Damage to modern buildings 'wake-upp call'

[Suezy]

Damage to modern buildings 'wake-up call'
MARC GREENHILL Last updated 12:10 13/03/2012

Extensive damage to modern buildings in Christchurch after the February 2011 earthquake is a "wake-up call" for the construction industry, an inquiry has heard.

New technology for the central-city rebuild is being discussed before the Canterbury earthquakes royal commission today.

Academics, senior practising engineers and professional engineering organisations have been invited to debate building design philosophies, such as life safety versus building survivability, and associated economic impacts.

Stefano Pampanin, a professor of civil and natural resources engineering at the University of Canterbury, told commissioners the extent of damage to Christchurch buildings built after 1970 was a concern.
 
"The bad news or wake-up call for the whole international community, not only for New Zealand, [is that] modern buildings designed according to good standards ... did show damage which was considered beyond repairability," he said.
 
The buildings performed to expectations by protecting the occupants, but that "probably wasn't enough any more", Pampanin said.
 
New Zealand needed to address the same seismic design issues the United States, Europe and Japan had faced for decades, he said.

Copied from The Press

• Tweet