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331 Comments
- drew101, on 06/28/2009, -12/+493wow, can't wait to buy their cars
- Vosem, on 06/28/2009, -0/+417I certainly wouldn't move into the one that's still standing.
- sladek, on 06/28/2009, -7/+403Buildings don't usually fall down
- CanadianRealist, on 06/28/2009, -3/+314"According to information, a 70 meter section of the flood prevention wall in nearby Dianpu River and that may have something to do with this building collapse."
Maybe it accidentally the whole thing? - doctechnical, on 06/28/2009, -1/+177"When I first came here, this was all swamp. Everyone said I was daft to build an apartment building on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up. And that's what you're going to get, Lad, the strongest apartment building in all of China."
But seriously, incredible pictures. Thanks fro sharing. - AgentGulo, on 06/28/2009, -3/+141I'm amazed No One has commented on the clear lack of a good foundation or dug out area considering the liquidity of the soil. You don't just throw hollow pillings down like that without digging out some and adding extra monolithic concrete for support on a building that tall. If the Chinese government considers this building as built to code then they will probably change that soon.
- humanerror, on 06/28/2009, -10/+132From my understanding, buildings never fall down unless there's some kind of highly intricate demolition scheme involved.
Why yes I do watch a lot of youtube videos. How did you know? - ThatDeadDude, on 06/28/2009, -1/+122Lithuania? The photos are from Shanghai.
- RyomaNagare, on 06/28/2009, -5/+121As civil constructor, I'm blown away by this pics, this buildings have absolutely deficient foundations, a 12m tall building should be funded at least 4m into the ground (depending on the support capabilities of the soil underneath), from what I see in the pics, they have foundations comparable to that of a 2 level house's.
Is Lithuania a seismic country? because if it is, this right here is crime, not metaphorically speaking. In my country the one who builds, has a 5 year penal responsibility over structural disasters like these. - freakish_beast, on 06/28/2009, -2/+109***** situation, kick ass pics.
- thesaba, on 06/28/2009, -6/+112*****... if that worker was in the middle of the landing he probably died from confusion of which way to run. Either that or the building smashing him.
- RyomaNagare, on 06/28/2009, -2/+106Sorry about the "Lianhuanan" mistake.
about the foundations being longer and having cut.
Yeah, thats pretty much what happened. basically, you can have different types of foundations, one called continous, and one called Isolated. The whole idea, of the foundation, is take all the weight and solicitations, from the structure and disperse them in the soil, this happens in the form of a pressure bulb, any person with 1 semester of soil mechanics can accurately calculate the supportive strength needed. for a building like these.
The foundations you see are isolated hollowed Pillars, were they made from good grade steel, it would be debatable if they were nearly enough granted they used proper corrosion protection. But from the picture they seem made from armed concrete. and they are fairly slim. A good foundation, shouldn't topple, that's why you try to fit underground levels, on a building it will give you parking spots for extra profit, while at the same time lowering the centre of gravity of the building.here you have 16 story buildings that's about 42m tall supported by slim hollowed, fairly poor armed pillars.
those pillars can only be so long before they fail from bending. remember at 42m the horizontal components of weight charges wind, rain snow, and dynamic solicitations, are amplified by the square of the height.
So basically what I'm trying to say, is that probably the other buildings will fall unless they consider strengthening their foundations.
China has really talented engineers and architects, most of the time I see skyscrapers, or bridges that make my head spin, using technologies that for the most part are sci-fi. This particular building was not well designed from a structural point of view. - spvn, on 06/28/2009, -5/+105Well at least it only fell over, now all they gotta do is pull it back up again. At least they don't need to rebuild the entire thing...
- Totz83, on 06/28/2009, -0/+83Needs more foundation
- Kiboney, on 06/28/2009, -3/+78No *****.
- noreturn, on 06/28/2009, -0/+75I'm guessing he misread "Lianhuanan." Still, his point seems valid. I don't have any engineering experience, but I'm pretty sure buildings shouldn't topple over.
However (correct me if I'm wrong) it doesn't look like the foundations were actually as short as they appear. The edges show tearing or something, possibly indicating that they were longer but built of substandard materials or just poorly constructed. Knowing the Chinese's tendency to cut corners and save costs, could this be the case? - 2h3px, on 06/28/2009, -7/+77That has to be the shoddiest Chinese labor.
- tumatakuru, on 06/28/2009, -0/+67It seems that the Dianpu river broke its banks and swept away half a sentence
- 2Deluxe, on 06/28/2009, -2/+67The WHOLE 70 meter section?
- lewikee, on 06/28/2009, -0/+62Maybe he thought "Lianhuanan Road" was foreign and had enough of those letters to become "Lithuania."
- bsmang, on 06/28/2009, -2/+62But when they do, down is usually the direction.
- cmf2071, on 06/28/2009, -2/+57The people living in the similar buildings nearby won't be too pleased.
- FreckleEars, on 06/28/2009, -1/+53You can see the problem there. The ground was ***** to begin with and the support piles were undersized. Most of them just snapped off. If the ground is not extremely stable, this ***** can happen. This is what happens when the developing countries do not hire engineers with experience, but instead use their ***** engineers. The taller the building, the less tolerance you can have for base flex. You can do that by making the ground very stable; making a very large base to the building; or having a bunch of floors underground, where the earth itself pushing on the sides of the building can provide stability.
bad ground compaction + undersized piles + a very bad height to length and thickness ratio + a ***** horrible foundation = A failing building.
Another note. WTF does this mean "According to information, a 70 meter section of the flood prevention wall in nearby Dianpu River and that may have something to do with this building collapse." What the hell!
I am assuming they meant "According to information, a 70 meter section of the flood prevention wall in THE nearby Dianpu River FAILED, (and that) WHICH may have HAD something to do with this building collapse.
(I originally had this comment under Vosem's comment, then I changed it to this one =P) - ptoomey, on 06/28/2009, -0/+51Monty Python and the Holy Grail (King of the swamp castle)
- lippy, on 06/28/2009, -9/+58Made in China. what do you expect?
- CanIGetAWitness, on 06/28/2009, -0/+49I got dibbs on the ground level penthouse.
- DemiRonin, on 06/28/2009, -1/+48Probable cause: Hand ball
- TheAssMan, on 06/28/2009, -0/+46Someday all of this will be yours.
What, the curtains? - manergy, on 06/28/2009, -4/+45It was an inside job!
- Catastrophator, on 06/28/2009, -0/+39Well there's your problem right there, you forgot to put a foundation in there.
- knute5, on 06/28/2009, -0/+37Nothing a really big spatula can't fix.
- impedance101, on 06/28/2009, -2/+36they be tripppin, obviously it was high
- justok, on 06/28/2009, -18/+51Buried. Not the article, just a comment.
- doctechnical, on 06/28/2009, -0/+31Replace "apartment building" with "castle" and "China" with "England", then see if it rings any bells.
- NotYourProdigy, on 06/28/2009, -0/+31He was supposed to stand under an open window.
- inactive, on 06/28/2009, -5/+35Turns key - car explodes. Problem = this car is electric
- chwilk, on 06/28/2009, -3/+32I'm impressed by the foresight (or maybe just dumb luck) in that the buildings were far apart enough that this one just neatly fell into place instead of crashing into the next in line and starting a domino effect.
- unpluggedboy, on 06/28/2009, -3/+32Looks like standard fare to me
- Poe350, on 06/28/2009, -0/+27wwooossshhhh
- TehNuts, on 06/28/2009, -1/+26"according to information" lol
- TheRealness, on 06/28/2009, -0/+24cool story
- kelmaster1, on 06/28/2009, -1/+25looking at the foundation, it's not too surprising... If their going to use piles instead of a mat foundation they need to use a lot piles. Super cheap construction...
- FattyAcidTrip, on 06/28/2009, -1/+24Well, have a nap.
THEN PUT THE BUILDING BACK UP! - rypic7, on 06/28/2009, -0/+23No One is known for not commenting. He's a very private person.
- brownsound00, on 06/28/2009, -0/+22NOW YOU KNOW!!!!!!
- VinCenT13, on 06/28/2009, -2/+24HUGE tracks of land..
- FreckleEars, on 06/28/2009, -0/+21Oh... and ***** engineering.
- RyomaNagare, on 06/28/2009, -1/+21http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHZqcKj7jNM&fea ...
- NeddieSeagoon, on 06/28/2009, -3/+22Lucky it didn't fall the other way - they could have had a domino thing happening.
- RegularUser, on 06/28/2009, -1/+20I fell sorry for the architect's family.
They will have to pay for the bullet. -
Show 51 - 100 of 340 discussions
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