BLE casestudy - automatic smoke curtains installation in the MIT, Massachusetts USA

THE SEAT OF SCIENTIFIC EXCELLENCE CHOSES A BLE FIRE SYSTEM

They say that the combined revenues of companies founded by affiliates from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) would make the twenty-fourth largest economy in the world. Hardly surprising perhaps, from a university faculty that has produced 72 Nobel Laureates.

So when the MIT, a world-leading centre of scientific excellence, commissioned a new Brain and Cognitive Sciences Complex the institute selected a smoke protection system from BLE Fire and Smoke Curtains - installed by the USA distributor CYSA Developments.

The new Brain and Cognitive Sciences Complex, designed by Charles Correa Associates, is the world’s largest neuroscience centre and a triumph of urban design and engineering. However, the building also posed big challenges for the engineers and architects. The seven-story, 412,000 square foot state-of-the-art complex houses three separate research organisations, creating a worldclass centre for brain research. In addition, there are wet and dry laboratories as well as facilities to support biology,  biochemistry, behavioural and cognitive research. There is an auditorium, cafe, seminar rooms and a five-story day-lit atrium. Additionally, the complex spans an active freight railway that runs through a tunnel below the atrium level.

In partnership with CYSA Developments, engineers from BLE worked on the smoke model with Turner, the site management company, and then designed the smoke management system to suit the challenging architecture. BLE’s automatic smoke curtains were used to create smoke zones around the building, incorporating stage descents to ensure protected means of escape throughout the complex. BLE manufactured all of the equipment and supervised the CYSA installation, ensuring that the invaluable research undertaken at the MIT Brain and Cognitive Sciences Complex is protected against smoke for years to come.

Download a PDF of our casestudy regarding the smoke curtain installation in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA .