Moorlands Lodge, Hindhead

Client

AB Consulting Engineers and Signature Senior Lifestyle

Architect

PRP Architects

Value

£20m

“Finalist for the Pinders Awards 2013.”

Project
A four storey development of assisted living residential suites for senior citizens, including a self-contained dementia facility.

Challenges
The design did not meet prescriptive guidance.

Solutions
Our innovative, holistic, fire engineering approach demonstrated how the fire strategy could deviate from prescriptive guidance. Our design enabled a homely free flowing environment with the flexibility of having bedrooms as inner rooms. The reduction of cross corridors enhanced the aesthetics of the design, whilst also providing our client with cost savings.

We designed an ‘L5’ fire engineered fire alarm system to ensure the alarm worked in conjunction with the ‘stay put’ evacuation procedure of evacuating only the occupants in the room of the fire’s origin. The ‘stay-put’ evacuation procedure was proposed in order to facilitate the movement of residents with limited mobility and also reduce disruption in the event of a false alarm.

CFD modelling was used to show that the proposed design offered greater protection than prescriptive guidance. We also utilised CFD to optimise the requirements of the hybrid mechanical/natural smoke control system to meet performance based criteria.

Janine, Partner AB Consulting Engineers

“We have worked with Innovation Fire Engineering on a number of projects now and are happy to continue doing so in the future. They bring an innovative, creative fire engineering solution to the project design. They always approach each project with enthusiasm and utilise their skills base to provide cost effective, dynamic fire engineering solutions. Their team members are keen to listen to and respond to members of the design team to ensure the best possible solution is achieved. Their ability to respond speedily within tight time scales is a valuable company attribute.”