Construction Building Codes

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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

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