6 firefighters perish in Taoyuan blaze

By Amy Chyan, The China Post    January 21, 2015, 12:07 am TWN

Six young firefighters perished in the line of duty in the early hours of yesterday morning while trying to fight a blaze at a bowling alley located in Taoyuan's Xinwu District.

Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) held a meeting in response to the Xinwu fire, and said he estimated that each deceased fireman's family will be receiving a NT$19 million pension.

Responding to the bowling alley's architectural, operational and land use violations, Cheng said that a heavy punishment will be meted out. In addition, Cheng promised to tear down all of the city's illegal structures to avoid future public safety disasters.

The Taoyuan City Government has created an emergency group to help families with funeral plans.

Families of the deceased arrived on the scene with Buddhist priests to summon the souls of the firemen in a spiritual ceremony.

Second Floor Culprit

Built from metal sheets and wooden beams, the three-story bowling alley experienced a powerful explosion after the fire was subdued. The unexpected explosion trapped the firemen, which led to their deaths.

Initial investigations concluded that the fire started on the second floor, with the source of the blaze thought to be the transformer box.

Two brothers, surnamed Liu, who owned the business escaped the fire uninjured. The 52-year-old elder brother was a volunteer firefighter and helped combat the deadly blaze.

The Liu brothers were summoned by police for interrogation and have agreed to cooperate with the prosecutors' investigation.

Timeline of Fire

Citizens informed firefighters of the overwhelming blaze at the Xinwu bowling alley at 2:02 a.m. The Taoyuan Fire Department sent out 99 fire and police personnel to the scene.

The fire was under control by 2:29 a.m. though half an hour later, disaster struck as an explosion trapped members of the firefighting crew after the second floor once again burst into flames.

By 3:46 a.m., six firemen were confirmed to be missing.

The six firemen who died are 26-year-old Chen Feng-hsiang (陳鳳翔), 22-year-old Chen Yen-ming (陳彥茗), 21-year-old Tsai Chang-jung (蔡長融), 22-year-old Chang Kuei-chang (張桂彰), 27-year-old Tseng Chung-jen (曾重仁) and the eldest of the group Hsieh Chun-chieh (謝君杰) who was 29 years old.

After receiving news that their colleagues had died in the fire, remaining fire department personal on scene mourned by calling out “Mission's complete, time to go home,” as a gesture of respect.

DNA Testing To Confirm Identity

Family members of the late firemen arrived to the hospital heartbroken and inconsolable.

Taoyuan General Hospital Sinwu Branch's (桃園醫院新屋分院) Superintendent Chen Rui-chang (陳瑞昌) confirmed that the six men arrived at the hospital with no vital signs.

According to prosecutors, the bodies of the firemen are unrecognizable from the fire and their identities will have to be confirmed through DNA testing as well as the matching of uniforms and protective gear.

(Resource: http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/local/taoyuan/2015/01/21/427026/p2/6-firefighters.htm)

structure

who- Six young firefighters

when- yesterday morning

where- Taoyuan's Xinwu District

why- While trying to fight a blaze at a bowling alley.

what- Six young firefighters perished in the line of duty.

Toyo Ito's National Taichung Theater on Display

By Naomi R. Pollock, AIA

Displaying architecture in a gallery is always a challenge. This is especially true with a building still under construction. And even more so when that building is Taiwan’s National Taichung Theater—unarguably Tokyo architect Toyo Ito’s most ambitious project to date. Taking Ito’s structural know-how and spatial ingenuity to new limits, this extraordinary complex appears as a rectangular block. But contained within is a spectacular 3D grid of tubular voids hinted at by the hourglass-shaped cutouts that define the elevations. Expanding and contracting, the hollows accommodate the various programmatic pieces, including a 2014-seat theater, an 800-seat theater, and a 200-seat black box. Slated for a grand opening in November 2015, the design and construction of this important work is the subject of TOTO Gallery MA’s latest exhibition titled The Making of the Taichung Metropolitan Opera House 2005-2014. (Built by the Taichung City Government, Republic of China (Taiwan), the building was renamed the National Taichung Theater shortly before the exhibit opened.)

The building began in 2005 when Ito was awarded its commission after winning an international competition. But the exhibition opens with Ito’s earlier competition entry for the Forum for Music, Dance and Visual Culture in Ghent, Belgium. In response to the medieval city’s poche-style urbanism, he proposed a boxy volume and carved out the needed spaces. Though his idea did not succeed in Belgium, it wooed the jury overseeing the Taiwanese competition and is the starting point of the Gallery MA show.

Mounted chronologically on the walls of the gallery’s lower level, drawings and photos document the complex’s initial development, while study models in the middle of the room are evidence of the trial and error approach necessitated by Ito’s unique architecture. Upstairs, the gallery turns its attention to construction via video commentaries and photo essays. But the most of effective means of explaining Ito’s architecture is the 360-degree, virtual site visit.

Donning a programmed headset transports the viewer to the heart of the building as it is taking shape. A tilt of the head in one direction orients the eye towards a shadowy recess, while leaning in another unveils a cavernous room. Here skin and structure become one and floors, walls, and ceiling merge into a single, but complexly, curving surface. Both primordial and futuristic, the interior morphs continuously, like a dreamscape come to life.

Unsurprisingly, the nuts and bolts construction is one of the most curious aspects of this building. Offering a behind-the-scenes look is the full-scale mock up of a wall section displayed in Gallery MA’s exterior terrace. It illustrates the walls’ assembly by revealing an elaborate web of rebar bent by hand that functions as a three-dimensional truss. This is covered with metal mesh and finally topped with a smooth coating of concrete, completely concealing all of these intricate underpinnings. On its own, the fragment resembles an abstract sculpture, but its bold shape enables the viewer to imagine how the walls’ irregular geometry will mold the interior space.

Considering the theater’s unconventional form and construction, the displays are pretty conventional by and large. But they succeed in building expectation and excitement for what shows signs of becoming a masterpiece.

(Resource: http://archrecord.construction.com/news/2014/10/141021-Toyo-Ito-National-Taichung-Theater-6527965279.asp)

Structure

where-Taichung

when- 2005-2014

what- Displaying architecture in a gallery is always a challenge.

why- x

how- x

Words

1.ingenuity 獨創性

2.grid 網格

3.tubular 管狀的

4.void 排洩

5.hourglass 沙漏

6.slated 預定

7.forum 討論會

8.woo 懇求

9.chronologically 按年代的

10.don 穿上

11.primordial 原始的

12.morphs 生態學的

13.truss 架構

14.intricate 複雜的

15.underpinnings 支撐