Abstract

This presentation will describe the recent New Zealand earthquakes, and the major structural damage to Christchurch buildings. The earthquakes were much more severe than anticipated by the design codes, leading to182 deaths and enormous property losses.

Damage occurred to three major types of buildings, including damage to residential buildings in the suburbs where liquefaction occurred, partial collapse of unreinforced masonry buildings in the older parts of the city, and serious structural damage to modern reinforced concrete buildings in the city centre.

Large numbers of well-insured buildings are currently being demolished. This creates huge opportunities for new forms of innovative buildings to be designed in the new city. It is expected that there will be a significant number of new buildings with base-isolation and other modern forms of damage-resistant structural design, using concrete, steel and timber as the main structural materials.

The damage to the city and the engineering opportunities for the future will be discussed.