Designing and Managing Inclusive Built Environments - Literature review Example

LITERATURE REVIEW 1. Legal Requirements Protecting the public and prevention of recurrences of disastrous fires is the main concern of continuously evolving regulatory control imposing both national or international standards or local legislation in the form of building regulations and specific legal requirements . In UK for instance, various types of structures and occupancies are controlled by Code of Practice for fire safety such as BS 9999 for fire safety management, compartmentalization, fire safety training and others while Building Regulations 2000, Approved Document B serve as legislative control . Legal requirements in the UK generally covers means of escape, internal fire spread (linings), structural fire protection, external fire spread, and facilities for the fire fighting services . These requirements exist in order to comply with various legislations such as the Fire Precautions Act 1971, Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997, and Regulatory Reform Fire Safety Order 2005 containing hundreds of fire safety related laws that generally putting an unconditional responsibility to the “responsible person” the safety of people occupying the premises . For this reason, fire risk assessment must be carried out and implemented along with a fire management plan that should be maintained and updated regularly . In order to comply with the fire safety requirements of building regulations and to manage fire safety initiatives effectively, the responsible person are provided with several guiding documents and standards such as those found in BS 5588, BS 9999, CIBSE Guide E, and Approved Document B. 2. Design Standard and Requirements 2.1 BS 5588 Part 12 Recommendations BS 5588:2004 is a Code of Practice developed by British Standard for fire precautions in the design, construction and use of buildings. Specifically, Part 12 of this Code of Practice is for managing fire safety in premises of various sizes and complexity . The primary purpose of Part 12 is to minimise the incident of fire through prevention and ensure that fully functional fire suppression systems are in place in case prevention fails. As stated in Part 12 of BS 5588, fire safety management can protect building occupants effectively if it takes into account the prevention of fire occurrence, recognise the occupants type and those with special needs, ensure that all fire safety measures are functional, means of escape are available, staff are well-trained and familiar with the evacuation plan, and organised in a manner that occupants can escape quickly as possible . In relation to fire safety management, the recommendations in Part 12 emphasises the need to prevent the occurrence and spread of fire by identifying potential sources of fire, keeping corridors, stairways, means of escape, and other passages clear of combustible materials . For the above reason, the fire safety management plan should include monitoring and taking appropriate action on hazardous occupants’ activities such as smoking, waste disposal, etc, housekeeping, violation of policies concerning reduction of hazards, maintenance of equipment, and assessment of risks associated with newly acquired equipment or technologies. More importantly, provide training and education (test and fire drills), establish security procedures to prevent arson, and ensure that all fire safety systems are functional and can respond effectively during an emergency . 2.2 BS 9999 Section 4 and 9 Recommendations BS 9999 is another Code of Practice developed in 2008 that contains useful recommendations for fire safety in the design, management, and use of buildings. In Section 4 of this Code of Practice for instance, the recommendation in order to prevent spread of fire and smoke is to identify potential sources of sources of fire which is similar to BS 5588. However, BS 9999 contains additional recommendations for specific type of building and occupancies such as those with atria, theatres, cinemas, shopping complexes, process plant and related structures, refuges, and fire safety for disabled people which is also recommended in Part 8 of BS 5588 . In Section 4.6, 17.7 and 18.8, BS 9999 recommended consideration of all disabilities when planning for fires safety measures in order to comply with legal requirements specified in Disability Discrimination Act 1995. These include relevant provisions and special management procedures for warning, fire instructions, lifts or protected refuges, and devices for communication . Section 17 is a specific guidance for horizontal means of escape for disable people where the consideration to the proportion of those people having disability in relation to the number and dimension of escape routes, types and protections provided in corridors, travel distance, and recommended phased/zone evacuation for disabled people. Phased evacuation allows disabled people to escape through an evacuation lift or move horizontally to another compartment while waiting for assistance . In contrast, Section 18.8 recommend methods of vertical escape for people with different form of disability that include use of lifts conforming to specifications in Annex G (lifts should be located in a protected enclosure and with exclusive power supply coming sub-main circuit), evacuation by stairs with assistance from trained staff, and refuges as specified in Annex G requiring refuge to be present in all storeys of the building and located in the direction of the escape flow . Section 9 on the other hand contains recommendations for managing occupied buildings to prevent fire occurrence. Specifically, these include testing of individual fire safety systems for design conformity and functionality during hand over procedure. The safety systems should demonstrate soundness, free of interaction problems, implemented according to agreed design, and comes with a fire safety manual specified in Annex H. This fire safety manual should at the minimum provide complete description of the rationale that led to the fire safety design including planning, construction, evacuation management, the use of various protection systems, responsibilities of management and staff, and method of record maintenance and update. More importantly, the manual should contain specific the actions to be taken by the fire safety management team, site plans, escape routes, assembly points, access to fire and rescue service, communication system and interaction procedures, and other important matters related to the fire safety system . 2.3 CIBSE Guide E Recommendations CIBSE Guide E is fire engineering-based guide offering alternative solutions for fire safety management and this include risk profiles, design of fire precautions, classification by purpose groups, human factors associated with means of escape, compartmentation and spread of flame, fire safety management, and others . In terms of fire safety management, CIBSE Guide E recommends fire engineering-based design of means of escape where width of exits are determined by occupant capacity while travel distance and escape time are determined by different factors as shown below. Table 1- Exit width as determined by occupants’ capacity Figure 1- Travel time as determined by different human factors In Section 11, fire safety management recommendation emphasises the significance of maintaining non-fire equipment, control of storage, and use of materials that can start and allow spread of fire. Therefore, building design should provide fire safety managers with means to inspect and maintain potential sources of ignition and reduce the likelihood of arson. Similarly, a fire safety manual should be prepared and contain design information such as safety policies, specifications, risks assessment and sensitivity analysis, identified risks, description of both active and passive fire safety measures, planned inspection, maintenance, and testing schedules, operational recordkeeping, and roles and responsibilities of individuals in the organisation . Moreover, CIBSE Guide E also emphasises the importance of communication in fire safety management and performing fire prevention related tasks such as occupants behaviour monitoring, smoking policy, housekeeping, waste disposal, combustible contents, purchasing standards, equipment maintenance, and the training and education of all staff . 2.4 Approved Document B Recommendations In terms of fire safety management, Approved Document B recommended approaches for means of warning and escape, prevention of internal fire spread for both linings and structure, external fire spread prevention, access and facilities for the fire and rescue service . Specifically, the design of fire safety measures should be based on identified risks, the nature of building structure, use of building, and the standard of fire safety management. In buildings other than dwelling houses, the recommendation is to have an alternative means of escape particularly when escape to a place of ultimate safety is not possible or situations when those involve are people with disability who cannot use stairways route without assistance. The guidance recommends both horizontal and vertical escape based on the number of stairs and use of building . Approved Document B, takes into account and recommend the use of protective measures such as fire-rated doors, fire resisting enclosures, fire resistant glazed elements, proper direction of door opening, flights and landing of stairs, lighting in escape routes, exit signs, and protect power circuits . In terms of mechanical ventilation and airconditioning’s effect on fire growth and spread, the guidance recommend installation of exhaust points away from final exits and combustible building cladding. Separate ventilation ducts should be provided for protected stairways and prevented from supplying or extracting air directly from protected escape routes . Fire safety measures according to Section B5 should take into account facilities that would assist the fire and rescue service such as vehicle access for fire appliance, fire fighting personnel, provision for fire mains, heat and smoke venting in basement, and sufficient water supply for fire fighting . In general, unlike BS 5588, BS 9999, and CIBSE Guide E, Approved Document B does not provide specific recommendations for fire safety management but instead emphasises the required fire safety design in prescriptive terms. For instance, as stated in page 5 for use of guidance, it is clarified that the document is merely intended to provide guidance for some of the most prevalent building situations and there is no obligation to adopt any of particular recommended solution in Approved Document B. However, the selected alternative must comply with nationally accepted technical specifications such as the British Standard and CIBSE Guide. Moreover, fire safety measures should take into account the requirements imposed by different legislations such as the Workplace (Health, Safety, and Welfare) Regulations 1992, The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 1992 with requirements not covered by this guidance . Approved Document B was written on the assumption that that a building will be properly managed and conforming to the requirements of the Building Regulations. Therefore, fire safety management should be realistic and sustainable, reasonably maintained, informed by a suitable and updated risk assessment, and satisfactorily complying with the requirements imposed by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 . References: Abrahams, J. & Stollard, P. (2002). Fire from First Principles: A Design Guide to Building Fire Safety, Taylor & Francis Approved Document B 2006. Building Regulations 2000, Fire Safety: Approved Document B. In: Goverment, C. a. L. (ed.) Buildings other than dwellinghouses. UK. Bright, K. & Cook, G. (2010). The Colour, Light and Contrast Manual: Designing and Managing Inclusive Built Environments, Wiley BS 5588-12 2004. Fire precautions in the design, construction and use of buildings. 12. UK. BS 9999 2008. Fire safety in the design, management, and use of buildings. 4 and 9. UK. Christian, S. D. (2003). A Guide to Fire Safety Engineering, BSI.UK CIBSE Guide E 2003. Fire Engineering. E. UK. Fuller, C. (2008). Fire and Disability 2008: Special Report, Workplace Law Group.UK Grice, A. (2009). Fire Risk: Fire Safety Law and Its Practical Application, Thorogood.UK Littlefield, D. (2012). Metric Handbook, Taylor & Francis Purkiss, J. A. & Li, L. Y. (2013). Fire Safety Engineering Design of Structures, Third Edition, Taylor & Francis.UK Raj, R., Walters, P. & Rashid, T. (2008). Events Management: An Integrated and Practical Approach, SAGE Publications.UK Rasbash, D., Ramachandran, G., Kandola, B. & Watts, J. (2004). Evaluation of Fire Safety, Wiley.UK  Read More