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The Leaning Buildings of Santos, Brazil
- greenyoda 12y agoIt must be a struggle to keep the buildings connected to water, sewer and gas lines as they keep shifting. "Ideally, the foundations of buildings should reach bedrock, which in the region is about 50 meters deep. But these buildings in Santos’ waterfront has foundations that are only 4 or 5 meters deep. After the leaning in the first building became visible, there was realization that the practice of placing tall buildings on shallow footings could not continue, and a requirement was added to Santos building code to use deep foundation for tall buildings." This reminds me so much of software development: we ignore sound engineering practices that have been known for a long time, then scramble to prop things up when they start to fall apart.
- chiph 12y agoPutting in some self-leveling concrete in your apartment would only be a temporary solution, without correcting the foundation. And it has a tragedy-of-the-commons aspect to it as well. If all your neighbors also did it, the additional weight would tilt the building even faster.
- slashnull 12y agoI don't really see the problem with having tilted floors compared to the risk of, oh dying in a structural collapse