Open plan flat layouts: assessing life safety in the event of fire

Current Building Regulations impose certain constraints on open plan flats with ‘inner rooms’ for reasons of fire safety.

This report establishes current design practice and the use of fire safety systems, both in the UK and overseas and evaluates alternative options for meeting UK requirements. Various open plan flat layouts were then modelled using fire simulation software.

The results of the research point to the fact that if sprinkler systems are used in conjunction with enhanced fire detection systems then certain open plan flats can achieve good levels of safety.