NFPA Journal -March/April 2014 - (Page 24)

>>research the fire protection research foundation Kathleen h. almand, P.e., FSFPe Tall Timber A study of tall wooden buildings prompts a rethink of fire protection fundamentals Tall wooden buildings are forcing us to rethink assumptions about fire protection. concerns related to the fire safety of this is a call-out. this combustible material. However, a number of innovations in timber products and composite systems have enabled efficient design of taller buildings. These innovations, combined with the view that timber is a sustainable building material, has prompted a renewed look at the prescriptive limits on the use of timber in modern building codes, as well as at the underlying fire safety issues. The Foundation's hazard assessment, conducted at the request of the insurance industry, included a review of existing fire safety design guidance, a large body of recent research, fire incidents in timber buildings, and a series of global case studies of both historic and recently built high-rise timber buildings of various construction types. The study, authored by Arup, offers research recommenda- 24 NFPA JOURNAL MARCH/APRIL 2014 2011 NFPA JOURNAL JANUARY/FEBRUARY tions to address gaps in knowledge about timber system fire safety Not so far-fetched: performance, and we hope to A rendering of a skyscraper made work with stakeholders to fill of wood, designed those gaps. The report is available by the Canadian online at nfpa.org/foundation. architect Michael On the surface, this is a fairly C. Green. typical Foundation project: A new technology emerges, questions arise over the ability of codes and standards to address that technology, and the Foundation assists by providing the technical information needed to inform the provisions of the codes and standards. As we've worked with our technical panel and others on this project, however, I've realized that something is different here. For starters, wood construction Option 2 illustrated with a and has been with us for a long time, glulam curtain wall and podium base portfolio made us realize in the there is a general comfort level about that some of the other fundamenhow we address it in our codes and tal assumptions that our building standards, which generally prescribe codes have historically been based a four-story height restriction. on-compartmentation, sprinklers, But many of us in North America and other forms of fire protechave never seen a timber building tion-are already changing as over that height, and we are unaware construction materials evolve. of the portfolio of high-rise timber With timber buildings, we have buildings under construction or in the an "old" material transformed for design phase around the world. Those use in new structural forms. As we buildings raise questions about the attempt to define the performance fundamentals of our comfort level; we expect from timber in high-rise wooden buildings as tall as 10 stories buildings, we will also gain a more are under construction, while others explicit understanding of some of with more than 30 stories are being the fundamental assumptions designed. Many of them are in jurisunderlying our standards-an dictions with more restrictive building extremely valuable process, code environments than our own. whether that knowledge is applied Additionally, the materials used in to old technologies or new. many of these structures are new to us, and we don't have the information Kathleen h. almand, p.e., fsfpe, to make accurate evaluations of their is vice president, Research, at NFPA, performance. Finally, the inclusion and executive director of the Fire Protection Research Foundation. of historic high-rise timber structures THE CASE FOR Tall Wood BUILDINGS 3.5 | 81 Photograph: Illustration courtesy Michael Green Architecture Inc. R F irst graf. the Fire Protection ecently, Research Foundation completed a first-phase hazard assessment related to high-rise timber buildings. We do not yet have a way to Body evaluate the performance of this new technology, and our work in this area is a fascinating example of how the drive toward environmentally sustainable building design is causing us to rethink some of our fundamental assumptions about fire protection. Wood-framed construction has been traditionally limited in height and area due to limitations in structural capacity and because of http://www.nfpa.org/foundation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal -March/April 2014

NFPA Journal -March/April 2014
Contents
First Word
In a Flash
Perspectives
In Compliance
First Responder
Research
Wildfire Watch
Outreach
Firewatch
In West’s Wake
Cleaning Up the Dry Cleaning Standard
The Sprinkler Difference
Conference & Expo Preview
Section Spotlight
Looking Back

NFPA Journal -March/April 2014