ESCAPE ROUTE DESIGNS AND SPECIFICATIONS FOR OFFICE BUILDINGS - “CCIAT” BUILDING AS A CASE STUDY

Many office buildings encounter various problems with their fire safety evacuation designs. The Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture Tripoli - North Lebanon (CCIAT) is considered the only modern office building in its context that lacks fire escape elements and emergency plans. This paper presents an analysis and proposals for an optimal evacuation scenario for the case of the CCIAT building, and develop solutions for similar office buildings. The problem is interpreted with reference to the positions of existing staircases and lifts and their connectivity with occupants’ offices and other facilities on the floors, in order to provide a comprehensive scenario for a fire escape safety design in the building. This paper relies on the Lebanese Building Regulations to evaluate the case of the CCIAT’s fire safety, along with the simulation software Pathfinder 2018 to evaluate the evacuation process of the existing design and the proposed solutions