Integrated Fire Engineering and Response

WG3 - Integrated Design

Across the disciplines of fire in the built environment

WG3 focus on bringing together design and research across the disciplines of fire in the built environment. In common place structural design this must cover the requirement to integrate fire resistance with all the other functional requirements of a building from conceptual design onwards, rather than the conventional process of adding fire protection after all other processes are complete. The issue of sustainability in all aspects of design has become a front-line criterion in recent years, and this will affect fire resistance design in the same way that it has affected ultimate and service ability design. A further aspect of integration is the recognition that fires are often the most devastating consequence of other accidental or malicious actions, such as earthquake and terrorist attacks. In this context the outbreak of fire can trigger disproportionate collapse, as in the “9/11” events, or can cause widespread fires which cause considerable loss of life. It is necessary to take further the current initiative to design robustness into structures so that local damage is mitigated rather than amplified by the outbreak of fires.

Last change May 2012