Core Documents

The following are the core documents on fundamental design topics within the FPA Design Guide.

Essential Principles
This document provides a clear statement of and guide to the objectives of passive fire protection in buildings. Essential Principles sets out the basic fire safety objectives which the building designer should be seeking to achieve.

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Protected Zone
This document deals with the design concept of a protected zone, the requirement that, within a specified distance from a compartment wall of a single-storey industrial/commercial building, any walls, roofs and supporting framework shall be adequately resistant to fire, to prevent the spread of fire from one side of the compartment wall to the other.

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Protection of openings and service penetrations
This document contains guidance on how the designer should plan to deal with (Part 1) the fire hazards presented by openings in compartment walls and (Part 2) the protection of service penetrations.

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Compartmentation
Addresses the design requirements which are to be taken into account to result in buildings having appropriate compartmentation, the feature that will prevent the spread of fire within or between buildings. This document specifies the functional requirements that should ensure the fire integrity of compartments.

This document is in preparation.

External fire exposure/Arson protection
This document surveys the design considerations connected with the exposure risk to a building and its contents which may arise from fires outside the building or from fires inside that spread outside and re-enter. Such fires can arise from the activities of arsonists and this topic is also covered by this document.

The document is in preparation.

Modern methods of construction
This document covers the changes on building sites emanating from the adoption of modern methods of construction (MMC). Houses, blocks of flats and a range of commercial buildings are being constructed from 'modules' that are prefabricated off-site and then transported to the site. 

The document is in preparation.

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