Wirral residents attempt to save Andrew Gibson House

A campaign is under way seeking 4,000 signatures in an attempt to save Andrew Gibson House located in Wirral. The grand Edwardian home is up for demolition, but locals believe this "Mersey Maritime monument to Britain's mariners and their widows" could be put to good use once again.

As to why the house is worth saving, the campaign blurb does an excellent job of explaining:

"The imposing brick and stone Andrew Gibson House was completed in 1906 to provide a sanctuary for the widows of elderly sailors and men lost at sea, and was the gift of a wealthy Liverpool cotton merchant.

Built by individual philanthropy and maintained by the collective contributions of individual Union members, the building represents a unique piece of Britain's maritime and welfare history."

Apparently permission has already been given by the local authority to turn the beautiful building into apartments, but there have been no takers, that's even considering the building is unlisted meaning much less restrictive development rules. Owners Nautilus state they've tried for a decade to repurpose it, but the work involved has turned prospective developers away.

If you would like to support the campaign head on over to the 38degrees website.

Source: Liverpool Echo

A very lucky escape

The man holding the camera and the couple in front of him can count themselves very lucky not to have been hurt.

20-storey apartment block in Colombia imploded following 12 deaths

In October last year a building in the city of Medellin, Colombia collapsed killing 12 people in the process. It also made one of the neighbouring buildings unsafe, and ultimately it had to come down.

That didn't happen until last week, but it was captured on video, which you can watch above.

Building Collapses – When will developers learn the lessons?

How many people have to die in building collapses until developers learn the lessons that buildings are designed to take particular loads and NO MORE.

Last week saw a major building collapse incident in Riga, Latvia resulting in the death of 54 people at the latest count, and that will, no doubt, grow as the rubble is removed by the emergency services

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25068291

The cause of the collapse is “expected to be” the construction of a roof garden onto the completed building that the developers thought would be a good idea. Maybe a garden would be nice but how did they expect the building to stand the additional load of several hundred tonnes of soil and gravel? This foolhardy approach has resulted in the deaths of at least 54 people who were just doing their shopping in an environment that should have been safe for them.

If this collapse was a “one off” maybe it would be viewed as an unfortunate accident but when you consider that in Bangladesh a factory producing clothing for Primark collapsed killing over 1000 people because floors were overloaded

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2317012/Primark-factory-collapse-Death-toll-Bangladesh-set-jump-1-400.html

In India a building, again overloaded, collapsed killing over 40 people

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-24314133

And finally the Sampoong Supermarket, discussed in every NDTG Demolition Manager course, that collapsed killing 501 people because the building owners decided to add additional floors, remove internal load bearing columns and then add over 60 tonnes of plant to the new roof. Is it any wonder it collapsed?


As a demolition engineer I like to think that I know how buildings may react when subjected to unusual loadings but I am never sure exactly what that reaction will be, so how can developers decide to increase floor and roof loadings significantly without a thorough structural check, a set of robust calculations and a sign off from a structural engineer?

The worldwide construction industry needs to take stock, rethink how we deal with building modifications and do all that we can to prevent many more buildings being reduced to rubble in seconds by poor design, overloading of the floors and a blatant disregard of the members of the public who may just be going about their daily business and should be able to do so in safety.

What if?

Whenever we start a demolition job anywhere, we look at the building, we assess the plant, we decide on the method and we carry out checks to see if props are needed and then we start. But what if we think the building will stand up and it doesn't?

A great example of "What if?" happened this week in Christchurch New Zealand during the demolition of an earthquake damaged building when it suddenly collapsed and sent the machine and driver crashing to the floor.

The driver is reported as being fine so no harm done, but it does show that we should never take things for granted in demolition. You can read the whole story of what happened over st Stuff's New Zealand webste.

Building collapse triggers 3 tower block demolition due to safety concerns

At the end of March a building collapsed in the city of Dar es Salaam, which is located in Tanzania. The building, located on Indira Gandhi Street, claimed the lives of 25 people and led the government to issue demands for three other tower blocks close by to be demolished as they weren't safe. All three are used by the National Housing Corporation to house people and business operations, and the collapse of the building had made them unsafe.

Director general of the NHC, Nehemiah Mchechu, commented:

"The buildings, located near the site of the disaster, have developed cracks and we believe they can’t be safe. They are quite old, anyway."

This isn't the first incident of its kind in the area. There have been four such incidents over the past several years, with the cause looking likely to be poor building construction, negligence by contractors, and a lack of health and safety. For example, in some instances people have been moved into the lower storeys of a new building while construction of the upper floors continues.

As for those killed in this building collapse, 11 suspects have been put on trial for manslaughter and are awaiting a verdict. Source: IGIHE and Wikipedia

Building collapse blamed on digging machinery

It's pretty obvious that load bearing columns are what keep a building standing. So using a mini excavator as part of a shop refit inside a three storey building means you need to be careful what you hit. In the case of the building on Borad Lane, Brook Hill in Sheffield, that was not the case.

It's thought the shopfitters managed to drive their mini excavator into a load bearing column inside the shop, which damaged it to the point where the building collapsed. Four people were left trapped in the rubble when the unexpected collapse happened, and 20 people are homeless. There's also a question mark over the safety of the surrounding buildings.

The HSE are investigating what happened, and I predict there's going to be a major payout required by the shopfitters if it is determined to be their fault.

Source: BBC

University of Edinburgh wants a building to experiment on

The University of Edinburgh has put out a call for a building that it can run experiments in. It's for a large research project run by the university's BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering aimed at better understanding the behaviour of fire in modern compartments.

The desired building will have the following characteristics:

- Building has a large compartment, typical of modern open-plan office space
- No occupied buildings in the close vicinity
- Within 1 hour drive from Edinburgh
- To be vacated by end of 2013
- To be demolished after March 2014

Ideally they would like to have a steel-framed building with a continuous concrete slab or any other type of construction which is more modern than the very structurally redundant concrete buildings that were commonplace a few decades back. However they do realise it is unlikely that a modern-construction building is likely to be scheduled for demolition, so we will consider any building that has the above-mentioned characteristics.

An old office building would be ideal. Buildings with housing occupancy tend to have small compartments, however if there is a large communal area, this might be adequate. We will also consider using schools, community centres, factories, warehouses or any other building which meets the desired characteristics.

If you know of a suitable building then please get in touch with one of the following people:

Cecilia Abecassis Empis: 0131 650 6023 or c.abecassis-empis@ed.ac.uk
Adam Cowlard: 0131 650 7161 or adam.cowlard@ed.ac.uk