Journal Article

Hazard focused methodology for façade systems

Hanna, Charbel, Poulsen, Frederik M., Torero, Jose L.

2025

Overview

The built environment is designed to meet the needs of its users. However, these needs are not static and the expectations and requirements for the built environment are rising, particularly for buildings to be more sustainable. The result is an increased requirement for optimisation and performance, often leading to conflicting drivers within a project and an increased level of complexity in the design. The façade system is one recent example of a system in which combustible components were introduced for cost optimisation and energy performance, without a sufficient understanding of the impact on the fire safety of the building. Tackling a design problem with an increasing level of complexity with the existing assessment methods, is likely to result in a non-optimised solution or, in the worst case, an unsafe one. A methodology to assess façade systems in terms of an explicit hazard coupled with the building fire strategy is proposed. The methodology focuses the assessment on the hazard, allowing for clear objectives to be established for a range of disciplines. This enables a clear comparison between solutions and iterative design that meet all the necessary functionalities.

• Publisher: IOP Publishing
• Subject: Built environment / Complexity / Facades / Methodology / Optimization