Fire safety design supported with fire simulations at the Ia and Ib refurbishment phase of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences headquarters

Abstract

Renovating historic buildings in a manner that meets fire safety standards is a particularly challenging task. The fire safety characteristics of existing structures do not always comply with current regulations. In addition to the general challenges of renovation, the need to preserve the heritage value of these buildings further limits the available solutions. Active fire protection systems—such as built-in fire detection and alarm systems and fixed firefighting systems—are often absent and are difficult or impossible to integrate into historic spaces. For these reasons, the renovation of historic buildings often cannot be carried out using traditional, so-called prescriptive fire protection design methods; in such cases, engineering methods—simulations, calculations, experiments, or a combination thereof—come to the fore. Our article presents the possibilities and limitations of fire safety design for historic buildings through the Ia and Ib phases of the renovation of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences headquarters.