Sustainable. Energy efficient. Durable. For decades, these have been worthy goals for construction materials and systems. Yet as the environmental movement has evolved, these goals become ever more ambitious. Today these attributes—and others—are subsumed in a more all-encompassing term: high performance. The goal of high performance is to design and build structures that optimize all relevant high-performance attributes on a life-cycle basis rather than a solely first-cost basis.

Essential in meeting project goals from environmental to aesthetic to economic, high-performance buildings are being increasingly required by owners and by legislation. Critical to a high-performance building is a high-performance building envelope, that is, an envelope that provides versatility, efficiency, and resiliency. Precast concrete envelope systems inherently offer these attributes, and can be designed to provide many others. This article will provide an overview of what high performance is, and how high-performance precast concrete can help architects meet high-performance goals.

A High-Performance Structure—What Is It?

According to the United States Government in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 - 401 PL 110-140, a high-performance structure is one that “…integrates and optimizes on a life-cycle basis all major high-performance attributes including energy and water conservation, environmental, safety, security, durability, accessibility, cost benefit, productivity, sustainability, functionality, and operational considerations.”

Precast concrete creates an aesthetic, highperformance envelope for today’s structures. Photo by Sandy Cohn, AIA, courtesy of RLF Architects & Engineers