I don't have any formal knowledge of architecture or any delusion that I do so don't worry, this isn't one of those write-ups. I just learned something that I thought I would share. tl;dr? The points in paragraph 4!
So, one of my jobs is in construction. I core concrete. That is, I make really big holes in walls and floors with a really big drill. Why? Because people fuck up alllllll the time on building sites by filling in places where there should be holes. I really don't enjoy construction work. I could go into it but I would summarise it as unstimulating. Regardless I try to keep an ear and eye out for things that are interesting.
The other day we were working on a building in downtown Vancouver. The concrete that the building is made from is very poor. There are gaps of air in the concrete and It turns to sand with great ease. The building is both old and poorly built.
Whilst waiting on the floor below the hole to make sure nobody got brained by the core that was about to fall down the guy that usually works on the building and addressed something that I had thought about everytime we worked there. Surely if this building is poorly built already doing these kinds of renovations won't help anyone. Turns out, that's totally true! You can only renovate so many times before the building needs to be demolished and rebuilt. It's like how each time a cell replicates itself it's not as good as the cell that went before it.
On a more sombre note it is disconcerting seeing a building of such poor quality. Vancouver is supposedly due for a huge earthquake. I am dubious about the predictability of earthquakes and saying that Vancouver is 50 years overdue really doesn't mean much to me. Geological stats, man! How long is 50 years really? And how reliable are the movements of tectonic plates? Are they really so repetitive? Regardless, a building that is made from hard shelled bubbles is not a favourable place to work at in a quake danger zone.
Good luck Vancouver.
Josh.
No comments:
Post a Comment