This book highlights human behaviour and architectural considerations for prescriptive code
requirements for emergency exits in heritage cultural centers. Closed circuit television camera
(CCTV) footage from a Canadian heritage cultural centre was analyzed from three separate
unannounced evacuations where recommendations based on the first two evacuations were
implemented for the third. This study aims to (1) develop a baseline for the behaviour and
actions of people during the pre-movement and movement stages of emergency egress and
evacuation situations and (2) collect behavioural and movement data to aid the fire safety
community with the decision process for egress and evacuation strategies and (3) interrogate
and highlight architectural barriers in heritage structures with respect to emergency
evacuation. The discussion of findings includes occupant behaviour architectural implications
and evacuation modelling and considers the often-conflicting intersection between architectural
conservation and fire safety.
