Architectural Risk of Buildings and Occupant Safety: An Assessment Protocol

Abstract

Architectural risk of buildings relates to the possibility that technical and environmental elements of buildings interiors and outdoor spaces, may create dangerous situations for health and safety of occupants due to their engineering properties and their state of preservation, maintenance and use. Despite dangerous situations arising from architectural features of buildings are mentioned but undervalued in safety regulations, and a limited number of built environment aspects are currently analyzed in standard assessments of health and safety on work, many evidences demonstrate the strong relation between injuries or diseases of occupants and technical and environmental features of life and work environments. From this background, the study presents a Protocol for the Assessment of Architectural Risk (ARAP) for working environment proposed by Laboratory of Applied and Experimental Ergonomics of University of Naples Federico II (LEAS), with the Campania Chapter of INAIL, the Italian National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work. Main results of an application of the ARAP Protocol to an office building are also presented.