By Michael Strömgren, Johan Norén, and Fredrik Nystedt
The shift toward more-sustainable buildings in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) creates a challenge for traditional fire safety concepts, and buildings may become more vulnerable to errors. As the stakes increase, buildings may become more sensitive to inadequate application of fire safety design. While innovative building concepts and solutions are needed, it is also important to maintain a high fire safety quality and ensure compliance with building regulations.
Some examples of sustainable and innovative construction concepts and solutions include increased use of wood in façades on tall buildings, certain combustible insulation materials, green façades and roofs, solar panels, and new types of passive housing. These may all challenge traditional fire protection solutions. There is an increased need for advanced fire safety engineering methods and higher levels of quality assurance and processes for control regarding fire protection in these buildings.
Challenges in fire safety design and construction process involve compliance and reaching stated fire safety objectives. Sweden, along with many other countries, struggles with the risks of non-compliance and inadequate quality1, 2 due to a lack of standardized processes. An international survey revealed that few countries follow up on compliance of fire safety requirements on a national level. At the same time, there are indications that this may be an issue in countries like Sweden that have liberal performance-based regulations with a lax control and review system.
The situation may be the same in other countries. There has been a tendency in some countries to address this issue partly by limiting the degree of freedom for fire safety design when it comes to engineering aspects by regulating methods and design considerations. Examples include the leaky building case in New Zealand and the last major revision of the Swedish fire safety regulations.
The SFPE ECCG White Paper for Professional Recognition for Fire Safety Engineering3 addressed the challenge of ensuring high-quality fire safety engineering. While the paper mainly proposes solutions through certification and education, it is important to recognize that two areas are of equal importance:
- Data collection regarding the problem itself — case studies in different countries may reveal strengths and weaknesses of existing regulatory systems.
- Process or system-oriented guidelines may work well as a complement to other actions.
Performance-based fire protection is a central part in the fire safety in all Nordic countries to allow sustainable and flexible construction methods and solutions. These countries have previously collaborated on building regulations, and the foundations have been laid for driving this development forward together. However, and regardless of the similarities in the Nordic countries, there are differences regarding the restrictions set down in regulations and a lack of uniform guidelines for the verification, control and inspection of fire protection.
In 2014, a three-year development project — Fire Safety Engineering for Innovative and Sustainable Building Solutions — commenced under the direction of RISE. The project was funded by Nordic Innovation, the Development Fund of the Swedish Construction Industry (SBUF), the Directorate of Building Quality (DIBK), and the participating organizations themselves. It was created in answer to Nordic Innovation’s call for projects to develop or implement new standards as a driving force for innovation in specific sectors.
The project consortium had a total of 15 members from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden who represented academia, regulation-writing authorities, construction companies, consultants, research institutes and standardization bodies. The project was finalized during late 20174.
One concept of the project was to develop a new INSTA standard or technical specification that can be used throughout the Nordic region to define a standardized process to review and control of fire safety design throughout the whole building process5 from the planning phase (initial design, detailed design and consent) through the construction phase (building and construction, and approval) to the operation and maintenance aspects of a building (inspections, maintenance and service, staff education, and drills). A technical specification for quantitative risk analysis has been developed in parallel with this effort6.
The scope of the technical specification is to facilitate verification of building solutions, including innovative and sustainable solutions, and harmonize the process for control in the field of fire safety engineering in the Nordic countries. The goal of the specification is to provide guidance on a general level for review and control, independent of national legal matters in the Nordic countries, with a primary focus on defining procedures in the planning and building process. The process has also, to some extent, given guidance on how the fire safety engineering process can be a normal part of the overall control and review of the building process and define eligibility criteria for those doing the control.
The first part of the technical specification describes an overall ideal planning and building process, with a corresponding review and control process for fire safety aspects. The different steps in the planning and design phase, construction phase, and operational and maintenance aspects that may be important to consider to ensure fire safety for a building’s lifespan are described in more detail in separate chapters. In each section, a description defines when, how, and why to perform different reviews and controls.
The Nordic countries use many different types of guidelines and standards today for fire safety design and fire safety engineering. The future specification, however, mainly focuses on concept and method, rather than detailed guidance. The adoption of nationally determined parameters is also significant for the new specification. Since regulation of fire safety is a national matter, the specification will give options for nationally chosen parameters and processes, but the specification shows the direction with certain recommendations.
The chosen approach is similar to the system used earlier for INSTA/TS 950, Fire Safety Engineering – Comparative method to verify fire safety design in buildings7 and seen in the Eurocode. The Nordic countries may harmonize approaches by using the technical specification, but may also maintain flexibility by using national options. This is important in connection to the different legal systems of the Nordic countries.
The technical specification had been on inquiry phase in the Nordic Countries until March 2018. The plan is for the technical specification to be published before the summer of 2018 as INSTA/TS 952, Fire safety engineering – Review and control in the building process.
The proposed review and control procedure aims to improve quality in fire safety by improving the fire safety design process with necessary quality controls. Stressing how controls and reviews should be done will clarify accountability in fire safety design.
Challenges remain as the built environment changes and adopts more innovative construction techniques and implementation of fire safety design that works during a building’s life span. It is promising that national building authorities in at least two Nordic countries are expected to refer to the specification, highlighting the importance of the subject.
Several European countries have also started to focus on quality assurance in fire safety design and have shown interested in the upcoming technical specification. Meanwhile, the ongoing digitization of the design and construction processes promises new technology that opens up the opportunity for easier control and review procedures.
Innovative and sustainable construction techniques require advanced fire safety engineering and review procedures to ensure high quality in all aspects. Photographer: Michael Strömgren.
Michael Strömgren, Johan Norén, and Fredrik Nystedt is with Briab
References
1M. Strömgren. 2017. Challenges in Fire Safety Policy Making. 12th International Symposium on Fire Safety Science, Lund, Sweden.
2M. Strömgren. 2016. Metoder för att följa upp efterlevnad av brandskyddskrav. Borås.
3SFPE European Chapters Coordination Group, Jönsson, R., and Strömgren, M. 2014. SFPE ECCG: White Paper for Professional Recognition for Fire Safety Engineering. SFPE European Chapters Coordination Group.
4Mindykowski, P., and Strömgren, M. 2017. Fire Safety Engineering for Innovative and Sustainable Building Solutions, RISE Report 2017:42.
5INSTA/TS 952, Fire safety engineering – Review and control in the building process.
6INSTA/TS 951, Fire safety engineering – Probabilistic methods for verifying fire safety design in buildings. Swedish Standards Institute. 2014.
7SIS-TS 24833:2014/INSTA 950, Fire Safety Engineering – Comparative method to verify fire safety design in buildings. Stockholm, Sverige.