Entire New 13-story building tips over in Shanghai

Gizmodo ^ | 30 Jun 2009 | Dan Nosowitz

[Cronos]

This past Saturday, an entire apartment building in Shanghai collapsed. To be fair, the building was under construction and thus unoccupied, but it's still a minor miracle that there was only one fatality.

Sounds like there was a problem with some nearby flood prevention walls at the Dianpu River, but there's no hard evidence as to why this huge building simply fell over. Anyway, here are some sweet pictures of the architectural carnage. [Cellar.org via Twitter]

Read More:

Architecture, Building falls over, Shanghai, Apartment, China, Dianpu river, fail, buildings, collapse

[Cronos]

ha ha ha ha

[BunnySlippers]

We don’t have 13 storey buildings here for a reason ...

[bethybabes69]

Errr, foundations anyone?

After the earthquake in China, and the decamation of structures, methinks the Government would get a grip on building regulations.

You can see the mud on the bottom of the concrete base, what the hell, is building high rise in China something like this?:

1: Mow the grass for a nice flat surface.
2: Spray a bit of weedkiller to stop weed regrowth.
3: Knock up a bit of shuttering out of old floorboards, then pour concrete.
4: Repeat step 3 for every higher storey required.

[**note to self, NEVER buy property built in or by Chinese builders**]

[bethybabes69]

And another thing, those buildings in the photo, behind the fallen one are identical, hmmm, I’m wondering how long before they succumb to the power of gravity?

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

The building originally had 14 floors, but that’s another story.

[Siouxz]

FAIL

[x_plus_one]

Where is the rebar? Where are the anchor plates? What a lot of fun to be a builder in Shanghai. No building codes that work, easy to payoff the building inspectors (apparently) and too bad for everyone else...

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

Unless the building contractor has the right friends he is likely to get a bullet in his ear.

[politicalamity]

You gotta wonder what the people in these buildings are thinking, lol

[dawn53]

We spent some time in China (this has been several years ago)...but we were amazed at their construction methods. They did, at that time, heavily rely on manpower instead of machinery. A construction site would look like an anthill with people swarming everywhere on bamboo scaffolding.) We even saw big highways being built and very little construction equipment on site, just lots of guys with wheelbarrows and shovels.) The 600 sq ft bedroom addition on our home has a better slab and rebar that that 13 storey building.

[KingLudd]

that’s not a building, that’s a falling

[MaxMax]

See? And after everyone was paid, it worked out just fine

[VicVega]

Nice photos.

[bondjamesbond]

People bitch about building inspectors and codes in this country.

This is why we have building inspectors and codes in this country.

[Tares]

bttt

[Red in Blue PA]

Let me guess.....was it Made in China?

[John Leland 1789]

Save this

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

I know an American couple living deep inside China right now. They reported no buildings in their city of one million people are over two stories high. Most of the buildings do not even use re-bar steel inside their structural concrete. This is one reason earthquakes shake many Chinese buildings into rubble.

[6SJ7]

Considering how largely undamaged the building is, it must have tipped over in slow-mo. You can see the pilings sticking out of the base of the building, like a carrot plucked out of a garden bed. I’d bet the pilings simply were not deep enough to be stable in the earth.

I’d advise people living in the neighboring apartment houses to not all stand on the same side of the building at any one time. Their apartment house could tip over!

[TheRake]

“Single story luxury apartments with sky lights in each unit for sale”