Building

Definition

Building refers to any independent free-standing permanent structure comprising one or more residential dwelling units, business units or other spaces. A building can be entered by persons or animals and is suitable or intended for protecting them and objects. A building is covered by a roof and is usually enclosed within external walls or dividing walls that extend from the foundations to the roof.

A building may be used or intended for residential, commercial, industrial, or institutional purposes, including the provision of services.

In the case of interconnected structures (e.g., semi-detached or terraced houses), any unit separated from other units by a fire wall extending from roof to cellar is considered an individual building. If there is no fire wall, the interconnected building units are regarded as individual buildings if they have their own access or entrance, as well as their own utility system and are separately usable.

According to this definition, a group of three row houses that are attached is considered to be three separate buildings if their external walls or dividing walls extend from the foundations to the roof.

For technical reasons, 'building' also includes a separately usable underground construction.

Usage

A building should have the potential to have its own unique civic address. If such an address is not available, a combination of the building name, spatial coordinates, a picture and/or a detailed unique description can be used to identify the building.

Conformity to relevant internationally recognized standards

This standard is compatible with the definition of building presented in the United Nations Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses Revision 3, 2017.

This standard is also compatible with the definition of building presented in the Eurostat Classification of types of constructions, 1997.

Relation to previous version

• Building July 17, 2018 to current

  This is the current standard.

• Building January 01, 2018 to July 16, 2018

  This version was replaced on July 17, 2018.