The phoenix-shaped Beijing Daxing International Airport has become an iconic building in the Chinese capital.
Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, ADP Ingénierie and Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (BIAD), the terminal building has a total Gross Floor Area (GFA) of over 700,000m² and can process 100 million passengers every year, relieving pressure on the Beijing Capital International Airport.
Daxing is designed to be a super transportation hub for Beijing. Three underground rail stations with a total area of 200,000 m² are situated below the terminal building, with five railway lines giving passengers transport links for onward travel.
BIAD appointed us as fire engineering consultants for the entire airport, and later asked us to peer review and value engineer the steel roof structure for the Beijing New Airport Construction Headquarters.
The flowing, interconnected form of the terminal is a stunning piece of architecture, but it poses huge design challenges in terms of fire safety. This is complicated by the transportation hub beneath and the interconnecting spaces, which had to be treated as a single massive fire compartment.
Our fire engineers took a performance-based approach to designing the fire control zones for the airport. We incorporated a series of fire protection strategies, including smoke curtains, fire shutters and fire separation bands to prevent the spread of fire and smoke from one zone to another, replacing traditional solid walls that affect passenger circulation.
High risk areas are fully contained with fire resistant construction, and we used the large Central atrium to control smoke by using buoyancy and dilution.