Falling wall tiles, falling fittings and falling panes of glass from tall buildings for example: several buildings suffered in this way, and all of these would have been deadly to anybody in the street. to move with a building’s more ductile structure has sometimes caused significant failure that could, if the damage had occurred at midday, been catastrophic. The first responsibility of the structural designer is primarily to maintain the building’s integrity in quake sufficient to get the people out, resulting in what might be called “ controlled damage.” Although the quake happened at midnight rather than midday, and at one-third of the intensity the structures were designed to withstand, this was achieved all across town.ĭamage to secondary elements however, caused by failure of partitions, windows etc.

Remember, there is no such thing as earthquake-proof.Not altogether a ringing endorsement of the expertise alleged to lie within. Greater Wellington Council and Wellington City Council buildings (above and below) both closed for business. There are good reasons for the damage to all of these, but perhaps the damage to these last three especially might suggest that the expertise assumed to reside in these buildings about these very issues may be very much less than many might suppose.ĭamaged Defence Building, above left damaged Archives Building, centre undamaged private apartment building, right. Yet both the 2007 Defence and main Archive Building (first picture below), and both Wellington Council and Greater Wellington Regional Council Buildings, were all damaged – just Christchurch’s council building was damaged in the Canterbury quake.

be given a higher level of seismic performance. The building code requires that “significant” buildings which includes council buildings, defence buildings, archives etc.

Quake 4 pc find emergency shut off