractors. Management of the firms and their economic work was based on tradition and empiricism.

Much although not all of this has undergone a change during the last thirty years. Large contractors have increased their share of the total volume of construction, and more procurement is on an international scale. Up-to-date management methods have found their way into the life of firms: in parallel to the traditional triangular contact pattern of Client – Designer – Contractor new forms (design and build; management contracting; build-operate-transfer etc.) have been applied.

During the last twenty years construction of n e w buildings has decreased while the importance of the maintenance, modernisation and management of the existing building stock became important. Within CIB a new Commission (W70) provided an international home fo R&D activities on these problems: data collection and storage on the life of buildings; organisation of repairs and modernisation etc.

W55 devoted attention to economics of design; economics of energy conservation; macro-economic modelling of the construction industry and others.

W55, W65 and W70 have grown into thriving fora for researchers and practitioners. All three Commissions have put on successful, well-attended Symposia:

W55:
Dublin, Ireland, 1974
Lausanne, Switzerland, 1980
Ottawa, Canada, 1984
Copenhagen, Denmark, 1987
Sydney, Australia, 1990
Lisbon, Portugal, 1993

W65:
Washington D.C., USA, 1976
Haifa, Israel, 1978
Dublin, Ireland, 1981
Waterloo, Canada, 1984
London, UK, 1987
Sydney, Australia, 1990
St. Augustine, Trinidad, West Indies, 1993

W70 (Seminars):
Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 1979
Tälberg, Sweden, 1981
Gent, Belgium, 1984
Bristol, United Kingdom, 1987
Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 1988
Singapore, 1990
Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 1993.

Within W65 two Sub-Groups deserve special mention: the one on the organisation and management of the construction firm (CONFIRM) and the other on the management of medium-sized building contractors in German-speaking countries.

The first has launched its own periodical CONFIRM Newsletter; the latter organises annual meetings (in German) in Zermatt, Switzerland.

In W55 (and W65) productivity has continually been a subject for examination as well as cost implications of environmental protection and of codes.

In the mid-eighties CIB entered the new fields of construction law; procurement methods; insurance; quality management; building pathology; architectural management; conflict resolution (W86, W87, W88, W92, W96, TG15). There was an immediate response and meaningful international programmes developed rapidly.

Within the traditional scientific fields international cooperation aimed at the generation, exchange and globalisation of new knowledge. In these new fields other objectives have been defined. Legal systems may differ in given countries although they do follow some major models (Napoleonic Civil Law Code; Common Law; duty of care-duty of result; compulsory insurance etc.). So the prime objective in international cooperation is to document and study the different national systems as a means to promote the lengthy process of future harmonisation.

CIB publications originating from this sector of activities mostly took the form of Proceedings of Symposia or Workshops and Working Papers of Commission Meetings. These are related to various topics and in their totality survey the whole area.

Up to now Commissions have published few synthesised reports. One of these is W55’s output:

CIB Report 136 “Economic methods and risk analys is techniques for evaluating building investments – a survey” (written by H.E. Marshall, USA), another one is based on W87 work: this is the book ” Post-Construction Liability and Insurance” , edited by J. Knocke (Sweden). This is a notable addition to the CIB Publication series in that it is the first major legal reference book for the construction industry issued by CIB.

More detailed than usual contents of Proceedings (in the following) serve to illustrate the orientation of work at some Symposia.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND REFERENCES

• CIB Publications: 19, 30, 33, 38, 47, 54, 73, 79, 83, 90, 91, 102, 109, 132, 136, 138, 145, 155
• (unnumbered) Proceedings of W55, W65, W70 Symposia, e.g.:
• Managing Construction Worldwide (Proceedings of W65 Symposium; London, 7-10 September 1987)
  Volume 1: Systems for Managing Construction (633 pages)
  Volume 2: Productivity and Human Factors in Construction (1086 pages)
  Volume 3: Construction Management and Organisation in Prespective (295 pages)
• Building Maintenance & Modernisation Worldwide (Singapore, 7-9 March 1990; two volumes; in total 1321 pages)
• Building Economics and Construction Management (W55 + W65 Symposium; Sydney, March 1990)
  Volume 1: The Building Market. Building Economics and Urban Development (545 pages)
  Volume 2: Design Economics. Expert Systems (653 pages)
  Volume 3: Building Asset Management. International Building (373 pages)
  Volume 4: Managing Projects (569 pages)
  Volume 5: Effective Research. Construction in Developing Countries (545 pages)
  Volume 6: Management of the Building Firm (610 pages)
  Volume 7: Post Symposium Papers (219 pages)
• Proceedings of annual W65 Sub-Group O&M of the Firm Workshops (ed. G. Dressel; in German)
• W55 Proceedings: International Symposium on Economic Evaluation and the Built Environment (Lisbon, Portugal, 2-8 September 1993)
  Volume 1: Knowledge based systems in planning and construction (174 pages)
  Volume 2: Economic data and information systems (189 pages)
  Volume 3: The economics of infrastructures (157 pages)
  Volume 4: Economic evaluation in planning and design (338 pages)
  Volume 5: Portuguese Sessions (118 pages)
  Volume 6: Keynote Papers (114 pages)
• W65: Proceedings of the Symposium: Organisation and Management of Construction – The Way Forward (St. Augustine, Trinidad, West Indies, 15-22 September 1993)
• W87 Post-Construction Liability and Insurance (J. Knocke ed.; 1993; 390 pages)

3.6 Research on the Future

One of the aims of research must be to prepare the construction industry for the future but this can only be done effectively if steps are taken to ascertain what the future is to which the construction industry will have to respond.

CIB W53 – Long Term Forecasting Methods had such a task. It compiled a listing of methods that had been developed in the manufacturing industries but following this terminated its work.

In the early eighties two new initiatives surfaced: one aimed at economic and the other at technological forecasting. It was decided to establish one Commission for both and W82 – Economic and Technological Forecasting was set up. Growing interest in the subject resulted in its name being changed into W82 – Futures Studies in Construction which prepared an ambitious programme. After a series of Meetings a first major W82 Symposium was held in Espoo, Finland, from 15th to 18th June 1992.

Even in the intervening period since then W82 has broadened its programme: the future of the construction industry; the future of city infrastructures; future constructions under extreme conditions are among the topics which figure in its programme.

CIB Commission W72 – Urban Planning : Technological Change and Urban Form received the remit to study as part of futures studies the future of cities. It succeeded in assembling a group of top scientists who held four Workshops:

• Waterloo, Canada, 1983
• Melbourne, Australia, 1985
• Cambridge, UK, 1989
• Berkeley, California, USA, 1993,

W72 looked at the impact on future cities of revolutions in the information and in rapid transport technologies, sustainable cities, high-tech locations, cities of the 21st Century.

The Proceedings of the first three Workshops were published in book-form and the fourth is also scheduled for publication.

SELECTED CIB PUBLICATIONS AND REFERENCES

• CIB Publication: 156
• The Future of Urban Form (Papers from a W72 Workshop in Waterloo, Canada in 1983; Ed.: J.F. Brotchie, P. Newton, P. Hall & P. Nijkamp; Croom Helm; 1985; 374 pages)
• The Spatial Impact of Technological Change (Papers from a W72 Workshop in Melbourne, Australia in 1985; Ed.: J.F. Brotchie, P. Hall & P.W. Newton; Croom Helm; 1987; 460 pages)
• Cities of the Century (Papers from a W72 Workshop in Cambridge, UK in 1989; Longman Cheshire; 1991; 446 pages)
• W82: Construction Beyond 2000 (Espoo, Finland, 15-18 June 1992; Pre-Proceedings; 274 pages)

3.7 Research Management

Ever since its inception, CIB has been an organisation of building research organisations. It is therefore self-evident that it has always investigated the problems of research itself viz of research management. This has invariably been a component in all CIB activities but in addition there have been activities which focus directly on such topics.

W46 and W59 were the first CIB Commissions in this area and after these were terminated, Task Group 3 (TG3) – Measurement and Evaluation of Construction Research became a focal point for such work. TG3’s first report CIB Publication 147 contains comparative quantitative data on efforts in building research by various countries and also analyses of case studies of successful research projects in selected countries.

Another significant element in technical research has always been the identification of the need of expensive, unique laboratory equipment. CIB has instituted several surveys of such equipment; one such resulting report featured an overview of large-scale structural laboratories and another human comfort laboratories.

W89 – Research and Education was given an overall remit to study the interrelationship of research and education, a factor having pronounced repercussions on management of research.

Another task of W89 has been to inventarise construction education programmes worldwide.

Counted among the Full Members of CIB are the World’s most important building research institutes and the great majority of CIB Board’s Members are Directors of such institutes. The Board of CIB therefore wished to offer research managers a forum where they could discuss the problems of research management.

These fora became known as the Research Managers’ Meetings (RMMs).

The first meetings on research management (in Copenhagen in 1965 and in Marbella in 1967) were linked to General Assemblies or Board Meetings. A proposal made by Mr. G. Blachère was then accepted whereby they would be convened as separate Meetings and run in a somewhat informal way. During the last twenty years several such Meetings were held:

Marbella, Spain                                                1967
Ajaccio, Corsica, France                                    1971
Hannover, Germany                                         1972
Berg Leoni, Starnberger See, Germany           1988
Menaggio, Lake Como, Italy                            1991.

In line with the informality characterising these Meetings, papers and conclusions were also informal so that in most cases no “official” CIB publications were produced (an exception was the RMM in Menaggio).

Despite this the verdict on such Meetings was always favourable and they came to be regarded as an effective tool of CIB and presumably will continue in the future.

The first half of the past forty years was marked by mainly governmental budget financing of public building research institutes and an expansion of staff and assets. In the second half of this period, however, government financing was reduced; institutes had to turn towards contract research and there was frequently a cutback in staff. These developments imposed new requirements on research management.

Despite the fact that it was not the intention at the RMMs to achieve consensus, it may nevertheless be of interest to note some individual statements emanating from highly experienced managers.

In Menaggio Dr. R.N. Wright, USA, identified the following six major trends as affecting construction R&D:

1. Globalisation of markets and national technologies
2. Ensuring the competitiveness of the construction industry
3. Reducing the spiralling costs of unwanted fires
4. Conservation of energy and environmental protection
5. Reduction of the harmful consequences of natural disasters
6. Emerging technologies.

Mr. H.J. Larsen , Denmark, drew attention to research related to social sciences.

Mr. R.G. Courtney , UK, and other spoke about new problems that were emerging in connection with research funding.

Prof. P. Lansley , UK, highlighted the relationships between research and education.

In addition to the RMMs, problem areas of building research management were also dealt with by CIB Commissions as for example earlier by W46 and W59. In recent years Task Group TG3 – Measurement and Evaluation of Construction Research has re-started work.

As a new initiative the first Young Researchers’ Conference was held in Paris at the CSTB from 12th to 14th February 1992.

Its immediate success induced the Board to plan a second Young Researchers’ Conference. This will be held at BRE, Garston, UK, in 1994 but this will have the revised scope of Young Research Managers’ Workshop. A Review of the first Conference was prepared by the Conference Planning Group (edited by Gary Raw, BRE, UK) and distributed along with recommendations for the future.

Regular briefing of Members on ongoing research undertaken by other Members can be considered as a distinct aid to research management. A report on such work will be given in the next Section 3.8.

SELECTED CIB PUBLICATIONS AND REFERENCES

• CIB Publications: 10, 12, 75, 89, 147
• CIB Research Managers’ Meeting (Menaggio, Italy, 15-17 May 1991; photocopied internal document)

3.8 Information, Documentation

CIB was established from CIDB, which was its predecessor in the documentation field and the importance of this sector for CIB has always been acknowledged.

CIB’s two principal areas of activities are research and information/documentation . The significance of the second is increased by the fact that whereas construction research has a number of international organisations, for the information field CIB is almost the only one and in any case certainly the most comprehensive one. (N.B. Quite recently, i.e. in 1993, an International Construction Information Society (ICIS) was set up.)

CIDB proposed as long ago as 1950 to apply the universal decimal classification (UDC) to building documentation: this became the Abridged Building Classification (ABC). The first edition of ABC was published in 1959 and it was then published in eleven languages.

CIB next introduced on an international level the SfB System which had its origin in Scandinavia. CIB became the license holder for SfB with an SfB office at the CIB Full Member in Ireland. SfB has acquired international use in product information structuring. In the more recent past CIB has executed a number of surveys of product information systems, together with experts from the International Union of Building Centres (UICB).

Another product of CIB information classification work was the CIB Master List. This is an internationally agreed list of headings for the arrangement and presentation of information used in construction, operation, maintenance and repair of buildings and building services, and in associated documents on the supply of construction products and services, their manufacturers and suppliers.

The Master List provides a systematic checklist for functional analysis for the purpose of performances. CIB compiled and published the first Master List in 1964; a second was published in 1972; a third in 1983 and the fourth in 1993. They all have the publication number CIB Report 18 and the production of four editions shows that it is one of CIB’s most enduring publications.

In the early years of CIB information and documentation work was centred in CIB Commissions nos. 1, 12, 27, 28, 36 and 52.

However the volume of work increased continually and became fragmented. This prompted the Board of CIB in 1979 to set up an I n formation S t ud y G r ou p with the remit to formulate a clear policy for this field. Its Report (CIB Report 65; 1982; 195 pages) brougth a clarity of definition of topic and policy to deal with various areas.

The Report summed up its work within the framework of a proposal for a CIB information policy as follows:

“Recognising information as an essential resource for building research and practice and being aware that this must be reflected in the programme and organisation of CIB,

1. CIB will furnish adequate guidelines for its information work through the development, elaboration and maintenance of an information policy
2. CIB will elaborate and maintain an information philosophy to serve as the conceptual base of its information policy
3. CIB will establish and utilise a network of Working Commissions which deal with information problems
4. CIB will develop, elaborate and maintain guidelines and conventions for building information Systems
5. CIB will ensure the operation of those information services required to establish and maintain the sources that are necessary for the effective operation of its activities
6. CIB will initiate mutually beneficial relationships with other international Organisations having activities relevant to building information.”

The Report was a material contribution towards ensuring a secure place within CIB for research into process-related information and documentation.

Several CIB Members (and others) developed building documentation services. The system of the German CIB Member IRB (Informationszentrum Raum und Bau) was accepted as a basis of an International Construction Database sponsored by CIB. This was first known as the CIBDOC and later as the ICONDA system and CIB has an advisory role through the ICONDA Board for which CIB provides the Chairperson and two Members.

The provision of an information exchange on ongoing and future building research was long felt as a CIB obligation. Several methods were tried since the early sixties (project card exchange; CIBORG) and recently IRB has started such work (ICONDARES).

Since the publication of CIB Report 65 CIB information-documentation work has been concentrated

in the Commissions W57 and W74 which have several Working Groups themselves. W74 is now following the policy of increasingly cooperating with W78 which is active in computer-integrated construction (CIC).

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND REFERENCES

• CIB Reports: 3, 6, 13, 14, 18, 22, 35, 38, 40, 47, 55, 57, 65, 70, 78, 79, 83, 87, 91, 97, 120, 138
• Proceedings of the Conference on Building Documentation (Geneva, November 1949; reprinted by CIB W57, January 1978; 226 pages)
• Abridged Building Classification (ABC; published in 11 languages between 1950 and 1965)
• An SfB Review (Kokkedal, Denmark, 1975; 226 pages)
• Reduced Universal Decimal Classification RUDC (Byggdok and UNCHS, Nairobi, 1985; 136 pages)
• Ongoing building research 1985 (W57 + ÉTI, ÉTK, Budapest, 1986; 428 pages)
• Ongoing building research. New projects in 1986 (W57 + ÉTI, ÉTK, Budapest, 1987; 314 pages)

3.9 Developing Countries’ Problems

Throughout the forty years of CIB’s existence, the ambition has always been uppermost to assist developing countries in their struggle for advancement. Some CIB activities were successful but overall it cannot be claimed that CIB’s work has contributed in a signal way to their progress. Actually, the reverse is much more the case: CIB found favourable conditions for work in those countries which themselves succeeded in developing on a substantial scale.

The most spectacular changes took place in South-East Asia or in a broader sense in the Pacific Rim and this Region grew into a strong area for CIB activities. More and more Members are here and more and more Meetings are scheduled for venues in Japan, Singapore, Hongkong, Australia and New Zealand.

CIB Working Commissions have been dealing with tropical and hardwood timber structures (W18B), earth constructions (W90), affordable housing (W63) and building under tropical climate. Considering the practical difficulties inherent in running Working Commissions, efforts have been concentrated on Symposia, several in conjunction with other Organisations or organised by others with CIB support.

Three major regional Symposia have been organised jointly by RILEM and CIB on building materials for low-income housing: in Nairobi, Bangkok and Mexico City.

CIB maintains its resolve to devote attention and resources in the future also to the problems of developing countries.

SELECTED CIB PUBLICATIONS AND REFERENCES

• CIB Publication 7
  Appropriate building materials for low cost housing (CIB/RILEM Symposium, Nairobi, Kenya, 7-14 November 1983; Volume 1: 524 pages; Volume 2: 298 pages)
  Building materials for low-income housing (ESCAP/CIB/RILEM Symposium, Bangkok, Thailand, 20-26 January 1987; 358 pages; Final Volume: 48 pages + Annexes)
  Materiales y tecnologias para la construccion de viviendas de bajo costo (CIB/RILEM/INFONAVIT Symposium, Mexico City, Mexico, 6-10 November 1989; Volumes 1 & 2: 836 pages)
• Proceedings of the Latin American Symposium: Rational Organisation of Building Applied to Low Cost Housing (São Paulo, Brazil, 25-28 October 1981; Volume I + II: 793 pages)
• Proceedings of the International Colloquium on Earth Construction Technologies Appropriate to Developing Countries (UNCHS + Belgian Organisations, in cooperation with CIB, Brussels, Belgium, 10-12 December 1984; 424 pages)
• Proceedings of the W73 International Conference on Natural Hazards Mitigation Research and Practice: Small Buildings and Community Development (New Delhi, India, 8-11 October 1984; no continuous page numbering)
• Proceedings: Use of vegetable plants and their fibres as building materials (RILEM Symposium co-sponsored by CIB, Baghdad, Iraq, 7-9 October 1986)
• Anais do i simpósio internacional sobre produção e transferência de tecnologia em habitação: da pesquisa à prática HABITEC87 (IPT + CIB, São Paulo, Brazil, 6-10 April 1987; Volume I + II: 884 pages)
• Proceedings of the International Seminar on Low Cost Housing and Alternative Building Materials (CBRI + CIB, New Delhi, India, 10-11 February 1988; 224 pages)

4. Events and Publications

CIB events can be categorised as: CIB events, Congresses, Symposia (Seminars, Conferences, Workshops), Meetings and Publications and either products of work in Commissions or proceedings of important CIB events.

Publications are the most important results of CIB work and of CIB events, not least due to their permanency.

They can be classified as:

• Journals and similar periodic information bulletins and services
• Reports, Proceedings, Recommendations
• Individual products and others.

Development in each of the above categories will be summed up; where publications followed events, these will be reported upon in combination with the actual events themselves.

4.1 CIB Reports and CIB Publications

Throughout its forty years existence CIB has always attached great importance to publications. These take different forms:

• Numbered Publications: in total until the end of 1993 158 titles. Although the majority of these have been published at CIB Headquarters several were published by Members. Some of these publications feature the outputs of Commission work; others are compilations of Working Papers of Commissions and some are Symposium publications.
• Un-numbered Publications by Members or by other Organisations in the case of jointly sponsored events.

A list of titles in the first category is attached; no complete list exists for titles in the second category but a selection is also attached.

Most of the numbered publications have been referenced earlier under the Sections reporting on Working Commissions.

Several of CIB’s publications have become important tools in advancing knowledge, standardisation and coding.

The continuation of CIB publishing activities will seek to achieve further improvements mainly in the following directions:

• Maintaining high standards in the contents
• Adopting a more user-friendly form of editing so that, for example, publications should contain summaries for practitioners
• Increase in circulation.

4.2 CIB Congresses

CIB held its first Congress in Rotterdam in 1959 and since that time twelve Congresses have taken place at regular intervals of three years.

Proceedings were produced for each and it might be of interest briefly to review these Congresses and to assess their themes subject matter.

A list of the venues and dates of these CIB Congresses follows (the up-to-date list can be found here):

1st: Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 1959
2nd: Cambridge, United Kingdom, 1962
3rd: Copenhagen, Denmark, 1965
4th: Ottawa, Canada & Washington DC, USA, 1968
5th: Paris/Versailles, France, 1971
6th: Budapest, Hungary, 1974
7th: Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 1977
8th: Oslo, Norway, 1980
9th: Stockholm, Sweden, 1983
10th: Washington DC, USA, 1986
11th: Paris, France, 1989
12th: Montreal, Canada, 1992
13th: Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1995.

The themes chosen reflected the main preoccupation of building research within each period and also characterised the overall directions which CIB’s activities were taking. A short description of these Congresses seems therefore to be useful.

1st CIB Congress: Building Research and Documentation, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 1959

The ten headings under which papers and conclusions were classified are set out below:

• Sociological and functional aspects of housing design
• Design and calculation of constructions: safety factors
• Dimensioning on the building site, tolerances and dimension control
• Research problems concerning large concrete elements in housing
• Mass housing in rapidly developing tropical and subtropical areas
• Flat roofs
• Fundamental aspects of transmission of knowledge
• Heat insulation and moisture effects
• Industrialisation of building
• Operations research.

In consequence of the fact that this was CIB’s first Congress, it covered many different aspects of building research. Housing, industrialisation, large concrete elements received considerable attention: topics which were later to cede the limelight to others of a quite different nature.

2nd CIB Congress: Innovation in Building, Cambridge, United Kingdom, 1962

The title reveals the preoccupation of that period: the residual demand for new buildings was sizeable and could be satisfied only by introducing new techniques.

Dr. F.M. Lea, the outgoing President made a perceptive remark at the Closing Session which events were later to prove to be true: “Perhaps there may have been somewhat of an over-concentration on large concrete units”.

The Congress discussed the problems which arise in stimulating innovation and in getting the results of innovation over and applied. It stated that the amount of effort put into research and development for building and the building industry was inadequate. The efficiency of information also had to be improved. It further recognised that the methodology for the assessment and acceptance of innovation was a field which needed to be very vigorously pursued.

3rd CIB Congress: Towards Industrialised Building, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1965

Rising demand and lagging supply were experienced together with an insufficient capacity on the part of the building industry which adequately explains the concern that research should serve industrialisation of building. It was not surprising, therefore, that the Opening Address of the Congress took as its title: “Needs Versus Capacity”.

Emphasis was concentrated on production of industrialised building. The Congress surveyed the entire field of building R&D in ten groups although certain topics which later became important (energy conservation, HVAC, indoor climate) are missing from the list of the ten main headings.

4th CIB Congress: Building Cost and Quality, Ottawa, Canada & Washington DC, USA, 1968

The title of the Congress reflects the perception of changing priorities: it is no longer only the quantity (volume) of construction activities which is of importance but also the satisfaction of users’ needs and the cost at which these can be met. As a consequence human requirements, the agrément system, protection against fire and cost aspects feature among the reports of the Congress.

The Congress Proceedings is slimmer than any of the other CIB Congresses. This is in no way to imply that the thickness of a Congress Publication is in itself an indication of its quality. However allied to the fact that also participation at the Congress (with its not quite successful split among two venues in the two North American countries) was lower than any of the others’ one cannot deny that this was not the most successful in the series of CIB Congresses.

5th CIB Congress: Research In to Practice. The Challenge of Application, Paris/Versailles, France, 1971

The Congress in 1971 marked a first peak in CIB; about 800 persons attended the Congress. The programme offered plenary and a number of parallel sessions.

Among the topics acoustics, hygrothermics, heating and ventilation received adequate attention but also “traditional” topics (industrialised technologies, users’ requirements, tolerances, information and documentation, developing countries) were reviewed.

6th CIB Congress: The Impact of Research on the Built Environment, Budapest, Hungary, 1974

This was the only CIB Congress to have been put on in a non-Western country. Attendance was well up to expectations and there were voluminous Congress books. In the title “environment” appears for the first time, another indication of the emergence of new trends in CIB’s orientation.

An abridged Proceedings in Japanese was published although it was to be several more years before interest for CIB in Japan showed a significant increase.

7th Congress: Construction Research International, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 1977

This Congress focused attention on the work of CIB Commissions which was a laudable decision although it did thereby somewhat diminish the attraction for practitioners. The number of participants dropped against previous Congresses. The Congress books were well edited and attractively printed.

8th CIB Congress: Building Research World Wide, Oslo, Norway, 1980

The Congress was disturbed by various circumstances (interference on South African participation; problems at the General Secretariat) but otherwise satisfied expectations.

9th CIB Congress: To Build and Take Care of What We Have Built with Limited Resources, Stockholm, Sweden, 1983

The title of the Congress gave expression to two important trends in the construction industry which also affect the orientation of building research:

• That in relation to new constructions the maintenance of the existing stock is acquiring top priority;
• That conservation of resources is assuming increasing importance.

The period between the 5th and the 10th CIB Congress saw the Congress publications becoming more and more voluminous. For the 9th Congress a total of 10 volumes were published. From these seven contained papers relating to five main areas:

Volumes 1a and 1b:            Renewal, rehabilitation and maintenance
Volume 2:                              Building technology, design and production
Volume 3a and 3b:              Energy technology and construction
Volume 4:                              Building materials and components
Volume 5:                              Making use of building and research.

A volume of Summaries and another Report and Conclusions were published. A new type of publication was the News Review (edited by Dr. Ivan Dunstan) which described 37 research works considered as having been successes. Their list is the following:

• TOPAZ computer planning model with colour graphics
• Progress in visualisation techniques for urban planning
• The São Paulo water network information system
• Computer-aided design for technical and economic optimisation of building projects
• The ‘artificial sky’ set-up for large-scale model testing in illumination engineering
• Common load factors for structural design
• Compatibility of structures with the other parts of the building
• Life-time prognoses of structures
• Fire safety evaluation systems
• BRE Housing Defects Prevention Unit
• Thermal Analysis Research Programme
• New effective utilisers of heat from ventilation systems
• The heat-exchanging roof
• Thermal performance of light panels in a large sherry cellar
• Solar air heating in social housing
• Low energy houses in Western Canada
• Current research work at National Centre for Construction Laboratories in Iraq – Study of building with cane and papyrus
• New methods of using bamboo for low cost housing
• Rational design and construction of load bearing brick walls of 4 and 5 storeyed residential buildings in seismic regions in developing countries
• LIFT – FORM building method
• Pre-cast concrete system for school buildings
• Dimensional accuracy in building: application to the construction of a wind tunnel
• The rationalisation of repairs with a new mortar carrier
• Laser controlled rotor machine for concrete facing
• Recycled concrete
• Corps of Engineers’ Concrete Quality Monitor (CQM)
• Low-energy-consuming technology of production of gypsum binding from raw material with low content of calcium sulphate
• Latex roof paints on galvanised steel – weathering trials
• Strength grading of timber – the development of machine grading technology in the UK and the associated introduction of strength classes
• Reinforced soil structures
• Precast concrete paving
• Building block with integral facing using a new mineral material
• New factory building wall constructions with controllable heat flow
• Epoxy-coated reinforcing bars
• Low-flush and low-cost sanitary bowl
• The BRETEK moisture meter – for diagnosis of dampness in buildings
• Timber roofs of the Thames Flood Barrier.

Another interesting publication from this Congress was: “Practical Building Research Laboratories. Some Facts about 15 Laboratories in Different Countries”. This was also produced in visual form i.e. on slides and was a very effective display.

This Congress therefore was the first to realise that a new function and a new format needed to be found: the next decade reflects various experiments towards that purpose.

10th CIB Congress: Advancing Building Technology, Washington DC, USA, 1986

Overall this was judged to have been a successful CIB Congress. It also generated the bulkiest publications to date: in total 11 volumes, 4475 pages. From here on doubts were increasingly voiced as to whether the formats of CIB Congresses should be revised. The three main fields of the Congress were:

• For the computer age (3 volumes)
• Shelter for the homeless in developing countries (2 volumes)
• Translating research into practice (4 volumes).

A News Review volume was also published as a sequel to a similar Volume at the previous Congress. The topics in this Review were the following:

• Sisal Reinforced Concrete Roofing Sheet
• La Mousse d’Argile
• Concrete Blocks with Incorporated Continuous Insulation
• Smoke Control in Atrium Buildings
• Home Energy Audits and Labels
• BRE Programme ‘Strongblow’
• Blockmaking and Waste Disposal in Low Cost Housing
• Dikszopt, Multi-Functional Concrete Additive
• New Brick Veneer Walls on Existing Buildings
• Thin-Walled Trussed Rafters for Greenhouses
• Mud Housing Technology
• Smokeless Stoves in Homes
• Laser Guide Beam System for the Erection of Large Size Cooling Towers in Slip Form Method
• Computer Simulation in Auditorium Acoustics
• Fly Ash Used in Construction in Shanghai
• ‘D-ISOLAR’ Pre-Insulated District Heating Pipeline System and its Subsystems
• Condition-Surveys by Global and Detailed Inspections and Statistical Regression Analysis
• Diagnostic Procedures for Assessing the Thermal Integrity of Building Envelopes.

11th CIB Congress: Quality for Building Users Throughout the World, Paris, France, 1989

This Congress was one of the best attended in the series so far. Nine volumes were published of which one was a special book on technological trends (see: List of References). This was (and still is) an outstanding example of CIB output. The Congress papers were published in seven volumes and the Proceedings in one volume. The three main fields were:

• User comfort
• Life span of buildings
• Constructing quality.

Poster sessions consolidated their useful position in the Congress.

12th CIB Congress: World Building Congress, Montreal, Canada, 1992

This Congress also attracted a high turnout and succeeded in bringing together some 600 people. In times to come when looking back at the series of Congresses perhaps this will be remembered as the last one which still wished to provide a complete survey of building research. The opinion was becoming unanimous that Symposia (in a most useful way) cover the main fields of building research, so that future Congresses will have to seek another function.

The Congress presentations and discussions were focused on five major areas:

• New materials and systems
• Rehabilitation and restoration
• Environment
• Globalisation
• Information and computers.

Over 275 posters illustrating a wide variety of topics were exhibited and the attendant discussions were organised in an excellent way: this was highly appreciated by Congress participants.

The 13th CIB Congress will be held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, from 7th to 12th May 1995. It will be the first new-format CIB Congress with a small number of invited papers focusing on one central theme.

4.3 Symposia, Seminars, Workshops

As has been mentioned, since 1959 Congresses have become regular triennial events in CIB. Symposia have developed in a different way.

For a long time Congresses embraced virtually the whole spectrum of CIB activities. Despite this, already at relatively early dates it was felt that specific topics would require special meetings: Symposia. The first Symposia were individually planned and realised Meetings e.g. on information/documentation matters or on the performance concept and its applications. If the interest in the topics remained alive for a longer time, Symposia were repeated or later even planned at regular intervals, in the same way as Congresses.

This has meant that several Symposia have been held e.g. on information and on the performance.

Thus the practice has grown up over recent years for triennial Symposia to be held on (in brackets the Working Commission standing behind these):

• Building Economics (W55)
• Management and Organisation of Construction (W65)
• Energy Conservation (W67)
• Maintenance and Modernisation of Buildings (W70)
• Computer-Aided Integrated Construction (W78).

Some Commissions preferred to use the name ‘Seminar’ to describe such events (W62) or even ‘Workshop’ (W72). Each of these have certain individual features but also much in common. They usually also published the papers submitted as Proceedings.

4.4 Journals, Newsletters, Information Bulletin

In 1954, in the introduction to the first issue of a CIB Bulletin Mr. J. van Ettinger stated:

“You now have before you the first number of the CIB Bulletin …”

This publication of CIB came out between 1954 and 1966 nominally four times a year although in fact there were some years when double issues or a lesser number of issues were published. It was a printed bilingual (English and French) publication and featured reports on CIB activities, on progress in CIB Commissions, on work of CIB Members as well as mentioning matters of interest about what was going on in other international organisations.

In 1968 it was decided to publish a typed photocopied monthly CIB Newsletter and to commence the publication of a printed Journal with two versions in the two official languages.

This became Build International/Bâtiment International . To oversee the editorial and financial affairs the CIB Board established Build Foundation and the first issue (Volume 1, No. 1) was published for October/November 1968. This Journal was published in the years which followed.

A dispute with the Publisher (and the Editor) compelled CIB in 1975 to change the English title to Building Research & Practice; the French title Bâtiment International was retained. The format was altered: instead of two separate versions (English and French) texts in the two languages were incorporated in each issue. The Journal itself was printed and distributed by a professional publisher.

In parallel with the Journal a typed and photocopied internal Bulletin was published.

It has to be said that expectations as regards the Journal were fulfilled to a partial extent only. The Journal had a low circulation and despite extensive efforts neither CIB nor the publisher succeeded in changing this (there was a period when the Journal was distributed also as part of the CSTB Cahiers but then due to an absence of sufficient interest, this practice was stopped). Inevitably the Journal caused financial loss to CIB for which there was no justification in the long term considering the limited number of readers it reached.

The Journal’s broad scope (building R&D) meant that specialists (e.g. those engaged in acoustics or other fields) did not feel that the Journal responded adequately to their particular needs. The Journal did not apply the system of refereeing which tended to preclude the attainment of a high scientific standard. While aspired to bring CIB’s results to the practitioners it failed in this aim also because articles were still written by researchers but not really oriented towards applications.

CIB struggled for a long period to make the Journal a success but finally came to the conclusion that with this format success would always be unattainable. The CIB Board therefore decided at its Meeting in Tokyo in 1990 to terminate the Journal and instead to concentrate resources on a marked upgrading of CIB’s Information Bulletin: this will be described in the next section.

Following the Tokyo Board Meeting the commercial Publisher of the Journal (no longer an organ of CIB) decided to continue publication but with the slightly changed name of Building Research & Information.

Even though it had ceased being a CIB Journal, CIB decided it had nothing against encouraging it. CIB also decided to grant support/encouragement to a small number of selected Journals with a more restricted scope in the event that such journals were supported by CIB Commissions. As a result of consultations with Commissions the following Journals were singled out for support/encouragement (the code number of the CIB Commission approving this relationship is also listed):

• Fire … (W14)
• Applied Acoustics (W51)
• Construction Management and Economics (W55)
• Energy and Buildings (W67)
• Automation in Construction (W78).

These Journals publish refereed articles, are of a good scientific standard and could strengthen the CIB position in a given field.

The relationship to CIB is indicated in these Journals and the Editors or Assistant Editors usually are nominated or approved by CIB.

These arrangements have been accepted by the Board for a limited period, following which an assessment will take place in order to clarify whether these contacts do actually serve CIB interests.

The early issues of a typed and photocopied internal Information Bulletin produced at periodic intervals were rather brief: usually running to between two and four pages. They were prepared in the two official languages. In fact, the limited volume of CIB activities did not require more space: the list of coming CIB Meetings usually comprised not more than a small number of such events.

Then in the early eighties the Bulletin underwent substantial change. The increase in the number of Meetings, Members, Publications etc. necessitated the expansion of each issue to 18 to 24 pages and measures were taken to ensure that its production became regular and on time (six issues per year).

For some years the French version was produced with the help of CSTB and there were even years when an issue in Spanish appeared thanks to the aid of the Torroja Institute.

As the decade of the eighties went on, however, English became more and more dominant in CIB work, with the result that finally the Bulletin was published in English only.

Following the Tokyo Board Meeting in 1990 the Bulletin was transformed into a printed newsletter. The first issue in the new and enhanced format was circulated early in 1991 and since that time its editing has become consolidated. It seems that the Bulletin in its present form would serve the needs of CIB Members and the objectives of CIB in the coming years well.

Some CIB Working Commissions (among them W65, W84 and W96) have attempted to publish their own periodical newsletters, although it has to be said that usually they did not prove in the long term viable. At the present time a W65 Sub-Group (CONFIRM) and W96 are publishing newsletters.

4.5 A Unique CIB Survey

Technological Development in Construction

Construction research is not an aim in itself but should serve to advance technological research. It is understandable, therefore, that research institutes continually ‘analyse’ trends of technological development and that CIB considers it as an obligation to subject such trends to a survey on an international level.

One noteworthy result of this preoccupation with technological development was the publication of a printed book entitled: “Trends in Building Construction Techniques Worldwide “. This was based on contributions from CIB Members, CIB Commissions and from Organisations outside CIB. It was later edited with the participation of the CIB General Secretariat by CSTB, France, published in 1989 and distributed at the CIB Congress in Paris in the same year.

The book identified and described eight major trends:

• To industrialise
• Synthetic materials
• Two materials, one product
• Building to improve living standards
• Transforming the urban landscape
• Building thanks to computers
• A functional approach to materials
• Building with the help of robots.

In addition to these global trends, it characterised some major regional trends in:

• Japan
• North America
• Developing countries
• Eastern European countries
• Western European countries.

The eight trends can be summed up as follows:

To industrialise. Two major fields of industrialisation in construction are:

• Manufacture of standardised and specialised building materials and products;
• Use of industrialised building processes, aimed at improving site productivity.

The mechanisation of certain processes is leading to more and more sitework being transferred to the workshop.

Among industrialised construction processes prefabrication (large and small concrete and reinforced concrete, and of light-weight) of components and industrialised on-site methods (cast-in-situ concreting with innovative form work systems and mechanised processes) found various applications.

Synthetic materials. The most important applications of synthetic materials in the building industry concern plastics. These are used in the production of a wide range of products and structures:

• Pipes, tubes, fittings, connectors
• Insulating materials
• Floor and wall coverings
• Cladding and roofing products
• Joinery sections
• Sanitary and electrical equipment.

Plastics were developed to replace traditional materials (steel, copper, wood, ceramics) and to meet new needs, especially heat insulation. Existing types of plastics are continuously being perfected to satisfy more stringent requirements, e.g. durability, fire resistance.

Two materials, one product. The development of building products which combine two basic materials on a macroscopic level (as opposed to composites which combine materials on a microscopic level), has enabled considerable progress to be made in building techniques. Precombination of materials in the factory or workshop results in new easy-to-use products.

Two main groups are:

• Sections and linear materials
• Laminates.

Building to improve living standards. The idea of building to improve living standards embraces all the different aspects of the indoor environment, whether tangible or intangible, and more specifically, temperature, light, noise, air quality, colour, equipment for cooking, washing etc. The aim is to provide a safe and healthy environment while at the same time satisfying contemporary living standards.

The technical trends are: to satisfy appropriate levels of thermal and sound insulation, airtightness and air-renewal, solar radiation, heating systems regulation, protection against fire and intrusion, provision of high-comfort level technical (sanitary etc.) equipments.

Digital electronic techniques, technical and logistic management systems and integration of diversified services are effecting rapid penetration with the objective to build “smart” homes, “intelligent” buildings.

Transforming the urban landscape. Three major technical trends are beginning to emerge:

• Modernisation of networks and urban services
• Adapting buildings to new socio-economic demands
• Maintenance of buildings and preservation of the cultural heritage.

Restructuring, adapting, renovating of the urban built environment differs from traditional construction in the following ways:

• Accurate diagnoses are needed, both on a technical level and in order to predict the future requirements of buildings.
• The environmental restrictions of urban building sites are more complex: procurement of materials, noise, contract completion dates etc.

There is an important trend towards creating new built-up areas without first having to destroy existing buildings.

Urban transformation will be one of the most significant aspects of building in the future.

Building thanks to computers. Data processing in the building sector has developed significantly in the area of technical computation (for structures and equipments) and will in the short term witness an expansion in the fields of computer-aided design (CAD), site supervision and process management, due to the appearance of sets of tools organised into continuous chains.

Methods to structure and manage all the data involved are devised, tested and applied; this will yield increased productivity through more effective communication between the parties involved.

A functional approach to materials. Suitable techniques were always found for materials irrespective of whether they were directly extracted from the earth (stone, clay) or derived from natural growth (wood) or invented (stucco, asphalt, plaster, asbestos cement, mortar, glass).

By adopting a functional approach to materials, this process can be reversed, since materials are designed in direct response to requirement-based specifications. Reinforced concrete structures are one example of a materials engineering approach.

Other examples are:

• Polyvinyl chlorides (PVC) for external use (windows, claddings)
• Oriented fibre boards
• Foams with improved thermal insulation
• Materials with more effective sound insulation.

The emergence of composites (cement/glass; cement/carbon) enhances the range of materials engineered to specific requirements.

Building with the help of robots. Worksite robots could alter construction techniques on the building site. The contractor’s traditional plant (cranes, concrete mixers etc.) is being automated; new machines are being designed to carry out what have hitherto been manual tasks.

Some of the robots developed are: spraying mortars; painting; trowelling of concrete; inspecting façades.

The introduction of robots in construction is still sporadic and mainly a task for the future.

4.6 Directory

Under this name a CIB Publication became recognised whose full title is International Directory of Building Research, Information and Development Organisations.

It was first published in 1959 with:

• the second edition in 1963
• the third edition in 1971
• the fourth edition in 1979
• the fifth edition in 1986.

The Directory became a well known and much used publication. The first four editions were published by CIB; the fifth by the UK Publisher E & FN Spon Ltd.

The fifth edition gives concise information on the programmes and resources of 640 (of which 61 international) building research organisations in 54 countries.

The continuing demand is certainly such as to justify a sixth edition being produced shortly.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND REFERENCES

• International Directory of Building Research, Information and Development Organisations. 5th Edition (E & FN Spon Ltd., UK, 1986, 300 pages)

4.7 Internal Publications and Documents

The effective functioning of CIB always required the preparation of internal documents. Some of these (List of Members; Compendium of Working Commissions etc.) found their way into the series of numbered CIB Publications, others remained unnumbered or formed part of the ongoing G.A., Board, P.C., A.C. documentation with appropriate code-numbers being assigned for reference purposes.

In recent times the List of Members was published annually and the Compendium biennially. Latterly an Annual Report also was published; in the coming years consideration will be given to be combining one or more of these into a Yearbook.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND REFERENCES

• CIB Publications 100, 101, 122, 135, 144, and 146.

5. Relations with Other International Organisations

United Nations and UN Organisations

As has been mentioned earlier, CIB was established on the initiative of UN (ECOSOC and ECE). This explains the special relationship with the United Nations and specifically to UN ECOSOC, UN Regional Economic Commissions (ECA, ECE, ECLA, ESCWA, ESCAP) and UNCHS. Even the Constitution of CIB refers to this special relationship. CIB Board Meetings have been held twice in Nairobi at the Headquarters of UNCHS; CIB Congresses frequently had the honour of Welcome Addresses by high-ranking UN Officials and several Meetings were held with the participation of UN and CIB Officers.

While there is no change in the respect and attention which CIB gives to UN Organisations these contacts have changed with time. Declarations and documents on cooperation became substituted with planning and executing joint actions. This has also been a consequence of the growing number of UN Organisations with which CIB established contacts.

Three RILEM-CIB Regional Symposia on building materials (in Nairobi, Bangkok and Mexico City) counted as significant events.

These were realised in close cooperation with UN and with UN Regional Commissions.

New agreements on cooperation have been signed with WMO and WHO.

European Community

Whilst CIB is global, its relations with EC have developed in recent years. CIB Commissions had a prominent role in the preparations of some of the Eurocodes and on timber structures CIB participated in a Conference in Luxembourg on Eurocode …

CIB co-sponsored an EC Symposium on the performance concept in Luxembourg and was invited to Conferences of ENBRI and EOTA in Luxembourg and in Brussels.

ISO and CEN

CIB has formal cooperation agreements with ISO and CEN and is a Member of the sectorial committees ISO/TAG8 and CEN/BTS1.

Liaison Committee (L .C.) and Civil Engineering Organisations

The major international civil engineering organisations established a Liaison Committee 30 years ago of which CIB is a Member. For two two-year periods CIB provided the Presidency (Messrs. Sebestyén and Wright) and for several years the CIB Secretary General was the Secretary of the L.C.

Membership in the L.C. ensured amicable cooperation and joint actions with Member Associations (CEB, CIB, ECCS, FIP, IABSE, IASS, RILEM) which established the Joint Committee for Structural Safety (JCSS). In this also CIB was an active participant: the late Prof. J. Ferry Borges, Chairman of the CIB Programme Committee was for a long time President of the JCSS.

Other Organisations

The number of international Organisations has increased during the last forty years. CIB has in many cases cooperated with other Organisations and in other cases has simply halted activities adequately covered by other specialised Organisations.

Some of the Organisations with which CIB has cooperated are: RILEM, IEA, IFHP, EuroFM, ENHR, ISIAQ, IAARC. Such cooperation has always been an integral part of CIB’s evolution and will remain so.

6. Internal Structure

6.1 The Membership of CIB

CIB was established by a small number of building research institutes and documentation centers. As time went on its Membership took in Universities, professional Associations and various types of (design, consulting, contracting etc.) companies. Internal conflicts caused a temporary slump around 1979 but since then an uninterrupted upwards trend has been experienced.

Throughout more of the course of CIB’s history, three categories of Members have existed: Full, Associate and Individual. The first two are for organisations, the third for individuals. Some other categories (e.g. Supporting Organisations, Industrial Members) either ceased to exist or have been introduced only recently (for example, three sub-categories of Full and two for Associate Members).

The number of Members is shown in this Table:

A closer analysis shows that the sixty or so Full Members (12% of the total number of Members) shoulder about two thirds of CIB’s operating costs and the 17 largest Full Members (3% of the total Membership) contribute around one third of the total costs of CIB. Equally important is to bear in mind the consistently high level of their professional input. The most important building research institutes within CIB (and inevitably there is a degree of arbitrariness about this selection) are in alphabetical order of countries:

• Belgium: Centre Scientifique et Technique de la Construction (CSTC)
• Denmark: Danish Building Research Institute (SBI)
• Finland: Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT)
• Italy: Istituto Centrale per l’Industrializzazione e la Tecnologia Edilizia (ICITE)
• Japan: Building Research Institute (BRI)
• Netherlands: TNO – Building Research
• United Kingdom: Building Research Establishment (BRE)
• United States: National Institute of Standards & Technology – Building & Fire Research Laboratory (BFRL)

Organisations of significant standing can be found among Associate Members also; a small sample is provided in the following (for full names please refer to the latest published List of Members):

• Universities (in total about 150) in London, Dundee, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Loughborough, Manchester, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Nottingham, Reading, Salford, Sheffield, Glasgow, Cardiff (UK); Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Illinois (USA); Leuven, Gent (Belgium); Delft, Eindhoven (The Netherlands); etc.
• CERIB (France)
• EMPA (Switzerland)
• BSRIA, CIRIA, TRADA (UK)
• Professional Associations: CIOB, RIBA, RICS (UK)
• ASTM (USA); DIN (Germany); BSI (UK)
• etc.

Whilst the role occupied by Full Members within CIB remained pre-eminent, that of Associate Membership gained in importance. This is also reflected by the breakdown of total Membership into categories: the number of Associate Members accounted for 17% of the total in 1955 but had risen to 62% in 1993. The significance of Associate Members is better characterised by their growing share in CIB work. In 1982 the Coordinators of Working Commissions from the staffs of Full Members formed 83% of all with the remaining 17% from Associate Members. In 1993 the share of Coordinators from Full Members was 44% and from Associate (and Individual) Members had grown to 56%. It should be noted that there is another underlying reason for this and that is that certain new topics were not of vital interest to Full Members whereas they did catch the attention of Associate Members.

In the early fifties some large manufacturing multi-nationals were so-called Supporting Organisations (DuPont; Péchiney; Saint Gobain; Ciments Lafarge; Pilkington). However, CIB could not retain these affiliations over the longer term.

In recent years CIB has attempted various actions to recruit more Members from the world of practice and some initial successes can be reported in this direction. Design and consulting practices and contractors are among such Members, and examples that may be cited from the contracting world are: Obayashi, Kumagai Gumi, Shimizu (Japan); Costain, Laing (UK); etc.

CIB is spread over the world but its European post-war reconstruction genesis remains clearly perceptible e.g. in the membership where European representation is as follows (CIB Publication 100, page 5/36):

• Full Members 50%
• Associate Members 67%
• Unattached Members 47%.

The European weighting is reflected in the composition of the Board, as the following figures for the period 1983-1986 show:

• Europe 14
• Americas 3
• Africa 2
• Middle East 2
• Asia and Australia 3.

In recent years the presence of South-East Asia (or: of the Pacific Rim) has become stronger. On the other hand, since 1989 the participation of researchers from countries of the former USSR weakened; hopefully this will turn out to be a temporary phenomenon only.

Whilst CIB has always set its sights on developing in all parts of the world, it has from time to time singled out specific regions for concentrated efforts to increase membership.

6.2 Governing Bodies; General Secretariat; Officers and Honorary Members

After the early years of CIB, General Assemblies were held in conjunction with the Congresses on a triennial basis starting with 1959.

The operational direction of CIB life was in the hands of an Executive Committee (1951-1975), the first Meeting of which was held in Geneva in 1951. From 1976, a Board took over the responsibilities of the Executive Committee.

The first Executive Committee Meeting was held in Geneva in 1951 and by 1994 65 Board Meetings had been held.

As the scale and complexity of CIB’s internal affairs grew the Board judged it necessary to delegate some of its tasks to two permanent subsidiary Committees. These are the Programme Committee (PC) and the Administrative Committee (AC).

Up to mid-1994 51 PC Meetings had been held, the most recent being in Singapore in May 1994. The AC had met on 34 occasions up to this time.

In recent times a Marketing (Promotion) Committee was established by the Board.

Since its founding in Paris in 1950 CIB has benefited from a sequence of Officers who have contributed greatly to its development. The names of Presidents and of Secretaries General are listed below although others (Vice Presidents, Treasurers, Board Members etc.) equally deserve recognition for the outstanding way in which they discharged their functions. Regrettably space does not allow all of them to be mentioned by name.

Presidents (the up-to-date list is available here):

1950 – 1955           A. Marini, France
1955 – 1957           F.M. Lea, United Kingdom
1957 – 1959           J. van Ettinger, The Netherlands
1959 – 1962           F.M. Lea, United Kingdom
1962 1965              Ph. Arctander, Denmark
1965 – 1968           R.F. Legget, Canada
1968 – 1971           G. Blachère, France
1971 – 1974           Gy. Sebestyén, Hungary
1974 – 1977           J.B. Dick, United Kingdom
1977 – 1980           S.E. Lundby, Norway
1980 – 1983           N. Antoni, Sweden
1983 – 1986           R.N. Wright, USA
1986 – 1989           P. Chemillier, France
1989 – 1992           G. Seaden, Canada
1992 – 1995           J. Witteveen, The Netherlands.

Very early on in its existence, CIB was offered office space by the Bouwcentrum, The Netherlands. At first this was without charge, later it was available at a preferential rate. This facility was appreciated but to avoid dependence on any of its Members, CIB later took steps to become a normal tenant paying for its offices at the going rate. In any case the General Secretariat’s Offices have been retained up to the present time in the same office complex, the ownership of which was later sold by the Bouwcentrum.

The staff of the General Secretariat has numbered five persons (not all of whom are fulltime) since long. Restricted only by its small size (which was to be retained despite the growth of CIB), the General Secretariat has served as a motor servicing and promoting the activities of the CIB General Assebly, Board, Programme Committee, Administrative Committee and Commissions.

The Secretaries General of CIB have been:

1959 – 1971           J. de Geus
1971 – 1975           W.J. Bierens de Haan
1975 – 1979           J.R. Janssens
1979 – 1980           C.E. Pollington (Acting Secretary General)
1980 – 1993           Gyulya Sebestyén
1993 – 1994           M. Lévy
1994 – to date       W.J.P. Bakens

Deputy Secretary General

1980 – to date (1995)       C.E. Pollington (prior to 1980: Assistant Secretary General)

Even a partial list of those persons who have rendered eminent service to CIB and to the cause of construction research would, as intimated earlier, be very long. Just as a reminder this list is restricted now to those whose devotion was singled out by granting them Honorary Membership of CIB. Some of them are regrettably no longer alive but several are not only well but still active in research. Their basic past national and CIB position is indicated. Naturally such a brief description is hardly proportional to the usually very considerable activities.

• (The late) Ph. Arctander, Denmark. Director of the Danish Building Research Institute. President of CIB.
• Ø. Birkeland, Norway. Director of the Norwegian Building Research Institute. Vice-President of CIB.
• G. Blachère, France. Director of the French Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment. President of CIB.
• V. Cervenka, Czech Republic. Director of VUVA. Vice-President of CIB.
• (The late) J. van Ettinger, The Netherlands. Director of the Dutch Bouwcentrum. President of CIB.
• (The late) J. de Geus, The Netherlands. Secretary General of CIB.
• L.M. Giertz, Sweden. Vice-President of CIB.
• F .M. Lea, United Kingdom. Director of the Building Research Establishment. President of CIB.
• R.F. Legget, Canada. Director of the Institute for Research in Construction. President of CIB.
• B. L ewicki, Poland. Coordinator of CIB W23 – Wall Structures.
• A. Marini, France. Founding President of CIB.
• D. Mohan, India. Director of the Central Building Research Institute. Vice-President of CIB.
• H. Motteu, Belgium. Treasurer of CIB. Coordinator of CIB W23 – Wall Structures.
• V. J. Ovsyankin, (former) USSR. Vice-President of CIB.
• P.H. Thomas, United Kingdom. Coordinator of CIB W14 – Fire.
• K. L. de Vries, The Netherlands. Director of the Dutch Bouwcentrum. Treasurer of CIB. Coordinator of CIB W57 – Building Documentation and Information Transfer.

6.3 CIB Finances

Since its inception, CIB has functioned with the resources of its Members basically without any direct external (governmental, international) assistance.

It is the Members who absorb the costs of participation in CIB work and they pay fees which finance the operation of the CIB General Secretariat and central expenditures.

The large Full Member Institutes contribute most to CIB’s financial needs. Out of the total CIB income the fees paid by Full Members amounted in the first period of these forty years to between 70 and 80%; gradually this has diminished but it still amounts to 60 to 70%.

The fee system earlier was based (for Full Members) on objectively controllable factors such as population, size, gross domestic product or national product per capita and distance from Europe. In recent times, this has undergone a radical change so that there are now six Membership categories (3 Full, 2 Associate and 1 Individual) with fixed fees for each category.

CIB is a non-profit Organisation but in line with accepted commercial prudence it does maintain a reserve fund to smooth over eventual bad periods. Thanks to the willingness of CIB Members to contribute to CIB expenditures, serious financial obstacles have never stood in the way of normal functioning. This certainly does not mean that CIB is awash with money: a tight ship is run and there are no substantial funds to finance additional activities of CIB or of Members.

The changing environment for national building research organisations inevitably had repercussions on CIB also which has opened itself up to industry. The implications of these changes for CIB and its financial affairs will become more evident over the coming years.

A Concluding Comment

At the end of this historical overview the author wonders: what are the real lessons to be learnt? Are we better or worse off after these forty years? Has building research or CIB or the construction industry itself been instrumental in shaping the life of mankind?

One can claim with certainty that once given the opportunity to build, the construction industry has the capability to affect our World in a positive way. The problem has been that frequently construction work was interrupted by political or economic turmoil and against these the industry is powerless.

It would make no sense to anticipate future calamities also and to call a halt to work on development of building technologies. Building research and CIB will have to face these if and when they appear. The construction industry and its research organisations will always be prepared to give their maximum endeavours for the betterment of the built environment.

• • • • •
GS/CEP/CB            24.04.1995