Art of planning fire escapes

Snell Associates’ design for the £4.5m refurbishment of the Arnolfini Centre for Contemporary Art in Bristol included a large open central space allowing easy escape in the event of fire. Specialist contractor Clark Door of Carlisle made this happen by designing and building bespoke steel sliding doors – some as large as 3.5 × 3m – to comply with Building Regulations and the Disability Discrimination Act. Here Robin Snell, director at Snell Associates, and Colin Johnstone, technical director at Clark Door, explain how they worked together on the project.

Q: What was your original vision?

A: Snell: We wanted open-plan access from the main circulation spaces of the gallery to all main galleries, bookshop and cafe without the need to open and close or slide back doors, and to make the openings into the rooms as large as possible to allow access for the artworks. We knew the doors should be made of steel to minimise their size and to act as high-quality doors in a front-of-house gallery area.

Q: What were the client’s requirements?

A: Snell: The doors had to meet all the requirements of the Building Regulations for fire doors on a principal means of escape route, including all Disability Discrimination Act regulations, but they also had to meet the Arts Council’s requirements, which included the stringent security locking.

Q: Why did you use this specialist contractor?

A: Snell: We knew of Clark Door from their work for us at Glyndebourne Opera House in a back-of-house situation. We needed to translate that knowledge to a front-of-house public building.

Q: What was Clark Door’s initial thought when presented with this?

A: Snell: To enable the open-plan design we needed a fire-engineered design solution, which we undertook with Arup Fire. We developed the building plan and the idea of using very large doors which slide discretely and so remain “invisible”.

A: Johnstone: It was quite a complex project but we thought we were well suited because we only produce special purpose doors. We supplied 45 doors with 1m² visual panels and different levels of fire insulation and soundproofing. The special glazing was Pilkington’s, but we made the entire steel sliding and hinged doors.

Q: How was the design developed?

A: Snell: Tenders were received and Clark Door was selected to develop the design and prepare their shop drawings for approval. Clark Door progressed their design with ourselves with a can-do approach.

A: Johnstone: We listened carefully to what the client and the architect wanted. Because the large 1m² vision panels were an unusual size and had to be fire-resistant, we went through a fire-assessment process to make sure they complied and had accreditation.

Q: Did the Building Regulations cause any changes to the specification?

A: Snell: The only changes were for battery back-ups for the emergency closing opening mechanism, additional client security locking systems and additional electrical operation systems for the doors.

Q: Were there any issues with manufacture and installation?

A: Johnstone: During production there was a severe flooding and our factory went seven feet under water. But we relocated quickly and still managed to meet the deadline.

Q: What’s your opinion about how the job turned out?

A: Snell: Public and artists alike have been very complimentary. Visitor numbers in 2006 are set to double to almost 600,000 from 300,000 in 2003.