Causes of building collapes - Term Paper Example

Three of the main causes of buildings’ collapse are; faulty design of structures by incompetent engineers, overloading of structures, and natural disasters. Design deficiency is an issue which continues to face the engineering and construction industry today. Ishak, Chohan and Ramly (2007) explained design deficiency as a situation where engineers refuse to follow basic principles and elements of construction design in the creation of their design ideas for buildings. This implies that design deficiency is a component of faulty design where the designs put up by engineers cannot be said to have followed acceptable standards of practice.

It would however be noted that elements and principles of construction design are in place to ensure both safety and aesthetic outcomes. It is against this backdrop that it can be explained that once such building designs happen, design failure follows, which ultimately results in possible collapse of building. This confirms the relationship between faulty design and building collapse because faulty design creates a situation where the eventual construction that will be made cannot be said to be secured in principle and theory.

There are a number of factors that can lead to cases of deign deficiency, which is an aspect of faulty design. Oloyede, Omoogun and Akinjare (2010) mentioned that overdependence and overreliance on contemporary technology is a major factor behind incidences of faulty designs of structures resulting from design deficiency. Indeed when engineers over elaborate the abilities of contemporary technology, they are tempted to think that as far as they have advanced technological tools and equipment on their side, it is possible to bring any design ambition to fruition.

Meanwhile, even though technology can present the platform to create whatever design an engineer dreams about, it takes competent engineers to differentiate between the abilities of technology and the scope of design. Once such