Source: The city's Powerpoint presentation, embedded in this April 16 Apple Daily report.

1. The buildings are too big, dramatically increasing disaster risks

The five buildings of the overall complex (A, B, C, D, and E) were originally planned to occupy 95,800 ping (316,619 m^2), but were then expanded to occupy 149,000 ping (492,445 m^2). This overexpansion has made the Taipei Cultural and Sporting Complex an area with high degrees of hazard potential and disaster risk.

The original dome plan in 2004 was for 47,189 m^2 of building and 55,396 of empty space. In 2015, the plan is for 55,909 m^2 of building and just 38,044 of empty space, an empty space reduction of 17,352 m^2.

2. The structure of the dome and commercial zone creates a safety crisis

The lines of movement by people leaving the dome combine and narrow, which results in people having to stand and wait. The paths to leave the dome are tortuous for people on each level of the structure. They rise up and fall down in altitude, making it difficult to escape.

If there were a fire, the steel of the structure would conduct the high temperature, and it’s feared the structure would then be warped. Moreover, the fire-retardant wall is tortuous by design, and if there were an earthquake, it could be damaged, causing the fire and smoke to spread further.

3. The parking lots of each building of the complex are connected, making it easy for a fire to spread from one to another

A massive parking lot is planned under the Taipei Dome, one that could contain 3,800 scooters, 2,226 cars, 56 loading and unloading trucks, and 60 buses. In the case of a fire, it’s feared that the flames could spread across the parking lot to all the buildings in the complex.

4. Not enough empty space to accommodate all the evacuees

According to a computer simulation, this is the scene 60 minutes after evacuation, with blue representing spaces filled with people:

The sunken plazas of levels B2 and B3 are not covered and are unsafe. They cannot be considered space for outdoor evacuation. Farglory’s calculation of outdoor evacuation space does not subtract invalid space and has no way to actually accommodate the evacuation of 142,000 people. The wave of evacuees would be plugged inside the dome. At present the valid space for evacuation outdoors can only accommodate 60,000 people.

5. Fire trucks cannot enter

According to the design, as the 142,000 people evacuate outdoors, they will block the fire trucks trying to approach the building to put out the fire.

Hence, the city has formulated two major substitute plans:

A. Keep a modified Taipei Dome but not some of the other buildings.

46,022 m^2 of building space (44.8%) and 47,931m^2 of free space, capacity of 88,638 people.

B. Get rid of the Taipei Dome and make the area a public culture and performance space.

19,883 m^2 of building space (19.3%), 78,927 m^2 of free space, capacity of 78,927 people.

The Apple Daily’s report:

Taipei City hits Farglory in the face with 5 safety inspection problems

Today at 10 a.m., Taipei City released the results of its safety examination of the Farglory Taipei Dome. It announced that because the dome is surrounded by other buildings, like shops and hotels, there would not be enough room for evacuation of those inside in the case of an emergency.

On March 17, nine investigators from inside and outside the government conducted an on-site examination, and officials were sent to Japan twice to witness computer simulations of how an evacuation would proceed, Deputy Mayor Lin Chin-jung 林欽榮 indicated. SimTread software was used. Computer analysis proceeded for 37 days on the matter of whether the existing design for the building created points where evacuees would be stranded, and included 8-minute, 15-minute, and 60-minute situations.

Farglory response to Taipei City’s 5 problems: they’re already solved

Abridged translation of an April 16 UDN report.

The Taipei City Government today announced its report on the Taipei Dome safety inspection and presented five major fire safety problems. Farglory Group Assistant General Manager Tsai Chung-yi 蔡宗易 stated in response that these problems have already been resolved and asked the Taipei City Government to “seriously” read its plan. He expressed hope that the city government will inspect the Taipei Dome according to the law and said that if the company has violated any laws, it will take care of these issues itself.

