British Museum Reading Room, London, UK
By Jemma Davis
Fire Curtains within Museums
Coopers Fire have worked with The British Museum for a few years and were heavily involved with the installation of multiple fire curtains in the new extension from 2014 to 2015. Coopers Fire have worked within museum buildings across the globe, from palaces, to The Natural History Museum Coopers Fire work with architects to create fire protection solutions that are unobtrusive and sympathetic to the design requirements of the architect.
As a result of this relationship, Coopers Fire were asked to replace the smoke curtains installed by another manufacturer on the Central Reading Room in the main entrance hall to The British Museum. The Reading Room is the large circular building as you enter the museum, under the striking and beautiful glass roof.
The smoke curtains over each window around the Reading Room were not operating as they should be or in some cases, not at all. In order to rectify this and as part of Coopers Fire ongoing service and maintenance with the British Museum, Coopers Fire designed bespoke smoke curtains to replace the existing ones.
HOW DID WE HELP?
Due to the shape of the Reading Room and how the previous smoke curtains had been installed it required Coopers to design a bespoke smoke curtain to fit within the window recess and run within the small channels between the walls. We were unable to make any structural changes to the walls, making the design and installation quite a challenge.
A total of 15 active smoke curtains running in existing side guides were installed bringing a minimum of disruption to the museum. There were no alterations to the structure itself in removing the redundant smoke curtains and replacing with the new Coopers Fire bespoke products. The bespoke design incorporated features to allow the smoke curtain to be easily serviced and maintained within the confined space.
BENEFITS of Fire Curtains in Museums and cultural buildings
Coopers Fire are able to offer bespoke solutions for fire and smoke curtains for all building types and applications. In this instance, Coopers Fire were able to apply years of experience in the industry to ensure an alternative product was designed and installed and working correctly, with future back up guaranteed from the Coopers service team.
Coopers Fire are the only fire and smoke curtain manufacture with third party certification for product, installation and service. The result of this means the product is compliant, it is correctly installed by Coopers Fire trained installers, leaving you safe in the knowledge it can be correctly serviced and maintained by Coopers Fire trained Service engineers.
Coopers Fire smoke and fire curtains are recognised as the modern alternative to firewalls, fire doors and glazing, giving designers the freedom to design modern, open plan spaces without compromising fire safety.
Coopers Fire is a turnkey business, offering the customer a product and service with full provenance. Coopers Fire designs, manufactures, tests, installs and maintains all its fire curtains from our business premises in Hampshire, UK.
