INGENIEUR
INGENIEUR
With or without the hotel vs home debate , we still need to address the fire risks associated with high-rise residentials .
podium elements . The era of SOHO , SOGO , SOFO and the like began to take root with some even going as far as converting entire blocks of completed service apartments into short-term stay units upon completion .
On May 30 , 2014 , BOMBA rescinded the original circular and stated that service apartments can no longer be considered residential . This left a gap in practice and legislation .
From another point of view , one can say that the industry has finally reached the realisation that this whole episode is not merely a matter of black or white , hotel or home , but rather we are experiencing a unique class of urban living phenomena which needs to be considered as a class of its own . The time has come for our fire protection legislation to be updated to meet the needs of protecting the community .
On another front , professionals have , for a long time , rallied for residential sprinklers , especially for high-rises . Local statistics have shown that our commercial buildings are relatively safer due to sprinkler protection and regular Fire Certificate inspections . As apartment towers are getting taller , fire is best fought from within and automatically . With or without the hotel vs home debate , we still need to address the fire risks associated with high-rise residentials .
History has shown that many fire legislations were conceived after major fire catastrophes . The original UBBL may have been kickstarted by the Campbell Complex fire but nothing is stopping us from getting ahead of the curve and eliminating foreseeable risk beforehand .
It is commendable that the UBBL Amendments working group took the approach to introduce a new sub-group of Serviced Apartments under Purpose Group III . Not only was Service Apartment introduced in the Tenth Schedule , but the other Schedules of the UBBL were also updated to reflect the requirement for Service Apartment . At the same time , residential sprinkler protection was also introduced for residential apartments exceeding 120m in height .
In the conventional LPC sprinkler design tradition , any building exceeding 45m warrants two stages of the sprinkler system and is thus categorised as a high-rise . 90m is more or less the limit for two stages of the sprinkler system . A 120m height would have required two stages of the Wet Riser system based on UBBL 1984 . Therefore , 120m is sort of stretching the highrise limit on many fronts in terms of existing legislation .
In the author ’ s opinion , the process of deliberating the need for sprinkler protection for high-rise residential has provided an important perspective in the process of harmonising the fire engineering versus land title debate . One can find such an example of reasoning in the BOMBA circular dated November 29 , 2021 , which allowed sprinkler exemptions until the 120m limit — matching the residential apartment limit . We should expect the gaps to close in the future .
Meanwhile , let ’ s welcome Service Apartment to the UBBL !
66 VOL 98 APRIL - JUNE 2024