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A multi-criteria decision-making approach to minimising fire risk in detached house designs

Salaheddine Bendak (Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates)
Ahlam A. Alhammadi (Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates)

Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology

ISSN: 1726-0531

Article publication date: 28 August 2019

Issue publication date: 8 November 2019

142

Abstract

Purpose

House fire risk would be minimised if fire safety principles were incorporated at the design stage. This issue is rarely addressed in the literature. The purpose of this study is to propose a multi-criteria decision-making framework to evaluate fire risk of detached house designs in the United Arab Emirates and countries of similar cultural background.

Design/methodology/approach

The framework was developed based on function areas where (detached) house fires start, expert opinion and recommendations derived from the published literature on residential fire safety. This framework was applied to a sample of ten public detached house designs to check the applicability of the framework and to determine how safe these designs are from a fire safety perspective.

Findings

The proposed framework is proven to be an effective preliminary fire risk evaluation tool of detached house designs, and more research is needed in this area.

Research limitations/implications

The proposed framework is an encouraging first step in incorporating fire risk minimisation at the design stage of detached houses based on determining the preferred location of function areas but requires further development and validation, especially in other design settings.

Practical implications

The proposed framework is an initial endeavour in helping designers of detached houses to minimise fire risk and its potential effects on residents.

Originality/value

This research proposes a way to minimise fire risk at the design stage of detached houses.

Keywords

Citation

Bendak, S. and Alhammadi, A.A. (2019), "A multi-criteria decision-making approach to minimising fire risk in detached house designs", Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, Vol. 17 No. 6, pp. 1146-1160. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEDT-10-2018-0195

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

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