Top 10: Fire Protection Engineering Projects
Iconic buildings have the capacity to bring people from around the world just to see them.
From museums and opera houses, to skyscrapers and boutique hotels, innovative architecture has ensured these buildings are known across the globe.
These buildings, however, require careful but powerful fire protection – carefully integrated to ensure the building does not lose its aesthetic appeal, while also remaining safe for each visitor passing through.
Construction Digital explores some of the leading fire protection engineering projects, examining renovations and end-to-end fire safety protocols, including designed features or added technology.
10. Jewel Changi Airport
Location: Changi, Singapore
Company: BES Tech Solutions
Date: 2019
The Jewel is an iconic structure, built of glass and steel, framed to resemble a conservatory. To ensure the building remained safe and up to code, the team considered many options.
To combine safety, security and aesthetics, smoke detectors and pipe works had to be kept away from the public. Due to the extensive requirements, the VESDA-E VEU by BES Tech Solutions was chosen. The system and its A10 detectors allowed for less detectors and more flexibility, without sacrificing safety.
9. Halley VI / British Antarctic Survey Research Station
Location: Antarctica
Company: Surespan
Date: Opened 2013
The Halley VI centre is comprised of seven interlinked modules, which rely on skis and hydraulic legs. It is a fully re-locatable research facility, which also offers fire protection in itself. It is also designed with autonomous fire suppression.
Surespan designed and manufactured 27 HIAC Recessed Floor Hatches, providing access and escape routes to the buildings. This includes 19 double door recessed floor hatches which are fire-rated for 30 minutes, as well as four lift-out fire-rated panels and one fire-rated recessed floor.
8. Ascent Tower
Location: Milwaukee, US
Company: Korb + Associates Architects
Date: Opened 2022
Ascent is a high-rise apartment building made out of a mass timber hybrid, sitting as the world's tallest mass timber structure at 25-stories and 284ft. To demonstrate that the tower is fire-resistant, architects and developers of the site let three glulam columns – made of the cross-laminated timber used in the project – burn.
This demonstrated that the outer layer protected the core of the wood – making sure the tower would not set alight.
7. Bloomberg London
Location: London, UK
Company: Swegon
Date: Opened 2017
A significant number of innovative solutions were embedded into the construction of Bloomberg HQ, including ones which focused on ventilation, volume control and fire safety.
Actionair damper units and HotShield smoke dampers which are operational up to 300C for two hours were utilised, designed for use in dual ventilation and smoke control ducted systems. Control and Monitoring Stations have been supplied in order to better track running of these features, alongside fire alarm inputs.
6. Louvre Abu Dhabi
Location: Abu Dhabi, UAE
Company: Coopers Fire & Dosteen Doors and Shutters
Date: 2017
This project needs to combine aesthetics of a museum alongside strong fire protection – particularly when considering the high value of the artefacts and specific environments they need to be kept in.
Coopers Fire collaborated with BuroHappold in using the FireMaster Horizontal and FireMaster Vertical fire curtains. These offer boundary protection while maintaining the open plan layout of the museum. They also provide compartmentation between rooms, utilising discreet integration to maintain hidden.
5. London Bridge Station Redevelopment
Location: London, UK
Company: Advanced & Network Rail
Date: 2020
London Bridge Station underwent a £1bn (US$1.36bn) redevelopment, which finished in 2020. It has been made more efficient, but also more safe. Advanced provided the station with MxPro 5 fire panels.
The panels offer four detector protocols, with an open installer network with free training and support. The panels can be used in single loop, single panel format, or within a multi-loop and high speed network. These panels have been used in other rail-related buildings across England.
4. Marina Bay Sands
Location: Singapore
Company: Arup
Date: 2011
Marina Bay Sands is a landmark hotel in Singapore, designed to resemble card decks. With three hotel towers, a continuous lobby at the base and a four-store casino, its intricate architecture requires careful design to ensure safety.
The Sky Park at the top of the towers 'bridges' the building, allowing for a safe evacuation strategy – if one tower is on fire, those within can move to another component of the hotel through the 'bridge'.
3. Sydney Opera House
Location: Sydney, Australia
Company: Arup & Coopers Fire
Date: Renovations began in 2013
Coopers was directed to manufacture and install SmokeStop smoke curtains to its Studio theatre, Drama theatre and the Playhouse theatres, working alongside the building's mechanical air handling system. The curtains deploy from the ceiling to turn the backstage areas into compartments and prevent the auditoriums from filling with smoke.
Following this, all the staff were trained on how to operate the curtains, alongside fire and smoke testing with full deployment of the barriers.
2. Burj Khalifa
Location: Dubai, UAE
Company: NAFCO
Date: 2004
When building the tower, the stairways were reinforced with fireproof concrete, providing it with extra safety in case of a fire. As it is a 160-flight structure, it also has refuge areas on every 25 floors. They are separated by a "two-hour fire-resistant construction".
Smoke migration is mitigated through the use of air-conditioning and pressurised environments. As such, occupants can be isolated from the danger and kept safe – or can safely pause in case of a full-building evacuation.
The elevators in the Burj Khalifa are within the central reinforced fire-resistant part of the building. In total, it has 38 smoke and fire resistant evacuation lifts – the elevators travel at 10 meters per second to help with quick evacuations.
Moreover, the tower also has traditional fire safety systems including fire alarms, sprinklers, stairwell pressurisation and smoke evacuation systems.
1. V&A East Storehouse
Location: Stratford, London
Company: Arup
Date: 2011
The V&A East Storehouse was initially part of the London Olympics Media Centre, completed in 2011 in time for the 2012 London Olympics. Since then, it has been retrofitted by a team of designers and architects in order to develop the V&A East Storehouse.
Teams were tasked with adapting this space to suit the needs of historical items – ensuring everything was preserved while also making sure the building was strong and safe. As many objects are made from fabric, paper or wood, integrating fire strategy was key.
It has specially designed lifts to evacuate disabled visitors, as well as lifts that can be used by firefighters. Its specifically designed firefighting shafts provide water and lines of visibility throughout the space. Each step taken was consulted with the London Fire Brigade to ensure accuracy.
