Safety Issues in Building Design to Cope with Extreme Events: Case Study of an Evacuation Process
Publication: Journal of Architectural Engineering
Volume 20, Issue 3
Abstract
Improvements in building construction and services need to be supported by an efficient building layout design based on the interrelations of functions in the building, circulation, and occupant characteristics to mitigate the impacts of extreme events on people. Current building codes, standards, and regulations are of a static type, giving typical measurements of surface areas and dimensions based on either the number of occupants using a space or the objects to be housed within it. Building design requires support from dynamic data that reflect the interactions of people with the building space and other people. This paper summarizes the building design issues associated with emergencies and presents a case study conducted to capture dynamic data during a building evacuation process. The results of the case studies in this research showed that distance and familiarity with the exits were the two most significant factors in exit preference, and there is not an equally balanced use of exit doors during emergency evacuations.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Baskaya, A., Wilson, C., and Ozcan, Y. S. (2004). “Wayfinding in an unfamiliar environment: Different spatial settings of two polyclinics.” Environ. Behav., 36(6), 839–867.
Billington, M. J., Ferguson, A., and Copping, A. G. (2002). Means of escape from fire, Blackwell Science, Oxford, U.K.
Boer, L. C., and Skjong, R. (2001). “Emergency evacuation: How better interior design can improve passenger flow.” Proc., Cruise Ferry 2001, London, 8–10.
British Standards Institution (BSI). (1990). “Fire precautions in the design, construction and use of buildings—Part 1: Code of practice for residential buildings.” BS 5588, 3rd Ed., London.
British Standards Institution (BSI). (2004a). “Emergency escape lighting systems.” BS EN 50172, London.
British Standards Institution (BSI). (2004b). “The application of fire safety engineering principles to fire safety design of buildings: Part 6: Human factors: Life safety strategies—Occupant evacuation, behaviour and condition.” PD 7974-6, London.
British Standards Institution (BSI). (2008). “Luminaires—General requirements and tests.” BS EN 60598, London.
British Standards Institution (BSI). (2011). “Emergency lighting. Code of practice for the emergency lighting of premises.” BS 5266, London.
Cepolina, E., and Tyler, N. (2005). “Understanding capacity drop for designing pedestrian environments.” Proc., 6th Int. Conf. on Walking in the 21st Century, Walk21, Leckhampton, U.K.
Chang, D. (2002). “Spatial choice and preference in multilevel movement networks.” Environ. Behav., 34(5), 582–615.
Chow, W., and Li, J. (2007). “Evacuation of atria under different uses.” J. Archit. Eng., 78–83.
Dogu, U., and Erkip, F. (2000). “Spatial factors affecting way finding and orientation: A case study in a shopping mall.” Environ. Behav., 32(6), 731–755.
Drury, J., and Cocking, C. (2007). “The mass psychology of disasters and emergency evacuations: A research report and implications for practice.” 〈http://musicdoc.org.uk/affiliates/panic/Disasters%20and%20emergency%20evacuations%20%282007%29.pdf〉 (Mar. 27, 2014).
Filippidis, L., Galea, E. R., Gwynne, S., and Lawrence, P. J. (2006). “Representing the influence of signage on evacuation behavior within an evacuation model.” J. Fire Prot. Eng., 16(1), 37–73.
Fruin, J. J. (1971). “Designing for pedestrians: A level of service concept.” Highway Res. Rec., 377(355), 1–15.
Fruin, J. J. (1993). “The causes and prevention of crowd disasters.” Proc., 1st Int. Conf. on Engineering for Crowd Safety, Elsevier, London, 99–108.
Fujiyama, T., and Tyler, N. (2004). “Pedestrian speeds on stairs: An initial step for a simulation model.” Proc., 36th Universities’ Transport Study Group 2004, Univ. College London, London, 7C1.1-11.
Geis, D. E. (2000). “By design: The disaster resistant and quality-of-life community.” Nat. Hazards Rev., 151–160.
Glover, N. J. (2000). “Design versus disaster.” J. Archit. Eng., 77–78.
Gwynne, S., Galea, E. R., Lawrence, P. J., and Filippid, L. (2001). “Modelling occupant interaction with reconditions using the buildingEXODUS evacuation model.” Fire Saf. J., 36(4), 327–357.
Hale, A., Kirwan, B., and Kjellén, U. (2007). “Safe by design: Where are we now?” Saf. Sci., 45(1–2), 305–327.
Heigeas, L., Luciani, A., Thollot, J., and Castagné, N. (2003). “A physically-based particle model of emergent crowd behaviors.” Proc., GraphiCon 2003, Moscow State Univ., Moscow.
Jelenewicz, C. (2008). “Human perceptions and reactions to fire: Results from Society of Fire Protection Engineers’ annual survey.” J. Archit. Eng., 2–3.
Kecklund, L., Andrée, K., Bengtson, S., Willander, S., and Siré, E. (2012). “How do people with disabilities consider fire safety and evacuation possibilities in historical buildings?—A Swedish case study.” Fire Technol., 48(1), 27–41.
Koo, J., Kim, Y., Kim, B., and Christensen, K. (2013). “A comparative study of evacuation strategies for people with disabilities in high-rise building evacuation.” Expert Syst. Appl., 40(2), 408–417.
Kuligowski, E. (2013). “Predicting human behavior during fires.” Fire Technol., 49(1), 101–120.
Kuligowski, E. D. (2003). “The evaluation of a performance-based design process for a hotel building: The comparison of two egress models.” M.S. thesis, Dept. of Fire Protection Engineering, Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD.
Langston, P. A., Masling, R., and Asmar, B. N. (2006). “Crowd dynamics discrete element multi-circle model.” Saf. Sci., 44(5), 395–417.
Leckenby, A. (2002). “Airport evacuation strategies: Coping with the complexities of rapidly expanding airports.” 〈http://www.airport-int.com/categories/airport-architecture/airport-evacuation-strategies-coping-with-complexities-of-rapidly-expanding-airports.html〉 (Mar. 27, 2013).
Lo, S. M., Fang, Z., Zhi, G. S., and Yuen, K. K. (2002). “A computer simulation model of emergency egress for space planners.” Facilities, 20(7/8), 262–270.
Mawson, A. R. (2005). “Understanding mass panic and other collective responses to threat and disaster.” Psychiatry, 68(2), 95–113.
National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). (2002). SFPE handbook of fire protection engineering, Quincy, MA.
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM). (2006). “Building research technical report 6.” Innovative Products and Building Regulations, London.
Pan, X. (2003). “Computational modelling of crowd behaviors for emergency egress.” 〈http://eil.stanford.edu/egress〉 (Mar. 27, 2014).
Pan, X., Han, C. S., Dauber, K., and Law, K. H. (2006). “Human and social behavior in computational modelling and analysis of egress.” Autom. Constr., 15(4), 448–461.
Pan, X., Han, C. S., Dauber, K., and Law, K. H. (2007). “A multi-agent based framework for the simulation of human and social behaviors during emergency evacuations.” AI Soc., 22(2), 113–132.
Pauls, J. (1984). “The movement of people in buildings and design solutions for means of egress.” Fire Technol., 20(1), 27–47.
Quarantelli, E. L. (1997). “Research based criteria for evaluating disaster planning and managing.” 〈http://udspace.udel.edu/bitstream/handle/19716/136/PP247-Research%20Based%20Criteria.pdf?sequence=1〉 (Mar. 27, 2014).
Sagun, A., Anumba, C. J., and Bouchlaghem, D. (2013). “Designing buildings to cope with emergencies: Findings from case studies on exit preferences.” Buildings, 3(2), 442–461.
Sagun, A., Bouchlaghem, D., and Anumba, C. J. (2011). “Computer simulations vs. building guidance to enhance evacuation performance of buildings during emergency events.” Simul. Model. Pract. Theory, 19(3), 1007–1019.
Scottish Government. (2007). The Scottish building standards technical handbook: Non-domestic, Edinburgh, U.K.
Shen, T. S. (2003). “Building planning evaluations for emergency evacuation.” Ph.D. dissertation, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA.
Stollard, P., and Johnston, L., eds. (1994). Design against fire: An introduction to fire safety engineering design, E & FN Spon, London.
Xiang, X. P. (2007). “Predicting evacuation time from lecture theatre type rooms.” M.Sc. Fire Engineering thesis, Univ. of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 21, 2013
Accepted: Jan 13, 2014
Published online: Apr 11, 2014
Published in print: Sep 1, 2014
Discussion open until: Sep 11, 2014
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.