Teaching Fire Safety in Schools of Architecture

Abstract

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.

Pedagogy for Teaching Fire Safety through Design-Based Immersion of the National Building Code 2016 with Feedback from Students of Undergraduate Architecture

“…Many fires happen in buildings where some architectural intervention or lack of it is the cause of the fire [ 18 ]. Some studies have even stated that architecture education does not focus enough on fire safety as needed [ 3 , 6 , 8 , 18 ]. In India, there are many instances of fire where there are flouting of building codes or fire norms [ 17 ].…”

“…(Te 5-point Likert scale with 1 being "not prepared" and 5 being "well prepared") 4.44 It means the respondents, on average, rated the teacher to be well prepared to sensitise students about fre safety in buildings 7 Should students be taught a lot of fre theory or should they be immersed in design integration? (Te Likert scale with 1 being "theory based" and 5 being "design integration based") 4.28 It means that the respondents, on average, wanted design intervention-based teaching instead of theory-based fre safety education does not focus enough on fre safety as needed [3,6,8,18]. In India, there are many instances of fre where there are fouting of building codes or fre norms [17].…”

“…This may be due to the nascency in the industry of fire safety engineering for the perfect method of teaching fire safety engineering and checking the efficiency of the same [ 7 ]. In recent years, practitioners from Spain state that in architecture classrooms, the shift has been made from simply reading the legal requirements of fire to attempting to see the graphical or drawing-based representations of fire safety in building plans [ 8 ]. Fire safety is essential for architects as there are some building types or sizes for which only the architects must comply with the fire code, and there are no further checks.…”