Coopers Fire installed four bespoke SmokeStop™ evaU8® and SmokeStop™ Barriers which are integral to York Minster Revealed (YMR) Smoke Protection system.
what was the client looking for?
York Minster Revealed (YMR) is the UK’s largest restoration and conservation project of its kind. This ambitious transformation of York Minsters visitor experience presented the Cathedral with a number of fire safety challenges that needed addressing prior to the opening of the Cathedrals below ground Undercroft and Treasury exhibition spaces.
Dating back 2000 years, York Minster is a major tourist attraction. However, before it could receive visitors to its new below ground multimedia exhibition spaces, it first had to comply with stringent fire regulations without compromising the building’s aesthetics.
HOW DID WE HELP?
From the Tower of London to The Royal Palaces, Coopers are trusted to install fire and smoke curtains barriers for some of the world’s most iconic heritage buildings. With this knowledge, appointed architects Arrol & Snell assigned Coopers to develop a system that would help protect the Cathedral’s Undercroft and Treasury from smoke migration in the event of a fire.
The smoke barrier system had to allow visitors to exit the Undercroft and Treasury safely, whilst preventing smoke from entering the main body of the Cathedral, but any system had to be sympathetic to its unique and ancient architecture.
To meet the criteria, Coopers produced and installed four SmokeStop™ evacU8® Smoke Barriers developed to work with the Undercroft’s visitor flow and footfall, whilst a traditional SmokeStop™ Smoke Barrier was installed to compartmentalise the Chambers. All five smoke barriers are bespoke and deploy to fit with the Cathedrals support columns, forming an effective smoke barrier system.
BENEFITS
Unique to Coopers, the SmokeStop™ evacU8® smoke barrier uses a patented system of overlapping panels and deploys to form an effective barrier to smoke migration. In an emergency, visitors will simply WALKTHRU™ the panels to escape to safety. The panels have a patented anti-tangle and realignment configuration so that once evacuees have “pushed” through the barrier they realign.
All four bespoke SmokeStop™ evacU8® and SmokeStop™ barriers were manufactured and installed and form an integral component of York Minsters smoke protection system, remaining subtly hidden from view until deployed by an alarm condition.
York Minster Revealed’s Director Mark Hosea added, “Coopers developed a unique smoke containment system that ensures our visitors are protected in the event of fire. Furthermore, the Coopers installation team were sympathetic to our ancient architecture and commissioned the project in time for His Royal Highness, The Duke of York’s, opening visit.”