Advanced Performance-Based Design

On large or unconventional projects the architecture can conflict with a prescriptive clause in the code: a travel distance longer than permitted, an atrium open through several floors, or an existing building that is hard to modify. Performance-based design is the recognised engineering route for proving that an alternative solution delivers a level of safety no lower than the requirements demand.

What the service covers:

• Listing where the design departs from the prescriptive requirements, and the effect of each item.
• Setting the safety objectives and acceptance criteria, and agreeing them with the authority before any analysis.
• Building the fire and evacuation scenarios, and running the calculations and simulations required.
• Comparing available and required safe egress time with a safety margin, and testing the sensitivity of the assumptions.
• Preparing the engineering report, submitting it and answering the authority's comments through to approval.

When you need it: atriums and multi-storey open spaces, travel distances longer than permitted, existing or heritage buildings that resist modification, special-use facilities such as stadiums and transport stations, or any case where literal compliance is expensive without adding real safety.

The study is best started at concept or schematic stage. Finding the need for it after the drawings are complete means redesign and a delayed approval. Read more about the approach and its steps.