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History of Barns in Canada: Historical Perspective on Agricultural Structures (Part 2)* by Ineke Van Zeeland B.Eng. M.Eng. General History of Engineering in Agriculture in Canada In Canada, engineering of agricultural structures did not really begin until the 20th century. It began to be realised that there could be engineering solutions to the problems farmers faced. Research into engineering of farm structures began to be performed by agricultural colleges, provincial agricultural departments, and by the federal government Department of Agriculture. Plans for agricultural structures were beginning to be drafted across Canada, but there was no consistency in procedure dure and there was duplication of work. There was also no method for national distribution of recent innovations and solutions from the research centres to those who would apply the information.
In the early 1950's, access to farm housing plans was no longer a problem due to the efforts of provincial housing committees and the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation. At the Second Conference of the NCAE in 1952 (3), it was reported that 446 plans had been collected, 243 of which related to barns. By the following year the outline of a program for plan exchange and distribution was submitted to the Executive of the National Advisory Committee on Agricultural Services, which was made up of representatives from a11 the governmental departments of agriculture and the agricultural colleges. Collaboration with representative animal specialists and other groups in compiling data for the proposed building plan service began. The Federal Government decided to finance the editing of plan catalogues in English and French, and the printing of the initial plans. Provincial organisations would handle the distribution. And thus, the Canadian Farm Building Plan Service, lacer to be called the Canada Plan Service, was finally created. The National Research Council of Canada
The code only applies to those farm buildings ("...a building or any part therof which does not contain a residential occupancy and which is associated with and located on land devoted to the practice of fanning, and used essentially for the housing of equipment or livestock, or the production, storage or processing of agricultural and horticultural produce or feeds."(6), that have "low human occupancy", that is, an occupant load of not more than one person for each 40 square metres. Otherwise, the National Building Code must be adhered to. The rationale for having special requirements for farm structures is based on their low human occupancy load and the remote location of typical farm structures.(7)
(1) James H. Whitaker, Agricultural Buildings and Structures (Virginia:
Reston Publishing Company, 1979), p. 4. *Taken from a paper written by the author as part of an assigned undergraduate project leading to a B.Eng. degree. Part 1 can be found here
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In
1944, the National Committee on Agricultural Engineering (NCAE) was formed
and its inaugural meeting was held in the Chateau Laurier Hotel in Ottawa.
The establishment of a coordinated building plan service covering farm
buildings and facilities was first recommended at this meeting. The original
idea was to coordinate the cooperative exchange of farm housing and service
building plans among federal and provincial institutions. At the 1944
NCAE meeting, a sub-committee on Farm Buildings was set up to study the
problem. The subcommittee considered available plans and accept some.
A small number of plans were redrafted, but by 1949 there were not yet
enough to start a plan service and no funds were available for distribution
of plans.
The
National Research Council of Canada (NRCC) is responsible for the editing,
revising and publishing of the National Building Code of Canada (NBCC).
It has been providing this service since the late 1930's, and the first
edition was published in 1941. By the late 1950's, discussion of the requirement
for building standards that were specific to farm buildings was coming
to the forefront. The NRCC sponsored a special meeting under the the aegis
of the Chairman of the Associate Committee on the National Building Code,
with representation from provincial departments of agriculture, universities,
and commercial wood and steel associations to discuss the advisability
of assembling a set of standards or code for farm structures. A recommendation
was made to establish a code for farm buildings that addressed design,
fire, safety and health standards, as a supplement to the NBCC. The Farm
Building Standards Committee was formed and its members were engineers
and specialises from universities, government, and related industries
and services.
The
first five editions, from 1964 to 1977, of the Canadian Farm Building
Code (CFBC) contained a considerable amount of useful farm information.
But it was decided that much of the material was outside the scope of
traditional building code requirements. So, the 1983 edition was completely
re-written by a special task force that concentrated on traditional building
code requirements of fire safety, health and structural sufficiency. A11
subsequent CFBCs have followed this format. The material from the 1977
edition of the code that did not relate to health, fire safety or structural
sufficiency was made available in the Canadian Farm Buildings Handbook,
published by the Canadian Government Publishing Centre.