SUMMARY

‘Use of cladding in buildings here have grown in recent times’, Mokthar (2017). Use of cladding has increased in Singapore over the last 3 years. Despite being under strict observation after the tragic incident of Grenfell Tower. The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) is gathering more information on the event to improve on their rules regulating the use of cladding.

 Cladding has a variety of uses including noise reduction, and beautification of a building. It provides insulation to reduce the energy needed to cool down or keep cool a building. Buildings such as Asia Square Tower and The Cathay use cladding for these purposes.

 The downside to cladding however, is that when it comes to fires, it often allows the fire to spread very quickly. Ventilation gaps that keep the building cool end up allowing the fire to go up to other levels. Cladding materials can be easily combustible and cause fires to spread on the sides of the building. Nonetheless, Singapore still adopts the use of cladding but follow strict safety standards on the materials used to meet the class ‘0’ standard.

THESIS

 Structural design could have a part to play in the fire spread. News reports mentioned the design faults that contributed to the speed of the fire spread. The materials used in cladding in Singapore needs to meet the class “0” standard, but simply meeting that standard is not enough to prevent fires from spreading.

READER RESPONSE
Reports from UK's news sources The Telegraph (2017) and The Independent (2017), state that a Chimney Effect can cause a fire to spread quickly. Cladding of the building columns can leave air gaps that create a wind tunnel to improve ventilation in a building. However, this allows a fire to quickly spread to the upper floors as fires will get sucked into these vents to move on to other floors.
The absence of counter-measures such as water sprinklers and "compartmentation" will allow the fire to freely spread to other levels or other departments of the building. Without proper implementation of this by the BCA, buildings that catch fire will not have the ability to maintain or slow down the spready of the fire. BBC (2017) and The Standard (2017) reports that such counter-measures would slow down or even prevent a fire spread to other floors. A Research Fellow at London South Bank University, says “compartmentation" would have allowed someone to set fire to a flat, Dr Benson (2017) and only that floor would have been affected. Water sprinklers inside the building would be able to douse the fire at the source, water sprinklers outside the building would have slowed the spread of the fire.

Despite Singapore clamping down and being so strict on the cladding materials used, investigations show that the cladding materials used are not the only culprit, and that there are still other factors that can contribute to a how quick a fire can spread. If these factors are ignored, the potential for a fire like the Grenfell Tower to occur to one of Singapore’s own buildings will remain.

Reference:

 Faris Mokhtar (2017). Use of cladding in buildings here have grown in recent times: Experts. Retrieved from http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/use-cladding-buildings-here-have-grown-recent-times-experts

The Standard. (2017, 14 June). London fire: 'Chimney effect could be reason Grenfell Tower blaze spread so quickly', expert says. Retrieved from https://www.google.com.sg/amp/s/www.standard.co.uk/news/london/london-fire-chimney-effect-could-be-reason-grenfell-tower-blaze-spread-so-quickly-says-top-fire-and-a3565211.html%3Famp


The Telegraph. (2017, 25 June). Chimney effect: Grenfell's unusual design led blaze to spread, say investigators. Retrieved from https://www.google.com.sg/amp/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/24/grenfells-unusual-design-led-blaze-spread-say-investigators/amp/

BBC. (2017, 19 July). London fire: What happened at Grenfell Tower?. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/uk-england-london-40272168











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