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FIRE SAFETY
THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK – the non-fire-resistant glass wall between the atrium and the
offices, requiring a sprinkler system to be installed in the first
The building is considered as a high building in the sense row of offices next to the atrium,
of the Base Standard (“Royal Decree of 7 July 1994 and its – the general installation of sprinkler systems in all lantern
amendments, setting fire and explosion prevention standards meeting and conference rooms,
to be met by new buildings), as its height is between 25 and – the evacuation of the ground floor cafeteria via the atrium,
50 metres. From a regulatory perspective, the Base Standard – the fire stability of certain structural elements: the facade
applies only to the extension. Nevertheless, a series of measures of the atrium, its roof, the lantern’s facade and flooring. With
have been taken to adapt the existing part of the building regard to the flooring, the size of the floors and their elliptical
so that the whole building complies with the requirements shape meant that account had to be taken of the complex
applicable to new buildings. interaction between the deformations of the different structural
These pertain mainly to the following aspects: elements,
– the compartmentalisation of the floors, – the curved form of the flights of stairs in the lantern.
– the sizing of the emergency exits (corridors, staircases, doors),
– the compartmentalisation of stairwells and maintaining COMPLEMENTARY MEASURES
them at overpressure in the event of fire,
– the fire resistance of the compartmentalisation walls, In certain points, the Council’s safety demands exceeded
evacuation routes, service rooms, etc. the requirements of the Base Standard and the exemptions.
– the reaction to fire of the coatings of inside walls, For instance, the atrium-facing facade on the 11th floor has to
– the fire resistance of structural elements, be able to resist fire for one hour, instead of the unspecified
– the accessibility for firefighting vehicles, resistance authorised for the other floors. In the same vein,
– limiting the risk of any fire spreading to a neighbouring the ½ hour fire protection applying to the metal structure
building. of the lantern’s facade has been extended to 2 hours.
EXEMPTIONS THE SMOKE EXTRACTION STUDY FOR THE ATRIUM
Due mainly to the elliptical form of the lantern, the large “CFD” (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulations were
floor spans and the presence of an atrium, it proved to be carried out to check smoke and heat extraction from the atrium
very difficult to get several design features to comply with the in the event of fire. Their goal was to check whether any layer of
Base Standard. For this reason, five requests for exemptions smoke always left a free space of at least 5.50 metres above the
were submitted to the competent authority (Commission floor and that the temperature of the glass walls never reached
d’Équivalence et de Dérogation) during the study phase, all a value making them liable to break.
of which were granted by the Interior Ministry.
Provided for by the law, the purpose of this procedure is
to validate technical solutions not strictly conforming to fire
regulations. Such solutions have to provide a level of safety
at least equivalent to the statutory requirements.
The exemptions gained relate to fifteen very technical
aspects, including:
– the system for evacuating smoke and heat in the event
of a fire in the atrium,
