Sophisticated fire detection at a height of 17 meters
Siemens has installed a new air intake system for fire protection in the newly built Olma Hall. An exciting project in which several hundred meters of pipes were installed at a dizzying height.
It is impossible to imagine St. Gallen without the Olma trade fair grounds. In addition to the largest public fair in Switzerland, around 140 events take place there every year. As part of the "Olma Neuland" project, the former Hall 1 was completely rebuilt.
The new St. Galler-Kantonalbank-Halle offers an event area of 9,000 square meters and a foyer of 3,300 square meters for events with up to 12,000 people. The new building required a cover over the city highway and a special roof construction with a height of 17 meters and no additional supports. This placed special demands on fire protection - and also on the installation of the fire detectors.
Linear indicator "rejected"
The SES guidelines revised in 2021 stipulate that conventional fire detectors may only be installed up to a height of twelve meters. During the planning phase, it therefore became clear that only a smoke aspiration system (RAS) could be considered for fire protection. Linear detectors were briefly discussed, but they could easily be disturbed by lighting and sound technology.
The FDA262 RAS was therefore seen as the optimal solution. However, the project as a whole and the installation were anything but conventional, as Marc Schibli, project manager at Siemens, describes: "The installers built a special construction to be able to work at this height at all. The climbers moved along the hall ceiling on a kind of trolley attached to ropes. Sitting in climbing harnesses and secured with ropes, they then laid the pipes at height."
A total of 1100 meters of pipes were installed in the main hall and 350 meters in the foyer, each distributed to four air sampling smoke detectors. These continuously draw in air through the perforated pipes and evaluate it.
750 additional fire detectors installed
The pipe systems are integrated almost invisibly into the ceiling and ensure fast and reliable fire detection.
"This project was one of the most extensive that we have realized with the air sampling smoke detectors. The challenges posed by the building, the calculation of the pipes, the positioning of the individual air sampling points, the special installation and the coordination with the many different trades made the project incredibly complex," says Schibli.
In addition to the event areas, many ancillary areas and rooms are monitored by the automatic fire alarm system. An additional 750 fire detectors, 128 manual call points, 130 acoustic alarm sounders and 70 fire control boxes were installed for this purpose. The latter control around 250 fire controls such as doors, gates, ventilation systems, lifts, etc. in compliance with the BSE 108-15 fire protection declaration.
First partial opening at Olma 2023
Although construction work was still in full swing, the St. Galler-Kantonalbank-Halle was opened for the first time for eleven days at Olma 2023. This trial run was a complete success, and the St. Galler-Kantonalbank-Halle was officially opened at the beginning of March 2024.
