A four- day short course on Building Design for Fire and Life Safety was conducted during June 26-29 at IITGN. With increasing density of Indian urban and rural areas, the threat of fire poses more and more challenges. This course aimed at covering aspects of fire and life safety in the design of buildings.
The course covered fundamental design aspects of buildings, including structural systems, MEP (mechanical, electrical, and plumbing) systems like fire alarm and suppression systems, egress design, façade systems, and fire and smoke barriers. Provisions of the National Building Code (NBC) 2016 and relevant international codes were also discussed. IITGN is also home to a unique full-scale fire-testing facility, which is the only-of-its-kind facility in India. Case studies on full-scale façade fire tests conducted here in the past were also discussed during this course.
Shri P K Taneja, Director-General, Gujarat Institute of Disaster Management (GIDM), was the chief guest of the inauguration function. He emphasised on the importance of such courses and discussions in the context of recent fire incidents.
The course is being conducted by Dr Gaurav Srivastava, a faculty member of Civil Engineering at IITGN and co-coordinator of the Centre for Safety Engineering (CSE), along with other field experts. Giving more information on the course, Professor Srivastava said, “The objective of this short-course was to discuss and enhance the understanding of design aspects of building systems from a fire and life safety perspective. This course is of great contemporary relevance to consultants, practicing engineers, architects and decision-makers so that proper fire and life-safety provisions are incorporated in building designs.”
The course was in line with CSE’s goal of enhancing the technical know-how and capacity-building in the areas of safety in India.
