With at least five fatalities, the fire at Loafers Lodge puts the spotlight on the insufficient fire safety systems in our existing building stock. The unfortunate event has resurfaced a systemic problem: Insufficient passive fire protection in older, high occupancy buildings. In this article we want to discuss how a liquid passive fire system, that offers an immediate solution for upgrading buildings can also feed into a long-term solution, adding to resolve the underlying systemic issue.

Offering insight into Brock Common’s passive fire strategy, we discuss how the passive fire safety approach should not be considered industry best practice, and how fire testing would have supported the project’s overall goal of being a unique research and learning opportunity related to innovative construction with engineered wood products.

We finish our three part series by showcasing how encapsulating mass timber elements with an intumescent protective coating provides a passive fire solution that is holistic and truly compliant.

In this article we explore the complexities of passive fire safety in hybrid mass timber buildings and how a focus on encapsulating a combustible substrate early on in the build process is crucial to the overall safety.

Comprehending mass timber structures — a foundation to a reliable passive fire solution, Part 1 of 3.

Quality management systems are considered to be highly complex and many companies shy away from implementing them. This blog post intends to clarify some of the common concepts in quality management to make the approach more accessible.

In our recent series of articles, we have looked at the limitations to a mere administrative/regulatory approach when fostering industry wide change. This has led us to widen our perspective and to acknowledge the importance of human factors when fostering change in human behaviour.

In today's blog post we discuss the influence of the cultural/organisational element as part of the human factors and how it relates to the passive fire industry.

In this three-part series, we look at the human factors concept in relation to the passive fire protection industry, starting with a focus on the People/Individual.

We're experiencing an ever-increasing strain on the Earth’s limited resources and the impact of Covid-related restrictions on trade and production has shown how volatile the flow of materials is. New Zealand being an island faces its very own challenges when it comes to limited resources. We therefore want to encourage a paradigm shift in how we use building materials — being more aligned with our environment and the people we care for.