Realisation of fire safety where the existing standards cannot be applied

This presentation was given during the First International Symposium regarding "Engineering Performance-Based Fire Codes" organised by the "Department of Building Services Engineering, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China" on 8 September 1998.
The "D3 Espace Leopold Building" of the European Parliament in Brussels is very innovative and for architectural reasons required a performance-based approach for the fire safety design. The building has a 300 m long covered "lightstreet" or atrium whereupon open on one side are 3 high storeys and a foyer, leading to most of the conference rooms and 6 storeys with offices on the other side. The technical fire safety concept described in this presentation comprises a smoke extract ventilation system with automatic smoke curtains to isolate the openings of the storeys towards the foyer as part of the provision to protect the means of escape and to separate the adjacent smoke compartments. An extensive analysis of the possible fire scenarios led to thespecifications for the programming of the management of the fire safety system and to the drawing up of evacuation procedures and fire intervention plans for the building.
On request of the Brussels Fire Brigade a full-scale fire test was done in the lightstreet using a 1 MW fire in a specially built imitation shop compartment in order to confirm the correct functioning of the smoke control design. This test confirmed the suitability of the basic smoke ventilation design but resulted in important recommendations regarding the finishing of the installation of the smoke curtains.

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A new building for the European Commission in Brussels.
The Berlaymont is designed to heighten the transparency and openness?
The fire technical approach.

This document was presented at the international "Fire Asia "98 "strive for a safer world" an integrated experience" conference - Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre - 23-25 November 1998.

In December 1991 almost 3.000 EU officials left the historical Berlaymont building in Brussels. The building functioned since 1969 as seat of the European Commission. Due to asbestos pollution the Commission had to move to other buildings during the "decontamination" of the Berlaymont. By the Royal Decree of July 1994 new rules became obligatory for renovation of existing buildings - such as the Berlaymont building. Since the "Berlaymont" was considered a high building the most stringent rules was applicable and many obligations made it impossible to be a "transparent" en "directly open" complex. The introduction of "Fire Safety Engineering" made it possible to receive the necessary derogations in order to maintain the architectural concept.

Brussels International Airport

Fire Safety Engineering Approach for the New "Pier A and Topaas".

This presentation describes all techniques used in this project and proves that FSM can be successfully used in practice.

BIAC assigned IFSET and FRS as fire safety consultants to develop an alternative fire safety design, based on the principles of Fire Safety Engineering. The design included sprinklers, smoke and heat extract systems (SHE), the use of compartmentation and other necessary measures. A derogation request was submitted to and approved by the Ministry of the Interior.
The design used zone modelling as well as CFD and evacuation simulations. A complete risk analysis was also made based on real fire tests under the sprinklered calorimeter.

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