The 4 th International Conference of EACEF (European Asian Civil Engineering Forum) C - 25 National University of Singapore, SINGAPORE, June 26-28, 2013 FIRE PROTECTION AND HISTORIC PRESERVATION: SOME NOTIONS ON THE ROLE OF SAFETY MANAGEMENT. CASE STUDY: WEST AND EAST ASSEMBLY HALL ITB (CM-193) Widjaja Martokusumo 1 *, Lily Tambunan 2 , and Wahyu Sujatmiko 3 1 Research Group Architectural Design, School of Architecture, Planning and Policy Development, ITB 2 Research Group Building Technology, School of Architecture, Planning and Policy Development, ITB 3 Department of Physics Engineering, Faculty of Industrial Engineering, ITB *e-mail : wmart@ar.itb.ac.id and lilyrosalina@yahoo.com ABSTRACT As highlighted in the UNESCO convention 1972, cultural and natural heritage are increasingly threatened with destruction not merely by the natural causes of decay, but by human-caused disaster. This research deals with questions how far the safety management can play a role in protecting against fire disasters without diminishing the significance the historic buildings. For this purpose, West-assembly and East- assembly Hall Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) are used as a case study. The research aims to identify fire risk of these two main historic buildings of the ITB campus, and secondly to indicate to what extent retrofitting would be allowed regarding the requirements of retention of significance. The study discovers that the value of cultural significance of these assembly halls is very high, so that changes or damage caused by fire can reduce the value. Given the facts that most building materials are made of timber, thus the fire risk of these prominent buildings of ITB is considered very high too. Following this, such building are vulnerable to fire, since fire can quickly spread to all parts of the building. On the other hand, the installment of fire protection systems, both active and passive, in certain parts of the building, can be done without damaging the authenticity of components and design of the building. However, the protection system must be guaranteed for 24/7 to ensure that the fire does not grow.Otherwise, the installed protection system will be considered ineffective.The study elucidates that the success of mitigation dependson the qualityof protectionmonitoring,maintenanceand control ofthefiresafety of the buildingmanagement of those unique assembly halls. Efforts on fire protection for historic buildingsshould be basednot only upon the magnitude ofthe risk of fire,but also the value of cultural significance should be taken into account. Reliablefiresafety managementis animportantfactorthat plays an important rolein theintegrationbetweenfireprotectionandhistoric preservation. Keywords: historic preservation, fire safety management, timber construction, Institut Teknologi Bandung 1. INTRODUCTION: HERITAGE PRESERVATION AND DISASTER MITIGATION Nowadays, heritage preservation in Southeast Asia is facing some contemporary challenges as follows: inappropriate adaptive re-use design and implementation (Old structure vs. New architecture), natural and man-made disasters (Kotagede, Padang dll.), and rapid economic and urban development/greed and speculative development, and mass tourism and commercialization of heritage. Furthermore, as highlighted in the UNESCO convention 1972 (article 11, nr. 4), cultural and natural heritage are increasingly threatened with destruction not merely by the natural causes of decay (such as cataclysms/calamities, earthquake, landslides, volcanic eruptions etc.), but by human-caused disaster (changing social and economic conditions) [1]. Cultural significance of an artefact is considered to be the most important aspect to be taken into account in assessing the historic and heritage structures. The Burra Charter indicates several notions for the development of conservation policy, such as: clients’ requirements or feasible use, external requirements, physical condition and requirements for retention of significance 2]. The latter will play an important role, since to some extent fire precautions of historic ad heritage structures will involve alterations to the building. In accordance with that, sympathetic and careful design interventions is inevitably needed to minimize the impact on the architectural and historic character of the building. Kidd (2003)argues that in some cases, a more satisfactory approach will be to avoid the circumstances that bring about the requirements for alterations [3]. As a matter of fact, fire belongs to the severest calamity, and is still the greatest single threat to our historic and heritage structure. In fact, as pointed out by Spadaccini (2009), history shows that fire was recognized as a threat to great civilizations as early as 2000 years ago 4]. As elsewhere expressed, within a few hours fire can cause a total destruction of a structure (building’s fabric) and its contents, including the