Every nation has traditional buildings that withstand earthquake events since people built them through trial and error for hundreds of years. The older generations passed the knowledge to their younger ones on how they meticulously learned the flow of the earthquake forces in the structural elements. Through that, they applied the understanding of structural composition and its connection to ensure the building's integrity. Moreover, the traditional structure is seismic resistant and fulfills cultural appropriateness and acceptance. Hence, we can enjoy robust and beautiful heritage buildings in many countries that blend with nature. I am reflecting on DR. Teddy Boen's teaching when I attended his class more than 30 years ago.
But, nowadays, constructing traditional houses can be considerably expensive. Cities have become more populated; therefore, people must build vertically so that more than one family can live in the same structure. Limited land forces people to build multistory buildings, a new knowledge for everyone. On the other hand, due to economies of scale, people become familiar with steel and reinforced concrete structures, which materials and builders are available in good numbers in the market.
Due to economic pressure, construction methodologies to build faster are more evolving than the technology to reduce the earthquake impact. For instance, since the early 1990s, it has been common to construct multistory buildings in fast-track. It showed that construction companies can pour the concrete floor every 5-7 days for the upper level. The need for fast construction is understandable since the fixed costs of renting tools and machinery, such as tower cranes and construction team salaries, are expensive. For good projects, they have construction management in which the project manager ensures that construction materials have been installed correctly as quality assurance measures. The problem becomes aggravated if the effort to reduce cost sacrifices the meticulous construction detail. Some builders even go against the law by lowering the quality by reducing cement and reinforcement in the concrete structure.
There is some reflection we can take following the latest earthquake events nowadays. What went wrong with so many casualties due to damage and collapsed structures? In the present times, we have been introduced to new construction technologies and a wide variety of building materials, which is good to some extent. Still, we need to be careful of the paradigm that robust, fast, and economical can always be obtained in constructing a building. It is not due to the methodology but to the builders' capabilities, which relate to their expertise and resources.
As we might learn from our older generation, they carefully put seismic-resistant features in their buildings. Nowadays, builders need to design, build, and ensure every element is correctly installed following the code, which should be ahead of any measures rather than reducing costs through fast-track or other initiatives to cut costs. Government and aid agencies should emphasize this idea when supporting the post-disaster housing recovery. The government should enforce sanctions on those who violate the codes. Aid agencies need to support self-recovery initiatives by developing the capacities of local actors, including homeowners, to rebuild a robust structure according to their needs.
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