Comparative study of Chinese and Japanese evacuation safety requirements: A case study on an actual office building project in Shanghai

Evacuation safety requirements in China for high rise buildings are reviewed. Evacuation safety of an office building project permitted for construction in Shanghai is then assessed with Japanese performance based fire safety assessment method. The analysis has resulted in general equivalency of the targeted safety level, yet design details show significant conflicts due to the lack of expertise in firesafety technology of the local building authority.