Integration of fire safety and building design

Abstract

A new framework is presented to facilitate better incorporation of building fire safety performance options into the building design process. Based on the building design process and key design decisions undertaken at each phase, a knowledge set is developed to aid building designers to understand better the effects of design decisions on building fire performance. This also minimizes potential competing objectives in later design phases by sharing necessary concerns in advance. Drawing on the knowledge set, a conceptual building fire safety evaluation tool illustrates how primary building designers and fire safety engineers can quantitatively assess fire safety performance for different solutions. It is shown how building fire safety performance attributes can be arranged by building design phase, how various scenarios can be explored, and how appropriately balanced building design and fire safety design solutions can be identified at different phases of the building design process.