Global thinking, local application

Our OFR projects span the whole globe, with projects from the UK to Antarctica, Africa, the Middle East and many places in between. Here, our colleague Rich Rankin explains how we uphold our international knowledge, ensuring that we can meet local regulation, no matter the market we are working in.

One of my main projects right now is EMAAR Square in Cairo, a new shopping centre which will comprise 14 towers and the ground floor retail spaces. 

I worked in the Middle East for three years so such spaces are definitely my area of interest, but I am still always learning as we go into each new market.

Working so broadly globally it’s impossible to keep on top of legislation but it is imperative that we thoroughly assess every development; what the client is asking us to do is using the knowledge of fire safety elsewhere, and ask the right questions about complying with the codes. We are tasked with looking ahead at scenarios that will create management burdens ahead. 

Most other countries differ from the UK; fire engineering here is quite performance based, in most other countries it’s very prescriptive. In the case of EMAAR Square for example, the shopping centre is open air, but Egypt doesn’t actually have local codes for this so they are approaching it as if it is closed air, adopting the standards for that. 

We pride ourselves on taking our combined theoretical knowledge and on-site experience to provide the most holistic and of course, safest solutions which are bespoke for each project – wherever it is located in the world. 

This is possible because our team represents over 23 nationalities who have worked in over 15 countries internationally – we have an amazing resource pool of experience and I look forward to continuing to share our work with you as we move forward.