A safety case built to be used, not filed away
The building safety case lives inside Cascade as a structured, connected system, rather than a report that goes into a document store once it is finished.
Understanding built from the ground up
The review covered the original structure, the office-to-residential conversion itself and how the building is run today.
The whole team round the table
A facilitated HAZID workshop brought together everyone from the COO to the property managers who run the building day to day.
01
The challenge
The building is a luxury BTR residential building created through the conversion of an existing office building. Its history means that, like many converted buildings, understanding building safety requires more than checking current compliance. It requires an understanding of the original structure, the changes made during conversion and how the building is now operated.
For the Housing Organisation, good building management is an active process. The objective was therefore not simply to produce a safety case report but to create a safety case that could become part of the ongoing management of the building. Cascade provided the system to do that.
02
What we did
We began with a detailed review of the information available for the building, looking at both the original structure and the subsequent office-to-residential conversion.
This included considering the original structural design standards, the implications of the change of use, the fire and structural safety measures incorporated during conversion and evidence about the building's current condition.
A key part of the work was a facilitated HAZID workshop in which we brought together knowledge of the building, its history, operation and management. Potential fire spread and structural failure scenarios were explored systematically, including risks arising from the original construction, subsequent alterations, deterioration, building services, fire and changes in loading or use.
Those hazards were then developed within Cascade using bowtie risk assessment.
Developing the safety case involved significant involvement from the team at the Housing Organisation, from the COO to the property managers.
Information was reviewed, questions asked, evidence located and assumptions challenged. Where information was incomplete we searched archives and spoke to previous stakeholders. The significance of any ongoing uncertainties was considered from a risk perspective and, where appropriate, recorded as an action for further investigation.
This iterative process matters. The people managing a building often hold information and operational knowledge that cannot be found in a drawing, survey or fire strategy. Cascade gives that information somewhere to live.
03
The outcome
The result is not simply a PDF sitting in a document management system. The building safety case now exists within Cascade as a structured, live management system connecting hazards, threats, controls, evidence, deficiencies, actions and safety case conclusions.
This creates a clear link between the potential risks identified for the building and the information the Housing Organisation relies upon to demonstrate that those risks are being managed. When something changes, the safety case can change with it.
The report becomes an output of the safety case rather than the safety case itself.
This approach particularly suited the Housing Organisation because the safety case built on the way the properties were already being actively managed.
Cascade provides a single place to see what evidence exists and why it matters. It helps teams identify where information is missing, understand which parts of the safety argument could be affected by a change and maintain a clear record of the decisions being made about building safety.
It also makes the safety case easier to hand over and less dependent on the knowledge of an individual consultant or member of staff, because the reasoning, evidence, actions and history remain connected to the building.
For a portfolio owner or operator, the same approach can be applied consistently across multiple buildings while still allowing every safety case to reflect the particular construction, hazards and management arrangements of that building.
For the building, the project delivered both a safety case and the framework for keeping it current. The Housing Organisation now has a structured record of the building's major fire and structural risks, the controls relied upon to manage them and the evidence supporting those controls and ensuring they remain effective.
Just as importantly, the safety case is not finished simply because the first report has been produced. It can continue to evolve alongside the building.