September 28 - Considerations for design

This is a late entry for the lecture on September 28. The lecture was about building regulations, building codes and basically the things you need to comply with to get your design approved and through construction.

Our project of relocating the King’s Head Pub building to the Forks is considered a major alteration. It entails occupancy changes (A) and the process of bringing the existing building to modern codes (B). The details of this depend entirely on our individual decisions for the assignment.

Exchange district and the Forks are located in two different zones so different zoning requirements including different kind of land use, bulk, signage, parking, loading and urban design need to be considered.

A. Building occupancy classifications refer to categorizing structures based on their usage and are primarily used for building and fire code enforcement. Many buildings may have multiple occupancies. These are referred to as "mixed occupancies" and the different parts will be required to meet the codes for those specific areas. In places where more than one occupancy may apply the stricter code is usually enforced. source

The following classification is based on the International Building Code:

Assembly (Group A): places used for people gathering for entertainment, worship, and eating or drinking. (churches, restaurants, theaters, and stadiums)
Business (Group B): places where services are provided. (banks, insurance agencies, government buildings (including police and fire stations), and doctor's offices)
Educational (Group E): schools and day care centers up to the 12th grade.
Factory (Group F): places where goods are manufactured or repaired. (factories and dry cleaners)
High-Hazard (Group H): places involving production or storage of very flammable or toxic materials. (places handling explosives and/or highly toxic materials)
Institutional (Group I): places where people are physically unable to leave without assistance. (hospitals, nursing homes, and prisons)
Mercantile (Group M): places where goods are displayed and sold. (grocery stores, department stores, and gas stations)
Residential (Group R): places providing accommodations for overnight stay. (houses, apartment buildings, hotels, and motels)
Storage (Group S): places where items are stored. (warehouses and parking garages)
Utility and Miscellaneous (Group U): others. (water towers, barns, towers)

B. The Manitoba Building Code is a set of minimum requirements intended to protect health, safety and structural sufficiency in buildings. It deals with new construction, including additions and major alterations. It is intended to apply to high rise and low rise buildings used for residential, business, mercantile, industrial and assembly occupancies. source

The lecture also covered the elements to be considered for fire safety, designing exits, health requirements and access requirements. The detailed requirements for these can all be found in part C of NBCC (National Building Code of Canada) or The Manitoba Building Code described above which is based on NBCC.

Occupancy load which is the estimated number of people on each floor has a great impact on exit design. The number of exists, their location and width and the distance between them are factors to be decided on. There must be at least two exits on each floor. In the King’s Head Pub, they closed the second exit on the second floor and opened one in the adjacent building. We need to open it up again in the new location for our studio assignment.