Enhancing Building Fire Safety Performance by Reducing Miscommunication and Misconceptions

Building fire safety is driven by regulations and technical building codes, at least as a minimum requirement. As fire protection engineers (FPEs) design fire safety measures based on requirements in the regulations, they are often viewed as the primary agents in ensuring the fire safety of buildings. However, their mission often starts with given building design features, such as interior spatial layout, exterior shape, site plan, and so forth, which are mostly determined by architects. The only exception is where the FPE is invited to assist in the project planning, feasibility and early concept design stages of a project. Regardless, architects also can influence building fire safety performance, whether or not they explicitly acknowledge or understand this. Although architects design buildings within the boundaries of the regulatory requirements, the architect’s focus is often related to the visual and spatial aesthetics of buildings linked to building form and functionality, which are not subject to the regulations. These aesthetics can sometimes compete with fire safety objectives. As such, buildings can be unsafe in certain situations due to unintended effects of building design features on actual fire safety performance. This research describes the relationship between architecturally conceived building design features, design expectations for fire safety systems, and the actual or conceivable fire safety performance of the building. Steps are proposed that FPEs can take to identify and address potentially competing objectives and deliver increased fire safety performance.     

Carbon print studies for the energy conservation regulations of the UK and China

The recently published building energy conservation regulation of China (GB50189-2005, 2005 [1]) was compared with the latest UK building energy conservation regulation (Part L) (Building Regulation Approved Document L2A, 2006 [2]). The UK regulation appeared stricter in its requirements and standards than the Chinese regulation. In two case studies, the design of a sample building is altered to fulfil the minimum requirements of the two regulations. The energy consumption and Carbon print of the virtual building under the two set of regulations are estimated by computer based models in the two case studies based on a building in the Cold regions. The building under the UK regulation showed higher energy efficiency and less Carbon emissions per year. The high level estimate in the case studies discovered a potential energy savings of 29% by strengthening the design requirements in the Chinese regulation to the UK level. The improvement on energy efficiency of buildings can be achieved in strengthening the proactive design aspects on building envelope, efficient HVAC, lighting and lighting control system. The software used was SBEM which is the default tool in the UK Part L regulation.     

Optimization of exit location in underground spaces

Workplace evacuation is a significant emergency response strategy and evacuation planning is mandatory for the emergency safety plan. It is known that the evacuation effectiveness depends directly on the effective location and functionality of the exit route, which includes exit access and exit discharge. Apparently, the exit doors location affect both these elements.The exit doors position is ruled by standards and regulations and depends on workplace use, building type, occupants’ number and type, etc. In underground constructions, the selection of the appropriate location of the exits is not easy. The land surface, the area topography and the fact that emergency exits are involved in the space’s ventilation, increase the engineers’ difficulty to design.The regulations mentioned above provide information about installing exits so that the workplace complies with the restrictions imposed. However, up to now a tool to help engineers select the best alternative combination of exits location for a given workplace does not exist.The purpose of this paper is to present a new software application that takes into account the basic parameters of exit routes regulations (such as distance, exit routes angle, dead end - common path of travel distance limitation) and therefore providing all the possible combination of exit doors location. In addition, each combination acquires an efficient grade through a mathematical function. That mathematical function has derived from a study on the evacuation affecting parameters and provides optimized results for exits location. Therefore, on one hand, the users may observe those combinations that comply with the standards restrictions and on the other hand, they can choose the best alternative.     

DeST—An integrated building simulation toolkit Part II: Applications

This is the companion paper of part I of DeST overview. DeST was developed as a building simulation tool with the aim of benefiting both design of and research on building energy efficiency. During its development, DeST has been applied to many projects, development of building regulations, and research. This paper gives examples of several areas in which DeST has been applied, including building design consultation, building commissioning, building energy conservation assessment, a building energy labeling system, and scientific research. Examples from a demonstration building are presented to demonstrate the entire process of aiding design with DeST. Additional projects and regulations are also mentioned to introduce other applications of DeST.     

A knowledge-aid approach for designing high-performance buildings

Today, global warming and the sustained increase in energy prices have led to a quest for energy-efficient buildings among designers and users alike. This has been accompanied by increasingly strict thermal and energy regulations for buildings. In addition to such changes on the energy front, building regulations have also been created or reinforced in other areas, including accessibility, fire safety and seismic risk, alongside the demands of users. The combined effects of these two factors have made building design much more complex. Thus, designers are constantly in search of tools and information that can provide them with ways of designing high-performance buildings for their projects. In response to these needs, we propose an optimization-based, knowledge-aid approach for designing high-performance buildings. This approach is aimed at providing architects and design offices with clear knowledge of their project’s potential (exploration of various options) that will allow them to design the best possible high-performance buildings (in this version of the approach only energy needs and construction cost are assessed). This potential is evaluated by means of the external and internal geometric parameters as well as the energy characteristics of buildings. In this paper, the approach will be applied to an office building in Lyon, France.     

Research on parametric design method for energy efficiency of green building in architectural scheme phase

Based on a large number of researches and engineering practices both domestic and overseas, it is shown that the building parameters to be determined during scheme phase can exert a great effect on the building energy consumption. In this paper, through a combination of the popular design method of building parameterization at present and the design goal of energy saving during the scheme phase, the author carries out researches on the design methods and tool development which are applicable to parameterization of building energy saving in this stage. In connection with the characteristics of both modeling process of parameterization and energy saving design, and by means of steady calculation as well as simulation, this paper establishes an simplified model to calculate the overall energy consumption of air-conditioning, heating, lighting and equipments, and ultimately gives suggestions on design of scheme for energy saving by optimization with the genetic algorithm (GA). On the basis of the model, a software platform is developed by computer language QT and openGL interface and is oriented to the design users and sets up the MMI (human–computer interaction) software interface for parameterization of building energy saving, which achieves automatic modeling of parameterization and promotes research on practical design cases.     

PassivBIM: Enhancing interoperability between BIM and low energy design software

The process of building design is currently undergoing some major changes. In an attempt to mitigate climate change, the design of more sustainable buildings is advocated by the UK government. Furthermore, standalone design methods are being replaced with the concept of Building Information Modelling (BIM). The adoption of BIM has been documented to result in many benefits, which range from time to cost savings. During the initial planning stages, building performance simulation (BPS) can be used to inform design decisions. Data can be exchanged between BIM and BPS tools using data transfer schemas such as the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC). The IFC schema lacks an energy domain, and as a result, an extension is proposed in this paper. This contains energy concepts from a BPS tool called Passive House Planning Package (PHPP). The extended schema was developed by way of an externally coupled Java tool, which facilitates the transfer of data, and informs the building design decision-making process. The process of geometry extraction has been validated with several case studies, which are based on certified Passivhaus buildings in Hannover Kronsberg, Germany and Ebbw Vale, Wales. The amount of error is acceptable, and it is mostly due to differences in the initial BIM model setup, not due to the processing of IFC files.     

Building information model based energy/exergy performance assessment in early design stages

Due to the rising awareness of climate change and resulting building regulations worldwide, building designers increasingly have to consider the energy performance of their building designs. Currently, performance simulation is mostly executed after the design stage and thus not integrated into design decision-making. In order to evaluate the dependencies of performance criteria on form, material and technical systems, building performance assessment has to be seamlessly integrated into the design process. In this approach, the capability of building information models to store multi-disciplinary information is utilized to access parameters necessary for performance calculations. In addition to the calculation of energy balances, the concept of exergy is used to evaluate the quality of energy sources, resulting in a higher flexibility of measures to optimize a building design. A prototypical tool integrated into a building information modelling software is described, enabling instantaneous energy and exergy calculations and the graphical visualisation of the resulting performance indices.     

An integrated construction planning system using object-oriented product and process modelling

An interactive planning system approach poses challenges to the efficient integration of the design and construction planning process. Current research is focused on organizational knowledge processing in building design and construction, such as the representation of object-oriented planning models and constraint management incorporating design, engineering and construction planning through several planning stages. Since building construction involves cooperation among designers, engineers and project managers, comprehensive organizational planning and management tools are relevant. The integrated construction planning system (ICPS) aims to cover a wide range of knowledge processing based on formalization and representation of building and construction systems. To realize the integrated construction planning system, appropriate modelling techniques need to be introduced. This paper presents the results of research on several issues such as formalization and representation of interactive design and construction planning processes, methods for incorporating project information, knowledge and constraints and the concept of applying an object-oriented paradigm to interactive building and construction system planning. A prototype system is also presented which integrates building space planning, building system planning, construction system planning, construction activity planning and construction site layout planning.     

建筑与结构的共生

建筑设计一般分为:方案、初步设计、扩大初步设计和施工图四个阶段。在现实工程中一般认为建筑设计是建筑师的事(尤其是方案阶段)。结构设计就是"规范+计算",因为结构设计必须按照技术规范和规程来做设计与审图,那么只要在设计规范、手册、计算机及其相应的一体化设计程序都具备的情况下,等待建筑师给出一个空间形成方案(非结构的),然后设法去搭积木完成它,并满足强度与变形的计算要求即可。将原本通过努力可以创新和做得很好的结构设计简单地误认为:结构就是"规范+一体化计算机结构设计程序"。结构是建筑构思实现的基础,结构设计不仅是一门专业技术、还是一门艺术、更对开拓建筑造型、完善方案空间形态起着决定性的作用。     

Analytical design planning technique (ADePT): a dependency structure matrix tool to schedule the building design process

Current planning practice takes little account of the interdisciplinary, iterative nature of the building design process. This leads to a compromised design process containing inevitable cycles of rework together with associated time and cost penalties in both design and construction. The analytical design planning technique (ADePT) is a planning methodology which helps to overcome these difficulties. The central part of ADePT is a dependency structure matrix (DSM). This paper describes DSM techniques and a tool developed to optimize the design process.     

What next for energy-related building regulations?: the occupancy phase

Building regulations are important policy instruments for increasing building energy efficiency. However, when it comes to actual energy use, studies have shown that improvements in building energy efficiency are offset by changes in the inhabitants’ comfort practices. Nevertheless, the improvement of energy efficiency continues to be a cornerstone in building regulations, with no consideration of how this simultaneously influences everyday practices. The example of Danish building regulations, which are among the strictest in Europe, is critically reviewed for the implications regulatory design can have for reducing energy consumption. Based on readings of policy documents, consultancy reports and research papers from the last two decades, this paper outlines where things go amiss during a building’s lifetime if a user perspective is excluded. The focus is on three phases: the development of new building technologies, the design and construction of buildings, and occupancy. The question of how building regulations could be redesigned to regulate energy use better is explored, along with what research and strategies are needed within four domains: developing alternative measures to energy per square meter; developing more advanced models simulating occupancy; improving feedback technologies’ usability; and the increased use of commissioning and post-occupancy evaluations.     

Risk of human fatality in building fires: A decision tool using Bayesian networks

The Netherlands is the most densely populated country of the European Union, which makes space very expensive. This leads to increasing complexity of the cities’ layout and other public spaces, together with a large number of people involved. Authorities would like to know whether new and innovative building designs ensure an appropriate level of safety of people in case of fire, before the accident happens, and to be prepared for the so-called “low probability–high consequences” accidents. Therefore, they need a tool to help them estimate the extent of a fire in a building, given any combination of possible conditions and any unexpected course of events during an emergency. This paper discusses the possibility of using Bayesian belief nets for this task. Using this approach, the people in charge can take decisions at different stages of the design process of a building regarding the location, the structure, the loading of the building, the types of fire protection systems inside the building, as well as the characteristics of the fire brigade that fights the possible fire. In the current study, usefulness of the approach is investigated using a small example. This will show the feasibility of the approach for the Netherlands situation and give authorities involved confidence that building a large comprehensive model would fulfil their needs for a support tool in the planning process. The effort to gather real data therefore was restricted as demonstration of fitness for purpose was the primary objective.     

Service life planning and performance requirements

Service life planning comprises a model for the determination of a reasonable expected service life for buildings and components, and it establishes a routine for the assessment of design alternatives. A design option is considered reasonable when it meets or exceeds performance requirements over time that have been drawn up specifically for the specific project. Due to this assessment reference, there is a very evident link to the concept of performance-based building. Any stakeholder involved in the value chain or in the design process of the building, as well as regulators and building users, can express performance requirements. Identified requirements, both in relevance and in quality, will vary with the stakeholder and his/her perspective of interest. As building sector manufacturers develop most products with reference to standards rather than with reference to specific requirements, there is no direct link from user requirements to the product design. Instead, the building designer has the responsibility to ensure performance requirements are met by the performance of products integrated into the design. As these design decisions also have to be made at the material and component level, a performance-based building would benefit from an established rationale that enables the communication of performance requirements across the relevant system levels in the relevant design processes. A path for the connection of the established concepts of service life planning and performance-based building is presented. The aim is to identify key elements that need to be developed for the successful linkage of performance-based building with service life planning.     

Revisiting the role of architects in planning large-scale housing in the USSR: the birth of socialist residential districts in Tallinn,Estonia, 1957–1979

In Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, housing estates are often associated with inhumane architecture and unwelcoming public space, an outcome that can be attributed to strict design requirements in a rigid centralized system. Due to the uniformity of residential housing produced during socialist times, both the design process and its master – the architect – are believed to have played only minor roles in shaping townscapes. This study, situated in the large housing estates of Tallinn, Estonia, challenges these assumptions using analyses of archival material (relating to planning procedures during state socialism) and articles in specialized magazines. The study also explains – through first-hand interviews with senior architects who were key players in building socialist cities – the relations between Soviet regulations and vital elements of the city-building process, including creativity, power, and artistry. Analysis of primary source materials highlights an oversimplification of socialist modernism, which suggests more nuanced explanations for town planning outcomes. Findings suggest that regulations issued in Moscow for Union of Soviet Socialist Republic-wide planning played a less important role than previously assumed in town planning outcomes in Estonia. International modernist city planning ideals, combined with local expertise, strongly influenced town planning practice in the Soviet ‘West’.     

Effects of real-time simulation feedback on design for visual comfort

Building performance simulations and models of human visual comfort allow us to predict daylight-caused glare using digital building models and climate data. Unfortunately, the simulation tools currently available cannot produce results fast enough for interactive use during design ideation. We developed software with the ability to predict visual discomfort in real time. However, we know little about how users react to simulation feedback presented in real time. In our study, 40 subjects with backgrounds in building design and technology completed two shading design exercises to balance glare reduction and annual daylight availability in two open office arrangements using two simulation tools with differing system response times. Subjects with access to real-time simulation feedback tested more design options, reported higher confidence in design performance and increased satisfaction with the design task, and produced better-performing final designs with respect to spatial daylight autonomy and enhanced simplified daylight glare probability.     

城市居住区规划中的节能与省地问题再思考

真正意义上"节能省地型"住宅,必须挖掘每一个可以节约资源的环节。在原有的节能及省地策略的基础上,以全方位的研究住宅区的节能设计与省地设计,通过重新审视住宅居住区规划设计过程,在群体规划中提出节能的策略,在建筑单体设计中提出省地的措施。统筹兼顾整体协调,以促进"节能省地型"住宅的真正实施和推广应用。     

Building and planning regulations under Israeli colonial power: a critical study from Palestine

Colonial regimes used urban planning regulations as a tool to control and dominate other people and natural resources. Since the beginning of the past century, Palestine represented a good example of where urban planning regulations played a major role in urban transformation and development. The Israeli regime has been using old regional plans that were prepared by the British Mandate, and issued many others to achieve its aim of establishing settlements and dominating the West Bank. Consequently, this study explores how urban planning regulations can become a tool for controlling and dominating people and natural resources. This study investigated how these tools were used by controlling authority during the past century.     

Entwicklung einer Toolbox zur zwei‐ und dreidimensionalen instationären thermischen Bauteilsimulation mit KARDOS

Development of a toolbox for the 2D and 3D transient thermal component simulation based on KARDOS. 2D and 3D dynamic thermal simulations of building components in combination with transient climate boundary conditions can approximate the real behaviour of a building component. The usual tools for multidimensional building component simulation are limited in the component geometry and can not be extended for multiphysics problems (e.g. hygrothermal analysis). For this reason, a toolbox for thermal component simulation, based on the FEM‐tool KARDOS, was developed. This toolbox comprises a pre‐processor, which is able to define and to discretise 2D and 3D complex component models. Starting from these models, the input files of KARDOS are generated automatically. Some applications shall illustrate the operating principle of the toolbox.