摘要：Visually,it is often the goa l of any architecture to define a persona lity or individual cha racter throug h the design of the faça de.T his face or skin,wrapped to the structura l frame benea th,is often key to an a rchitect's desire to evoke our emotions,instilling a sense of gra ndeur as if each new building were an artist's sculpture.In recent decades the desire for taller structures and,particularly,those tha t are competing for recognition to be among the tallest,if not the world's ta llest,is reason to rev iew the fire safety issues rela ted to fa çade or curtain wall desig n.Additiona lly,due to the crea tivity of a rchitects,new and unique faça de designs a re continually appea ring.The risk of fire spread throug h a rticula ted elements of the façade or vertically a round the faça de v ia the mechanism of flame lea p,poses new concerns for the newest class of super highrise structures.O ur understanding of fire a nd its mecha nisms of spread in buildings no longer eludes us,however,the risks of fire spread rela ted to super high-rise buildings and the fa çades that define their chara cter has not been well examined.Current code practices recog nize the successful record of fully sprinkler protected hig h-rise buildings a nd only require that the void space between the curtain wall and the floor sla b be resistive to fire sprea d using a perimeter fire ba rrier system.
