Design issues
Fire
Prescriptive fire safety guidance is often out of step with modern design of educational buildings. Modern educational buildings need to provide unhindered circulation for the occupants and often require the provision of large flexible internal areas. These provisions often conflict with traditional methods of dealing with means of escape, fire and smoke spread. For example large communal internal areas extending over a number of floors often conflict with traditional requirements for fire compartmentation. Fire safety engineering provides a method of developing alternative fire safety designs to achieve comparable and often better protection than designs which meet prescriptive guidance.
By adopting a fire engineered approach it can enable sustainability and environmental objectives to be addressed as part of the design process, as required. This is something not currently addressed within building regulations. For example a fire engineered approach to design allows the identification of redundant or non-essential fire safety measures which can lead to a reduction in raw material costs and reduce waste.
As the design of educational buildings becomes more demanding the use of a performance-based approach to fire safety ensures that fire precaution measures are individually tailored for each building, facilitating architectural flexibility, encouraging innovation, promoting cost effectiveness and more importantly meeting the requirements of the end users.
Key design considerations
- Ensure fire compartmentation lines compliment internal lines of subdivision, and do not include areas of glazing or large openings.
- Ensure voids and atria do not breach compartment lines and that escape routes are away from void edges.
- Ensure escape stairs are aligned with normal vertical circulation routes.
- Consider the use of lifts as part of disabled evacuation strategy.
- Ensure exit provisions account for extra-curricular and out of normal hours activities.
- Consider the requirements of security and the impact on means of escape provisions.
Doncaster Education City – Phase 1
Fire engineering was used to develop a cost effective fire strategy that addressed the operational requirements of this multiple use college facility. The strategy permitted early identification of redundant fire protection measures recommended within generic fire safety codes, leading to substantial savings.
Use of computational analysis of smoke movement
Computational analysis was used to assess the movement of smoke within large open volumes and inform the development of fire and smoke containment strategies.
Use of computational analysis of people movement
Computational analysis was used to assess the movement of people within buildings this can inform both the design of normal and emergency circulation routes and identify key areas of potential congestion.
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