Residential definition

Approved document B, Fire Safety, Volume 2 – Buildings other than dwellinghouses, includes classifications of purpose groups for which buildings or compartments of a building are intended to be used.

It defines residential purpose groups as:

Residential (dwellings):

• Flat.
• Dwellinghouse that contains a habitable storey with a floor level a minimum of 4.5m above ground level up to a maximum of 18m.
• Dwellinghouse that does not contain a habitable storey with a floor level a minimum of 4.5m above ground level.

Residential (Institutional): Hospital, home, school or other similar establishment, where people sleep on the premises. The building may be either of the following:

• Living accommodation for, or accommodation for the treatment, care or maintenance of, either:

1. People suffering from disabilities due to illness or old age or other physical or mental incapacity
2. People under the age of 5 years.

• A place of lawful detention.

Residential (other): Hotel, boarding house, residential college, hall of residence, hostel or any other residential purpose not described above.

The glossary of statistical terms, published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), states:

A building should be regarded as residential building when more than half of the floor area is used for dwelling purposes. Other buildings should be regarded as non-residential. Two types of residential buildings can be distinguished:

• houses (ground-oriented residential buildings): comprising all types of houses (detached, semi- detached, terraced houses, houses built in a row, etc.) each dwelling of which has its own entrance directly from the ground surface;
• other residential buildings: comprising all residential buildings other than ground-oriented residential buildings as defined above.

NB The Scottish Building Standards, Part I. Technical Handbook – Domestic, Appendix A Defined Terms, defines a residential building as: ‘…a building, other than a domestic building, having sleeping accommodation.’

Approved document S, Infrastructure for the charging of electric vehicles, published in 2021 by HM Government, defines a residential building as a building which:

• contains one or more dwellings, and
• does not contain any premises that are not dwellings.

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings

• Agraharam.
• Apartment.
• Bungalow.
• Condominium.
• Curtilage.
• Definition of institution.
• Domestic building.
• Duplex.
• Dwellinghouse.
• Flat definition.
• Hostel.
• Household.
• Housing stock / building stock.
• Maisonette.
• Private sector residential building.
• Proposed changes: MHCLG consultation on house building statistics.
• Resident.
• Room for residential purposes.
• Shared residential accommodation.
• Sheltered housing definition.
• Shop definition.
• Terraced house.
• Types of building.
• Types of dwelling.
• Use class.