Ain Group Architects was selected for the construction project of the Seoul Fire Academy’s live fire training center.

The country’s first dome-shaped live fire training center will be built. As the urban architectural environment becomes increasingly complex and diverse, changes in fire suppression methods have become necessary. Accordingly, for more advanced training, a plan was made to build a ‘real fire training center’ on the site of the Seoul Fire Academy in Eunpyeong-gu, which would create an environment similar to an actual fire scene. In the construction project contest held to draw the sketch, ‘Joo.Ain Group Architect Office’ was selected.

The live fire training center to be built is 1,514 m², one floor above ground and one floor underground, and is large enough for 4,500 firefighters to receive fire suppression training regardless of the weather and time. On the first floor above ground, there will be fire character training, initial suppression training, backdraft training, command and tactical training, and complex tactical training, and in the basement, a firefighting water storage tank will be built. In addition to the training area, a training situation center and auxiliary facilities will also be built.

In this contest, only designers who participated in firefighters’ actual fire training were given the opportunity to participate so that they could directly experience the firefighters’ actual training site and then reflect that content in the design. A total of 10 teams’ works went through the first screening, and the final 9 teams participated in the second on-site presentation. As it is a special facility, understanding of dust collection and smoke facilities, facility layout, and training route plan were considered as key points in the evaluation.

The winning proposal received high scores for its excellent functionality and efficiency as well as its original design based on observation and understanding of the movement of flame, heat, and smoke at each stage of the fire. The dust collection dome, which is divided into stages to maximize the efficiency of the dust collection function, is exposed to the outside, revealing the symbolism of the fire academy that integrates the functional and formative beauty of the training facility. In addition, it showed the results of effective movement planning, such as the shortest distance from the main building of the fire academy, configuring circular education circulation between the training center, training situation center, and training auxiliary facilities, and separating pedestrian and vehicular circulation, and by placing auxiliary facilities on the same level. It received favorable reviews for improving user convenience.

In addition to the winning work, the winning works that showed efficient dust collection and smoke exhaust facility plans were selected as 2nd place by SOOP, 3rd place by Seongmin Kim Maps Architects, 4th place by W by Principal Architect Office, and 5th place by Principal Architect Office Square Meters. The Fire Academy Live Fire Training Center, which will become a new standard for domestic fire safety facilities, will be completed in December 2025. Data provided / Seoul Metropolitan Government

winning work
Ain Group Architects Office