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.
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.
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.
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.
