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Old Posted Jul 27, 2010, 6:54 PM
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Famous Building Failures And What Made Them Fail



Quote:
Ronan Point


Architect:

Newham Council


Construction Date:

1968 (demolished 1986)


Location:

Newham, London


House of CardsOn 16th May, 1968, Mrs Ivy Hodge, a council tenant in a block of flats called Ronan Point in east London, wandered into the kitchen of her 18th floor flat. She leaned over her cooker and struck a match. Instantly, an explosion blew out the pre-cast concrete panels which formed the side of the building. The entire end of the block collapsed like a house of cards. Mrs. Hodge survived, but four others died.

It was modern architecture's Titanic, and spelled the end of the high-rise as a viable solution to the post-war housing crisis as well as plunging modern architecture and the architectural profession to a low level of public esteem.

Over 200 feet tall and containing 110 flats, Ronan Point was assembled from pre-fabricated concrete panels lifted into position by crane and held together by bolts. It was a 'system-built' block- an easily assembled structure more like a giant meccano set than a work of architecture. But system-built blocks were an easy way to build lots of houses quickly, and in the year previous to the disaster, 470,000 new flats and houses had been built- the largest number recorded.

The sheer scale of this production meant that architects were often not directly involved in the production of these blocks- this was considered more of an engineer's job. But since World War Two, high-rises had become virtually synonymous with the Modern Movement, and their fall from grace inevitably impacted on the public's opinion of Modernism in general.

The Only Way Is Up

Ronan Point and other system-builds had as much to do with politics as with architecture. Municipal leaders saw high-density housing as a means of preventing population drain: the more people they governed, the stronger their city's position would be vis-a-vis Whitehall. And since the 1956 Housing Act introduced subsidies to local councils for every floor they built over five storeys, there existed a clear financial incentive to build high.

Ronan Point was in effect a visible symbol of post-war political rhetoric. When people saw these blocks going up quickly, they could be sure that whichever government was in power was striving to fulfil its promises to tackle the housing problem.

Unfortunately, quality control, certainly at Ronan Point, was almost completely absent. When local architect Sam Webb examined joints within the structure he found them to be filled with newspapers rather than concrete. Instead of the walls resting on a continuous bed of mortar they rested on levelling bolts, two per panel, and rainwater was allowed to seep into the joints. The whole weight of the building was being taken on these bolts, which were under enormous pressure as a result. This caused the load bearing concrete wall panels to crack.

The Backlash Begins

Ronan Point was rebuilt, but eventually demolished in 1986. The entire Freemason estate has now been replaced with two-storey terraces. Politically, Ronan Point also undermined careers of several prominent local and national politicians, as the press began to investigate connections between them and companies which specialised in system-built tower blocks. But the effect of Ronan Point's collapse on the reputation of the Modern Movement was even more profound.

Since World War Two, modernism had been the vehicle by which much of Britain was rebuilt. New Towns like Cumbernauld, and housing estates like Alton West at Poehampton and Keeling House had promised to solve Britain's chronic urban problems and contribute to a better, modern, country.

Now a flimsy tower block (which would have horrified and appalled Le Corbusier) had started a backlash against Modernist architecture which would tarnish the Movement in Britain for the best part of the next thirty years.
http://www.open2.net/modernity/3_13.htm


http://www.imacleod.com/msa/images/image002.jpg

Last edited by SkyscrapersOfNewYork; Jul 27, 2010 at 9:18 PM.
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  #2  
Old Posted Jul 27, 2010, 9:19 PM
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Old Posted Jul 28, 2010, 2:02 PM
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Over 500 London highrises were demolished in the following years, long associated with cheap builds where the lifts didnt work and the stairwells doubled as toilets, crime was rampant and vandalism the norm.
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Old Posted Jul 28, 2010, 4:51 PM
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dont forget this fail from last june --- it keeled over in shanghai while under construction:







http://surferjerry.com/weird/shangha...ng-falls-over/

http://gizmodo.com/5304233/entire-ne...nghai/gallery/

foundations are important!


edit: here's a list i found of some other big fails


Famous Building Failures in History

Greek Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, Greece
Built in 352 B.C., the structure was destroyed by an earthquake in the 1300s. The pile of rubble became a quarry supplying stone to the Knights of St. John. Some of the sculpture it contained was recovered and shipped to the British Museum in 1856.

The Pharos of Alexandria, Egypt
One of the Seven Wonders of the World, the 350-foot-high Pharos, or lighthouse, was built about 280 B.C. It was destroyed by an earthquake in the 1200s.

Binishell Domes, Australia
Developed in the 1960s, architect Dante Bini's technique was to lay concrete over a balloon of plastic fabric. Two of these domes, both over Australian schools, failed when the complex construction method was not followed scrupulously.

C.W. Post College Dome Auditorium, Brookville, N.Y.
Built in 1970, this shallow dome on the campus of Long Island University collapsed under heavy snow and ice cover in 1978. No one was hurt. Faulty design was the culprit.

Kemper Memorial Arena, Kansas City, Mo.
Home to two Kansas City sports teams and the location of the 1979 AIA National Convention, the arena was built in 1973 but collapsed during heavy winds and rain in 1979. Miraculously, no lives were lost. No single cause was found for the accident.

Hyatt Regency Hotel, Kansas City, Mo.
Two crowded walkways in the newly built hotel collapsed in July 1981, killing 114 and injuring almost 200. It remains the deadliest structural failure in U.S. history. Analysis found that the walkways had not been built as they were originally designed.

Pier 34, Philadelphia, Penn.
The 91-year-old pier, which held a popular nightclub, collapsed in May 2000. Three people died and 31 were injured. An inspection three days before the accident revealed structural deficiencies that indicated the pier was in danger of collapse.

http://archrecord.construction.com/r...rch/8_00_1.asp
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Old Posted Jul 28, 2010, 5:04 PM
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Quote:
APARTMENT BUILDING SPLITS IN TWO, FALLS SIDEWISE

An impressive achievement of industrial civilization is the wonderfully skillful demolition of a high rise building in which the exploded building drops straight down as though along a plummet line and all the falling rubble is contained within the perimeter of the former structure, causing no damage or disruption to the surrounding area. Here, for the first time that I've seen, is a demolition that went wrong. It happened in the city of Liuzhou, China. Instead of collapsing straight down, the 22 story apartment building splits into two halves, with one half falling to the ground sidewise (fortunately not causing a disaster or taking any lives) and the other half remaining standing on an angle that makes it look like the Leaning Apartment Tower of China.

http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/015212.html
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Old Posted Jul 28, 2010, 5:20 PM
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Old Posted Jul 28, 2010, 5:25 PM
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Old Posted Jul 28, 2010, 10:17 PM
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that shanghai building is a superb find i guess it got rather hard to sell apartments there. looks so unreal at first

good that they dident stand closer that would certainly hawe made the building firm the owner of the worlds biggest domino reaction
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Old Posted Jul 28, 2010, 11:38 PM
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This thread should have probably gone in the engineering section.

Anyway, Torre Escollera in Cartagena was built with inadequate wind bracing(virtually none). When a wind storm hit the tower during construction, it permanently twisted the frame. Fortunately none of the cladding had been added at that point because otherwise the tower might have completely collapsed.



more info:
Torre de la Escollera-Emporis
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Old Posted Jul 28, 2010, 11:55 PM
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This one is relatively minor but because it happened to such a prominent landmark, I'll throw it in.

For a period after it's construction, the John Hancock Tower in Boston was known as the Plywood Palace because of a design flaw in the windows which meant they had to be replaced with sheets of plywood temporarily.




http://www.universalhub.com/node/24883

On top of the window problems, it was also found that the tower could be blown over on the narrow side, so extra bracing had to be added.
http://www.glasssteelandstone.com/Bu...Detail/399.php

Also in Boston, a building along the waterfront rather dramatically settled suddenly 12 years after it was built because the concrete in the foundation had simply dissolved away.

Last edited by scalziand; Jul 29, 2010 at 1:00 AM.
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Old Posted Jul 29, 2010, 6:14 AM
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I'm sick of people posting that Shanghai failure as some indication that China's buildings are prone to just falling over. Workers were illegally digging near the foundation, that's what cause it to fall. It had nothing to do with the design or construction.
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Old Posted Jul 29, 2010, 6:32 AM
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^I think you took that post the wrong way, because I didn't see any anti-Chinese sentiment there.
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Old Posted Jul 29, 2010, 9:44 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by scalziand View Post
This thread should have probably gone in the engineering section.

Anyway, Torre Escollera in Cartagena was built with inadequate wind bracing(virtually none). When a wind storm hit the tower during construction, it permanently twisted the frame. Fortunately none of the cladding had been added at that point because otherwise the tower might have completely collapsed.

more info:
Torre de la Escollera-Emporis
That's just wrong.
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Old Posted Jul 29, 2010, 11:12 PM
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The Sampoong Department store collapse killed 500 people. The building was originally planned as a 4 story office building. Then it was changed to be a department store, which entailed removing a portion of the structure to make room for escalators and an atrium. In addition, a 5th floor was later added, and the HVAC equipment was moved onto the new roof, severely overloading the structure. Despite clear signs that the top floor was cracking and beginning to fail, management refused to close the department store, and as a result the building collapsed when over a thousand people were inside.


http://kumasim.wordpress.com/2010/01...C-quick-quick/

Background:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampoon...Store_collapse
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Old Posted Jul 30, 2010, 1:10 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by scalziand View Post
This thread should have probably gone in the engineering section.

Anyway, Torre Escollera in Cartagena was built with inadequate wind bracing(virtually none). When a wind storm hit the tower during construction, it permanently twisted the frame. Fortunately none of the cladding had been added at that point because otherwise the tower might have completely collapsed.



more info:
Torre de la Escollera-Emporis
How does one build a skyscraper with no wind bracing?
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Old Posted Jul 30, 2010, 1:50 AM
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^I really have no clue on that one. Maybe another contractor was supposed to come in after the steel contractor had finished and encase the columns in concrete to make it stiff enough. It's odd enough that the steel was pretty much topped out, and yet it looks like the floors weren't even added. It's certainly a very odd construction sequence. Either way, someone screwed up big time. At least there were no casualties as a result, unlike the willful negligence by the owners of the Sampoong department store which resulted in hundreds of deaths.
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Old Posted Jul 31, 2010, 1:17 AM
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I just found a book called 'Building Failures-Case Studies in Construction and Design" by Thomas McKaig. I'll see if there's anything interesting in there and post it here.
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Old Posted Nov 26, 2011, 9:46 PM
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This is being called the Leaning Tower of Zhejiang:

(doesn't look like it's leaning that much to me)

China Builds “Leaning Tower of Zhejiang”


A China quality apartment building is currently being hailed as an inadvertent copy of Pisa’s famous architectural blunder, thanks to its increasingly pronounced lean – and as an added bonus, the tilting tower looks as though it may be about to create the world’s largest domino set.

Completed in China’s Zhejiang province in January, the 68m tall high-rise residential tower block was found to have started tilting in June, but specialists dismissed it as being “within design specifications.”

However, it kept tilting, and by the start of October it was so heavily tilted that even the local government was finally inclined to issue an evacuation order – not only for the leaning building, but also for several of the neighbouring towers, lest it suddenly topple into them.

A problem with the foundations is blamed for the tilt. It is not clear what will happen to the building.

nsfwhttp://www.sankakucomplex.com/2011/1...r-of-zhejiang/
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Old Posted Nov 27, 2011, 8:08 PM
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Yes, engineering fail indeed. I'm strictly a layperson, and I understand that wind is one of the largest external forces a skyscraper will have to withstand, aside from seismic loads.

The whole Torre de Escollera business seems very odd indeed!
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Old Posted Nov 30, 2011, 6:16 AM
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I'm surprised how many buildings have a very slight lean to them. I have a view of many modern and older highrises outside my window. Since I live high up I have a fairly straight on, undistorted view, without much parallax or oblique angles of the positioning of these buildings. If you stare long enough, you'll see how facade columns, window mullions or any other vertical expression will be at slight angles in relationship to other buildings instead of entirely parallel.

Maybe some of the buildings have settled while others had a really sloppy facade installation. Such is the case where a cast in place condo highrise from the 70's across from me must have had its formwork placed crooked all over. It's terrible.

The Torre Escollera is hilariously awful. I'm just glad it didn't fall over and hurt people.
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