High‐performance concrete buildings for the new millennium

Traditionally, the structural design of concrete buildings has been focused primarily on the provision of a certain minimum level of safety that is acceptable to the general public. After many years of research and development in structural analysis and design methods, there are no longer any major difficulties in ensuring the safety of building structures under normal usage. Nowadays, occupants, owners, developers and society at large are demanding more, including better serviceability, functionality, durability, structural health assurance, repairability, environmental friendliness and sustainability. All these call for a higher performance of building structures in a more general sense. This paper discusses this issue and advocates changing our design philosophy and strategy to meet the challenge of designing high‐performance concrete buildings for the new millennium.