Boatman’s House

• Location: Central London, UK
• Client: Chassey + Last
• Partners: HG Construction Limited
• Year: 2021
• Sector: Buildings |
• Specialisms: Fire Engineering |

A redevelopment scheme of an existing 50,000sqft waterside office building to provide change of use to 108 residential dwellings across 53,000sqft. Located in East London, Boatman’s House is situated close to the waterside in the emerging Isle of Dogs and South Polar OAPF.

What we did

Pell Frischmann’s Fire Engineering Team has been commissioned to provide fire strategy and fire safety engineering advice and support on the:

• Removal of the existing ACM cladding and proposal of a non-combustible solution with appropriate cavity fire barriers;
• Addition of two occupied floor-storey levels to the top of the building;
• Sprinkler protection to be installed throughout all apartments;
• Structural fire resistance study with acceptable ventilation requirements to reduce the structural fire resistance to the existing 90 mins rating;
• Include an additional protected escape stair to supplement the fire-fighting stair, to allow alternative egress and justify the extended travel distances between the fire-fighting lift and fire-fighting stair;
• Open-plan flat arrangements to a large number or apartments.

Outcomes

The fire strategy allows for a flexible building design for the design team and the end-user, in order to be granted planning permission and Building Control / Approved Inspector Approval for the redevelopment and change of use from offices to residential. The structural fire resistance reduction allows cost savings and value engineering of providing 120 minutes of passive fire protection requirements to the whole building. The inclusion of sprinkler protection and the removal of ACM cladding de-risks the recent government consultation and reforms with regards to the Fire Safety Bill and Regulation amendments.

Pell Frischmann’s Leading Fire Safety Engineer Keanne Danby said:

The building, as an existing office space, has existing design and construction constraints to be overcome, along with the recent government reforms in Regulation and Amendment as well as the Fire Safety Bill, has provided opportunity for a fire engineered solution to be implemented. This is an exciting development, which we have added cost savings and value engineering to both the client and the end-user.

We’d love to hear from you!

To find out more about Boatman’s House, please contact us through our form here.