BCA Building Classes

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The BCA classifies buildings by their use. A building may be made up of a number of classes if it has a mixed use. The BCA identifies the following building classes:

• Class 1a – a single dwelling or attached dwellings (e.g. a terrace, duplex, etc) where each dwelling is separated by a fire wall.
• Class 1b – one or more buildings that constitute a boarding house, guest house, hostel of small scale (i.e. not exceeding 12 persons or 300m2 in floor area).
• Class 2 – a building containing two or more dwelling units (e.g. flats, apartments).
• Class 3 – a residential building for a number of persons such as a large scale boarding house, guest house, hostel, the residential part of a hotel, motel, school, etc.
• Class 4 – a dwelling unit that is a part of a commercial use (e.g. a caretakers/managers flat).
• Class 5 – an office building.
• Class 6 – a shop or other building where goods or services are retailed directly to the public.
• Class 7a – a car park building.
• Class 7b – a storage building or building where goods are wholesaled (e.g. a warehouse).
• Class 8 – a laboratory or a building where a process takes place (e.g. factory, workshop, etc).
• Class 9a – a health care building (e.g. a hospital, clinic, etc).
• Class 9b – an assembly building (e.g. community hall, sports hall, etc)
• Class 9c – an aged care building.
• Class 10a – a non-habitable building being a private garage, shed or the like.
• Class 10b – a structure (e.g. a fence, wall, mast, swimming pool, etc).