Archinect - News

Schools and communities in the Pacific Northwest hope for improved building code standards for earthquake preparedness

2024-01-04T08:35:00-05:00

Current seismic codes require public buildings to be built strong enough so they don’t fall down in a quake. Now, some emergency preparedness advocates want to raise the bar. Not only should essential buildings resist collapse in a strong earthquake, but also newly constructed schools, in particular, should be built so in the immediate aftermath they can be counted on to serve as relief centers.

The article mentions the AIA Oregon chapter’s efforts to push lawmakers towards adopting more stringent building codes in preparation for a cataclysmic 9.0 Cascadia earthquake. Some relatively cheaper proactive measures, such as tsunami towers, are being enacted, but the 1,000 or so schools thought to be at risk for collapse statewide just a few years ago still need to enact drastic changes whose costs are proving too much of a burden for local administrators to get behind.

“A lot of districts have been building schools and not doing this,” local Portland-based architect Jay Raskin explains. “Every year we go without requiring that schools be capable of being used as shelters is a year we miss providing shelter for the surrounding neighborhoods during a Cascadia earthquake.”

Another vote on the Oregon legislation is not expected until at least 2025.

Tsunami Towers are about to spring up along the Pacific Northwest shorelines

2022-02-08T12:37:00-05:00

“The fact of the matter is that if a tsunami occurs tomorrow, we are going to lose all of our children,” said Andrew Kelly, the superintendent of the North Beach School District, which includes Ocean Shores. Mr. Kelly is one of a growing number of local officials who are calling for a network of elevated buildings and platforms along the Northwest coast that could provide an escape for thousands of people who might otherwise be doomed in the event of a tsunami.

Voters in the Washington state community of Ocean Shores will decide today on a measure that would install a pair of tsunami towers that can hold up to 800 people. Residents in the immediate shoreline region would have only ten minutes to escape potentially 100-foot waves propelled by a quake in the shallow offshore Cascadia subduction zone. The state estimates that around 70,000 people would be trapped in low-lying areas that have no bluffs or tall buildings which can be used as an escape.

The elevated steel platforms can be placed on top of parking garages, schools, and other structures to achieve a safe vertical distance from the inundation, although many such buildings in the area are not sufficiently seismic-ready to withstand magnitude 9.0 tremors. Washington has proposed 58 such towers, which cost around $3 million each to construct. To date, only two structures have been completed: one at a facility operated by Oregon State University, and the other, at Ocosta Elementary Sc...

What we can learn from the devastating earthquake in Indonesia

2018-10-03T20:24:00-04:00

Building codes and standards in many countries require engineers to consider the effects of soil liquefaction in the design of new buildings and infrastructure such as bridges, embankment dams and retaining structures

After the devastating earthquake that hit Indonesia, scientists are relating building collapses to soil liquefaction. When overly saturated soil is heavily loosened by intense seismic activity, particles in the soil lose its bond and contact with each other. Thus resulting in its loss of stiffness and structural support. When soil deposits lose its ability to provide stability for foundations, the land quickly turns into a liquid flowing nightmare.

Dr. Stavroula Kontoe of Imperial College London highlights on this phenomenon and provides a proactive perspective to preventing these disasters from happening in the future. Dr. Kontoe explains that soil liquefaction can be identified early on in a building's design process. If the correct mitigation techniques like soil strengthening and proper drainage systems are applied, areas that are more susceptible have a better chance in recovering from a natural disaster.

How the Cascadia earthquake threatens America's coastal Northwest

2015-07-15T14:08:00-04:00

“Our operating assumption is that everything west of Interstate 5 will be toast.” In the Pacific Northwest, everything west of Interstate 5 covers some hundred and forty thousand square miles, including Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, Eugene, Salem (the capital city of Oregon), Olympia (the capital of Washington), and some seven million people. When the next full-margin rupture happens, that region will suffer the worst natural disaster in the history of North America.

The world's first inflatable concert hall arrives in Japan's disaster-hit north eastern coast

2013-09-25T12:08:00-04:00

A giant purple structure believed to be the world's first inflatable concert hall is to open on Japan's disaster-hit north eastern coast. British sculptor Anish Kapoor and Japanese architect Arata Isozaki created the unusual Ark Nova, a balloon made of a coated polyester material that has been erected at a park in the town of Matsushima. The structure, which organisers say is a world's first, measures about 18m and 35m wide when fully inflated with room for about 500 guests.

“Home for All” for Rikuzentakata

2012-10-18T12:35:00-04:00

“Home for All” for Rikuzentakata is a gathering place for those who lost their homes in the tsunami-devastated city in Iwate Prefecture. The project was led by architect Toyo Ito, who collaborated with younger Japanese architects, Kumiko Inui, Sou Fujimoto, and Akihisa Hirata.

Japan Goes Nuclear-Free For the First Time in Four Decades

2012-05-04T12:44:00-04:00

For the First Time in Four Decades Japan will shut down its last working nuclear power station this weekend, culminating — at least for now — a national shift away from nuclear energy in the aftermath of last year’s Fukushima disaster. The shutdown of the No. 3 Tomari reactor in Hokkaido will leave the country without nuclear power for the first time since 1970.

Japan Earthquake: Before and After

2012-02-24T17:38:00-05:00

In just over two weeks, Japan will be observing the one-year anniversary of the disastrous magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that struck its east coast in March of 2011. [...] Photographers documented the many faces of this tragedy and have now returned to give us a look at the difference a year can make, re-shooting places that were photographed during and immediately after the quake.

QUESTIONING CATASTROPHE

2012-01-23T20:24:00-05:00

Human beings and their communities are fragile because they are sustainable only within a narrow range of conditions and possibilities. It is the main task of architecture to maintain this range or to create it where it has not existed before. To some extent it is also architecture’s responsibility to expand this range when people require it not only for survival but also to flourish within the demands of change brought on by catastrophic events such as earthquake and tsunami.

Student Projects: Cal Poly Pomona (TVEF – Tsunami Vertical Evacuation Facility) Studio

2011-12-20T00:27:28-05:00

Last quarter a group of Cal Poly Pomona architecture and structural engineering students with professors Axel Schimitzberger and Dr. Mikhail Gershfeld conducted a multi disciplinary studio to design prototype tsunami evacuation facilities. The purpose of the studio was to design a temporary shelter during an earthquake/tsunami event and use the structure for other purposes in other times. Students had to design structures from precast concrete and steel. Needlessly to say the work was evolved to the advance levels of structural integrity and architectural innovation. As a final jury member I was impressed not only with the designs but also the simultaneous and symbiotic relationship of the two disciplines in a creative studio environment.

Here is a quote from the studio objectives.

“We anticipate some lively discussions between members of the two disciplines, revealing the different vocabularies of the two cultures. Architecture students will have to explain what they mean by ...

[Japanese] victims need art like a hole in the head

2011-09-27T19:57:59-04:00

I've lately been exchanging bile on this subject with a friend, a Tokyo architecture professor who, having seen off earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown, is having a harder time surviving the avalanche of well-meant, if simultaneously self-serving, condescension.

Arigato!

2011-06-24T14:32:00-04:00

DESIGN ASSOCIATION NPO, organizer of TOKYO DESIGNERS WEEK, has founded “ARIGATO” PROJECT

We’ve been receiving warm support from all over the world since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. People in many countries showed their warmth and support .This project is to show our thanks and, to make new connections and bonds across the world through kindness and warmth.

We are asking ARIGATO works from Designers, Artists, and Students.

The best works will be exhibited at TOKYO DESIGNERS WEEK 2011. (from 1st to 6th of November) at Meiji JinguGaien in central Tokyo, and will be given the prize.

We would like to ask you to inform about this project and send us ARIGATO works.

We are also going to disaster affected areas to hold special workshops, supported by companies, artists and designers, to care for children through art and design work shop.

All works that are created in workshops by designers, artists, and students. Will be collected and published world-wide in the offici...