Conserving timber floor under the statutory fire resisting requirementin Hong Kong

Abstract

The key issue addressed by this dissertation is that a number of heritage buildings undergoing the adaptive reuse are having building components such as timber structure, timber staircase which cannot meet the current fire safety regulation. Given this, it is imperative to begin researching the reasons why the timber component in heritage buildings cannot comply with the current statutory fire resistance requirement and find out the methods in preserving the timber component.

The dissertation will focus on timber floor which is a highly important component in meeting the fire safety requirement as it provides the compartment separation to inhabit the rapid spread of fire and smoke in a building and as the same time it is usually a character defining element having heritage value. The dissertation will try to find out the different methods of conserving the timber floor of the heritage building under adaptive reuse with examples. The different methods will be evaluated based on the fire performance, statutory acceptance and conservation principles and the appropriate method will be matched to the adaptive reuse heritage buildings in Hong Kong.