A new specialization in fire safety design is being launched by the University College London (UCL) and The Bartlett in the wake of the disasterous Grenfell tower fire that took place in 2017. 

Bartlett director Bob Sheil told The Architect’s Journal, “What we are really proposing here is a paradigm shift and [to] think about safety in the early stages of design propositions as a positive contributor to good design.”

The course, to be offered to both part- and full-time students, is set to explore the design of fire escape routes, fire separation packages, and fire suppression systems with a keen focus on tricky fire design-challenged typologies like tall residential structures and large assembly spaces. 

Sheil added, “One of the things we have come to realise is there is a huge amount of research and development and education that can go into understanding building design through safety as a fundamental starting point, not as a late fix.”

Fire safety engineering and design specialist Jose Torero Cullen, head of UCL’s department of civil, environmental and geomatic engineering, told AJ, “The problem that I think architects are facing is, by not being able to be familiar enough with the implications of this new technology, they are inadvertently incurring a risk in their choices of systems and materials that in the past was not the case.”

Cullen added, “I think if architects have a better understanding of these systems and the new complexity they will also have a lot more freedom when it comes to design because they are understanding better what risks they are taking – and the risks they are avoiding.”