Safety Building Codes And Historic Buildings

Learn to apply the International Building Code and International Existing Building Code to historic buildings Written for architects, engineers, preservation, and code enforcement professionals, this is the only comprehensive book that examines how the International Building Code (IBC) and the International Existing Building Code (IEBC) can be applied to historic and existing buildings. For ease of use, the book is organized to parallel the structure of the IEBC itself, and the approach is cumulative, with the objective of promoting an understanding of the art of applying building regulations to the environment of existing buildings. Building Codes for Existing and Historic Buildings begins with a discussion of the history of building regulations in the United States and the events and conditions that created them. Next, it provides thorough coverage of: The rationale behind code provisions and historic preservation principles Major building code requirements: occupancy and use, types of construction, and heights and areas Building performance characteristics: fire and life safety, structural safety, health and hygiene, accident prevention, accessibility, and energy conservation Case study projects that reinforce the material covered Additionally, the book includes building analysis worksheets both blank and filled-in versions with examples that illustrate how to develop a code approach for an individual building. If you are a professional at any level who is working on creating a plan that meets the intent of the code for historic or existing buildings, Building Codes for Existing and Historic Buildings gives you everything that you need to succeed.

Written for architects, engineers, and preservation professionals, this is the only comprehensive book to examine how the International Building Code and the The International Existing Building Code (IEBC) can be applied to historic buildings. For ease of use, the book is organized to parallel the IEBC itself. It discusses code history and the reasoning behind specific regulations, and how codes are applied to existing buildings, along with issues such as occupancy and use, type of construction, safety, and energy conservation. No building professional should be without this handy guide.

If you own a historic building, what do you need to know about building codes? How do you find out which codes and other regulations apply in your community? When must you strictly adhere to the code provisions, and when can you and the code official work out an alternative that preserves your buildings historic features? These are just some of the questions answered in Building Codes and Historic Buildings, by Melvyn Green, P.E., and Anne Watson. "The main key to using building codes for historic structures is to learn how to work within the system," the authors state. "Know which codes apply to the project and how to use those codes to produce the best safety and preservation results." Building Codes and Historic Buildings will help you to do that. Its an easy-to-follow reference, with case studies, that provides a basic overview for new property owners, and also clarifies points and fills in information for more experienced owners.

This book applies a behavioral point of view to individuals’ fire safety in historic buildings. It outlines theoretical and operative issues, based on recent studies and international guidelines. Firstly, critical issues for Building Heritage fire safety are widely discussed, by including the modelling of human factor and man-environment-fire interference in these architectural spaces. A significant part of the book includes a discussion on emergency modeling and simulation. A source code for representing the fire evacuation process (including man-evacuation facilities interactions) is offered to the reader. Methods for effectiveness assessment of risk-reducing solutions are provided and tested in a case-study. Being a structured approach to occupants-related problems during a fire in heritage buildings, it offers an innovative methodology and practical examples that researchers and designers can use as a guide when proposing and testing solutions. Evaluation indexes for effectiveness assessment (also useful for future guidelines or handbooks) are included. Readers are encouraged to understand these indexes within the proposed approach, so as to extend their applications and possibilities of how to introduce human behaviors-based solutions in other fields. Lastly, attention is focused on the proposal and evaluation of low-impact and not-invasive strategies, such as ones based on wayfinding elements. From this point of view, the pros and cons of wayfinding systems are discussed: these are important today, especially for fire-safety designers, because of the ongoing innovations in this field.