Griffiths Teas

The building

Built in 1915 and situated at Wentworth Avenue the Griffiths Teas building is one of the most iconic buildings in Surrey Hills. The development is an existing structure and has identified heritage value and significant structural timber elements throughout. It is proposed to utilise and retain the existing timber structure and timber flooring system within the proposed redevelopment works. The development is predominantly residential containing some ground floor retail tenancies and car parking.

The approach

A holistic fire engineering risk approach was adopted to allow the extensive use of exposed structural timber columns and beams and significant timber elements to be retained in some form. Scientific Fire Services team of skilled engineers have extensive project experience in analysing structural timber in fire conditions. Occupant egress solutions were developed and assessed on a performance basis to accommodate the egress design particular to the nature of the occupancy. Extensive structural analyses and human movement simulations were used to demonstrate effective fire safety performance was achieved for occupants and fire fighters. The project is currently being delivered by the Scientific Fire Services team of engineers and construction is still on-going.