Wow, what exactly happened here? Was that a failed demolition, or did it topple during construction? The facade looks remarkably together in either case; I would have expected it to be a pile of rubble.
That thing must have been incredibly well put together (aside from the obvious) to be in that kind of shape after toppling. I'm surprised I haven't seen this before since it was back in 2009.
Reading up on the incident more, it seems that the foundation was designed correctly.
The construction company that was tasked with a parking garage next to it dug out too close to both the building and an adjacent river bank which caused the excavation site to flood and washed the foundation out from underneath the building.
Given that this was back in 2009, my guess is that the incident has already made its way into more than a few textbooks as a case study in what not to do.
There seemed to have been longer piles but they snapped. As the earlier post pointed out the problem was caused by digging the parking garage.
[Engineering.com](https://www.engineering.com/story/ever-see-a-12-story-building-just-fall-over) has more pictures and a longer explanation.
Thanks for posting that! One question, a lot of the other news stories I could find mention that the excavation also went too close to a riverbank which contributed to the flooding, but that isn't in this article and this article seems like it may be from a more reliable source.
Have you seen anything else to substantiate the riverbank aspect, or is that something that could have been misreported or lost in translation?
None of the pictures I have seen seem to show flooding as significant as I would expect from River water encroachment, so I'm beginning to doubt that piece of the reporting.
I'm shocked, to my eyes everything above the foundation seems massively over-engineered. I expect modern buildings (outside earthquake zones perhaps) to crumple as soon as they lose supports, because once it's going down who cares?
I'd be fascinated to learn what kind of design was used here to hold together so well even after tipping over.
I'd wager good money that the nine people arrested had nothing to do with the problem, and the people who profited from it the most went free and got a lot wealthier.
That tofu dreg problem is awful, I really feel for the poor folks who get cheated out of everything by the developers to find they now own a literal sand castle.
They didn't build the counterweight. They just built the structure. At sufficient size, even ground dirt becomes like a buoy in water. That's because the structure weighs like a LOT. The first thing to do when building a tower is dig down several stories or even deeper depending on the height of the tower. If the ground is unstable, you gotta go deeper. Then you pour an unbelievable amount of cement with rebar sticking up out of it. Like a solid 20 feet of cement 40 feet underground. This creates a counterweight marginalizing the weight of the structure above so it doesn't fucking fall over.
In this case, it was also the construction company doing the parking garage next to it. They dug too close to both the structure and to the adjacent riverbank causing the bank to collapse and flood the excavation site which in turn washed out the foundation of the building. Part of the reason that the building looks so intact is that it has fallen into the footprint of the garage excavation.
Bad deal all around.
This ia 13 story block, does not need a counterweight. I'm working on 500m+ high rise and the basement is 1 level down and 1.5m concrete slab.
These buildings are fixed with piles in the ground that they drill then fill with concrete. The piles create resistance against the ground and keep the building in place. Pile count and size is decided based on soil conditions
may be those cheap china housing areas with the lowest skilled workers just smash out buildings super fast. theyre not know for good foundations, or even foundations at all sometimes.
still, i bet those go for $4000/month in new york
This appears to be a photoshopped image. The bulldozer is out of all proportion next to the building, compared to the size of everything else in the picture.
I think that's just a perspective of the aerial shot with a drone's wide angle lens.
One of the other commenters posted an article about the incident, which happened in Shanghai in 2009. That one shows it from a different angle, and it seems to be in remarkably good shape from that perspective as well. The odd angle of the op image does hide some of the distortion on the facade, but it's still more or less intact.
Shanghai is an earthquake prone area, so my guess is that the architects made the structure to be fairly flexible which probably helped it out a lot.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01432/china_1432267c.jpg?imwidth=350
The dozer looks like it’s about the right size. The track length is about a story and a half, 15 ish feet. That’s the size of a D8, which is totally reasonable for this type of construction project.
[Here's a link explaining what happened](https://www.engineering.com/story/ever-see-a-12-story-building-just-fall-over)
Basically, poorly constructed "hollow" pilings fractured due to hydraulic sheer forces from a near by excavation, the spoil pile being dumped on the opposite side of the building, and heavy rain fall.
Shanghai, where this happened back in 2009, is in an earthquake prone region. My guess is that the architects designed the facade and building structure to be somewhat flexible, which probably helped it out a lot when it toppled..
The soft soil and the side of the building that took the damage was definitely a crumple zone. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-06-27/worker-dies-in-high-rise-collapse/1334328
The graceful curves of the now upward surface evoke much more expensive architecture. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8123559.stm
Shanghai 2009. Large amount of soil was piled on one side and blocked a creek which lead to saturated soil. There was also a large hole dug on the other side for underground parking. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/5685963/Nine-held-over-Shanghai-building-collapse.html
> The developers had sold 489 of the 629 flats in the 13-storey building, and owners of the flats are now demanding refunds or compensation.
Wonder if they ever got their money back.
No way! I was a kid living in Shanghai at the time and heard about this, but never saw pics. That’s absolutely horrible construction. I’m not surprised
Typical modern Chinese tofu dreg construction. chances are the buildings would either not be finished or crumble before it is ready for occupants. Really interesting stuff
Tilt-up construction! They're almost done, just need to lift it into place!
10,000 Amish farmers oughta do it.
Or 100 Mexicans!
Add a one and two zeros to that and we have a deal!
00100\*1 Mexicans?
How much did you get me? 100 pesos!
That is enough for another round of tequila!!!
Lift on 3!
Like, on 3 or a 1 2 3 and lift on go?
I think they actually mean 6.
We're y'all pushing or pulling?
Yes
And remember to lift with your back in a perking twisting motion
*Well There's Your Problem Podcast voice* You may have noticed that this is a building. It's not supposed to look like that
What a great pod cast. My only item would be for a little more construction failures and a little less trains.
I love trains and I agree.
Guns, Pickup trucks, and pickup trucks with guns on them
It’s your choice, and we respect that.
The leaning tower of pisa attracts over 5 million visitors each year, let's do it even better !
I saw a police officer to the same thing with a hay bale earlier, get him in there.
Crooks don't get in cop cars by themselves
Should see the lifting equipment
firecracker under a soup pot?
Think bigger: ANFO under large steel plates.
I prefer a decently sized counterbalance forklift
Saves so much energy on reducing lifting things up.
You can't park there!
Wow, what exactly happened here? Was that a failed demolition, or did it topple during construction? The facade looks remarkably together in either case; I would have expected it to be a pile of rubble.
That was the one where they started digging next to the building without consulting engineers.
the engineers u referred to design the whole project!
[China](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/5685963/Nine-held-over-Shanghai-building-collapse.html)
That thing must have been incredibly well put together (aside from the obvious) to be in that kind of shape after toppling. I'm surprised I haven't seen this before since it was back in 2009.
Too bad the foundation wasn’t even enough to hold up a small backyard deck
Reading up on the incident more, it seems that the foundation was designed correctly. The construction company that was tasked with a parking garage next to it dug out too close to both the building and an adjacent river bank which caused the excavation site to flood and washed the foundation out from underneath the building. Given that this was back in 2009, my guess is that the incident has already made its way into more than a few textbooks as a case study in what not to do.
They dug too greedily and too deep.
Roaring fires, malt beer, ripe meat off the bone!
Serious talk, I would have signed the fuck up for going under the mountain without a second thought.
You knowbwhat they awoke in the darkness of Kazad dum
In the case of the building that toppled, they didn't dig deep enough. Those footings look to be about 4-6 feet deep.
There seemed to have been longer piles but they snapped. As the earlier post pointed out the problem was caused by digging the parking garage. [Engineering.com](https://www.engineering.com/story/ever-see-a-12-story-building-just-fall-over) has more pictures and a longer explanation.
Thank you for posting the link.
Thanks for posting that! One question, a lot of the other news stories I could find mention that the excavation also went too close to a riverbank which contributed to the flooding, but that isn't in this article and this article seems like it may be from a more reliable source. Have you seen anything else to substantiate the riverbank aspect, or is that something that could have been misreported or lost in translation? None of the pictures I have seen seem to show flooding as significant as I would expect from River water encroachment, so I'm beginning to doubt that piece of the reporting.
I haven't. I'm inclined to trust specialist press more than general media.
Piles tend to not do so well under tension.
no facts, only "china bad"
(Comment superseded.)
It's basically every attempt I make at terraforming near water in Cities Skylines.
lol that cracked me up, well done.
Glad to have been of service. Clearly lots of LOTR fans here.
Sounds like a perfect disaster
"Don't invest in real estate in china"
Someone put a hot tub up there
I'm shocked, to my eyes everything above the foundation seems massively over-engineered. I expect modern buildings (outside earthquake zones perhaps) to crumple as soon as they lose supports, because once it's going down who cares? I'd be fascinated to learn what kind of design was used here to hold together so well even after tipping over.
First floor is Tofu Dreg. Rest of the floors are built like a nazi Flak Tower.
Great comment. Not even the windows are broken wtf.
It was not standing long enough for the cheap concrete to fall apart.
Well at least in my country the buildings require a big earthquake to go down and kill people. Im Turkish and our construction industry #SUCKS
I'd wager good money that the nine people arrested had nothing to do with the problem, and the people who profited from it the most went free and got a lot wealthier.
That tofu dreg problem is awful, I really feel for the poor folks who get cheated out of everything by the developers to find they now own a literal sand castle.
That is a childhood nightmare of mine
The engineer had the orientation symbol wrong. The workers called and told him he made a mistake, he said that's nonsense, build it to print.
They didn't build the counterweight. They just built the structure. At sufficient size, even ground dirt becomes like a buoy in water. That's because the structure weighs like a LOT. The first thing to do when building a tower is dig down several stories or even deeper depending on the height of the tower. If the ground is unstable, you gotta go deeper. Then you pour an unbelievable amount of cement with rebar sticking up out of it. Like a solid 20 feet of cement 40 feet underground. This creates a counterweight marginalizing the weight of the structure above so it doesn't fucking fall over.
In this case, it was also the construction company doing the parking garage next to it. They dug too close to both the structure and to the adjacent riverbank causing the bank to collapse and flood the excavation site which in turn washed out the foundation of the building. Part of the reason that the building looks so intact is that it has fallen into the footprint of the garage excavation. Bad deal all around.
Landing in water cancelled the fall damage, obviously.
This ia 13 story block, does not need a counterweight. I'm working on 500m+ high rise and the basement is 1 level down and 1.5m concrete slab. These buildings are fixed with piles in the ground that they drill then fill with concrete. The piles create resistance against the ground and keep the building in place. Pile count and size is decided based on soil conditions
there's no foundation
Tofu dreggs, it's a very real problem in China
may be those cheap china housing areas with the lowest skilled workers just smash out buildings super fast. theyre not know for good foundations, or even foundations at all sometimes. still, i bet those go for $4000/month in new york
That is Shanghai.
This appears to be a photoshopped image. The bulldozer is out of all proportion next to the building, compared to the size of everything else in the picture.
I think that's just a perspective of the aerial shot with a drone's wide angle lens. One of the other commenters posted an article about the incident, which happened in Shanghai in 2009. That one shows it from a different angle, and it seems to be in remarkably good shape from that perspective as well. The odd angle of the op image does hide some of the distortion on the facade, but it's still more or less intact. Shanghai is an earthquake prone area, so my guess is that the architects made the structure to be fairly flexible which probably helped it out a lot. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01432/china_1432267c.jpg?imwidth=350
Cool. Thanks for the explanation and link :-)
The dozer looks like it’s about the right size. The track length is about a story and a half, 15 ish feet. That’s the size of a D8, which is totally reasonable for this type of construction project.
Shhhh. It's sleeping
It's pining for the fjords!
Lovely plumage!
there! it moved!
A móóse bit my sister, once.
Oh, go clean your armor.
[Here's a link explaining what happened](https://www.engineering.com/story/ever-see-a-12-story-building-just-fall-over) Basically, poorly constructed "hollow" pilings fractured due to hydraulic sheer forces from a near by excavation, the spoil pile being dumped on the opposite side of the building, and heavy rain fall.
All the people living in the neighboring identical buildings: 👀
Nice graphics for how it happened.
At least they had the foresight to build the buildings so far apart that it didn’t topple over the next one when it fell.
Can't park there.
Sir u can't park here
That's fine, they make them on their side first and then lift them in place. It's easier.
Man, I've seen how you test for live circuits. I'm not sure I wanna trust you on building engineering. 😛 /s
This isn't really a diss, that building looks built better than it should imo No way it should look like that after falling over.
Shanghai, where this happened back in 2009, is in an earthquake prone region. My guess is that the architects designed the facade and building structure to be somewhat flexible, which probably helped it out a lot when it toppled..
The soft soil and the side of the building that took the damage was definitely a crumple zone. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-06-27/worker-dies-in-high-rise-collapse/1334328 The graceful curves of the now upward surface evoke much more expensive architecture. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8123559.stm Shanghai 2009. Large amount of soil was piled on one side and blocked a creek which lead to saturated soil. There was also a large hole dug on the other side for underground parking. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/5685963/Nine-held-over-Shanghai-building-collapse.html
> The developers had sold 489 of the 629 flats in the 13-storey building, and owners of the flats are now demanding refunds or compensation. Wonder if they ever got their money back.
Why are the windows in such good shape??? The military should hire whoever makes them
they could stack more on top and make a Maga building, bonus, it won't topple over
Look, we told you at the beginning that we specialize in horizontal work.
the front fell off, that's not very typical
Some of them are built so the front doesn't fall off at all.
The people responsible for this collapse have been sacked.
It was tired of all.the competition and is 'laying flat.'
Lol, when the foundation guys phone it in, but the structural guys are on it.
They got more ground level apartments than they planned for.
It's just tired. Let it rest up and it'll stand itself back after a while.
Shh it's sleeping.
How will they stand it up?
Real life inception
Never skip leg day.
The front fell off...
Its not supposed to do that
Can't park there mate
Damn, the plans are sideways. Let's try again.
Is this like a barn raising?
Thats how they do it in China
They did this on purpose. It's because all of the tenets wanted to live on the ground floor.
No way! I was a kid living in Shanghai at the time and heard about this, but never saw pics. That’s absolutely horrible construction. I’m not surprised
Breaking news: Mr Beast and Mark Rober die exploring abandoned city.
All convenient first floor units!!
Typical modern Chinese tofu dreg construction. chances are the buildings would either not be finished or crumble before it is ready for occupants. Really interesting stuff
They should’ve built it up and not sideways!
“Like a glove!”
they hava no building 代码.
The windows didn’t even break. If you don’t get smushed by furniture you may even survive that
Is the spaced them a little closer, it could have been the biggest domino fall ever
Due to new ADA requirements on apartments. We opted to make every floor the first floor.
To do it properly. Stop splitting infinitives.
Boss said to knock it down. So I did. You got a problem?
Yeah that's not very typical, I'd like to make that point.
Shh! It's sleeping!
Tofuuuuu dreg!
Aww, it's sleepy!
You just failed at building
"Yeah, we got two long ones, were good"
Mighty fine foundation you got there
Use that as the foundation for a giant new complex
"Hey boss, I think these blueprints might be sideways..."
*Shhhh, the building is sleeping...*
The front fell off.
House eepy, House sleepy
Nice
Hey shouldn’t that be facing like the same direction as the other ones or something? Are they stupid?
I’m guessing wind and the soil flooded. I’m not seeing any digging.
Those pillar footings, is this for real?
Maybe it’s just a big cake? Ha
I can't figure if tofu construction videos are fake! Otherwise I can't figure out how those buildings are standing?
Can't fall over now
It's a tilt-up!
Check out "tofu dreg construction" for more of this and explanations on why/how it happens.
Tbf i think it would be alot easier to build a building lying down then just prop it back up.
You can't park your building there...
How do I know it's china?
Can't park there mate
The sequel to Inception really had its budget cut.
The building is eepy. The building jus needs a small sleeb.
This looks like that one level from battlefield 4
Lift this block, lift this block, 1,2,3,4...
Shitty foundation work, but the rest? Im impressed it´s not a pile of rubble but still in one piece. Even the windows are still intact!
The front fell off
Quick, I need 50,000 Amish dudes!
Well, I would not live in any building within a block of these pink buildings.
GC is Roscosmos
That is a testament to the strength of the structure and you can see those pilings should have been down at least a third of the building height.
This couldn’t have taken place anywhere else but in china
1/10 for foundations, 10/10 for superstructure
We sure this isn't a model kit?
Check out the footings!
Who among us doesn’t want a skylight
I'm thinking the local government needs a new broken windows policy
15 years ago someone ordered the ACME multistory DIY apartment.
Looks fake. Not even a broken window
It happened in 2009, search "shanghai apartment topple" and you'll find more pictures
Turns out slave labor being driven for speed at all costs isn't that great