Dr Sunghan Koo is an Associate Director leading Joule Group’s London office, with over 15 years’ experience. Sunghan has studied architecture as an undergraduate in Seoul, Korea and went on studying stack effect in high-rise residential buildings during his Master’s degree. Understanding the stack effect and its effect to the airflow and air leakage in the building led him to cultivate his interest in fire safety and fire engineering. He continued his journey in fire safety and obtained his PhD degree from the University of Edinburgh sponsored by the BRE by playing a key role in a multi-disciplinary project, FireGrid.
He then joined BRE and carried out various consultancy projects for clients such as Gatwick Airport and City University as well as fire research projects sponsored by BRE Trust and DCLG enabling him to publish articles such as BRE IP 3/16 External fire spread – Supplementary guidance to BR 187 incorporating probabilistic and time-based approaches.
Prior to joining Joule Group, he has led a number of residential high-rise buildings for major clients such as Notting Hill Genesis involving design, technical reviews, site inspections, and FRAEW (EWS1). He also developed generic briefs on rainscreen claddings to help NHBC assess fire risks of their buildings in relation to combustibility of the façade materials.
At Joule Group, he is leading a number of major projects in aviation, residential, and offices. Some of Sunghan’s most recent Joule Group projects include Heathrow T4 Baggage Hall, Heathrow T2 Space Optimisation, St John’s Wood Square residential blocks, and Ashley Road Depot residential blocks.