What are building codes? Building codes are sets of regulations or codes that ultimately determine the design, construction, and maintenance of structures. They are enforced on buildings to protect the health, safety of building occupants. Building codes ensure the safety of those living in the building in different situations that the building is put through, for example, natural disasters like earthquakes. Building codes suggest many different techniques to keep the structure upright and not vulnerable in the event of an earthquake. Therefore, the government is meant to strictly enforce these building codes on all buildings and ensure that each building follows the guidelines. Basically, the enforcement of these building codes results in the ability for the building to successfully …show more content…
This results in the shoddy construction of many buildings in China today. Some of the information that the building codes suggest is the foundation, the structure, what materials the building is made out of, where the building should be built, etc. These are crucial elements in creating earthquake proof structures, however, as mentioned before, many Chinese building workers do not follow the guidelines, making the building very vulnerable to earthquakes. These guidelines matter for many reasons, one being the materials. The materials a building is made out of is very important because earthquake proof structures suggest that lightweight wooden structures that bend and deform without breaking, for example, may fare better than much stronger, but brittle, concrete structures that lose their rigidity, however, Chinese workers do not enforce this and use these materials to create the building and rely on cheaper and less rigid materials. The building codes also suggest against building the building in soft
...e recycle system to be constantly upgraded with the latest technology when it comes on the market.
The construction industry relies on regulations, standards, and codes of practice to ensure safe buildings constructed to a quality standard. In short, they are there to protect consumers, and ensure peace of mind. If it were not so, buildings could potentially compromise user safety, with no repercussions
They are used to preserve some rights of enjoyment or too keep a building or a particular group of buildings to be preserved and kept in a particular way for example no erected satellite dishes or fences around the front of the building.
Before the San Francisco earthquake, not much was understood about earthquakes like how and where they occurred, or the destruction that could occur and the theory of plate tectonics was over a half-century away. Now scientists can answer the following questions: where a strong quake will likely happen, how probable it is, how intense it will be, how will the infrastructure fare, where to avoid building critical structures, and how do we design and build earthquake resistant structures. Scientists that flourished after this earthquake were Lawson, Reid and Gilbert but the most significant discovery is credited to Henry Fielding Reid, Professor of Geology at John Hopkins University. Most of the building structures that were destroyed or damaged were made out of wood. About 24,500 buildings out of the 28,000 buildings were built with wood structures and the other 3,500 buildings structures were made out of brick. With almost 90 percent of the structures being wood, fires and gas caused most of the
Skyscrapers are amazing! Architectural defeats. Wonders of the world. How are they able to withstand even the strongest of winds and earthquakes?
This leads to formulating certain survival procedures, researching new technology and preparing and for an earthquake and volcanic eruptions. To overcome the effects of earthquakes, scientists and engineers have designed earthquake resistant infrastructure. This was created because common infrastructures fail in earthquakes as there are heavy and can 't stand seismic waves. The major cause of death during earthquakes is being killed by a falling building. However, in earthquake resistant building the main concept is to make the building as rigid, strong and out of the lightest material possible so if it does fall individuals have a possibility of surviving. At the bottom of earthquake resistant building, there would be some sort of shock absorber, so it can absorb the seismic waves reducing the impact. Then, the building will incorporate a sheer core and sheer walls, to reduce the rocking movements of an earthquake. Along with this, walls will have two steam beams for added security. In developing countries, a similar type of plan is used but the building is made out of more cheaper and everyday objects. Another defence systems humans use to adapt to earthquakes and volcanoes is monitoring and warning systems. Monitoring and warning systems are usually controlled by local or national governments. In earthquake situations, sensors (which are distributed in the region prone to earthquakes) send information to the alert centre when a seismic wave is detected, there the information is investigated. Afterwards, the information from the alert centre is immediately transmitted to the individuals of the region warning them about the expected intensity and arrival time of earthquake by text message or call. After that, it is advised that individuals turn off all electrical appliances and follow their local earthquake
Building codes are rules for the contractors, architects, and for the owner. Basically the codes are for to protect public safety, health, and welfare in construction and buildings. The building is a law that is amendments to the builders. With out the building codes we won’t be protected in buildings. Here are some of the buildings codes.
Metal and wood, bricks and stone; Webster’s Dictionary defines a building as “a structure (such as a house, hospital, school, etc.) with a roof and walls that is used as a place for people to live, work, do activities, store things, etc.” Buildings are all this and more. Buildings tell a story. The design of a building reveals a story of the time period in which it was built. It allows a glimpse into the past or a peek into the future. For the designer or architect, it is an expression of what inspires them. From the ancient ruins in Greece to Dorton Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina; architecture inspires us.
All buildings which collapsed presented inadequate structures for clay soil. This occurred mainly because of corruption and poor planning. Most of collapsed buildings were recently built. The Government's negligence was the main culprit which impacted of the huge number of deaths. While other structures that were very old and built for the type of clay terrain withstood the earthquake. Surveys after the earthquake showed most of the fallen buildings had specifications lower than those demanded in the contracts. But no one was ever charged nor convicted. Particularly serious was the case of the state builder in charge of the construction of schools. Their executives were left unpunished despite the high number of destroyed schools and schoolchildren who were killed.
From experience Chile has learned to enforce strict building codes and regulations, some imitate those used in California. Because of this, Chile’s modern buildings do well during earthquakes, which explicitly diminished the amount of deaths and harm caused. This ultimately falls under the category of resilience and ability to
Concrete is a composite material used widely in the construction industry. Concrete is basically a mixture of cement, water, aggregates and admixture (sometimes). Cement is a fine gray powder that consists of oxidizes calcium, silicon and aluminum. The aggregate used is normally gravel, crushed stone or sand. Admixture is a solid or liquid substance that gives a certain characteristics of the concrete. The cement reacts with water chemically and binds the aggregates together through a process called hydration during hardening or curing of concrete. It means that water helps in the hardening of the concrete while the cement bind the aggregate and also react with water to form a solid mass.
In building construction and in fire prevention there are organizations that have created a useful system on how to determine what type of building falls under which category. The ICC (International Code Council) and the NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) create these building codes for the safety of firefighters. The two most commonly known standards for building classifications are the NFPA 5000 and also the International Building Code (IBC). The two are very similar, however, they different on sub-categorizing. The International Building Code uses Roman numerals behind the type of construction. In addition to subcategories with letters for each five classes and the amount of fire resistance provided for each building. NFPA uses Roman numerals behind the type of construction. Unlike the IBC, NFPA uses a 3-digit number system behind that to sub categorize the fire hourly rating for the load-bearing walls, for the beams and columns, and for the floor construction. The IBC and NFPA breaks down construction in to five classes, Type I, Type II, Type III, Type IV, and Type V.
Authorities have attempted to implement codes or regulations, but that has proved to be very difficult tasks becasue there are many variables that effect the dynamic response of buildings. One way to try to avoid disaster is to evaluate seismic risk is to look at a buildings hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and location. Hazards are, for example, landslides ad soil type. Exposure is a building's occupancy and function. Vulnerability is the expected performance of a building's system, and location is how often earthquakes occur in the area. (Lagorio)
Human beings are susceptible to the force of nature. They had to make shelter for themselves. Material was one of the most basic tools to create shelter. By development of building construction, selection and use of materials also developed. The relationship between the architecture and the materials before invention of modern materials was simple and generally naturally [1]; in the past, architects always use tradition materials according their experimental skills. For choosing structural materials, they had attention to important factors such as availability (local materials) and harmony with climate and culture [2], although this way was forward with feedback. But this relationship was not continuing simply.
Taher, R. (2011). General recommendations for improved building practices in earthquake and hurricane prone areas. San Francisco, CA: Architecture for Humanity Retrieved from