International Journal on Architectural Science, Volume 5, Number 1, p.1-4, 2004 1 A SHORT NOTE ON FIRE SAFETY FOR NEW ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES W.K. Chow Department of Building Services Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China (Received 15 January 2004; Accepted 18 Februay2004) ABSTRACT Fire safety concerns for new architectural features will be pointed out. Some suggestions were made in dealing with the potential risk behind. The total fire safety concept is introduced with fire safety management emphasized. 1. BUILDING SUSTAINABILITY As pointed out by Hyett, President of Royal Institution of British Architects (RIBA) in the 2003 conference on building sustainability in Edinburgh, UK [1,2], designers given the responsibility of developing new architecture projects and facility managers of operating systems in existing buildings must have the sense of sustainability. Saving a small amount of energy for building use will protect the environment to a great extent as the servicing life of a building is very long. As observed [e.g. 3] in the past in temperate countries, large amount of energy was consumed for lighting in commercial buildings and for heating in residential buildings. The situation in the tropical areas [e.g. 4] might be different, as air-conditioning systems are provided for comfort and for giving a more productive environment in the workplace. New environmental control systems using less energy are provided. Even fire protection systems are designed to cope with green or sustainability criteria. Using clean agent [5] in total flooding gas protection systems for substituting halon is a good example. All these new efforts will protect the environment and help keeping the Earth as a ‘blue planet’, rather than a ‘red planet’ as the Mars. 2. NEW ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES Again, as summarized by Hyett [1,2], new architectural features include: • Highrise building • Deep plan • Framed structure • Sealed enclosure Fire safety of the above four features has to be considered carefully. Taking the first one as an example, there are not yet clear design guides on how to provide fire safety for ultra-highrise buildings. There are quite a lot of symbolic highrise buildings up to 415 m in Hong Kong. Many residential buildings are higher than 170 m, the tallest one in 2003 is of height 256 m with 75 levels! Numerous problems on fire safety had been pointed out by professionals. There are different views from officers responsible for fire safety, developers, contractors, engineers and building operators. Even the consumers are thinking about the safety issue! It is nice to stay at high positions with good harbour views. But what happens if there is a fire? Symbolic buildings might have the possibility of terrorist attack as at the World Trade Center [6]! Fire safety problems debated before in ultra- highrise buildings were on the evacuation pattern, design of means of escape and means of access, and sprinkler systems. 3. FIRE SAFETY CONCERNS New architectural features and new environmental control systems might give fire safety problems [e.g. 7]. This is a concern as the number of fires from accidents, arson, terrorist attacks or natural disasters appears to be increasing [e.g. 8]. There were fires in buildings, transportation vehicles, tunnels and many others. In fact, an arson fire just happened in an underground train compartment [9], and a big old residential building fire occurred several years ago [10]. Note that most buildings are only protected against accidental fires and so fire safety objectives should be reviewed. Basically, the goals [e.g. 11] are for