Traditional architectural features of historic buildings are what make them unique and elegant. As part of renovating these buildings, limiting the changes to the façade helps keep those distinctive features and keeps your budget in line. A challenge exists to find fire safety solutions that do not require substantial changes to significant historic buildings.
The 3 main fire safety objectives of the building are:
- Ensure occupants can safely escape from the building.
- The building must have equipment and services in place for firefighters to safely conduct fire brigade interventions.
- Prevent the spread of fire to and from the burning building to adjacent properties.
Old historic buildings should satisfy the current regulation and code of construction. Sometimes it is required under the Building Code Australia for the building to comply with the current regulations, however, it is difficult or impossible to meet with current regulations and code without significant changes to the building. The changes could be the loss of original constructions, façades, or the construction of concrete walls to compartmentalise the building.
We believe that fire safety engineering plays a critical role in repurposing/renovating historic buildings. Our team of fire engineers draw from a diverse range of experience in fire safety engineering. This provides us with a competitive advantage when faced with complex fire engineering problems. We will work with the design team to achieve a desirable outcome that is in line with key stakeholder requirements.
At Sotera we are committed to incorporating practical and cost-effective fire safety solutions in the early stages of project design. We would love the opportunity to assist with your project, so get in touch with us at either of our offices in Brisbane or Gold Coast.