Fire Safety Journey of a Building
Our aim with this journal is to help demonstrate fire safety best practice in each of the key areas. By covering a building’s entire fire safety journey, we hope that this will show how interlinked each step is, and therefore how the much-vaunted holistic, non-siloed approach to fire safety is a necessity.
Our fictional block is a place to Work, Rest and Play - the WRaP building. From (below) the ground up, it has a deep basement of over 10 metres on three levels, with just under 900m² in floor size at each storey, contains a car park for 100 vehicles over two basements, and a loading dock on one basement level with truck lifts.
It has two internal staircases, not on the external walls, contains 210 residential units over 8 storeys with 14 units per floor and includes social housing provision. These flats are located above first and second floor commercial mixed-purpose group units for local business. It also has a roof terrace for building users and friends, a pool area on the ground floor, and a large PV array on the roof. The whole construction process is modularised, and is in the heart of a town such as Stanford-Le-Hope.
Taking the RIBA Plan of Work as a basis, our expert contributors have looked at how they would approach working on The WRaP in their respective fields. What will the journey to design this building look like, and how will fire safety be a part of it?
Each article covers best practice and highlights some of the key areas to be aware of and to consider on a project such as this.
