Sweden builds new wooden parking garage - sustainable, but are the fire requirements met?

“In early November 2009 the first wooden parking garage was inaugurated in Sweden. The garage is unique in many ways, most importantly it is built almost entirely in wood, both internal and external features. The parking garage is the first of its kind in Sweden with six floors (four of which are above ground) built this way. The parking garage is built beside an apartment building, also constructed almost entirely out of wood.”

This is an extract from a guest contribution published in the latest issue of Brandposten, which is presently only available in Swedish [ http://www.sp.se/sv/units/fire/Documents/BrandPosten/BrandPosten_41.pdf ]. The English translation will be available in the New Year.

The intention of the contributor is prompt debate about technical changes, fire consultant’s interpretations of the Swedish Building Code and more. Further he wish to raise a warning finger to anyone working with wood. According to him we cannot simply replace existing fire requirements without taking an overview of the implications of these changes. Sweden, like many other European countries, has one foot in their national regulations and the other in the EU governed by the CPD Directive 89/106 EEC.

As a response to this article, the designing fire consultant has written a rebuttal also included in the latest edition of BrandPosten. They are convinced that the parking garage meets the requirements for the fire protection specified in the technical property requirements. They believe that it is safe for both those who reside there and for emergency services, should they need to intervene in the case of a fire incident. Time will tell!