SOMETHING NEW

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 343, 3 October 1932, Page 7

SOMETHING NEW

; ARCHITECT ADY OCATES USE OF SHOCK ABSORBERS | FOR BUILDINGS. i DEFYING EARTHQUAKES. : Buildings insulated from the ground ' as an earthquake precaution by a 1 species of buffer are practicable in ■(he opinion of a Wellington architect. i Tho architect, who advocates this ' departure from established methods of building on foundations fixed to the ' ground, points out that violent earth mov unents must be transmitted to | buildings, hridges, and other struc- | tures. | Architecls and engineers argue that } additional strength is neeessary to withstand these strains, he says. This is excellent reasoning when applied to existing methods of construction in which buildings are fixed to the ground, but it is this very fixing that the Wellington architect criticises, He points out that in order to escape shock, buildings will have to be separated from the ground by the introduction of a buffer or shock absorber between the foundations and the earth'. In illustration he quotes the buffer of a motor-car or the rope fender placed between a vessel and a wharf, and he deplores that lives, buildings, bridges, and great engineering works continue to he sacrificed to tradition. "The new systexu of foundation must, of course, he effected in a scien'tific manner, and in accordance with all laws relating to good construction," he'states. "It is applicable to every class of building, and is suppurted by many of the better architects and engineers — men not hidebound by custom."