Building Collapses in Divisoria: An Architectural Whodunit
The Victim
Friday at around 10:30 a.m. in the morning, an 8-story building had begun to lean precariously over Padre Rada Street, Tondo at the very heart of Dvisoria.
6 hours later, at 4:40 p.m., it had completely collapsed as it dove face first onto the concrete street.
Now it lies broken and shattered.
Dead.
The Suspects
1. The designers - Is this a case of incompetence? Was someone negligent? Was someone sleeping on the job?
2. The builders - Poor execution? Did they misinterpret the plans? Did they cut too many corners? Did they cheat on the materials?
3. Rapid progress - Did multiple construction projects around the building cause its foundation to weaken?
4. The building officials - Did someone turn a blind eye to something? Was someone corrupt? Did they not do their job?
Or....... did they all work together?
posted by ben tumbling @ 10:31 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
gosh, we don't even need terrorists to bomb us..our buildings collapse by themselves!
There are reports that two loud explosions were heard just right before the building began to lean. People were saying that it sounded like an electrical transformer exploding.
Could it be a bomb instead? Given the fact that there is a bank on the ground floor, could it have been a bank robbery gone wrong? It might be that explosives were used to gain access to the vault but then the explosives knocked out support structures instead.
Looking at the way the building collapsed wherein it leaned first, it could be determined that the structural failure was localized which may support this "explosives" theory.
Hmmmm.....
"Who are you... who who who who...." (theme music from CSI TV show)
Whatever happened, I think there is also plenty to learn in studying how a building failed aside from just studying how it is put together.
the "explosions" might have already been some portions of the structure failing/cracking. one good theory is that the soil around the area might have loosened due to the vibration created by the continues hammering of the piles at an adjacent construction project. there's a good reason why bored piles are mostly recommended at the tondo/divisoria area: the soil is too unstable for driven piles.
I've been around the Divisoria area almost all my life and driven piles have always been the norm in building construction there, especially with the tall buildings. In fact, the two buildings we ourselves put up there had driven piles and were just an inch away from adjoining tall buildings. No collapses or damages though.
I wonder what made the S.I.A. building different then. A team should be assembled to investigate and then make recommendations (e.g. recommend bored instead of driven piles, etc.) so that this kind of thing doesn't happen again.
Is there such a body that will do that?
maybe the explosions came from the structural steel snapping, much like how rebars make an exploding sound during materials testing. Sayang di ko nakita sa tv, good case study sana. Sana ipalabas sa Magandang Gabi Bayan.
The Inquirer website actually posted a short movie of the building as it actualy collapsed. It might still be there in their archives.
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