IN a bid to promote the adoption of the latest building safety measures across the Middle East, leading premium access solutions manufacturer Dorma is supporting a GCC-wide initiative that debates safety standards and practices in the built environment.

The series of Safety Design in Buildings (SDiB) conferences brings together industry experts, who offer insights through presentations and panel discussions aimed at enhancing the protection of people and assets in the Gulf and enabling better buildings. The conference brings fire consultants, façade designers and testing experts together with safety system suppliers to provide an update on industry standards and a debating platform for trends and
development.

Dorma is an active participant (panel member) in the conferences. As the leading global partner for access solution, the Germany-headquartered company strives to promote the latest building safety measures across the Middle East, by working closely with design professionals in the industry and providing them safe and smart solutions.

Tarek ... safety focus.

“The conference features presentations and panel discussions on key topics such as: principles of testing, certification, fire resistance and fire reaction; life safety – engineering means of egress; access control and egress planning; tower smoke management – system planning, design and testing; as well as other vital fire safety and building design topics of interest to regional construction and safety professionals,” said Ahmad Tarek, project manager for Dorma.

A series of conferences was held in late October in various cities of Saudi Arabia, including in Dammam, Riyadh and Jeddah where leading speakers gave presentations.

Altaf Afridi, regional marketing director – Mena, Dorma Gulf Door Controls and head of the Project Management Team, based in the UAE presented a talk on access control and egress planning.

Afridi’s presentation aimed at introducing participants to the basics of various types of access control components; acquainting them with factors that need to be considered in egress planning in case of fire or similar scenarios, where tenants have to evacuate the building (based as per NFPA 101); and provided information on how access control systems and egress planning can be in conflict if not planned properly and may severely affect the safety of tenants in case of emergency.

The other presentations were on ‘Inspection, testing, and maintenance of automatic sprinkler systems’ by James A Bychowski, senior vice-president, Aon Fire Protection; ‘Facades and Fire’ by Andy Dean, head of Facades, WSP Middle East; ‘Optimisation of intumescent (fire resistance) coatings using structural analysis’ by Alex Tsiolas, fire engineer, AkzoNobel; ‘Understanding thermal insulation and its obligation against the risk of fire and humidity’ by Marco Thomas Vincenz, general manager, Foamglas; ‘Conventional and worship buildings safety design from ibc point of view’, presented by Ayman Ahmed Hassan, project manager and head of Architecture of Abdul Rahman Al Naim Consultant Engineers; and ‘Ensuring Safe Evacuation – the Next Steps’ by Dermot O’Donnell, fire engineer, Arup Gulf.

The next Safety Design in Buildings conference will be held in Oman at the InterContinental Muscat (December 8).