The Fire Surgery

a look back on 2024

Merry Christmas from The Fire Surgery!

The AJ Architecture Awards 2024 have been announced and we are delighted to be involved with two winners and a highly commended! Best School project was awarded to Hawkins\Brown for their design at Central Foundation Boys School. A fire strategy developed by Yen Luong. ‘It’s a great example of the creative use of retrofit,’ said the judges of the ‘clear winner’ in this category. ‘They’ve pulled the school together, revitalising what’s already there and adding into it. They’ve uncovered the bones of the building. Of course we were involved with best Heritage project! which was awarded to Boston Manor House by Purcell. A heritage fire strategy developed by Andy Nicholson. ‘It’s a tremendous feat,’ said the judges. ‘The architects did everything they could do, very thoughtfully. There is a modesty and integrity to it all – revealing the layers of history – and a lot of joy. They’ve spent the money where it mattered and with great attention to detail.' The Young V&A by AOC Architecture and De Matos Ryan Architects was high commneded in the Cultural category. Congratulations to all the winners which can be seen below: https://lnkd.in/d8vk2Bx5

We are delighted to announce the promotion of two key team members to close 2024. Frances Radford is promoted to Associate. Frances is an experienced engineer with a responsibility for technical competency. Alastair Crossley is promoted to Associate Director and is an experienced engineer who leads our CLT specialism and mentors junior members. Congratulations to you both and thoroughly deserved.

This year we have been supporting Leeds Castle with improvements to their Fire Strategy. A key area has been means of escape and fire fighting as the castle is surrounded by a moat. As we have done with other heritage projects, a full exercise was undertaken with Kent Fire and Rescue with some valuable lessons learnt. We are now involved with 6 of the 10 uk treasure houses. https://lnkd.in/eYNauSyY #heritage #firesafety Picture credits Frances Radford

Christmas festivities at The Fire Surgery. Specialising in public assembly buildings means we get to visit and enjoy our projects. We headed out as a team to The Lost Estate in West Kensington. An emersive theatre experience to enjoy a Christmas Carol. https://thelostestate.com

Are you ready for that next career move? Are you frustrated with your work life balance and lack of mentorship? Big business politics getting you down? Do you want to work on high profile RIBA award wining projects? Maybe specialise in heritage buildings? We are looking for a competent fire engineer to join our London team. You should ideally have 4 years post graduate experience and on the route to Chartered Engineering status. Drop us a line here or contact admin@thefiresurgery.com.

Alastair Crossley presenting our experience in CLT fire safety to over 500 online delegates Yesterday for the Timber Development UK webinar.

A very Timber day. This morning we escorted London Fire Brigade around our exposed mass timber project at 36 Berkeley Square with Tina Taylor and Dale Anderson of Sweco and Peter Pulford and Rob Rotbart of Berkeley Estate Asset Management Alastair Crossley gave a lunch time webinar on fire safety and mass timber design for Timber Development UK with our partners Joachim Schmid and Michael Klippel of Ignis - Fire Design Consulting and the afternoon was witnessing the encapsulation of our mass timber project on Pall Mall with Orms architects and RED Construction Group

I had a fabulous night last night at the Women in Fire Safety Awards! I was honored to be a finalist in the Woman of the Year category and it was great to attend with the team at The Fire Surgery, who have been so supportive. It was wonderful to see all the inspiring winners and nominees, and to catch up with old friends and former colleagues!