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Fire safety teaching in schools of architecture has become more relevant over the last years in Spain due to the influence that it has in the professional architectural project. The introduction of fire safety knowledge in the intermediate courses of architectural studies has important advantages for the student, who quickly perceives the project as a normative discipline. However, fire safety regulations are complex and difficult to understand for the students. The experience along the last years has progressively evolved from an analysis of the legal documents to a more frequent use of graphical representations. A combination of symbols, diagrams, and simple drawings has proven to be quite effective: Symbols act as anchor repeated throughout the learning process. Diagrams are a first approach to the characteristics of the building. And the simple drawings complete the information so the students can work on the proposed exercise.

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There is a trend in Europe towards increasing the quality and performance of regulations. At the same time, regulatory failure has been observed in the area of building fire safety regulation in England and elsewhere. As a result, an analysis of the appropriateness of fire safety regulations in Spain is warranted, with the objective being to assess whether a suitable level of fire safety is currently being delivered. Three basic elements must be considered in such analysis: the legal and regulatory framework, the level of fire risk/safety of buildings that is expected and the level which actually results, and a suitable method of analysis. The focus of this paper is creating a legal and regulatory framework, in particular with respect to fire safety in buildings. Components of an ”ideal” building regulatory framework to adequately control fire risk are presented, the existing building regulatory framework is summarized, and an analysis of the gaps between the ideal and the existing systems is presented. It is concluded that the gaps between the ideal and the existing framework are significant, and that the current fire safety regulations are not appropriate for assuring delivery of the intended level of fire risk mitigation.

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