Toward a Sociotechnical Systems Framing for Performance-Based Design for Fire Safety

Abstract

AbstractThe framework for performance-based design for fire safety that is in use today is based largely on constructs that emerged in the early 1990s. The framework has its origins in systems approaches to fire design for buildings that were pioneered in the 1970s, which in turn made use of the fire safety science principles and constructs that began to emerge in the 1950s. It has proven to be adaptable to deterministic and probabilistic realizations, and is arguably a risk-informed approach, whether benchmarked to tolerable risk as embodied in regulatory provisions or makes use of quantitative risk measures. The framework contemplates technologies—in the form of safety technologies and computational modeling for hazard assessment—and people—primarily as targets to be protected by the safety technologies. The framework also considers the regulatory environments within which it is applied. Nonetheless, performance-based design for fire safety is not as broadly accepted as performance-based design approaches in other disciplines. Arguably, this is due in part to a lack of a socio-technical systems framing and due consideration of the associated people-technology-institutions interactions that impact fire safety throughout the life of a building. Stakeholders have concerns about the application of technologies in the design process, the qualifications of practitioners, and how the building will perform in the future. Furthermore, current approaches to design often do not incorporate the technologies that can help maintain a target level of fire safety performance, either by notifying persons who can take action, or autonomously modifying building fire safety parameters. These challenges can be overcome. This chapter introduces some concepts of socio-technical systems thinking and system safety thinking, how they can be applied throughout the lifecycle of a building, and how these concepts and approaches can result in more robust, sociotechnical systems oriented, performance-based designs for fire.