Final Review

http://www.ehow.com/how_4967327_determine-placement-exit-signs-buildings.html

The final review was a very happy day for all of us. Now that we were glad to be done with our studio project we had a chance to go through our floor plans and find out that in case of fire some of our occupants did not have many chances for survival. The main issue was the fire escape.

The escape has to be contained! The exit corridor, if one exists, must be separated from the rest of the building with fire-rated walls and doors. No occupied space may be located in or open into the fire escape path.

It is important to keep fire path free of smoke in case of a fire within the building. All of us had minimum two staircases in the building but did not keep both of them contained. A staircase that is not contained cannot be considered as a proper fire exit.

Here are SOME of the points from that very hard to read and understand Canadian Building Codes book that we should go over again:

3.4.1.2.

• If there is more than one exit from a floor area, each exit must be separate from every other exit leading from that floor.

3.4.2.4.

• Travel distance means the distance from any point in the floor area to the nearest exit measured along the path of travel to the exit.
• The travel distance to an exit must be not more than 50 m from any point in a service space.

3.4.2.5.

• The exits must be located so that the travel distance to at least one exit shall be not more than 45 m in a floor area provided that it is sprinkled throughout
• Every exit must be considered as contributing not more than one half of the required exit width.
• Exits must be located and arranged so that they could be clearly visible or their location would be clearly indicated and they could be accessible at all times.

3.4.4.1.

• Every exit must be separated from the remainder of the building by a fire separation having a fire-resistant rating not less than 45 min for the floor assembly above the storey or the floor assembly below the storey if there is no floor assembly above.

3.4.7.2.

• Fire escape must be constructed of metal or concrete and extend to ground level constructed throughout in a strong substantial manner and securely fixed into the building.

Some of the conclusions to make after the indoor systems crit this week on our final review were:

- read the building codes book few times before finalising the preliminary floor plan design

- spend more time asking yourself questions “what if there was a fire here”

- not be so caught up in the beauty of your design concept which might make your floor plan look beautiful but life-threatening in some real life circumstances (for example, fire)

- think of human behaviour in relation to the designed environment in case of panic or confusion

- think of the nature of sound, fire, and smoke in relation to the designed structure

Some of our floor plans needed a simple fix to be fire safe, such as moving the fire escape door closer to the staircase. Others had more serious issues – having exposed general use staircases for fire exits. Either way the guilt for trapping our occupants in the burning creative center building will never leave our hearts.

It was interesting to note that not many of us had exterior fire escape staircases incorporated into our design (possibly because they “would not look nice”). We might do more research on the exterior fire escapes for our next studio project since they might be quite beautiful and creative – at the same time very important:

http://ic2.pbase.com/u26/dellybean/large/43561572.FireEscape.jpg
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