BUILDING AND SEISMIC RISK

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 42, 19 February 1931, Page 10

BUILDING AND SEISMIC RISK

Some people regard earthquakeresistant building as a thing to be Secured only at a price. Others believe that the price-factor (relative to the general price-factor) is exaggerated, and that under a system of standardised practice, the extra cost of erecting buildings calculated to resist earthquake would not be great in itself, and would.become a cheap investment indeed if insurance against earthquake is to be general. So important an issue requires technical examination by a first-class authority, and we think that the Committee headed by Professor J. E. L". Cull is well qualified to give the best answers possible to the technical and policy questions that their investigations will throw up. The prime need is to determine what an earthquakeresistant building is, how it is built, its first cost, its ultimate cost (after allowing for insurance, etc.), and the standards that the law should require. An authoritative determination on those points would affect the whole psychology of owner, architect, and builder. The owner who demands a £100,000 building for £60,000 might become convinced that a cheap job is dear in the long run. The wholel competitive spirit in building and business might be modified if Professor Cull's Committee can establish accepted standards, and • can show that an ignoring of the earthquake factor is ultimately against the interests of everybody.