For anyone working in a multistorey office building the announcement: “A fire has been reported in the building. Please leave the building immediately. Do not use the lifts,” is all too familiar. 

Usually a fire drill, the routine involves shuffling down the fire escape stairs, a process that gets slower and slower towards the bottom as more and more workers from the lower floors join the crush to get out. 

The move towards ever-taller office buildings, particularly in the City of London, is making the problem worse – it can take what feels like an age to get everyone out. The team behind 22 Bishopsgate have decided to tackle this challenge head on and have devised a strategy to use the lifts to get office workers out of the building in a fire, for the first time in the UK.

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