Design for Fire Safety in a Complex Changing World (Virtual)

What kept us safe in the past will not necessarily keep us safe in the future. The increased complexity of our building systems and the changes to materials, technologies, and performance requirements within the built environment require better designs to ensure fire safety. Many of these changes are a result of climate change (increases in wildfire frequency and intensity) or our response to it (heavy timber construction, electric vehicles, battery energy storage). We will discuss how a resilience framework and a performance-based design approach allow us to ensure fire safety in a complex changing world.

Objectives include:

• Describe components of fire safety in design
• Explain how the nature of fire hazards is changing
• Explain how performance-based design and a resilience framework can help us fire safety in this changing fire safety environment.
• Discuss several practical examples to illustrate how we can often improve design safety, flexibility, and economy using performance-based fire engineering

Designing for fire safety is crucial to ensuring the health, safety, and welfare of building occupants and users. This course further contextualizes the importance of designing for fire safety by considering the changes driven by climate change, decarbonization, and new technologies and materials.

Presenter:
Ali Ashrafi Ph.D., P.E. | Principal, Thornton Tomasetti

This session is part of the BSA Summer CE Workshop series, which provides opportunities to earn HSW credits before the state licensing deadline on August 31. Stay up to date on industry issues with these professional workshops, offered Tuesday, August 1 through Thursday, August 10, 2023. BSA members save 50 percent and have their credits reported on their AIA transcript.