Building design for At-risk groups (BUILDER)

Project summary

BUILDER seeks to improve fire safety for at-risk groups such as elderly and people with physical and psychological disabilities or addictions. To focus on safety for these groups, BUILDER will improve our understanding of the different challenges these groups have, suggest safety-solutions for building design, and implement new knowledge from the project to educate civil and fire safety engineers in bachelor, master and Ph.D study programs.

 

At-risk groups are complex and have different challenges, making it important to get a deeper understanding of issues related to each specific group.  BUILDER will work together with persons within at-risk groups, their families, social services and fire departments to improve on existing knowledge of these specific challenges. Using this new knowledge, BUILDER will work on designing and implementing new innovative solutions within building design, fire detection and suppression.

 

Fire prevention must also develop as climate changes and new requirements within sustainability emerge. As the use of wood in construction and bio-based insulation are introduced as new ways to reach UNs suitability development goals, reduce safety for the users could be an unintended result. BUILDER will therefore investigate fire in wood constructions and bio-based insulation. Changes in climate also results in more challenging wild fires. Understanding how these fires spread will be important for the fire departments as they fight these fires. Understanding how wild fire spread is also important to design prevention measures, as well as define where buildings can be built to ensure their safety.

 

BUILDER will both develop and share new knowledge.  It is therefore important for the project to communicate new knowledge to industry, fire departments and municipalities. In addition it is important to share new knowledge with students at civil and fire safety programs, enable them to improve knowledge when working on their bachelor, master and Ph.D theses.