Evacuation Procedures in High Rise Buildings - Dissertation Example

A skyscraper of moderate height i.e. 300m to 400m can house around 2500 to 2800 people in the event of an emergency it will never be easy to evacuate all of the occupants safely in time, and to do so will require great planning supported by safety features incorporated into the building’s design during construction. There are many advanced safety features in use currently like smoke detectors, fire and emergency alarm systems, automatic sprinkler systems as well as conventional means for escape for evacuation such as escape corridors leading to stairwells dedicated for evacuation.

Recently the concept of pressurized safe zones has also been introduced in high-rise buildings. This feature enables some of the occupants to wait out the hazard in relative safety till the need for an evacuation subsides, or they are rescued. The best examples are Burj Khalifa and Taipei 101, which also happen to be the object of this dissertation.METHODOLOGY High-rise buildings have had immense social, economic, environmental and technological impacts as well as motivations in the urban lifestyle.

However, rapid technological advancements, as well as the popularity of the changing trends, resulted in the construction of hundreds of thousands of high-rise buildings all over the world. This dissertation gives an overview of the rapid growth of skyscrapers, focusing on the safety issues, problems and the resulting challenges that arise when such a large number of people reside in a compact space. The dissertation focuses upon the current architectural measures and design implementations with respect to safety and evacuation contexts.

Several concerns including fire, earthquake and uncertain constraints (terrorism) are considered as hazards due to which optimal evacuation, with respect to time constraint, has to be executed.When a hazardous situation arises in a high-rise building, it evokes the need for evacuation.