Shoddy design and construction were to blame for most of the buildings that collapsed during the 921 earthquake, according to a government research report that was released yesterday.
The Ministry of Interior's Architecture and Building Research Institute published the first official report on the 921 earthquake's impact on Taiwan's buildings.
The institute mobilized experts from 13 universities one day after the 921 earthquake to do the research work, which covered a total of 8,773 buildings seriously damaged by the quake.
The report indicates that 42 percent of the damaged buildings surveyed were built before 1974, 24 percent between 1975 and 1982, 14 percent between 1983 and 1989, 14 percent between 1990 and 1997 and 6 percent after 1997.
The figures show that there has been gradual improvement of construction codes over the past two decades, but this does not directly correspond to the ratio of damage.
The report showed that 52 percent of the buildings surveyed were built with steel-reinforced concrete -- the most recent and widely used technology -- while 24 percent were built with bricks, and 13 percent with mud bricks.
Overhangs and split-levels appear to be a major factor in the collapses, as the report concluded that 92 percent of the buildings that collapsed had such designs.
However, at a press conference yesterday, the institute's director Hsiao Chiang-pi (
Hsiao said current regulations concerning overhangs would remain, but the risks posed by overhangs should be cut by reducing overhang areas for high buildings and increasing the number and size of pillars.
Hsiao also said that the government plans to establish a national earthquake-resistance code for buildings to raise the quality of construction design.
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