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Location: Schramberg, Germany
Challenge: Fire protection authorities mandated the installation of adaptive escape routing at the museum to help preserve the buildings unique character, layout and materials.
Solution: A total of 60 adaptive exit sign luminaires were installed on the nine floors of the Junghans Terrassenbau.
Result: The system complies with historic preservation requirements. The safe functioning of the fire protection system and the adaptive escape routing were verified in a final inspection by the TÜV. This test included the simulation of a fire under realistic conditions, which confirmed the fault-free operation of all systems.
Naturally, the safety of our visitors is our primary concern. At the same time, however, we wanted to preserve the unique character of the building as much as possible without altering its historical fabric.
Background
Constructed between 1916 and 1918, the Junghans Terrassenbau Museum is regarded as one of the most architecturally interesting industrial terraced facilities in the world. It has also long since become a landmark of the city of Schramberg.
The building is unique because its narrow, long rooms were designed in such a way that almost all work stations were located right by the windows. This design provided daylight for all the company’s workers spread across a total of nine floors, making it ideally suited for the production of small precision machines like watches.
The floors, which cling to the slope in a terrace-like arrangement, are connected on the sides by two stairwells. Between 2016 and 2018, the listed building was converted into a museum.
Challenge
Adapting the former industrial building to its new use (after standing empty for 20 years) required a balancing act between historic preservation, accessibility and fire protection.
The historic building features single-glazed wooden doors between the floors and stairwells, which do not comply with modern fire protection requirements. However, the aim was to keep the doors in order to comply with historic preservation requirements and to retain as much of the original appearance as possible.
From the very beginning, the project managers were in close contact with the historic preservation office and the fire protection authorities. This did not lead to any conflicts, as the various offices worked well together and were willing to compromise as much as possible. For fire safety reasons, large public buildings require at least two separate escape routes.
In this case, no separate fire escape needed to be added because the Junghans Terrassenbau already had two stairwells. However, the two escape routes had to be separated by means of state-of-the-art fire protection measures. To this end, fire-resistant F 30 glass walls were installed at the centre of each floor.
In a modern building, the separation between floors and stairwells would have been achieved by means of fire doors. However, this was out of the question due to historic preservation considerations and a technical compensation measure to achieve the necessary safety standard had to be found.
Therefore the fire protection authorities mandated the installation of adaptive escape routing. This was clear from the start and was therefore included in the planning process. The layout of the building gave rise to two escape scenarios: an escape route to the right and an escape route to the left.
If an escape route is unsafe, for example, because a staircase is filled with smoke, a red X will be superimposed on the classic green exit sign luminaire.
"As such, the escape sign luminaires not only had to function flawlessly and be clearly visible, but also shouldn’t stick out too much from the historical environment."
