Timber is an attractive material choice for use in tall buildings, and its use is growing. However, as it is a combustible material, there are concerns around fire safety and specific fire design is required.
As our housing becomes more densified, do current fire safety controls need to change to keep people safe from fire? A new BRANZ research programme is looking at this, focusing initially on fire resistance and fire spread.
Is New Zealand striking the right balance of fire safety measures in multi-storey apartment buildings? We look at requirements in several countries to see how we compare.
While fires during construction are always a risk, densification increases the potential consequences and introduces new considerations. Here are some things to keep in mind to keep your construction site fire safe.
The advent of curtain wall cladding systems in multi-storey buildings has brought with it problems in preventing fire and smoke spreading from the fire floor to the floors above through...
The objective of this project is to develop a credible set of design fires for apartment buildings that will be acceptable for use by fire engineers and approving authorities and...
This report explains and discusses aspects of building design for ensuring the safe escape of occupants from the effects of fire and smoke in multi-storey buildings.Traditional practices and assumptions are...
Designers of higher-rise buildings need to understand the abilities and limitations of firefighting services and, in particular, their height capability. This is the second article in our series on firefighting and housing intensification.
