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May 24th, 2024
Case Study Participation Report of SFPE Fire Safety Conference & Expo on Performance-Based Design
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The SFPE- SFPE Fire Safety Conference & Expo on Performance-Based Design was held in Copenhagen
from April 17th to 20th, and six members from Japan chapter participated to present case study. Three
different studies were presented this time: ① Worker Housing, ② Forest tower, and ③ Co-
living/working Facility. Japan and New Zealand tackled ①, Switzerland and the UK tackled ②, and
IMSFE (a joint team of several universities with fire protection departments) tackled ③. The Worker
Housing was a fire safety design for worker accommodation for development in undeveloped areas,
and the theme was how to design accommodation with high density while ensuring fire safety in an
environment where firefighting by firefighters cannot be expected. Japan’s proposal was unique,
combining fire resistant and semi fire-resistant materials as a construction material of wooden building
to control the collapse direction of the building in the event of a fire and as a result, achieve high
density. The New Zealand team also gave us a presentation with detailed considerations, and I think
the session as a whole was very substantial.
Just one day before the conference, a fire broke out in the old stock exchange building located very
close to the hotel where the conference was held, resulting in the collapse of the wooden roof
structure and spire, just like that of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. On the third day of the conference,
Copenhagen’s Fire Chief suddenly joined the conference and gave an emergency report presentation,
reporting on the status of the fire and firefighting activities. He also made a strong call for fire
protection engineers to do their utmost to prevent such a fire from happening again, which was met
with a round of applause from the entire audience.
Even with this unexpected turn of events, it was a very meaningful experience for the Japanese team.
Case study team of Japan Fire of old stock exchange building -
January 17th, 2024
The 20th anniversary celebration of the Japan Fire Protection Engineers Association (SFPE Japan chapter)
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The 20th anniversary celebration of the Japan Fire Protection Engineers Association (SFPE Japan chapter) was successfully held at Square Kojimachi (Yotsuya, Shinjuku-ku) on December 14, 2023, with 47 participants.
At the celebration, distinguished members who supported the association’s activities in its pioneering years delivered remarks reviewing the association’s history, and young members who will lead the association in the future also made remarks. Through this event, participants prayed for the future development of the association. The celebration also featured a congratulatory message from Mr. Chris Jelenewicz, CEO of SFPE Headquarters.
Group Photo
Congratulations Message for SFPE CEO Chris Jelenewicz
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June 2nd, 2023
Site tour to the Starbucks Reserve Roastery
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The site tour to Starbucks Reserve Roastery along Meguro River was held on 23th of May. About 20 people attended this tour although it was raining.
This building is a complex of roastery and caffe and a flag ship shop of each country.
This type of building was built first in Japan. Caffe space is surrounding the void space where roastery, reservoir of roasted beans, automatic conveyor pipes of coffee beans are installed. Performance based design for safe evacuation was used to realize continuous void spaces without fire compartment. As a result, the design concept as a complex of roastery and caffe is realized. This is a good example of harmonization of the design concept and fire safety design.-
- Exterior view
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- Interior view
Participants
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March 31st, 2023
Inaugural greeting from the new president
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Dr. Ai Sekizawa, Professor at Tokyo University of Science
President of JAFPE (The Japan Association of Fire Protection Engineers) and SFPE Japan Chapter
On March 1, 2023, I was elected as the President of the Board of Directors of the Japan Association of Fire Protection Engineers (JAFPE), an NPO in Japan. At the same time, I am also responsible for the Japan Chapter of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE). Learning from the excellent leadership and management skills of my predecessor, Mr. Kiyoshi Fukui, and with the cooperation of all members, I intend to make efforts for the further development of both organizations.JAFPE celebrated its 20th anniversary this year since its establishment in June 2003. During this time, the number of members has steadily increased from less than 40 when it was first established to 157 today. We have organized various seminars and facility tours, and exchange meetings with the SFPE Asia and Oceania chapters. Also, we have been running working group activities to meet the requests of our members, such as Profession Competency of Fire Protection Engineers, Elevator Evacuation, Fire Safety for Elderly Care Facilities and Childcare Facilities, and others.
Furthermore, when the fire safety regulations of the Building Standards Act were revised, we submitted public comments as a social dissemination from a professional group of fire protection engineers in Japan.
I would like to inherit the activities and achievements so far and work towards further development in the future.
March 31, 2023
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March 7th, 2023
3rd SFPE Asia & SFPE Oceania Collaborative Meeting
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On February 10th 3rd SFPE Asia & SFPE Oceania Collaborative Meeting was held as a web conference. Summery of this conference is as follows.
・Reports on current situation in each chapter
・Presentation of Japan chapter
“Wooden buildings based on the current fire protection technology in Japan”
Introducing two timber structure buildings that Japan chapter had site tours last year with buck ground technology and legal approval process.
・Presentation of Australian chapter
“Fire safety of timber building-A review of existing knowledge and practice in Australia”
Introducing several examples of timber buildings in Australia with buck ground technology and legal approval process.
You can see the video of conference from following link.
https://youtu.be/N7AcENxC7_o -
February 17th, 2023
The 2022 General Assembly was held online on February 7th. Please see here for details.
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The 2022 General Assembly of the Japan Association of Fire Protection Engineers was held online on February 7th. The meeting was approved by a majority of all members, including proxies.
The general meeting agenda for FY2022 activity policy and settlement of accounts, and FY2023 activity schedule and budget were explained and discussed, and both proposals were approved.
At the end of the general meeting, a certificate awarding ceremony was held for Mitsuho Enomoto, who was certified as a JAFPE fire prevention engineer last year.
Following the general meeting, we introduced the working group activities that were highly evaluated when receiving the achievement award of Japan Association for Fire Science and Engineering. We reported on the activities of the four working groups: fire safety at welfare facilities for the elderly, fire safety of capsule hotels, evacuation using elevators, and ideal fire prevention engineers, and received their opinions.
Following the general meeting, a case study on “Extension of an Existing Office Building” was introduced. The case study was presented at the SFPE-sponsored international conference held online in March 2022.
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November 28th, 2022
Site Tour to the New research center of Sumitomo Forestry
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The site tour to the new research center of Sumitomo Forestry, three-story wooden quasi fire-resistant building was held on 17th of November. We introduced this building by the web seminar in 2020, and this time, we had a chance to have a real tour through the kindness of Sumitomo Forestry. Only 13 people could attend this tour du to the number restriction for covid 19. This building is a wooden quasi fire-resistant building realized by char method for wooden structural members. Performance based design for safe evacuation was used to realize the wooden interior finish and continuous void spaces without fire compartment. For wooden construction design, CLT panels, 1200mmH×1200mmW×300D were piled up with a checkered patten and tied by vertical steel rods giving a post tension. Wooden panels as a structural member were used for interior finish, warm and comfortable.
Front Facade
Tour group
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November 21st, 2022
Site tour to the Port Plus
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The site tour to Port Plus, first wooden high-rise building with eleven floors in Japan was held on 30th of September. About 30 people attended this tour divide to two groups due to the covid 19. This building was designed and constructed by Obayashi Corporation and stuffs from this company guided the tour group with explanation. This building is a challenge to build a wooden high-rise building, and technologies about fire protection & resistance, architectural design, construction design and HVAC services are well organized. For fire resistance, wooden materials with fire resistant performance, 3hours at most were used. Performance based design for safe evacuation was used to realize the wooden interior finish and continuous void spaces without fire compartment.
Port Plus
Second site tour group
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September 6th, 2022
The fire safety workshop, “Methodology for Fire Safety in Small Elderly Welfare Facilities”
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The fire safety workshop, “Methodology for Fire Safety in Small Elderly Welfare Facilities,” was held online on August 19, attended by 56 participants.
As a working group activity, the Fire Protection Engineers Association of Japan have clarified the issues in elderly welfare facilities and have been educating facility personnel to realize fire prevention and evacuation safety.
Meanwhile, the Architectural Institute of Japan (AIJ) also started activities for fire safety of elderly welfare facilities in FY2014, and from FY2016, led by members of the working group, a “Subcommittee for Improving Evacuation Safety Performance of Small Social Welfare Facilities” was established. The subcommittee has researched and now produced a practical design guidance.
To deepen the understanding of fire protection and evacuation safety for small-scale social welfare facilities for the elderly for our members and related parties, we designed the fire safety workshop based on this guide. -
August 20th, 2022
2nd SFPE Asia & SFPE Oceania Collaborative Meeting
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On September 28th SFPE Asia & SFPE Oceania Collaborative Meeting was held as a web conference.
This conference was followed by the first conference held on March 1st
Asia/ Oceania chapters had been having an exchange event in person till several years ago, but in these several years we haven’t had such event mostly due to the covid -19.
In such situation, Japan chapter has been trying to resume this conference with a help of SFPE head quarter and these two conferences were realized.
The idea having this WEB conference regularly is approved by all the participants with following additional issues.
・The steering committee consists of Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau, Australia and Japan chapters, and also a stuff of SFPE head quarter manage the future meetings.
・The topic will be two choices, one of them is a report from each chapter about current situation of fire engineering and the other is special issues about fire safety such as big fire case, revision of the regal system about fire safety, activities of working group of each chapter and the like.
We are expecting we can have an event in person with all the chapters attendance someday.
