When Fire Safety Renders Heritage Unviable

Context

A proposed intervention in an existing heritage building within a consolidated urban fabric, characterised by traditional construction and significant physical constraints.
The programme combined a change of use with increased occupancy, full Fire Safety in Buildings (SCIE) compliance, and the preservation of heritage values. The process advanced on the assumption that fire safety could be resolved at design stage.

The Risk

The technical assessment identified a recurrent pattern:

• The intended use placed the building in a risk category incompatible with its morphology

• Required escape routes, stair widths, and compartmentation could not be achieved without major demolition

• Fire safety solutions would lead to unacceptable loss of heritage fabric

• Fire safety was treated as a downstream issue, when it conditioned the initial decision on use

The risk was not regulatory — it was structural.

Euritmia’s Role

Euritmia was engaged to clarify the admissible technical framework before final commitment.

The work delivered:

• An integrated reading of heritage and fire safety, without prioritising one regime over another

• Identification of non-mitigable, maximum-risk factors

• Demonstration that the issue lay in the choice of use, not in design quality

• Definition of the technical limits of admissibility

Outcome

The technical framework enabled:

• Avoidance of a structurally unviable project

• Reformulation of use and intervention strategy to levels compatible with the building

• Integration of fire safety as a decision criterion, not a late-stage correction

Value: not “solving the design”, but stopping the process at the right moment.

In heritage contexts, fire safety is not a design problem — it is a decision problem.
Euritmia provides technical clarity before decision-making.