Education
Education buildings can represent the most challenging fire safety projects, and the critical success factors to enable design excellence and best value for money would typically include:
- Addressing property protection and business continuity aspects, and general compliance strategy for BB100 for schools
- Open-ness of design (atria, large compartments).
- Smoke control systems, to enable smoke retardant construction and toughened glazing toachieve fire compartmentation performance, or to enable open balcony escape.
- Extended travel distance and use of accommodation stairs for escape.
- Choice of evacuation strategy. Progressive Horizontal Evacuation may enable best management of any evacuation, especially beneficial for special needs students and disabled persons.
- Strategy for means of escape for disabled persons and coordination with the management of evacuation for the facility.
- Cost-benefit analysis of sprinklered, partially-sprinklered, and non-sprinklered options.
Integration of fire strategy with building service’s environmental strategy, particularly relevant for natural ventilation and low-energy solutions. - Integration of security and escape, and development of engineered fire alarm systems (BS 5839 L5 standard); particularly relevant in the design for partial-occupation situations e.g. where areas of the school are occupied (e.g. let for third-party/out of hours purposes) whilst remainder of school is unoccupied.
- Account for effect of construction on any existing facilities and for any phasing of occupation.
- Fire service access and firefighting
- Negotiation with Building Regulations body and Fire Authority, to ensure an efficient approvals process and enable confident progression of the design
Education projects comprise: