Observations from the fire and collapse of the faculty of architecture building, Delft University of Technology

On May 13, 2008, a fire occurred at the Faculty of Architecture Building at the Delft University of Technology (TUD) in the Netherlands. The fire ultimately led to the collapse of a major portion of the building. Data was collected on this fire event by an international team that included researchers from the Netherlands and from the U.S. The data collection effort was followed by a preliminary structural analysis to identify possible contributing causes to the structural collapse. This paper will provide an overview of this fire event, a description of the structural system of the building, and results of preliminary analysis of structural response to the fire. The paper will conclude with a discussion of broader lessons learned on structural fire safety from this event.