Park Brow Primary School, Knowsley, Merseyside
Having previously worked on a wide range of educational buildings, Omega Fire was recently employed to review the design of this landmark new build school in Knowsley, Merseyside. The school is to be provided over two floors with a large central void area that is to be utilised as a breakout spaces and performance area. In accordance with design guidance Building Bulletin 100, the school would need to be constructed as two fire compartments separated by 60 minute vertical compartmentation or provided with a full life safety sprinkler system. Given the large expanse of internal glazing any compartmentation measures were not feasible and due to the restrictive nature of the site a ‘life safety’ sprinkler tank could not be accommodated. By understanding the operational policy for the school, Omega Fire developed a hybrid sprinkler system that incorporated a property protection system with a number of key enhancements to the system in order to justify compartment sizes that were significantly above the recommend limits of BB100.
