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  • 1.  Concrete Rib Construction Method

    Posted 03-26-2014 08:42 PM
      |   view attached
    This message has been cross posted to the following Discussion Forums: Small Project Practitioners and Technical Design for Building Performance Knowledge Community .
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    a simple isometric sketch showing the phases to build with CRCM.
    1. What I am trying to do is show to the architectural community that there are solutions to stop the destruction of structures, their content, and sometimes the lives of the users; by tornados, fires, mudslides, etc.I am not looking for work or glory, only not to be embarrassed of the architectural profession when reading the newspapers.

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    Eugenio Aburto AIA
    Eugenio Aburto, AIA
    Palm Desert CA
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  • 2.  RE:Concrete Rib Construction Method

    Posted 03-27-2014 07:28 PM
    Eugenio,

    While discussion of building technologies is certainly relevant and interesting, I do not think that damage caused by catastrophic natural disasters is an embarrassment to the architectural profession for several reasons:

    1. When given a choice between a standard-priced residence constructed with residential standard methods and a higher-priced residence constructed with methods that provide greater resistance to natural disasters, American homeowners almost universally choose the standard. Most homeowners don't like concrete homes because they typically don't look like the home they want and aren't as easily modified and maintained by the homeowner--most homeowners are only familiar with standard residential construction methods.

    2. The non-residential buildings that have failed to protect occupants in recent disasters have at least one of two problems--they were built under antiquated building codes and/or they were not built as designed (joists not connected to walls, masonry walls lacking reinforcement, etc.).

    3. We will always make stronger and stronger structures and nature will always make stronger and stronger forces to knock them down. It would be naive to believe that all floods, storms, earthquakes, fires, explosions and impacts over the next 100 years will be weaker than the most extreme events that have occurred before now. It's just not the nature of nature. So to what level of forces do we design and at what point does the effort become futile?

    4. There are several groups of people who bear responsibility for buildings not being as protective as they could be: committees that draft model building codes and recommend them to lawmakers, lawmakers who adopt and modify building codes as needed for the extreme conditions that may cause loss of life within their jurisdictions, building owners and developers who determine the appropriate level of disaster-resistance, architects who implement building codes and owner-selected design criteria, engineers who collaborate with architects, contractors who build to the appropriate codes and designs and building officials (public and private) who review plans, construction in progress for conformance to standards and the real estate industry (including lenders and appraisers) who determine the maximum amount that will be lent for construction of a particular structure by comparison to standard buildings, not by a structure's intrinsic value (design quality, stability, energy efficiency, etc.). So our attempts to improve the level of protection from natural disasters offered by buildings must address the cultures of more than just the architectural profession.

    5. I don't think architects who building in areas of high earthquake danger will ever be convinced that concrete construction is always superior. Experience in those areas has shown that the heavier the building materials, the greater the forces the structure must resist, the lesser the room for error and the greater the risk to human life.

    6. None of the construction techniques suggested are new or unusual but neither are they the best choice under all circumstances.

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    Sean Catherall AIA
    Architect
    Herriman UT
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  • 3.  RE: Concrete Rib Construction Method

    Posted 07-25-2014 03:59 PM


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    Eugenio Aburto AIA
    architect
    Eugenio Aburto, AIA
    Palm Desert CA
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