Elevator in Istanbul falls 32 floors killing 10 (trained) workers

On Saturday 10 workers lost their lives in Mecidiyeköy, Istanbul when an elevator fell from the 32nd floor while they were on board.

The construction site they were working at is the Torun Center residence project, but the events surrounding the accident are still under investigation. Aziz Torun, the chairman of Torunlar Holding, has claimed that there was no reason for the 10 workers to be on site at that time as their shift had ended.

It is being suggested that the workers only have themselves to blame. All had received workplace safety training and were there outside of their working hours. Why? We don't know, but negligence on their part is surely being discussed and looked into as part of the cause.

The investigation is ongoing with full details available at the Sunday's Zaman website.

15-storey Chinese hotel constructed in just 6 days

I know this website is all about demolition, but sometimes we have to marvel at how much construction of new buildings is being modularized and sped up.

Take this Ark Hotel, for example. It's 15-storeys and located in Shanghai, but it only took 6 days to construct. Apart from the foundation which was already in place, that 6 days accounts for everything including wiring and glass. 46 hours were the outer shell construction, and 90 hours to complete the building enclosure. Stick some furniture in it and it's ready to be used.

It's actually a new, earthquake-resistant construction that relies on a thin steel frame structure to give it strength. All the sections were prefabricated in a factory and transported to site. When complete there was only 1% construction waste. So it's clean to manufacture and clean to build.

When it comes to taking it down I don't think they'll need a wrecking ball or dynamite. A crack team of screwdriver wielders will have 6 days to unscrew all the sections.

Source: Gizmodo

Football and construction sites do not mix

The World Cup is over, and we can all get back to enjoying football again. But a word of warning, if you see a football on a construction site do the right thing and lock it up until the end of the day. Otherwise, something like this could easily happen: