From designers / engineers, facade experts to penetration seals, cavity barrier and fixing specialists, as well as testing, certification and installation; everyone had the same desire to add value to the day. The day began with an opening call from Mike Ward, announcing that the next logical step towards industry-wide competence in passive fire protection is within the void between the faced and the building structure.

Following the great work she has undertaken on the ASFP Green Book (fire doors), the ASFP Clear Book (fire resistant glazing), Hannah Mansell communicated to the participants that facades are a natural step to be simplified, and with the Design Guide for internal passive fire protection nearing completion, the aim is for this same process of simplification to be transferred to these external systems. The foundation that underpinned the conversation was; what is a facade? And what does passive fire protection mean in this context? And, as the experts within the room, what is the summation of the scope we believe should form the backbone of the work that will be collaboratively undertaken together to support this?

Hannah comments, “While I recognise I am not a facade expert, part of my objective for the first session was to break down facades into typologies. For example, is the facade external to the building structure, or is it recessed within it?  If so, what are the next natural steps in identifying the principles of each one? To go even further, how many common approaches of facade are there in each location, and how do we determine the approaches for how passive fire protection is applied from a cavity barrier, a door, a window or even a flue discharge? What about the wall junctions from the internal compartments that separate room space, and what type of building safety risks could they contain?

The approach that has been taken for the internal substrates within the ASFP Purple Book (fire-resisting partitions) should have some comparators and be common. Each passive fire protection system is either a system that applies a weight to the wall substrate or is supported from the slab. The way these products are installed is usually specific to partition-type systems or rigid structures. The DIFFERENCE here is that the external wall becomes a  non-standard supporting construction, and how we form the best way to test and determine these interfaces will be a key part of the group’s work.

You can research facades from many sources, try to break things down into the best process your mind can offer at the time, but nothing beats being enlightened to what you don’t know, especially in front of such invested people.  How the group moves forward is going to be a journey of breaking the system types down and applying the great work of the colour books to these external substrates. At the next meeting, we should be in a better position to have compiled the feedback from the group's work on the day, and with the best endeavours, have managed to fish out the various types of facade and some principles of common approaches to the interfaces of the passive fire protection system that make the facade a whole system.