An open approach

• Published in: Building Surveying Journal pp. 10 - 12
• Main Author: Ballantyne, Andy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors 01.10.2018
• Subjects: Apartments; Bedrooms; Building codes; Cover plates; Design; Entrances; Fire alarms; Fire protection; Fire safety; Jurisdiction; Kitchens; Residential buildings; Response time; Safety management; Sprinkler systems; Studies; United Kingdom > UK
• ISSN: 1750-1032

Fire safety guidance is a significant factor in the internal arrangement of apartments in the UK. In general, either the distance from the furthest point in the apartment to the entrance door is kept very short, or a protected entrance hall connects all rooms to the apartment entrance. In recent years an open-plan approach has become desirable, with bedrooms being accessed directly from a combined living and kitchen space. To support this, BS 9991: 2011 Fire safety in the design, management and use of residential buildings--Code of practice, included guidance for open-plan apartments. A further variation was also considered, with concealed sprinkler heads introduced and modelled using an increased response time index (RTI) to reflect delayed activation due to the presence of a cover plate. The RTI values of the standard pendant test used in the BRE experiments were not documented, so a conservative estimate for the base RTI value was used to calculate that of a concealed head.