Building collapse in Shanghai
30
Jun 2009
Typical cases of structure damage show portions of or whole buildings collapsing, but this is the first time that I see a building perfectly toppled.
The 13-story building is part of the Lotus Riverside complex in suburban Shanghai. The cause of this epic structural fail is under investigation, but first sources claim that an error on construction and unstable soil conditions are the probable causes.
More images after the break.
You can see another photoset at Flickr.
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120 comments »
Well, at least the top part of the building seem to be of quite sturdy construction!
Great exmple of how important are footings… the rest is a joke haha
spectacular!
right click -> save picture as cool
Doesnt everything MADE IN CHINA break before it should.
How long until the same buildings next door topple over?
same problems were spoted in russia in the past and they were solved by injecting concrete instead of the water that was in the soil. everything can be fixed
wow!!!
as i know ‘chinas’. next week will be a brand new building again. transformer´s land!
Note to self: Never ever live in a building MADE IN CHINA.
According to witness, not a single glass window was broken in the process, go figure.
Was there a mudslide? I don’t see much of a footing at the base of the building.
INCREIBLE!
Why do I have a feeling that most of these materials will be reused in the next building?
How would you like to be living in the building next to it?
Just get a crane and lift that bad boy up. Let it walk it off of bit and it’ll be good as new.
I thought it was the last MVRDV’s proyect in China.
I lived and worked in china and this is just a perfect example of the reckless building culture there. I mean there is some seriously shoddy workmanship.
This is classic!
Yea…….I bet the property owners are about to lose ALOT of tenants.
f*cking great
You know, I’m actually not so sure about comments like shoddy workmanship. The building is incredibly intact and I’m incredibly impressed. Sure the guys need to get a better handle on the foundation but the rest of the building is in tip top shape.
maybe the Architecture Gods knocked it down because it was so ugly.
Adjacent site excavated without rakers or tiebacks. That’s why this stunning piece of architecture toppled over.
What’s these hollow pipes coming out of the building? it doesn’t look like columns..
They’re Piles Genious.
the American house floats,
the Chinese house collapses…
hahahahahah.
…the other two are standing proud…….hihihihihi….this is brilliant!!!and just imagine that this building stays like this and gets functionable…….climbing from one room to the other,walking on the walls,everything that we all imagined when we were kids……fantastic…….they should keep it like this and take the advantage of the situation :)))))))))))
i would take some pictures climbing up like spiderman ,, jajaja,,,
Having worked in the real estate business and having inspected thousands of properties I assume that proper investigations weren’t carried out before construction started on this project. An environmental survey should have been undertaken which would have ascertained the type of concrete that should have been used. The core soil samples underneath this building probably indictated a high water table. Also, these sort of investigations would have revealed the depth that the piles should go into the ground. There must have been some sort of mistake / shortcut taken by the developer otherwise this wouldn’t have happened.
I’m sure this will start happening in Dubai sometime soon. The concrete mixes they were so weak that the buildings are destined for the same fate.
i think if theres people in it during the collapse…
they just think that they just have a major headache and the world suddenly topple down..hahhah
Look at the Second picture.. it creates this new undulating wave if you stand far enough away.
i like it more that way =]
hey guys, this is an architectural tragic, be mercy.
i’m Chinese Guy and i’m sure there’re so many ugly Architecture like that.Actually,the most of Architects in China is copyist and trash-maker
They might hot glue it back on!
I hope, nobody died.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8123559.stm
Apparently it was just about to be completed. One worker died
I wonder why the window glass is OK???
You can see the piles topples on the pile cap. How sick would engineers be to design such short and thin piles for such a tall building
i think the piles snapped at its welding connection, not possible for the piles to have piled at that length. the rest of the piles must be inside the soil. i do think it is design phase fault. soil stability problem. should have do soil improvement before constructing at such site.
for pedja, just great idea and make it a museum or themepark. glas is still fine…
…or lets pour out some concrete at the place and lift it up again the upper part is still propper! this way “re-use” of things comes to china!
German Nazi architect Albert Speer and his felows had an a theory that architect was suposed to imagine and draw how his project would look like after it colapsed or distroyed. The idea was making a kind of resemple of an aincent Rome monuments like Coloseum, so Hitler could admire it’s greatness.
Maybe this is some kind of reviving that theory… :-)
PS. one person died as i heard…
Someone’s got some ’splainin to do!
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/19900877/detail.html#
Yes, this kind of things only happen in China.
BTW, I worked in that building a few years ago when it was brand new so I know for a fact the parking deck is only a few years old.
On a related note, my stainless steel GE microwave, Marantz receiver and Sony flat-screen TV all broke down before they should while my $20 Haier microwave is still working like a champ but I wouldn’t trash Marantz or Sony and sing praises to Haier because I actually have a brain.
Full disclosure: I’m Chinese. And no, I am not proud of the quality of Chinese products.
I think it is built in that positions and lifted in place. is a new brand in architecture.
This is should be the new way of recyclation of the buildings!
Why blow them up? Just flood the ground and then dismount it! :D
Its could me cheaper than traditional way :)
jiri: Yes. I’m flat-out depressed that you’re the first to mention potential casualties.
Rich: Thanks for the link. Sucks for the one worker who died, but imagine how many would have died if this building would’ve been occupied.
I love bashing generic architecture and all that, but seriously? Have a little humanity and think for a second before you hit “Submit” next time.
My source out of Shanghai states that the news reported that the building collapsed when the river bank gave way from the excavation of the parking garage. The collapsing bank and shallow piles were enough to cause the building to fall over (considering the ground was mush from heavy rain, the building fell over rather slowly cause it to remain mostly intact) Also, due to low grade concrete, Chinese residential buildings use rather large amounts of lower grade concrete, making the structures very monolithic and versely stable, hence the intact nature of the fallen building
Era uma casa
Muito engraçada
Não tinha fundação
Não tinha nada…
The ages of the great wall are gone,
sorry China.
La ventaja de tener aislamientos iguales o mayores a la altura del edificio, permitio que cayera sobre la zona verde sin arrastrar al edifico posterior, lastima un video por que es de extrañar que los vidrios no se rompieron o es que son láminas de plastico?
This is a joke surely…
I work near the collapse building, within days, they’ve cleared up the mess, I don’t think much investigation was done if any, and guess what the local government was trying to cover it up, I guess somethings never change.
Then what are you doing in China if you think they are doing dodgy? guess that reflects your standard.
Lawrence says:
“Then what are you doing in China if you think they are doing dodgy? guess that reflects your standard.”
Lawrence, how can you say that?
So everyone in the largest populated country in the world should all just just ‘up sticks’ and emigrate. To where?
How easy would it be for you to move to another country if something similar happened near you?
.
.
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出名了
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.
.
For those who haven’t built in Shanghai: Shanghai sits on top an alluvial floodplain, hence is prone to highly reactive soils. Earthquake liquification is also a major concern, not just from natural earthquakes, but also man-made ones such as a compactor or vibro-drill. Shanghai has quite strict earthquake codes, and the minimal loss of life and largely intact building are testament to that.
The concern I would have with that building is the piling – they don’t look big enough or deep enough from my expereince in Shanghai. It looks like there was not large enough / deep enough purchase for friction piles, and either the earth surged around the building, or a water pipe gave way and undercut half the building.
Still, If I had bought an apartment in that development, I’d want my money back too! I would do the same no matter where the building was built – China doesn’t have a monopoly on shoddy building or engineering.
确实出名了，被抓到小辫子了，看看他们幸灾乐祸的样子
The architect: “Wo goo-ee du”, or “I meant to do that”.
I thought OMA’s ‘Prada Transformer’ had already been posted on this website ;)
No no no no, dear chineese constructors: First you build the foundation and parking spaces in the basement – then you build the building.
One more time:
FIRST foundation! THEN the building itself AFTERWARDS..
AND if you chose to do it the other way around please evacuate the building first.
This killed one construction worker who dicided to go back in for his tool box.. Who lets his imployee/colleague go back into a collapsing building? sad……
this is very ridiculous…….i wonder the blast and sound that will occur during this devastating action……….. men it more that boom! i like the picture, a house lieing flat……… man is unconsious, and homovanderous even to itself many people go don die.. and some hypertension go don kill them…………. the dead RIP, the builder watch ur ways.
Hmmm…does not look all that bad….they could just about stand it back up again and not a problem eh? :p
让他们过过嘴瘾吧。。。。。
cool man…
嘿嘿 看希奇的评论 先进的自豪
哎，这叫好事不出门，坏事传千里，有什么的了，大惊小怪的……
Hey that same chinese structural engineering team used to work a lot on public building down here in Mexico City in the 80’s, but after 1985 I just lost track of them, I wondered where they had been all this time!!
Good luck to the developers selling flats in the two adjacent, identical buildings, no doubt built with the same foundations. I bet the punters are beating a path your door to buy up an apartment in one of those blocks after this…
simply wonderful
should be regarded/enhaced as a ‘monument’ for the genius of the builders
No excuse whatsoever for this kind of debacle. They are extremely fortunate that people were not living there at the time. I work right behind the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, which collapsed back in 2007. Same thing…somewhere, somebody, AND some people who were supposed to be inspecting it, screwed up very badly.
From experience I realized that chinese people always take shortcuts whether it is saving money, or saving time, ex. making fake goods, crappy food etc…
imagine you life in the other building still standing but with the same construction – i could not sleep!!!
I would not be too quick to judge the Chinese people necessarily, but I do take issue with the Chinese authorities, the governmental body supposed to be in charge of inspections. Corruption in government is rampant all throughout Asia. This is just a glaring example of what the consequences can be. Far past the time for governents to begin really working in the best interests of the people they are supposed to serve.
as a junior structural engr its a failure in shear, and overturning causes it to collapse when u design buildings analize it n most especially investigate properly ol the possibilities n future problems that natural disorders brings
consider ur design as ur life because when u design you consider safetiness of everyone…..as a junior sanitary engr maybe PPVCP lacks in the proj hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe
Perhaps if engineers learned proper grammar there would be less problems due to muddled communication.
interior designer’s gonna have a lot of headache decorating the room in this angle
this is serious.can anything good come out of china?
Every room comes with a skylight…
Inadequate planning and execution of shoring and excavation sequences in construction cause these type of catastrophes. Higher standards with respect to construction specifications, on-site inspections, and overall practice with respect to installation and design of foundations of structures should be taken account for. And everyone (including both designer and contractor) should be on the same page with respect to maintaining communication. The foundation’s ability to keep a structure in place within its ground conditions is one of the most fundamental (and least glamorous) aspects of building design, and one can see what happens when one overlooks it. That apartment had one helluva sturdy frame, and at the end…it was all for not.
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