ADMINISTRATION AND OFFICE BUILDING

Why fire protection? This question is quickly answered: To protect life, health, property and the environment. Today, no building project is approved without preventive fire protection. Both preventive and defensive fire protection measures must be taken to prevent fires from starting and spreading and to enable efficient firefighting.

The division into fire compartments ensures that, in the event of damage, only a defined area burns out and flashover is prevented. Fire barriers for external walls are required to prevent the fire from spreading to neighbouring buildings.

If there are casualties in fire disasters, this is usually the result of heavy smoke development. A carbon monoxide content of just 0.8 per cent in the room air can lead to death. The requirements are therefore: contain smoke at an early stage, prevent the spread of fire and seal off rooms so that they are smoke-tight.

Modern office architecture is orientated towards the user and their requirements for a motivating environment. The atmosphere and good design of work, communication and recreation areas make a significant contribution to increasing the well-being and performance of employees.

For example, a uniform appearance of the building elements conveys a sense of structure and belonging. Flush-fitting door designs add value down to the smallest detail. Transparent room partitions and generous glass surfaces support mobile work processes and promote communication.

The clever choice of colours and surfaces also creates stimulating or calming moods, depending on requirements. In this context, good design and a pleasant atmosphere are considered success factors in networked working environments with increasingly agile and multifunctional structures.

Transparent building means the use of glass. This building material is used to create spatial constellations characterised by open structures and translucent components. Doors and partition walls made of glass elements have an inviting and communicative effect, extend lines of sight and create a pleasant atmosphere. So-called combi-offices, a flexible mixture of individual work zones and communication and recreation areas, fulfil the need for social interaction and retreat in equal measure.

Innovations, the stuff of the future, not only require creative employees with futuristic visions, but also a working environment that promotes the generation of ideas, enables teamwork and a flow of information, while at the same time creating the necessary freedom for creative development. Flexitime, flex desks and work-life balance are creating a new understanding of work and thus also changing the demands on architecture.

The usual sources of noise in the office are telephones, printers and air conditioning systems, but above all the voices of colleagues. As soon as these sounds are disturbing, they are perceived as noise. And noise at work is an often neglected factor in stress. It disturbs, distracts and reduces both well-being and performance.

Although permissible noise immissions have long been regulated by law, DIN 4109 only specifies minimum requirements. Suitable measures should therefore be taken to reduce noise transmission from neighbouring offices beyond these requirements. It also makes sense to acoustically separate sections with high noise levels from other areas in offices in day-to-day operations.

Overall, noise-reducing measures help to increase productivity, job satisfaction and well-being.

Rising burglary rates and increased demands on IT security are having an ever greater impact on the necessary structural protection measures in offices.

Internal processes often require different levels of security with access authorisations for certain groups of people. Sectors in which work requiring confidentiality is carried out, such as product development, must be effectively separated from areas that are generally accessible. Warehouses with valuable goods must be protected from uninvited guests.

There are numerous security requirements for which suitable components are needed. Doors with appropriate features make an important contribution here.

Escape routes and emergency exits enable people in offices and administrative buildings to leave quickly in an emergency. They lead outside or into a secure area. And they enable emergency services to reach danger zones quickly. Doors in escape and rescue routes must fulfil certain requirements. Equipping a door in accordance with DIN EN 179 as an emergency exit lock with a unit consisting of a lock and inside handle is intended for people with knowledge of how to use such doors within the building.

The EN 1125 standard describes panic exit devices with a horizontal operating bar for doors in escape routes. Both variants must be taken into account when designing escape routes. The routes themselves must be dimensioned so that people who are in a building or other object at the time of a particular danger, such as a fire, can leave it as quickly as possible.