The next great escape: An investigation into architectural methods to improve fire egress in mid-rise sleeping occupancy buildings. An explanatory document
Loading...
Supplementary material
Other Title
Authors
Klemes-Zimmer, Christine
Author ORCID Profiles (clickable)
Degree
Master of Architecture (Professional)
Grantor
Unitec, Te Pūkenga – New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology
Date
2022-10
Supervisors
O'Connell, Ainsley
Patel, Yusef
Patel, Yusef
Type
Masters Thesis
Ngā Upoko Tukutuku (Māori subject headings)
Keyword
Wynyard Point (Auckland, N.Z.)
Auckland CBD (N.Z.)
New Zealand
hotels
fire evactuation
safe egress
wayfinding
Auckland CBD (N.Z.)
New Zealand
hotels
fire evactuation
safe egress
wayfinding
ANZSRC Field of Research Code (2020)
Citation
Klemes-Zimmer, C. (2022). The next great escape: An investigation into architectural methods to improve fire egress in mid-rise sleeping occupancy buildings. An explanatory document (Unpublished document submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture (Professional)). Unitec, Te Pūkenga - New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology https://hdl.handle.net/10652/6086
Abstract
RESEARCH QUESTION
How can architectural design interventions centered around circulation reduce egress time during the fire evacuation of a mid-rise residential sleeping occupancy structure?
ABSTRACT
Each year too many lives are lost in mid- and high-rise sleeping occupancy building fires due to poorly designed egress circulation. This is caused by factors that lead to poor decision-making by the occupants, resulting in bottlenecks, counterflow, and getting disorientated or trapped. This research proposes that architects can play a larger part in reducing the loss of lives in fire events, through exploring circulation patterns modelled after human behaviour tendencies.
This project aims to explore one such approach, by designing a mid-rise hotel with egress routes integrated into daily circulation paths, as well as using ramps for main vertical and horizontal movement.
Using literature from human behaviour in architecture (wayfinding), fire engineering, hotel design, and fire event case studies, along with design precedents - criteria for site selection, building design, hotel programming, and egress circulation is stipulated and applied to a new build using an iterative process.
Site: Wynyard Point, Auckland CBD, New Zealand
Publisher
Permanent link
Link to ePress publication
DOI
Copyright holder
Author
Copyright notice
All rights reserved