HIGHLIGHTS

摘要

High-rise buildings, and in particular super-high rise structures, raise a number of complex issues related to the life safety of the occupants. These issues are normally not addressed in a suitable way by prescriptive building codes, which tend to be general in nature. Hong Kong has a large number of high-rise buildings due to the lack of available land, but these structures, which include some of the tallest buildings in the world, have been generally built in accordance with the prescriptive codes, such as the Codes of Practice covering means of escape, fire resistance construction and means of access, issued by the Hong Kong Building Department. It is now possible, however, to design high-rise structures in a way which combines design flexibility and cost-effective fire safety measures ― as exemplified by the fire safety design concepts applied in a number of super-high rise buildings currently under design in Hong Kong. Here, the definition of super-high-rises is taken from the China National Building Code, which defines such structures as buildings over 250m.