Fire safety meets functionality in modern healthcare design

You’ll find a variety of spaces within our healthcare buildings, each with specific functions and different requirements for its building materials and finishes. While fire safety glass is commonly installed within multiple applications in these settings, it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. With the right technical advice, fire safety glass can offer enhanced performance and multi-functionality beyond its basic fire protection capabilities.

Compartmentation

Fire doors are vital in any building, supporting the process of compartmentation – a key part of a passive fire protection strategy and where a building is split into a series of fire safe ‘compartments’.

Understandably, the unique challenges of evacuating sick and vulnerable people in the event of a fire make it even more essential that safe escape routes for the able, safe entry routes for the emergency services and protected compartments for those too ill to evacuate, all form a fundamental part of the design. This can be achieved through the careful specification of varying fire safety glass classifications, ranging from E (which protects against flames and smoke) to EI (which offers the highest level of protection, including heat insulation). In situations where creating fire safe compartments are required to support a hospital’s ‘stay put’ policy, EI fire safety glass is the perfect solution.

While wired safety glass has historically been the go-to product for glazed fire doors, advancements in the cuttable glass market mean that there are now more modern and clear solutions available, such as Pyroguard Advance, that provide enhanced aesthetics and performance.

Of course, it isn’t just doors that facilitate compartmentation but other surfaces and building features too, including walls, partitions, atriums and windows. This is where the multi-functionality of laminated fire safety glass and the technical specialism of industry experts really comes into play.

Atriums and partitions

Moving away from the dimly lit corridors and dull waiting rooms of the past, glass can help to create the favoured light and open spaces, as well as being easier to clean and maintain. For example, today’s hospitals will often feature central atriums and glass partitions, replacing traditional brick walls.

Fire safety glass in these constructions must not only provide fire protection but also withstand impact stresses, such as people leaning on it or accidental falls. Here, specifying toughened glass with 1B1 impact resistance, according to BS EN 12600, can help to ensure the safety of all staff, visitors and patients on a daily basis.

Acoustics

While glass delivers countless aesthetic benefits, the process of replacing solid walls with glass partitions can present challenges with regards to the acoustic performance.

Acoustics is a major factor for healthcare buildings. Research clearly demonstrates the correlation between excessive noise and increased patient stress, sleep disturbance and prolonged recovery periods. In fact, acoustical engineers at John Hopkins University found that noise in hospitals has significantly increased since the 1960s, with average daytime hospital sound levels risen from 57 to 72 dB and average night-time levels increasing from 42 to 60 dB[1]. All these levels exceed the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommendation of 35 dB upper limit for sound levels in patient rooms.

In these applications, toughened laminated fire safety glass can help to deliver fire protection and sound reduction properties, able to be carefully engineered so as to reduce the level of sound transmitted through, offering an enhanced acoustic performance. Any visit to a hospital building, whether as a patient or visitor, can be a stressful time, meaning sound reduction should form a key part of the overall design brief.

[1] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/11/051121101949.htm

Patient Privacy

Glass creates light, open spaces – but this can compromise privacy in healthcare settings. The installation of traditional blinds may appear an obvious solution; however, this raises additional concerns around practicality and hygiene in sterile or clean environments.

Just as fire safety glass can be engineered to deliver acoustic properties, so too can a system be specified that offers levels of privacy built in. For example, it is possible for blinds to be integrated within the glazing system itself, or for the glass to have a special finish, such as screen printed, obscure or mirrored.

Switchable glass takes this option even further, with the ability to switch between a clear or opaque appearance at the click of a button, depending on what is required at that specific moment.

Smoke control

While the fire itself is perhaps the obvious threat, the toxic smoke generated can be even more deadly and is often the leading cause of fire-related fatalities. As well as making it difficult to breathe, thick smoke can significantly impact visibility, affecting people’s ability to evacuate a building safely.

It is for this reason that smoke control solutions can also form an integral part of a building’s passive fire protection strategy, working to form a reservoir or channel within which the hot smoke can be contained long enough to ensure a safe evacuation.

While there are a variety of smoke control solutions available, from permanent heavy material sheets to mechanical smoke curtains that drop down from the ceiling once smoke is detected, here again glass can deliver. Glazed smoke control solutions, commonly manufactured from sheets of toughened glass and designed to be suspended from the ceiling, offer a high performance yet aesthetically pleasing solution.

Demand more from fire safety glass

Healthcare buildings demand more from their building materials. When it comes to fire safety glass, taking advantage of its multi-functionality can be invaluable, opening the door to other capabilities and providing the fire protection, public safety, patient comfort and privacy levels expected. Likewise, for the more specialist areas, such as operating theatres or MRI rooms, there are also developments of bespoke, high-performance specialist fire safety glass solutions to meet the specific criteria.

At Pyroguard, we have been manufacturing and supplying fire safety glass for over 35 years and have the widest range of solutions on the market. This rich heritage, combined with our industry knowledge and specialist technical expertise allows architects and specifiers to create safe, functional and aesthetically beautiful spaces.

For more information, please contact us.