Green Demolition: Building Sinks Into Ground Like Liquid (VIDEO)

From Gizmodo (h/t Sullivan):

...Seeing the video of a 20-floor building submerging into the asphalt as if it was liquid is something that belongs to a sci-fi movie. The stunning process--called daruma-otoshi--is not only almost surrealistic but it helps to reduce the environmental impact...

...How do they do it? First they replace the support pillars at ground level with computer-controlled metal columns. Then, a crew carefully demolishes the entire floor by hand, leaving the structure resting on the mechanical pillars, which then go down slowly until the next floor is at ground level. They replace the support pillars again with the mechanical ones, destroy that floor, and repeat the operation until they get rid of all the floors. This makes it look as if the building is shrinking in front of you, or being swallowed by the street.

[WATCH]

Comments

[imajoebob]

This looks too much like "lift slab" CONstruction, where the next floor is built, then raised into place until permanent columns are in place. This "improved" technique failed in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in the L'Ambience Plaza development, which killed 28 and severely injured 16 others.

Since a discrete, simple failure can cause the entire building to collapse, I wouldn't go near cleaning out the bottom floor, especially after the structure has been lowered a few times. Concrete is meant to be used as a fixed structural component, and any variance in lowering just one column could cause flexing, floor cracking, and ultimate failure. At any time. The use of heavy equipment will only add more vibration to a possibly compromised structure.

This may spread less of the dust than implosion, but I'm not sure why this is any "greener' than a wrecking ball which does the same thing, but fron the top down.

[CessnaDriver]

Absolutely Elegant!

There are so many problems involved with building implosion-dirt/dust, explosion damage to surrounding buildings, mini-earthquakes associated with the energy release of a controled or catastrophic demolition, this is a terrific solution. I do, however, wonder how they have worked out the problem of an earthquake occurring during the demolition process.

Check YouTube for an example, when the Dunes hotel in Las Vegas was demo'ed, and caused tens of millions of dollars in cleanup damage to other buildings, not to mention the seismic damage to other buildings, the infrastructure and the freeway due to the shock waves of all of that mass hitting the ground.

[nosanity]

did a plane hit the building next to it

[Jackalheadedgod]

Brilliant! If whoever collapsed the WTC buildings had done it this way....LMAO!

Cheers,
Jack

[MaracaKabob]

They really took the fun out of blowing up a building.

[anastasiabeaverhousen]

This is an apt metaphor for what these filthy republicons have done to this country over the past 25 years. Dismantle layer after layer of good government policies, replace it with politically motivated policies, stand back and point as the building sinks into the ground and say "see, we told you - government doesn't work - deregulate everything and all will be well".

[johnnyjust]

Or, better, a metaphor for what happened to your brain.

Did the pressure of believing such liberal nonsense cause your brain to sink into itself like a black hole from which no common sense can emerge?

Or was the (boo hoo) pressure of trying to perpetuate the fraud of global warming too much for your brain and it rebelled by implosion?

Either way, nobody cares. You're crazy. Step into it.

[anastasiabeaverhousen]

What an inane post.

The fact that my thoughts elicited (look it up) such a response is simply proof that you think Fox is a news channel.

WTF does global warming, or more correctly, climate change have to do with ANY of this.

Either way, you're simply (in more ways than one) a koolaid driking republicon tool.

You are the one who is in need of help, preferably in the tradiition of Frances Farmer (look that one up too, rumpswab).

[politricking]

The fraud of global warming?

Haha, what a loon.