This development involves six residential towers above a common podium with three levels of basement car park beneath.

We provided fire engineering input from the DA through to construction. The fire engineering changed during the project to reflect both changes to legislation, through new versions of the BCA, as well as changes in accepted interpretations of the BCA. During the project a court ruling relating to the effective height measurement was concluded. This change in interpretation required a fundamental rethink of the fire engineering approach.

How we did it differently

• We worked closely with the Certifier to identify the possible approaches following the court ruling and outlined options to minimise the impact on the design.
• We prepared a Fire Engineering Brief Questionnaire and met with the Fire Brigade to discuss the project. They accepted the FEBQ, following which the FER was prepared.
• Due to the timescales needed for the Fire Brigade to respond to the FER it was necessary to have a peer review carried out by an independent fire engineering consultancy before the Construction Certificate could be issued.

We worked closely with the peer reviewer to explain the project and the fire engineering process. We took on board the comments raised by the peer reviewer and implemented these into the FER. The project is now under construction.