Abstract
In recent years developments have been made in relation to timber technology and engineered timber construction products. In the midst of a global tall building boom, such advances are permitting more complex, unusual and tall timber buildings to be conceived and, ultimately, constructed in a number of the World’s metropolitan areas. Many of these increasingly complex structures have or will be designed for structural resilience in fire based upon standard fire exposure, as either mandated or informed by prescriptive design regulations or guidance. Traditionally, such regulations and guidance have been intended to cater for the more straightforward or common situations. Not unique to timber, reasonable queries are often raised regarding the appropriateness of prescriptive approaches and, inherently, standard fire exposure, for complex, unusual and tall buildings. Therefore, it is increasingly the case that performance-based design (PBD) is integral to the realisation of tall or complex buildings. Due to a number of barriers discussed herein, the same is less true for tall or complex timber buildings. Given engineering improvements have permitted timber construction to progress into high-rise applications. This paper discusses advances made in the context of PBD for the resilience of timber structures in fire and the challenges that remain.