BAFSA FOCUS NOVEMBER 2021
The end of design freedoms? R I T C H I E O ’ C O N N E L L , B A F S A’ S R E P R E S E N TAT I V E I N WA L E S , H A S N OT I C E D T H AT T H E R E M O VA L O F A D D I T I O N A L D E S I G N F R E E D O M S FOR SPRINKLERS WHERE THEY ARE COMPULSORY HAS SOMETIMES E V O LV E D I N T O A B E L I E F T H AT S P R I N K L E R S C A N N O T B E U S E D AS THE BASIS FOR FIRE ENGINEERED OR BESPOKE FIRE SAFETY S O L U T I O N S I N P R E M I S E S W H I C H A R E M A N DAT E D TO H AV E SPRINKLERS, AND HE IS CONCERNED.
fitting sprinklers in buildings where they are not mandated has traditionally brought certain design freedoms or to use the colloquialism ‘trade-offs’ for example in residential care premises there was sometimes the opportunity when fitting sprinklers to: reduce the quantity of portable firefighting equipment, extend travel distances or remove some self-closing devices from fire doors. These design freedoms are well known and over the years have been persuasive factors in 8 | bafsa.org.uk
the debate of whether or not to fit sprinklers where they were not compulsory. The Domestic Fire Safety Wales Regulations 2015 (aka the Welsh sprinkler Regs) mandated for automatic water suppression systems (AWSS) in all new or converted dwellings. The vision of Welsh Government was to improve the safety of people in their homes so, quite rightly, the fitting of sprinklers was made over and above the requirements of the Building Regulations, and whilst the design freedoms written into Approved Document B
such as reduced fire resistance and larger compartment sizes where AWSS is fitted were retained, the ethos was that sprinklers could no longer be used to “trade-off” against departures from a code compliant solution. A code compliant solution requires, as the phrase suggests, the designer to follow the recommendations of a particular code and “cherry-picking” or selecting the bits from different codes to suit the design is generally frowned upon. Where buildings cannot meet a specific code then a different solution is often sought, where necessary a fire-engineered or performance-based solution is used. An extension of this principle was the increased provision of certain fire safety elements, to compensate for departures from a code compliant solution. Where a project cannot meet all of the requirements of, for instance, Approved Document B, the document allows the use of fire engineering for “an aspect of the building design which otherwise follows the provisions in this document,”
