Architect Shmulik Hartaf
Israeli Standard 5103 was published in October 2005, I knew it while still in its mother’s womb, the British Standard BS-8290, where it underwent conversion, circumcision and sex change surgery before it was born for about four years by a team of experts, including myself.
The conversion included a translation from English to Hebrew, the circumcision limited it to the design of functional requirements and installation and maintenance rules for suspended discharge false ceilings only, and the sex change added to it Part 4 Earthquake Shelters and Protected Spaces.
The standard still exists and obliges the designer from now on, but like any good standard, it is half-full. The half-empty glass of the standard is no less important since it is hidden from view and I find great reason to shed some light on what is not stated in the standard.
The adopted British standard discusses the structural component of a ceiling, described in English as a “touchable ceiling” in all its components as a demountable system For tearing off and as a removable false ceiling system, which means “demountable ceiling”. In contrast, the Israeli standard deals only with removable false ceilings and nothing else, thus leaving all continuous ceilings that are not free-standing and permitted for design at the discretion of the designer. (Except for plaster ceilings, which have a separate standard 1924 Ch. 1 and subject to other restrictive standards such as fire safety standards T.I. 921 931, etc.).
Discharge wool ceilingsA ceiling that is not a suspended ceiling (with the exception of a plaster ceiling to which T.I. 1924 applies as mentioned above) is not included in the T.I. 5103 category.
Furthermore, most of the standard discusses suspended false ceilings, as this is the most common and accepted way to install a ceiling as a non-load-bearing structural layer. Any other false ceiling that is not suspended from the background ceiling, whether suspended or not, is not recognized according to what is written in the standard, and therefore there is great difficulty in applying the standard to it.
However, the spirit of the standard includes all false ceilings, even if they are not suspended.
In view of the development and production of elements that can be hung from the background ceiling independently in space, questions arise that the standard does not discuss, let alone recognize, whether the above elements can be considered a ceiling, whether an element with an area of about one and a half square meters or three square meters hanging from a ceiling An area of 10 square meters or more is considered a ceiling, as a layer extending in a plane, or can be treated as a functional body, depending on whether the element must meet the requirements of the mandatory standards or can be treated as a design item in space. In which situations does it behave as a ceiling and in which situations does it not behave this way, since the standard does not recognize this type of “ceilings” it does not discuss them and does not provide answers to this, therefore the decision of the planner and his judgment while taking into account many and important aspects in this matter is of great importance.
Shmuel Zoref Hataf
Innovation and Sustainability Manager – Hecht Ephraim Ltd.
