720
Design Rationale: Ceiling
Other strategies for fire safety were considered. For instance, in the ideal
situation, the ceiling would have a fire resistivity of two hours, thereby
permitting two-hour fire barriers in functional zones also to be freely
relocated. It may also be possible to achieve this freedom in planning by
upgrading the fire resistivity of the ceiling from one to two hours in limited
areas only. These two possibilities are illustrated below.
Alternative (a)
Alternative (b)
Both alternatives were rejected on the basis that they would cause
unacceptable complications in the mechanical distribution system. The
second is also impractical since the relationship of partitions in the
functional and service zones would be appropriate only for the opening
configuration.
722.3
THE PLATFORM IS A CONSTANT HEIGHT ABOVE THE FLOOR
Change is facilitated by the ability to relocate partitions easily, and to be
able to change the functions of spaces from those typically having low
ceilings, say, to those with higher ceilings. This change is made possible
if a constant ceiling height is maintained and all partitions are the same
height.
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