Building process: Type III constructions

Type III constructions are non-infrastructural (i.e. not roads, not overhead lines or similar structures) buildings that correspond to the requirements set forth by the ’Categorization of constructions according to the building process’ (Būvju iedalījums grupās atbilstoši būvniecības procesam; part of Cabinet of Ministers regulation nr. 500 (Vispārīgie būvnoteikumi), app. 1).

Requirements

In order to be classified as a Type III building, a construction must correspond to at least one of the requirements mentioned in this article. All of the requirements are divided into five categories: the number of floors, the number of people who intend to simultaneously be present in the building, the area of the construction, the storage volume (for liquids, gases, and granular materials; only when applicable), and the power generation volume (for buildings intended for power generation; only when applicable).

Number of floors

A Type III construction is a building that contains more than five regular floors and/or more than one underground floor.

Number of people

Type III buildings are designed to simultaneously hold more than 100 people. Two additional points must be emphasized in this regard.

First of all, this number is not for the real number of people at any given moment, but for the projected and supported number of people. For example, if the building is designed for a maximum of 99 people to be present inside at any moment, and two more people enter it, it does not become a Type III building, but remains either a Type I or a Type II, despite the fact that now there are more than 100 people in the building. It must be noted that such a situation would violate a number of safety requirements, because the type of building is determined at the building stage, not at an arbitrary point in time. It means that a Type I building does not become a Type III just because it contains more than 100 people.

Secondly, this regulation does not only mean residents of the building (i.e. people who live there on a more or less constant basis), but includes any people that are simultaneously present inside the building. For example, a building that is specifically designed to contain 52 residents and 52 visitors is above the limit of 100 people and considered to be Type III, not any other type.

Area

In terms of area, Type III is distinguished by two parameters: the area itself and the fire load of the building, which is related to the area.

If the construction in question is an industrial building with the total area of more than 1000 m2, it is considered to be a Type III.

If it is a storage building, in order to be considered a Type III, it must:

• either have an area bigger than 2000 m2
• or have a fire load of more than 600 MJ/m2, where fire load is the amount of energy produced per 1 m2 if the construction is burning (considering both the materials out of which the construction is built and the material stored in it)

Volume

If a construction is designed to store liquids, gases or granular materials, and is bigger than 5000 m3 in volume, it is considered to be a Type III building. It is also considered to be one, if it is designed to contain water and is more than 1000 m3 in volume. This includes both regular and underground water tanks.

Power

A building intended to contain power generators is considered to be a Type III, if it is either

• a heat or electricity generator with heat or electric power of 2 MW or more, or
• a closed 110kV or more transformer building

Requirement summary

In general, a Type III building:

• is a large-scale residential or industrial building, intended to host a comparatively large number of people, to store a large volume/number of materials or to generate a large amount of power
• takes up a significant area, particularly when designed to store goods
• is usually intended to serve not as auxiliary, but as a main building for achieving a certain large-scale goal, e.g. providing housing, power generation or some form of storage

Differences from other types

As Type III structures are usually more difficult to build than other types, they require more documents to be submitted. This includes not only documents for initiating the building process, but also documents for any other activity, such as renovation ar demolition works. The documents in question are stipulated by the rsquo;Documents for initiating the construction of a Type I building or its part’ (Pirmās grupas ēkas vai tās daļas būvniecības ieceres dokumenti; part of Cabinet of Ministers regulation nr. 529 (Ēku būvnoteikumi), p. 2.2)

In general, Type III buildings require more details to be submitted to the government. This mostly concerns detailed descriptions of the design and intended use of a building. Indirectly it also means, that one must acquire more permits, as more complex buildings incorporate more specialised substructures, which usually require special permits due to their nature. In the same way, large-scale Type III buildings are much more demanding when it comes to safety and respective permits, as they tend to create a lot more safety risks id built, renovated or demolished improperly.

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