Enhancing Building Fire Safety Performance by Reducing Miscommunication and Misconceptions
Building fire safety is driven by regulations and technical building codes, at least as a minimum requirement. As fire protection engineers (FPEs) design fire safety measures based on requirements in the regulations, they are often viewed as the primary agents in ensuring the fire safety of building...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Springer US
2016
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/106034 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0168-1042 |
| _version_ | 1811083595181195264 |
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| author | Park, Haejun Meacham, Brian J. Dembsey, Nicholas A. Goulthorpe, Mark |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture Park, Haejun Meacham, Brian J. Dembsey, Nicholas A. Goulthorpe, Mark |
| author_sort | Park, Haejun |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Building fire safety is driven by regulations and technical building codes, at least as a minimum requirement. As fire protection engineers (FPEs) design fire safety measures based on requirements in the regulations, they are often viewed as the primary agents in ensuring the fire safety of buildings. However, their mission often starts with given building design features, such as interior spatial layout, exterior shape, site plan, and so forth, which are mostly determined by architects. The only exception is where the FPE is invited to assist in the project planning, feasibility and early concept design stages of a project. Regardless, architects also can influence building fire safety performance, whether or not they explicitly acknowledge or understand this. Although architects design buildings within the boundaries of the regulatory requirements, the architect’s focus is often related to the visual and spatial aesthetics of buildings linked to building form and functionality, which are not subject to the regulations. These aesthetics can sometimes compete with fire safety objectives. As such, buildings can be unsafe in certain situations due to unintended effects of building design features on actual fire safety performance. This research describes the relationship between architecturally conceived building design features, design expectations for fire safety systems, and the actual or conceivable fire safety performance of the building. Steps are proposed that FPEs can take to identify and address potentially competing objectives and deliver increased fire safety performance. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:35:34Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/106034 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:35:34Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | Springer US |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1060342022-09-28T08:53:19Z Enhancing Building Fire Safety Performance by Reducing Miscommunication and Misconceptions Park, Haejun Meacham, Brian J. Dembsey, Nicholas A. Goulthorpe, Mark Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture Goulthorpe, Mark Building fire safety is driven by regulations and technical building codes, at least as a minimum requirement. As fire protection engineers (FPEs) design fire safety measures based on requirements in the regulations, they are often viewed as the primary agents in ensuring the fire safety of buildings. However, their mission often starts with given building design features, such as interior spatial layout, exterior shape, site plan, and so forth, which are mostly determined by architects. The only exception is where the FPE is invited to assist in the project planning, feasibility and early concept design stages of a project. Regardless, architects also can influence building fire safety performance, whether or not they explicitly acknowledge or understand this. Although architects design buildings within the boundaries of the regulatory requirements, the architect’s focus is often related to the visual and spatial aesthetics of buildings linked to building form and functionality, which are not subject to the regulations. These aesthetics can sometimes compete with fire safety objectives. As such, buildings can be unsafe in certain situations due to unintended effects of building design features on actual fire safety performance. This research describes the relationship between architecturally conceived building design features, design expectations for fire safety systems, and the actual or conceivable fire safety performance of the building. Steps are proposed that FPEs can take to identify and address potentially competing objectives and deliver increased fire safety performance. 2016-12-22T15:52:09Z 2016-12-22T15:52:09Z 2013-11 2016-08-18T15:43:48Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0015-2684 1572-8099 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/106034 Park, Haejun et al. “Enhancing Building Fire Safety Performance by Reducing Miscommunication and Misconceptions.” Fire Technology 50.2 (2014): 183–203. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0168-1042 en http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10694-013-0365-2 Fire Technology Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ Springer Science+Business Media New York application/pdf Springer US Springer US |
| spellingShingle | Park, Haejun Meacham, Brian J. Dembsey, Nicholas A. Goulthorpe, Mark Enhancing Building Fire Safety Performance by Reducing Miscommunication and Misconceptions |
| title | Enhancing Building Fire Safety Performance by Reducing Miscommunication and Misconceptions |
| title_full | Enhancing Building Fire Safety Performance by Reducing Miscommunication and Misconceptions |
| title_fullStr | Enhancing Building Fire Safety Performance by Reducing Miscommunication and Misconceptions |
| title_full_unstemmed | Enhancing Building Fire Safety Performance by Reducing Miscommunication and Misconceptions |
| title_short | Enhancing Building Fire Safety Performance by Reducing Miscommunication and Misconceptions |
| title_sort | enhancing building fire safety performance by reducing miscommunication and misconceptions |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/106034 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0168-1042 |
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