A Framework for Risk-Informed Performance-Based Fire Protection Design for the Built Environment

Performance-based fire protection design (PBFPD) approaches have now been in use for more than 20 years. One might be tempted to conclude that the current ‘state of the art’ is working well. However, application of PBFPD remains limited, several shortcomings exist, and an increasing number of countries are moving toward ‘prescribed performance’ to address the gaps. There are many factors contributing to these problems with PBFPD. Research has been carried out in two principal problem areas: the relationship between occupants and fire safety measures in the context of holistic building performance expectations during everyday use of the building, and also the lack of specifics within current PBFPD approaches. To address these concerns, a new framework for risk-informed PBFPD has been developed, centered on the study of systems formed by specific building types and their associated occupants. This framework replaces generic guidance with a more in-depth and targeted “building-occupant” system approach. This article focuses on how a successful implementation of the new risk-informed PBFPD approach will require acceptance of the need for a paradigm shift from one in which fire is the center of the problem to one in which building performance metrics are evaluated in case of fire events. This article also details the different steps of the new PBFPD process and how this process differs from the current ones, notably in separating technical steps from political steps related to decision making and policy. Finally, this article presents how the new approach is practically applied to a project, focusing on a proof of concept of the new PBFPD process.