Concerns on Applying Performance-Based Design for Determining Building Fire Safety

摘要

The construction industry is growing very fast while developing the dense urban areas [1,2] in Southeast Asia. Investments are in billions of dollars per year in China, including Mainland, Taiwan and the two special administrative regions (SAR) in Hong Kong and Macau. Millions of square metres of usable floor area are provided annually. Buildings are becoming larger, taller, more complex and clustered together in the Central Business Districts. The commercial buildings are designed for multiple purposes. Hotels, offices, shopping malls and theatres are linked together through large and tall atria. Supertall buildings of height over 300 m were built, and more will be built in the coming 20 years [3]. There are new green architectural features such as framed glass facade commercial buildings; and tall residential buildings having many small flats with openable windows and green balconies for providing natural ventilation. Big subway stations and public transport interchanges are constructed underground as deep as 40 m. Very long tunnels of length 30 km are constructed for trains and 15 km for vehicles.