Events

Fire Safety and Architecture – Navigating the Current Landscape

The Building Safety Act (BSA) came into effect in England in 2024, with BC(A)R reaching its 10-year milestone this year in the Republic of Ireland.  Regulations, guidance and processes involving fire safety design of buildings can appear as an ever-changing landscape. Fire safety design can be complicated, and open to interpretation with many options, grey areas and approval risks, making it difficult to design confidently.

RSUA have partnered with BB7 to offer this afternoon seminar to break down newer Building Regulations processes along with upcoming guidance documents in circulation throughout the UK. Lessons learned from the BC(A)R system, will be discussed, which could be applied to Architects working in Northern Ireland.

This seminar aims to give Architects a clearer understanding of their responsibilities under Building Regulations and the Building Safety Act along with improving their knowledge in the field of fire safety.

Course Content:

• Building Safety Act – A Fire Engineer’s Perspective: Lessons learned from working with BSA in 2024
  
• 10 Years of BC(A)R: An Assigned Certifier’s Perspective: Lessons learned from a decade of BC(A)R in the Republic of Ireland and how this can be applied to Architects in Northern Ireland.
  
• Recent and upcoming guidance: A Fire Engineer’s review of recent and upcoming changes to fire safety guidance for residential buildings and how this is likely to affect the architectural design of buildings.

Speakers

Neil Eaton IEng, FIFireE: Neil is attending from our Leeds Office and has been involved in fire-related work for over 40 years, having worked for 25 years in a variety of roles in a local authority fire service prior to taking up roles in Fire Engineering. One of Neil’s roles in BB7 is heading up our Building Safety Act Taskforce.

Peter McKay MRICS, MSCSI, TechIOSH: Peter McKay is joining us from our Dublin Office. Peter heads up our Assigned Certifier and PSDP service lines. Peter has over 20 years of experience working as a Building Surveyor and Building Control Technical Specialist throughout Ireland and the UK before joining the BB7 team.

Kyle Adams BSc (Hons), MSc, AIFireE: Kyle is an Associate Fire Engineer based in our Belfast Office specialising in fire engineering design.  Kyle is responsible for developing and delivering fire strategies for a wide range of large and complex projects throughout the UK. Outside of project delivery, Kyle is completing a master’s degree in construction law and Adjudication at Robert Gordon University.

James Keenan PhD, AIFireE: – James is an Associate Fire Engineer with BB7 Consulting specialising in fire engineering design.  James has attained considerable experience in the design and delivery of a wide range of varying projects including high-rise residential developments, hotels, educational premises, assembly buildings, retail developments, and industrial and warehouse buildings.  In addition to project delivery, James leads the Advanced Fire Engineering Technical Network in BB7 which includes computational modelling.

Ray Quinn BEng (Hons), CEng, MIEI, MIFireE and Eoin Troy CEng, MIFireE will also be in attendance and will join the presenters to provide an introduction to the session and question and answer session at the end of the presentations.